Earth & Sky Part Two
Air date: August 25, 2024
Join us for the final episode of the summer as we embrace the beauty of our environment and connect with the natural world through poetry. Felix Mendelssohn’s overture, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, draws on a pair of maritime poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that were also famously adapted into a cantata by Beethoven. Andrew Maxfield found inspiration for “For the Future” in a poem by American writer, Wendell Berry, and like much of Maxfield’s works, the choral piece embodies a devotion to conservation and sustainability. We’ll also hear a musical interpretation of poetry by Heinrich Heine… told through solo piano. Without using sung text, Edward MacDowell’s 6 Poems after Heine translates the poetry of the German writer with sensitivity and feeling. “Afternoon on a Hill,” by Eric William Barnum, exquisitely captures an introspective, sun-filled scene through poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay. We’ll end with Part II of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, wrapping up the transcendent journey we began in last week’s episode, Earth & Sky.
Earth & Sky
Air date: August 18, 2024
Transcend the bounds of earth and sky in this week’s episode of Sound in Print. Joan Szymko’s “Stars in Your Bones” is a stunning choral piece radiating a sense of belonging among humanity, using poetry by Alla Bozarth. “Esta Tierra” (This Land), by Basque composer Javier Busto, evokes an appreciation of earthly beauty through the lust poetry of Francisco Pino. In Elaine Hagenburg’s “Measure Me, Sky!,” the composer encourages singers to take hold of their limitless potential through Leonora Speyer’s euphoric poetry. Lastly, we’ll soar with Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, a choral masterpiece blending styles old and new. Using choral settings of the five traditional psalms heard in Marian feast services as the foundation for the work, Monteverdi interlaced non-liturgical motets in between these more traditional movements, using poetry from Song of Solomon, passages from the books of Isaiah and John, hymns, and anonymous poetry from the time.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Air date: August 11, 2024
Felix Mendelssohn was a voracious consumer of literature as a child—works by Shakespeare were a particular favorite. At 17 years old, Mendelssohn composed his soon-to-be-famous overture based on Shakespeare’s comic play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 16 years later, he was commissioned to write incidental music for a new production of the play. Mendelssohn recycled his concert overture for the occasion and carried themes from the earlier work throughout the new piece of music. From fairies and spells to lover’s trysts, Mendelssohn’s incidental music captures all the fanciful and captivating elements of Shakespeare’s tale.
Scheherazade, One Thousand and Two Stories
Air date: August 4, 2024
Get ready to experience the sonic world of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, inspired by the legendary literary figure. In One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of centuries-old Middle Eastern and Indian folktales, Scheherazade is the narrator weaving together fascinating and awe-inspiring tales as a method of sparing her life from the actions of a brutal king. In an epic marathon of storytelling, she keeps the king preoccupied for one thousand and one nights, after which the king falls in love with Scheherazade and ends his murderous rampage. Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite remains one of the most famous adaptations of these stories.
Fishing and Spinning with Schubert
Air date: July 28, 2024
We’re going fishing and spinning with one of the most prolific songwriters of the 19th century—Franz Schubert. In “Die Forelle” (The Trout), Schubert set to music a poem by German writer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, which tells the story of a fisherman hunting and catching a trout. Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major, known as the “Trout Quintet,” gained its nickname for reusing the famous tune from “Die Forelle” in its fourth movement. “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel), kicked off Schubert’s lifelong love of setting the writing of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to song. Using dialogue from Goethe’s play, Faust, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” depicts Gretchen in a moment of torment as she recalls memories of Faust. We’ll end this week’s episode with another setting of Goethe, this time his frightful poem, “Erlkönig” (Elf King). Based on a Danish tale of the Elf Woman, a figure of death, “Erlkönig” tells the tale of the sinister Elf King and his relentless pursuit of an innocent child.
The Good Fortune of Monks
Air date: July 21, 2024
One of the most recognizable pieces of music of all time, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (Songs of Beuern) is an exhilarating cantata for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. For the text, Orff selected 24 poems from a 13th-century codex discovered in the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuern. These mostly secular Latin and Medieval German poems illustrate various aspects of Medieval life, from religious declarations to love songs and drinking tunes. The most recognizable section from the cantata, “O Fortuna,” serves as both the prologue and epilogue, warning of the fickleness of fate. Take your seat on this powerful and ancient wheel of fortune.
Nature Ascending
Air date: July 14, 2024
The Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan William’s sweeping romance for violin and orchestra, overflows with the joy and freedom of the natural world. Vaughan Williams was inspired by a poem of the same name by Victorian-era writer, George Meredith, a literary work in and of itself filled with musical language. This episode also includes Maurice Ravel’s Three Poems of Mallarmé, setting poetry by Symbolist writer Stéphane Mallarmé. In this piece, Ravel conceived of an unusual instrumental ensemble of flutes, clarinets, string quartet, and piano to accompany the sung text. Similarly inspired by the poetry of Mallarmé was Claude Debussy in his evocative symphonic poem, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Capturing the post-sleep monologue of a faun and his imagined sensual encounters in a forest, the listener is left wondering whether it was a dream after all. Lastly, we’ll experience Lili Boulanger’s sun-drenched Of a Spring Morning, one of the last works the composer wrote before her untimely death at the age of 24.
Mermaids
Air date: July 7, 2024
All Classical’s debut episode of Sound in Print will delve into one of literature’s most fascinating mythical creatures–mermaids. In Antonín Dvořák’s lyric fairytale, Rusalka, the title character falls in love with a human prince; however, as a water nymph, she cannot approach her beloved on land. In the stunning aria, “Song to the Moon,” Rusalka begs the moon to tell the prince her deepest desires. For his dark mermaid tale, Dvořák drew on several literary sources, including the novella Undine by Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué, and the famous fairytale “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen. We’ll also hear Alexander Zemlinsky’s symphonic fantasy, The Mermaid, based on the same famous tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Zemlinsky tells Anderson’s story through a series of distinct motives, each depicting a scene or character—listen for the lyrical solo violin representing the Little Mermaid.
