CANDLER CONCERT SERIES - Arts at Emory - Emory University

ecame so well-known, their popularity quite possibly eclipsed the
original folk songs on which they were based.
Three Early Songs
For a long time George Crumb has been a favorite of mine. Last
summer, in a moment of absolute splendor listening to Gil (Kalish)
speak at Menlo, Patrick (Castillo) played these pieces and I was instantly
won over. It certainly helped that Jan DeGaetani was his collaborator
on the recording, a mezzo I’ve revered since I discovered her singing
while I was in the music recording library at Rice University in 2000.
When you’re a student or even at the beginning of your career, it’s
certainly helpful to see experienced artists with whom you feel a kinship.
Crumb wrote much of his music for Gil and DeGaetani (lucky me!).
Unlike the aural world and performance aesthetic you might associate
with him, these songs are much more tuneful and intimate. When I’ve
played the songs for friends, they all say, “Oh that doesn’t even sound
like Crumb!” To give you an idea, in the last Crumb song I performed,
the pianist tapped on the piano’s lid for accompaniment. In all of his
music, though, there is a magic and sense of the cosmos, a truly original
soundscape. He wrote Three Early Songs in 1947 to the poetry of Robert
Southey and Sara Teasdale. He dedicated the songs to his wife, Elizabeth
Brown, who did the first reading. Interestingly enough, his daughter,
Ann, was later asked to record them on Bridge Records, so in Crumb’s
words, “it was something of a completion.”
—Sasha Cooke
Shéhérazade
In 1903, Maurice Ravel was inspired to set three of Tristan Klingsor’s
poems as a song cycle titled Shéhérazade. In 1898 he had written an
overture to a planned opera based on the Thousand and One Nights,
also titled Shéhérazade. The opera was never finished, but some
materials from the overture found their way into the song cycle.
“The influence of Debussy is fairly obvious,” Ravel admitted. “Here
again I yielded to the profound attraction which the East has always held
for me since my childhood.” The longest of the three songs is the first, a
catalog of exotic delights from Asia. The text is separated by brief piano
interludes. The middle song, La flûte enchantée (The Magic Flute) has
accompaniment reminiscent of Ravel’s ballet Daphnis and Chloë (1912).
Ravel once suggested that the final song, L’indifférent (The Indifferent
One), was referring to his own personality.
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