Songs Without Words: Light and Darkness in the Pandemic

The Pandemic of 2020 has left no part of humankind untouched. It has changed our lives profoundly across all continents, cultures, ages, life work and socioeconomic status. 

While sheltering in place, musicians are restricted from traditional performances in concert venues. Like many other musicians, I wanted to find ways to share my music despite the lockdown. One of the many areas I’ve decided to explore is the world of Art Songs. Instrumentalists are urged to try to emulate the human voice when performing. The cello has a range that is similar to the human voice and is perhaps ideal for this adventure. I approached this project with some trepidation as most instrumentalists feel that, while we can aspire to emulate singers, we can never really reach their celestial heights. Moreover, performing on an instrument by necessity has the text stripped away, thereby losing important dimensions of meaning and articulation. Despite this, I hope, after you’ve heard these songs, that you agree with me that the cello can be an effective ambassador for the world of Art Songs.

There are many other boundary conditions related to the pandemic lockdown. I will be playing both the cello and piano parts myself. My piano needs a fair amount of work, which is a challenge during isolation lockdown. Everything is recorded at home, which is a far cry from a professional recording studio. I’ll ask your understanding if you hear my “chamber partners” in the background - these include leaf blowers from the neighbors’ garden work, the chorus of construction workers toiling nearby, and planes flying overhead with surprising frequency. Even birds chirping outside my windows!

The Art Songs I’ve reimagined for cello and piano have personal significance to me. As I reflected on their meaning I realized that they have messages that are timeless and despite the fact that they come from an earlier age, they remain relevant, especially during the current pandemic crisis. I hope I can share at least a little of their deep meaning with you.

It has been said that all great literature deals with life, love and death. I would venture to say that the great Art Songs and their texts similarly deal with these themes. The texts can be loosely divided into themes of Light and Darkness, which are on opposite sides of the same coin. With Light there is love, savoring of life, particularly youth. With Darkness comes fear, loneliness, regret, and death. Residing in the Dark side also are themes of night, sleep and dreams. As I am presenting these on Cello and Piano and therefore by necessity as Songs Without Words, I encourage listeners to refer to the texts as noted to enjoy a greater understanding of the each Song’s deeper meaning.

I’m sharing selected Art Songs from several traditions including German Lieder, French Mélodies, and those from England, Russia, Bohemia, China and Japan. There is well over an hour of music on my playlist below so those wishing to read my commentary (below the playlist) while listening may find it easier, with less scrolling, to open the URL again in a separate browser window so that the playlist is visible on one side and the scrollable program notes are adjacent. If you start at the beginning of the playlist, it will advance automatically. You can also start and stop anywhere as needed. Also, if a pop-up window arises, I would advise choosing to Listen in Browser (as opposed to Play on SoundCloud) for a smoother experience.

Venezuelan born French composer Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) is well known for his songs in the French tradition Mélodie. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 12 and studied composition with Jules Massenet. Early in his career Hahn became acquainted with Marcel Proust who instilled in him a deep appreciation of poetry, which had a profound effect on his approach to vocal writing. Beyond composition, he was a consummate singer and actor, leading him to become the director of the Paris Opera. With À Chloris, Hahn sets the text of the 17th century poet Theophile de Viau in which the singer professes his love in part spoken confidence mixed with sung melodic lines. While it is a bit of a neo-Classical-Romantic pastiche with obvious homage to the Air from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No 3, À Chloris is ravishingly beautiful and may well be Hahn’s most popular composition.

Native of Paris, Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was immersed in music from an early age as both of her parents were musicians. She was mentored by Georges Bizet and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. The Chaminade home outside Paris was an active music salon hosting many composers including Bizet, Chabrier, Gounod, Massenet and Saint-Saëns. Although she certainly composed large scale works in the early part of her career, following her father’s death in 1887 she concentrated more on solo piano and mélodies, which were more quickly marketable. She successfully toured in Europe as well as the United States where she was often featured in the media, and over 100 fan clubs sprang up celebrating her works and success. On tour her concerts often included a combination of her own solo piano works as well as mélodies, which numbered well over 130 in the course of her career,  Mignonne from 1894 is a wonderful example of simplicity and charm. The text for Mignonne by Pierre de Ronsard, using the rose as a metaphor, focuses on the passage of time, inevitable frailties that develop with age and encouragement to live in the moment. 

Although French composer Henri Duparc (1848-1933) published relatively few works, which include a symphonic poem, and piano pieces, his real influence was on the French mélodie tradition. Duparc published only 14-17 songs - the exact number is unknown since Duparc’s obssession with perfection led him to destroy most of his works, including precious mélodies. During his college years when he began law studies, he met Cesar Franck who would become the single most important influence in his career. Although Duparc did not ultimately develop as a pianist, Franck recognized his potential as a composer. For a brief time Duparc practiced law and continued to compose. Chanson triste and Soupir are from Cinq mélodies, Op. 2 composed when he was 20 years old, inspired by Ellie MacSweney to whom he was engaged and later married. The text of Chanson triste by Jean Lahor, though melancholy, is one of loving consolation and hope. The text of Soupir by Sully Prudhomme speaks to the impassioned love people keep even after their loved one is gone. Tragically, in 1885 Duparc developed a neurologic or psychiatric condition which rendered him unable to compose for the final forty-eight years of his life. 

Native of Pamiers in the south of France, Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was one of the most influential of French composers, linking the end of Romanticism (when he was born, Chopin and Berlioz were still composing) with the beginning of the modern era (at the time of his death, jazz and atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard). Born into a cultured though not especially musical family, he showed an early aptitude for music. At 9 he was sent to a music college in Paris, and training ensued for him to become an organist and choir master. One of his most influential teachers was Camille Saint-Saens, who also became a lifelong friend. American composer Aaron Copland observed that while Fauré’s works could, as with many composers, be divided into “early,” “middle” and “late” periods, there were no radical differences between the first and last - “the themes, harmonies, form have remained essentially the same, but with each new work they have all become more fresh, more personal, more profound.” Fauré was of the first generation of composers, along with contemporary Henri Duparc, who were greatly influential in developing the French mélodie. I will share two of Faure’s mélodies here. 

Fauré’s set of three songs Op. 23 were completed 1879 and 1881 after a visit to Germany where he became inspired by Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and after returning to Paris, discovered the poems by Armand Silvestre noted for their admiration and devotion to women. 

Notre amour, the second in the Op. 23 cycle, delineates various characteristics of love. In the text by Armand Silvestre Notre amour (Our Love) is light, enchanting, sacred, infinite and eternal. Adieu is the third song in the Op. 21 set entitled Poeme d’un jour, which chronicles a love affair, from meeting to parting, that takes place in the space of one day. It may be tempting to see something autobiographical about this series as Faure was well known for his numerous liaisons. The text by Charles Grandmougin can be found here.

Émile Paladilhe (1844-1926) was a musical prodigy who entered Conservatoire de Paris at age 9 and, at age 16, was the youngest composer to win the prestigious Prix de Rome. He wrote a range of compositions including works for stage, a symphony, sacred works and an opera Patrie which was probably his greatest success. He also wrote over a hundred mélodies. Psyché, was published a year after his opera, and with the text by Pierre Corneille tells the story of Psyché, a princess so beautiful that Venus becomes jealous. She sends her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a hideous monster but instead he falls in love with Psyché himself.

French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is often linked, like Debussy, to Impressionism but his stylistic interests encompassed French Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Chopin and folk traditions. He was a master colorist and orchestrator. His mother was of Basque heritage, which might explain his interest in Spanish music, and his father was an engineer and inventor, possibly contributing to Ravel’s precise and exquisitely crafted works. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 14 where his major composition teacher was Gabriel Fauré. A major disappointment in his career was his failure to win the Prix de Rome despite many attempts. This may have been attributable to the conservative administration and Ravel’s penchant for avant-garde and non-French interests. Ironically later in life after he was well established as one of the most important composers of the early 20th century, he was considered by some, such as Erik Satie and Les Six as old fashioned. In 1910 Ravel submitted 7 mélodies to a competition organized by the Maison du Lied in Moscow. Many of these were based on texts from lesser known European languages. Four of these settings which won prizes were published the following year. Chanson française, one of these prize winning mélodies, is set in Limosin, a dialect of endangered language Occitan from southwestern France, also related to Catalunya (Spain). The text tells the story of a little pastoral romance between a shepherd and shepherdess. 

Although Austrian born Franz Schubert (1797-1828) only lived to the age of 31, he was a prolific and versatile composer whose works spanned operas, symphonies, masses, choral works, chamber music, solo piano. He is at once considered one of the last Classical and one of the first Romantic composers. Lieder before Schubert gave primacy to the words set to simple melodies and subservient accompaniment. Schubert elevated the importance of musical elements, including a much greater role of the piano. His friend Grillparzer wrote, “He made poetry sound and music speak.”  Gerald Moore, legendary pianist collaborating with generations of great singers, said of Schubert, “...no one ever expressed himself with such lack of artificiality. So spontaneous is his song that the process of transplantation from mind to manuscript without loss of freshness or bloom is miraculous. His heart is full of music, which in unerring directness, unsurprising naturalness and sublime eloquence uplifts our soul.” Among his over 600 songs I’ve chosen three to share. 

The nightingale holds a special place in European and Asian literature. The ancient legend tells of poor Philomea, ravished and tongue cut out, transforms into a nightingale who continues to tell its story through song. In nature, the nightingale continues to sing into the night when other birds have fallen silent and its mellifluous song can be seen at once strong, fitful, mournful and compelling. The nightingale has been used as a messenger to and from the beyond. American poet Edward Hirsch notes that “the nightingale’s song, it’s night singing, touches something deeply mortal - and immortal - in each of us.”  The text used by Schubert in An die Nachtigall by Matthias Claudius tells of a young woman who begs that the nightingale “not awaken my love with your singing.”

Night and dreams were common themes in Romantic Art Songs and Schubert used imagery around these in several of his lieder.  Nacht und Träume, Op. 43, No. 2 is a meditation on night and dreams, set to the text by Matthaus von Collin describing how dreams, like moonlight, float down during sleep. We plead for night’s return in order to live again in a better world, to recapture the life we once possessed.

Du bist die Ruh (You are Rest and Peace), Op. 59, No. 3 is probably one of Schubert’s most famous songs. It is the third lied in a set of four love songs and often performed separately from the others. The first two in the set are about heartbreak while the third and fourth are about peaceful repose and bittersweetness found in love. The song is named simply using the first line of Friedrich Rückert’s poem which can be translated as “You are Rest and Peace.” Rückert later titled the poem (“Kehr ein bei mir” or “Stay with Me”). This song radiates inner poise and suggests a transcendental religious experience unfolding in a meditative time scale. While the words are emotionally moving, the slow pace and repetitive nature suggests a mantra or chant and thus presents certain technical challenges.  

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), son of a horn and double bass player, showed early promise as as pianist. As a young teen Brahms earned money to help his family by performing in rough inns in the dock area of Hamburg. At the same time, he began honing his composition skills and gave recitals. In 1853 violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim recognized something special in young Brahms and introduced him to already established composer Robert Schumann who hailed Brahms as a “young eagle” effectively helping him become a known entity in the musical world.  Music was at a crossroads however, with the more modernist composers such as Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner rebuking the more traditional sounds of Schumann and Brahms as “absolute music” in favor of more harmonic freedom and drawing inspiration from literature and “program music.” While Brahms’s compositional style had its origins from the Classical masters such as Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, his works also have deeply Romantic emotional content. Brahms was master of most all musical forms ranging from solo piano, instrumental, chamber, concerti, and orchestral. In his Lieder, Brahms aimed for simplicity. He did not necessarily seek out the best or most profound stand-alone poetry, but rather chose texts dealing with love, nature, home, nostalgia and death and used the words of the poems as a vehicle for his melodic line which he spun and harmonized in his careful yet elaborate style.

Of over 200 songs he composed, I’ll share two luminous examples. Die Mainacht, set to text by Ludwig Hölty describes a somber man on a May night nearly paralyzed with loneliness and endless yearning. Heimweh II is the second in the mini-cycle of three songs (Op. 63, Nos 7-9) expressing nostalgia for childhood from successively greater temporal distances. Text by Klaus Groth can be found here.

Native of Munich, Germany, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) was born into a musical family. His father, principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich, was musically conservative and forbade young Richard from studying scores by Wagner. He started receiving violin instruction from his father’s cousin, Benno Walter at the Royal School of Music. As a result of his father’s strict guidance Strauss’s  early compositions had more in common with Schumann or Mendelssohn. When entered college at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, he studied Philosophy and Art History. However a year later he went to Berlin where he took an assistant conducting position under Hans von Bülow who ultimately named Strauss as his successor. Although many considered Strauss’s music to be very conservative, particularly considering his contemporary Arnold Schoenberg was exploring atonality and twelve tone technique, actually Strauss’s place in history is now thought to be that of a modernist, albeit one who stubbornly clung to tonality, but employed his signature novel advanced harmonic style. Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna, described by many as an irascible, outspoken and eccentric woman, but to outsiders their marriage seemed happy enough. In his works with voice he strongly preferred soprano and in his operas, sopranos were always heavily featured. While Strauss is best known for his symphonic poems and operas, he composed nearly 200 songs throughout his life, the earliest of which he composed at age 6 and his Four Last Songs, his final composition, came just a year before his death, age 84. Of his eight lieder Op. 10, composed at age 18, I’m sharing two. In Die Nacht (text by Hermann von Gilm), night quietly encroaches, enveloping the landscape and all that is in sight. When the final phrase arrives we learn that it is not only darkness that is feared, but uncertainty of the future with their loved one. November 2, All Soul’s Day, is the day when some denominations of Christians commemorate those dear to them who have died.  Allerseelen, (“All Soul’s Day”) set to text by Hermann von Gilm tells the story of a widower who ritually sets out flowers on a table and reflects on the loss of his wife, yearning to return to their time together.   Morgen! (Tomorrow!), last in a set of four songs, Op. 27, is a rapturous love song, a gift to Pauline when they married. (Text by John Henry Mackay)

Gifted British composer Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) studied with Charles Lilliers Stanford, whose other celebrated students included Arthur Bliss, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, John Ireland and Frank Bridge. Gurney enlisted as a private in WWI and the experience left an indelible mark. He struggled with various forms of employment after the war including manual labor, and lived his final 15 years in mental institutions, longing for death to end his angst with life. Hauntingly beautiful Sleep is the fourth of Gurney’s Five Elizabethan Songs set to John Fletcher’s text. Gurney’s harmonies switch between minor and major, the latter of which create moments of light and joy. One has the sense that the troubled insomniac does ultimately fall into blissful sleep. 

Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was born near Prague into a family whose predecessors were innkeepers and butchers. Many had a penchant for music but not in a serious way. Despite displaying an early aptitude for violin, it was assumed that young Antonin, as first born son, would follow in the family business. A defining moment occurred when leading a herd of wild cattle home from a fair, he was dragged into a lake. After this intense experience he vowed he could not become a butcher. At age 12 he began his musical studies in a more organized fashion, eschewing the Conservatoire at Prague for a shorter and more practical 2 year training at The Institute  for Church Music, which also included instruction in composition. In the early part of his career, money was extremely tight and he lived with relatives or in rented rooms around Prague. In 1875 applied for a state scholarship for young impoverished artists demonstrating exceptional talent. Johannes Brahms was on the jury who granted the scholarship which Dvořák was to receive for 5 consecutive years. Brahms also introduced Dvořák to the publisher Simrock, whose fees increased substantially as the composer became more established. As his career flourished, he toured Europe and Russia, and beginning in 1892 spent an important two and a half years in the United States. During this period he composed his Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and his String Quartet No, 12, the “American” Quartet.  

With his Cignaske melodies, Op. 55, Dvořák set the text by Czech poet Adolf Heyduk celebrating the freedom of Gypsy life, a romantic symbol of emancipation from bourgeois constraints. Presented here is the third song of this cycle, Rings ist der Wald so stumm (“All around the woods are still and silent”) in which the final line is most revealing: “The one who can sing in sorrow will not die, but lives on and on.” 

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) one of The Five (the others being César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev and Modest Mussorgsky) strongly believed in the importance of developing nationalistic clasiscal music and was known as a master orchestrator, famous for his Capriccio Espagnol, Russian Easter Festival Overture and Scheherazade. He also wrote well over 70 art songs, from which I’ve chosen the third of his Op. 40 Romances, O chem v tishi nochey (Of what I dream in the quiet night). The text by Apollon Maykov tells us of repeated dreams, possibly of a secret love who is never revealed. 

Native of Votkinsk, Russia, Pyotyr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is well known for his 7 sympohonies, 11 operas, 3 ballets, 5 suites, concerti for piano and violin, chamber music, as well as over 100 songs and piano pieces. Although he began piano lessons at age 5, his parents had in mind for him a life in civil service. At age 19 he indeed took a bureau clerk post at the Ministry of Justice, but he became increasingly fascinated by music and at age 21 he enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory. After gaining experience and many successes he became a professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. At age 38 he resigned from the Moscow Conservatory and found greater freedom to compose, entering the most productive period of his life. His Lullaby is the first song of Six Romances, Op. 16 from 1872. The text, from Apollon Maykov’s poem of the same name in the cycle Modern Greek Songs from 1860, tells of summoning three nannies to watch over a child: sun, wind and an eagle.

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Russian pianist, conducutor and composer, fell into a deep depression following poor reviews after the debut of his first Symphony. With the help of Dr. Nikolai Dahl, Rachmaninoff finally emerged from this dark period and his first compositions post creative block were his highly successful Piano Concerto #2, Op. 18 as well as his Cello Sonata, Op. 19. His Songs Op. 21 followed soon thereafter. Included in this set are two songs from his Op. 21. The first is Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5, which unlike many of Rachmaninoff’s compositions, is almost entirely sunny in outlook. The text by Ekaterina Beketova describes a beautiful and fragrant lilac garden which is the source of great happiness. Op. 21, No. 7 is Zdes khorosho, which has been translated as “How Fair This Spot” but I prefer “All Is Well Here” as it more directly gets to the tone of the poem by Glafira Galina which describes utter contentment and serenity in a beautiful and peaceful scene, shared by his love. 

I conclude with two Art Songs from  Asia.

Huang Zi (1904-1953), native of Shanghai, China, had a taste of Western music in college in China. After studying Psychology at Oberlin he attended Yale to study Western music in greater depth. After returning to China he taught at several music schools, founded the Shanghai Orchestra, China’s first Symphony, and went on to compose a wide variety of pieces, ranging from orchestral, a cantata and numerous songs. Si Xiang, or “Longing for Home,” is an example of a Chinese Art Song in the newer tradition of using texts by contemporary poets. The text by Wei Hanzhang tells the story of a man, after the Qingming Festival (showing respect for ancestors) finds himself alone and yearning for home.

Kosaku Yamada (1886-1965), native of Tokyo, Japan, studied music in Germany with Max Bruch. During two years he spent in the US he conducted members of the NY Philharmonic and the NY Symphony before they merged. He also conducted at the Berlin Philharmonic and the Leningrad Philharmonic. In his musical travels he met Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.  In his early career he was influenced by European classical styles but ultimately developed a personal voice that prepared the way for composers such as Takemitsu. Among his 1600 compositions are about 700 songs. Kono-michi, or “This Road” is ostensibly a children’s song, but the text, by contemporary poet Hakushu Katahara, interestingly and poignantly can also be interpreted from the viewpoint of a mature adult.