SKU: PR.111402890
ISBN 9781491134672. UPC: 680160685264.
Whatâ??s in a name? While the title is French for â??Eight Flower Songs,â? the texts are all in English. The poemsâ?? flowers metaphorically evoke fragrance, love and loss, life and death, rebirth and regrowth. Perhaps the texture and beauty of Gordonâ??s music are themselves French. The 20-minute song cycle draws on poems from Wordsworth to Dorothy Parker, as well as from contemporary poets including the composer himself.When So-Chung Shinn came to me with the idea of commissioning a song cycle with her spectacular husband Tony Lee, she had in mind something having to do with flowers. Tony had asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and she said she wanted to be behind the creating of a new work. Lucky me, I was the recipient of the commission. So-Chung sent me a little description of all the flowers she loves, but I had to take the idea and create a narrative in my head.It is always a matter of pleasing the commissioner, yet coming up with something you can get behind and hear music for as well. I already knew I wanted to use my â??Tulipsâ? poem which is really about the arc of a relationship as represented through the life span of the Tulips, and, in many ways, disappointment; and Dorothy Parkerâ??s â??One Perfect Rose,â? which is wry, bitter, cynical, and funny, in a way only Dorothy Parker can so pithily express.I thought of Jane Kenyonâ??s exquisite â??Peonies at Dusk,â? because knowing she died so young (46) of leukemia, the poem has such a particular resonance, almost humanizing the Peonies, casting the moon as a sentient being, illustrating so beautifully how connected everything is, alive here, and revolving around these exquisite blossoms. Then, I remembered her husband Donald Hallâ??s poem â??Her Garden,â? which he wrote after Jane died, his grief intermingled with his inability to care for what she had created, to keep alive what so represented her aliveness, broken as he was, and I felt I already had a story.I found the Wordsworth, because it felt like pure joy to me, but also, if each of the songs has a color in my head, â??The Daffodilsâ? is pure yellow and a good place to start. My partner Kevin and I live on a lake, and every year, the first Daffodils, the shock of yellows, the oranges, the blinding whites, after the long snowy winters, sing of the newness that is about to enfold us in its green miraculousness.At first, the cycle ended with the Langston Hughes poem â??Cycle,â? or â??New Flowers,â? because it was lovely, and about rebirth, which is obviously optimistic, and apt, but then, my friend Telmo Dos Santos, a wonderful Canadian poet whom I met at Banff, sent me his poem â??Afterlife With Lilacs,â? having no idea what I was working on. I felt I had to add it because it is so dazzling, and it immediately felt like the missing link. Finally, there were unfortunately rights issues, namely, we could not, no how, get in touch with the Langston Hughes Estate, after so many happy collaborations.After almost a yearâ??s frustration, I wrote my own text, â??Play, Orpheus,â? which ended up being fortuitous, because the first time I met So-Chung, she entered the room and the most exquisite scent of Lillies of the Valley, Muguet de Bois, filled the room. I went right over to her and rudely put my nose to her neck, for the intoxication of the scent. So â??Play, Orpheusâ? is for So-Chung, to remind us of the precious treasures of this world flowers remind us of. Everything and everyone lives and dies, lives and dies. Death and resurrection.And of course, this is music, this is song, so the inclusion of the God of music, Orpheus, seems apt. Huit Chansons de Fleurs is really about what flowers represent, their radiance, their flickering impermanence, the way they are used to celebrate, as well as to mourn...... and of course, their fragrance. Their fragrance.Ricky Ian GordonJuly 28, 2021.
SKU: HL.304688
ISBN 9781540067418. UPC: 888680970581. 9x12 inches.
This is the first volume of songs by Charles Ives designed expressly for the young singer. Ives famously asked “Must a song always be a song?” His songs are often miniature dramas, and suggest the visual as much as the auditory. Singers and pianists alike are encouraged to be proactive, and imagine they are actors, or painters, or enter the creative process in some other way.Contents include: 1. Autumn, 2. The Cage, 3. The Circus Band, 4. Down East, 5. Her Eyes, 6. In the Alley, 7. Memories, 8. Nature's Way, 9. The Side Show, 10. There is a lane, 11. The Things Our Fathers Loved, 12. The Waiting Soul.
SKU: EC.9278
UPC: 600313311185. English.
Songs of Love and Solace traces a young man's journey of love and heartbreak. The cycle of four texts by Irish poet William Butler Yeats begins with Brown Penny. This short poem depicts a young man infatuated with the idea of falling in love, and then becoming awestruck as he contemplates the depths of love’s power. In the second poem, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, the poet, speaking to his beloved, realizes he has nothing of value to offer but his dreams. Tread softly, he implores, because you tread on my dreams.” In When You Are Old, we find our poet heartbroken. In his grief he peers into the future and foresees his beloved, in old age, remembering the depth and purity of their forsaken love: “But one man love the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.” In the final song, The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” the poet, saddened but wiser, wistfully resolves to escape the struggles and heartbreaks of his modern existence, and seek solace in the beauty and calm of nature. Songs may be performed separately.
SKU: HL.383303
ISBN 9781705154137. UPC: 196288021421. 9.0x12.0x0.666 inches.
Do you need a perfect contemporary song for a vocal audition or performance? The Singer's Anthology of Pop/Rock Ballads gives you over 30 pop/rock classics to choose fromââall transposed into appropriate keys and based on the original recorded hits. These songs fall into the new wave of standards that you are hearing more often at cabaret, concerts, and special occasions. These songs are most often identified with singer-songwriters, so this collection features the work of Billy Joel, Carole King, Adele, and others. These arrangements were custom made for this collection as authentic performing editions, friendly to both the singer and accompanist. Keys were carefully chosen, either preserving the original recorded key or transposing as near the original as possible to increase accessibility. This volume is presented in separate editions for Soprano/Alto and Tenor/Baritone, with some songs shared between the two, and others specific to the voice type. The Soprano/Alto edition features 31 songs, including: All by Myself ⢠At Last ⢠Don't Know Why ⢠Hallelujah ⢠Hello ⢠I Can't Make You Love Me ⢠I Will Always Love You ⢠Killing Me Softly with His Song ⢠Landslide ⢠Million Reasons ⢠(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman ⢠New York State of Mind ⢠She Used to Be Mine ⢠Someone like You ⢠A Thousand Years ⢠Time After Time ⢠When We Were Young ⢠Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow) ⢠and more.
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