I --Selections from Liebeslieder Waltzes, Opus 52 (Johannes Brahms) [Stephanie Hutchinson and Lisa Edwards, Pianists]
II --Five Old American Songs, adapted by Aaron Copland
III
Liebeslieder Wälzer: Text and Translation
1
| Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes, das mir in die Brust, die kühle, hat geschleudert, mit dem Blicke, diese wilden Glut gefühle! Willst du nicht dein Herz erweichen, Rasten ohne traute Wonne, |
Speak, maiden, all too lovely, who into my cool breast hast hurled with thy glance, this blaze of passion. Wilt thou not thy heart soften; To exist without delight |
2
| Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut, heftig angetrieben; Wer da nicht zu seufzen weiß, lernt es unterm Lieben. |
On the rocks roars the flood, furiously driven; whoever knows not how to sigh learns it from love. |
5
| Die grüne Hopfenranke, sie schlängelt auf der Erde hin. Die junge, schöne Dirne, so traurig ist ihr Sinn! Du höre, grüne Ranke! Wie höbe sich die Ranke, |
The green hop-vine winds around on the ground. young, beautiful maid, how sad is her countenance. Hear thou, green vine, How could the vine arise |
6
| Ein kleiner, hübscher Vogel nam den Flug zum Garten hin, da gab es Obst genug. Wenn ich ein hübscher, kleiner Vogel wär', Leimruten Arglist lauert an dem Ort; Wenn ich ein hübscher, kleiner Vogel wär', Der Vogel kam in eine schöne Hand, Wenn ich ein hübscher, kleiner Vogel wär', |
A tiny, pretty bird flew into the garden where there was plenty of fruit. If I were a pretty little bird Lime branches lurk treacherously there; If I were a pretty little bird, The bird came into a beautiful hand, If I were a pretty little bird |
9
| Am Donaustrande, da steht ein Haus, da schaut ein rosiges Mädchen aus. Das Mädchen, es ist wohl gut gehegt, Zehn eiserne Riegel, das ist ein Spaß; |
On the banks of the Danube stands a house, there a pretty maiden looks out. The maiden is well guarded: Ten iron bars? That's a joke! |
11
| Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen mit den Leuten; Alles wissen sie so giftig auszudeuten. Bin ich heiter, |
No, there is no getting along with people! Everything that they know they so spitefully interpret! When I am cheerful, |
12
| Schlosser, auf! und mache Schlösser, Schlösser ohne Zahl! Denn die bösen Mäuler will ich schließen allzumal! |
Locksmith, up! Make locks, locks without number! For these evil tongues would I forever silence! |
15
| Nachtigall, sie singt so schön, wenn die Sterne funkeln. Liebe mich, geliebtes Herz, küsse mich im Dunkeln! |
The nightingale sings so beautifully, when the stars are shining. Love me, dear heart, kiss me in the dark. |
18
| Es bebet das Gesträuche, gesteift hat es im Fluge ein Vögelein. In gleicher Art erbebet die Seele mir, erschüttert von Liebe, Lust und Leide, gedenkt sie dein. |
A branch is trembling, touched in flight by a little bird. In the same way trembles my soul, shaken by love, desire, and sorrow, thinks of thee. |
—Text from Daumer's Polydora; translation by Tony McQuilkin and Jean Dunn
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833. There he became a pianist, and organized and directed a women's chorus, for whom he wrote some choral works and arrangements of folk songs. In 1862 he moved to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. He became director of the Singakademie (1863-64), and he conducted concerts of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ("Society of the Friends of Music") from 1872 to 1875. Many of his early works in Vienna were received with outright disfavor. But the publication of his German Requiem (1868), Liebeslieder Waltzes (1869), and Rhapsody (1870) won for him wide acceptance.
The text for the Liebeslieder Waltzes is a set of poems from Daumer's Polydora, a collection of translations and imitations of folk poetry, mostly Hungarian, Russian, and Polish. The musical settings are such as might have been set by the "Waltz King" himself, Johann Strauss, Jr.
Brahms labeled these songs for "piano duet with voices ad libitum", implying that they could be performed perfectly well without the voice parts. But the voice parts are not mere accompaniment to the piano parts. Although Brahms expected the voice parts to be sung by a solo quartet, it works well with a small chorus. Although they are labeled waltzes, they are more like slow ländler, reflecting the slavic or magyar origin of the texts.
Friends of The Concert Singers may recall our performance of three of Brahms's Ziegeunerlieder (Gypsy Songs) a few years ago.
Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn in 1900 of immigrant parents, from the Polish and Lithuanian parts of the Russian Empire. His father spent some time in England on his way to America in order to earn enough money to complete the trip. His name had been Harris Kaplan but a government agent misunderstood his name and wrote it as Copland, which it remained. In the 1890s Harris Copland's store prospered, and he became the president of the oldest synagogue in Brooklyn. After graduating from Boys' High School, Aaron Copland studied music under Rubin Goldmark. In 1920, he saved enough money to go to the new American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, near Paris. There he met Nadia Boulanger. He stayed at the conservatory only three months, then he followed Nadia Boulanger to Paris, and studied privately with her until 1924. He recruited other Americans to follow him, including Walter Piston, Roy Harris, Virgil Thompson, Quincy Porter, Marc Blitzstein, and Elliott Carter.
Copland wished his style to be as recognizably American as Mussorgksy and Stravinsky were Russian. Leonard Bernstein, his friend and greatest advocate, compared himself to Aaron, and Copland to Moses, in establishing a corpus of American music.
From the mid-1930s, Copland tried to write music "in the simplest possible terms", and turned to folk songs for inspiration and source material. He produced El Salón México in 1936. From American folk material he produced Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). In the 1940s he began writing film music, and established a higher standard for movie scores. He wrote the scores for such films as Our Town (1940), The Red Pony (1949), and The Heiress (1949).
Some of his other well-known works include A Lincoln Portrait for spoken voice and orchestra (1942), and Fanfare for the Common Man (1942).
Copland spent hours in the Library of Congress, listening to recordings and reviewing manuscripts in American folk music in order to write his two sets of Old American Songs, the first set, published in 1950, includes "The Boatmen's Dance", "The Dodger", "Long Time Ago" (a ballad), "Simple Gifts" (a harmonization of the Shaker
hymn used as the subject of the variations in Appalachian Spring), and "I Bought Me a Cat". The second set was published in 1954, and includes "The Little Horses" (a lullaby), "Zion's Walls", "The Golden Willow Tree", "At the River" (hymn tune), and Ching-a-ring Chaw" (a minstrel song: the words were altered). They were originally written for solo voice with piano accompaniment. They were arranged by Irving Fine for mixed chorus with piano accompaniment. It is in this format that we present selections from the two sets of Old American Songs.
Our arrangement of America is by Robert Hunter, who made many arrangements for the Loyola University Chorus, directed by Paul Salamunovich, who is now director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Amazing Grace, which has become one of the most popular hymns in the United States, uses this American folk tune, arranged by William Hall with flute obligato.
Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair is one of the songs from Appalachia collected by John Jacob Niles, folk singer and collector of songs. Among the songs he made known to the general public was "I Wonder as I Wander", which he composed based on a fragment he heard.
Lollytoodum is a nonsense song, sung with a "hillbilly twang". It is one of a collection popularized by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.
Shenandoah, a well-known American folk song, is presented in a stunning arrangement by James Erb.
The Water Is Wide is an English, rather than American, folk song, but it is included in our program because it is sung frequently in America, and the tune o waly waly is found in many American hymnals set to a variety of texts.
Hush! Somebody's Callin' My Name, I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger, and This Little Light of Mine are all spirituals.
I Hear a Voice a-Prayin', also from Fred Waring's collection, is in the style of a spiritual, but was actually composed by Houston Bright (so it is not really a folk song, although it sounds as if it could be).
Our concert concludes with Englishman John Rutter's sophisticated arrangement of the popular When the Saints Go Marching In, featuring clarinet riffs in Dixieland-jazz style.
—Tony McQuilkin