Music for When Words Fade was recorded on July 6 – 8, 2011 in the Concert Hall of the Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York. All songs arranged (sometimes liberally) for piano duo by Anderson & Roe Produced and Recorded by Steven Epstein Equipment: Recorded at 24bit/88.2khz resolution utilizing the Sequoia Digital Audio Workstation. Microphones: DPA 4006 TL EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner ART DIRECTION: Oberlander Group anderson + roe PIANOS: Steinway Model D PHOTOS: Ken Schles when words fadea d e night songs for piano duo © 2011 ArkivMusic LLC Steinway and the Lyre are registered trademarks. All rights reserved. Made in the USA. 12 1 All songs arranged (sometimes liberally) for piano duo by Anderson & Roe 1 Billie Jean \ MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009 {4:46} Michael Jackson’s classic hit recounts a tale of obsession and suspense, immortalized by an out-of-this-world dance move (the moonwalk) and a dizzying music video set at night. While listening to our updated version of this iconic song, enjoy the opportunity for discovery: escape your comfort zone and embrace the new. considerations for listening by greg anderson & elizabeth joy roe 2 “Sento in seno ch’in pioggia di lagrime” (“I feel within a rain of tears”) from Tieteberga and Giustino \ ANTONIO VIVALDI 1678-1741 {4:06} In this operatic aria, Vivaldi musically depicts rain as a metaphor for tears. Exterior and internal worlds collide in a pointillistic deluge: the dark skies weep as we are submerged in sorrow. As the musical droplets splash around you, feel free to cry. 3 Papageno! (A short fantasy based on three arias from The Magic Flute) \ When words fade, a song sheds its specific narrative—but the emotion remains with all its potency. You, the WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791 {3:58} listener, are free to infuse the music with your own personal meaning. We challenge you to do so as you listen to this collection of vocal music we’ve reimagined for a wordless medium: the piano duo. Feel free to laugh! Papageno—“birdman” and resident clown of Mozart’s psychedelic opera The Magic Flute—sings joyously at his eleventh-hour reunion with his true love, Papagena. In this mash-up of When words fade, we are left with the heart of the matter, the essential truths unmitigated by the approxima- his felicitous arias, listen for the polarities; the lines between humor and menace, fantasy and reality, tions of verbal expression. Words may comprise our main mode of communication, but they often fall short and the masculine and feminine blur into a four-hand pianistic whirl of flirtation. in embodying our innermost emotions, thoughts, and imaginings. This is where music enters: in the spaces between, in the silence. Music captures the ineffable, and that is why it is so undeniably powerful—it gives our deepest and often subconscious feelings shape and flow, as well as a beating, singing heart. 4 Carmen Fantasy \ GEORGES BIZET 1838-1875 {13:08} Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame. –CARMEN Or, when words fade, and the sun goes down, we enter a world of darkness and romance, hallucinations On the topic of love: have you ever been seduced? and dreams. This album reflects the spectrum of life through a nocturnal lens. In the night, we all face our Have you ever fallen for someone, knowing it was a very bad idea? shadow selves, the demons that lurk in our psyche, the secret aspirations that gleam like stars, and the In Bizet’s beloved opera, Don José experiences both when he loses his heart to passions that blaze like fireworks. As you listen to this album, escape the mundane and leap into the music’s Carmen, a notorious gypsy and a saucy minx. As you listen, imagine yourself revelations. similarly ensnared…or is it you who seduces in the heat of the night? 2 3 All songs arranged (sometimes liberally) for piano duo by Anderson & Roe 1 Billie Jean \ MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009 {4:46} Michael Jackson’s classic hit recounts a tale of obsession and suspense, immortalized by an out-of-this-world dance move (the moonwalk) and a dizzying music video set at night. While listening to our updated version of this iconic song, enjoy the opportunity for discovery: escape your comfort zone and embrace the new. considerations for listening by greg anderson & elizabeth joy roe 2 “Sento in seno ch’in pioggia di lagrime” (“I feel within a rain of tears”) from Tieteberga and Giustino \ ANTONIO VIVALDI 1678-1741 {4:06} In this operatic aria, Vivaldi musically depicts rain as a metaphor for tears. Exterior and internal worlds collide in a pointillistic deluge: the dark skies weep as we are submerged in sorrow. As the musical droplets splash around you, feel free to cry. 3 Papageno! (A short fantasy based on three arias from The Magic Flute) \ When words fade, a song sheds its specific narrative—but the emotion remains with all its potency. You, the WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791 {3:58} listener, are free to infuse the music with your own personal meaning. We challenge you to do so as you listen to this collection of vocal music we’ve reimagined for a wordless medium: the piano duo. Feel free to laugh! Papageno—“birdman” and resident clown of Mozart’s psychedelic opera The Magic Flute—sings joyously at his eleventh-hour reunion with his true love, Papagena. In this mash-up of When words fade, we are left with the heart of the matter, the essential truths unmitigated by the approxima- his felicitous arias, listen for the polarities; the lines between humor and menace, fantasy and reality, tions of verbal expression. Words may comprise our main mode of communication, but they often fall short and the masculine and feminine blur into a four-hand pianistic whirl of flirtation. in embodying our innermost emotions, thoughts, and imaginings. This is where music enters: in the spaces between, in the silence. Music captures the ineffable, and that is why it is so undeniably powerful—it gives our deepest and often subconscious feelings shape and flow, as well as a beating, singing heart. 4 Carmen Fantasy \ GEORGES BIZET 1838-1875 {13:08} Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame. –CARMEN Or, when words fade, and the sun goes down, we enter a world of darkness and romance, hallucinations On the topic of love: have you ever been seduced? and dreams. This album reflects the spectrum of life through a nocturnal lens. In the night, we all face our Have you ever fallen for someone, knowing it was a very bad idea? shadow selves, the demons that lurk in our psyche, the secret aspirations that gleam like stars, and the In Bizet’s beloved opera, Don José experiences both when he loses his heart to passions that blaze like fireworks. As you listen to this album, escape the mundane and leap into the music’s Carmen, a notorious gypsy and a saucy minx. As you listen, imagine yourself revelations. similarly ensnared…or is it you who seduces in the heat of the night? 2 3 5 Der Erlkönig (The Erlking) Op.1, D. 328 \ FRANZ SCHUBERT 1797-1828 {4:09} 9 Aria (“Lo, at Midnight”) from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 \ HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS 1887-1959 {6:45} Who rides so late through night and wind? –JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE So begins one of the most terrifying portraits of pursuit and death. As you listen to this From the boundless deep the moon arises wondrous…moonlight softly waking the soul and opera-like song, close your eyes and feel the music course through your body. Sense the constraining hearts to cruel tears and bitter dejection. –RUTH V. CORRÊA impending doom as Death’s messenger thrusts you headlong into a relentlessly visceral ride. Surrender to the musky darkness as midnight falls upon the earth, bringing with it a haunting aura of seduction and mystery. 6 Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 \ SERGEI RACHMANINOFF 1873-1943 {6:29} Rachmaninoff composed his “Vocalise” to be sung without any words, yet somehow the 10 “Paranoid Android” from OK Computer \ RADIOHEAD formed in 1986 {9:02} song still manages to communicate a heart-rending story. Discover what the song means to you. Perhaps it’s yearning, homesickness, or something so intimate you couldn’t bear to reveal Please could you stop the noise, I’m trying to get some rest… –THOM YORKE through words. In the end, the deepest emotions transcend the limitation of language, finding Lose yourself in the delirious depths of a nightmare, seething with alienation, surreal ultimate catharsis in waves of soaring expression. imag ery, and madness. Merge with the confusion and the chaos, with the wandering of dreams. In the end, the singer pleads for the heavens to “rain down” and cleanse the ugliness of the world. The darkest hour is just before dawn… 7 Mathilde, Marieke, et Madeleine (Concert piece for two pianos based on songs by Jacques Brel and Gérard Jouannest) \ JACQUES BREL 1928-1987 & GÉRARD JOUANNEST b.1933 {13:00} 11 “The Glitt’ring Sun” from The Morning \ THOMAS ARNE 1710-1778 {3:37} Ah, the throes of unrequited love! Mathilde’s games of hot-and-cold lead to drunken fits of With every sunrise comes an opportunity for renewal and redemption. Listen as the music frustration, the irrevocable loss of Marieke elicits nostalgic dreams of longing, and no-show slowly ascends, like rays of light emerging upon the horizon. Wash away your miseries, Madeleine prompts late-night delusions of grandeur (in the rain, no less)…the usual start afresh, and savor the day.