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| 2015/04/05 09:55:28瀏覽129｜回應0｜推薦0 | |
Hello --
Very few of my works are overtly about Romantic love, though all were prompted, one way or another, by impulses of love, affection, friendship.
Most of my works are programmatic, evoking faraway places, the changing seasons, humor, literature, history, spirituality, sometimes current events.
But Romance? as such? Rarely.
Still, it's Valentine's Day weekend. So please discover, below, my Three Love Songs, heartfelt settings of brief, lovely poems by Sarah Teasdale. They are sung with great warmth and depth of feeling by Diane Haslam, for whom the songs were written and to whom the set is dedicated. You'll also discover the playing of Phil Amalong, a wonderfully sensitive collaborative pianist.
Over the past forty years, I've been inspired by remarkable musicians who took a lively interest in my work, performing and recording it.
Some think composers are inspired by sunsets and such. People have said to me, "Oh, I'll bet you see a sunset and a symphony comes into your head." Mind you, I like sunsets as much as the next fellow. A movement in one of my chamber works is even entitled "Sunset." But phenomena are not what inspire me.
What inspires me is when superb musicians open themselves to the possibility of my writing music specifically for them to embrace.
A partial list of the musicians who have inspired me includes:
-- the Mirecourt Trio (particularly cellist Terry King),
-- les Gavottes (the French clarinet-cello-piano trio for whom I wrote my thirteen trios),
-- choral director-trumpeter Chris Miller and his various choirs: the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Chancel Choir (in which I sing tenor), the Cincinnati Camerata and the October Festival Choir,
-- composer Carson Cooman and the Harvard University Choir,
-- cellist-conductor Josh Aerie,
-- clarinetist Angelo Santoro,
-- oboist Amy Dennison
... and the lovely mezzo-soprano Diane Haslam whose singing and friendship touched my heart and shaped my work throughout my late forties and fifties. I wrote fully 28 songs for Diane. Too, many of my later instrumental works, most notably those featuring the clarinet, were influenced by my memory of the gorgeous, almost clarinet-like quality of her rich, dark voice.
To hear Diane singing Three Love Songs, accompanied by Phil Amalong, click here:
To see a PDF of the score, click here:
Note: some of you have noticed discrepancies between the music as it is performed in these mp3s and the music as it appears in the PDFs of the scores. These discrepancies occur because I sometimes revise my works after they have been recorded. Such was the case with the ending of the third of these Three Love Songs.
I'd love to know what you think about this music; feel free to reply if you're inclined. But please don't feel that you are expected to reply. I'm just glad to share my work in this way.
As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it. Maybe you have a Valentine's Day sweetheart who would enjoy this message? or a singer who likes to discover new music?
Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails). To sign up, people can email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word: "Yes." I'll know what it means.
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