Robinsongs for Mezzo-soprano, Oboe, and Piano скачать в хорошем качестве

Robinsongs for Mezzo-soprano, Oboe, and Piano

Robinsongs for mezzo-soprano, oboe, and piano (April 30—September 11, 2012) Rebecca Robinson, voice; Joseph Robinson, oboe; Mary Kay Robinson, piano Video by Robert Musser (VoChor) I. Some Hallucinations A perfectly sane tempo II. The Purist Allegro academia III. You Are Old, Father William Guano ma non troppo Joseph and Mary Kay Robinson (no relation) came to a concert in 2006 featuring some of my music performed by Eric Pritchard at Duke University. Joe had a long career as principle oboist with the New York Philharmonic, and Mary Kay has performed extensively as a violinist. They asked me to write a trio for oboe, violin, and piano, which resulted in Aditya Hridayam. After they performed this at Duke with Thomas Warburton, I realized how lucky I was to work with musicians of this caliber. In February 2012, Mary Kay was one of the musicians performing my Clarinet Sextet for clarinet and strings, which was a wonderful performance. In 2011, Joe and Mary Kay asked me to write a piece they could perform with their aspiring diva daughter Becky, with Mary Kay playing piano. I wrestled with ideas for lyrics for many months, but found this to be an exceptionally difficult assignment. After finishing Violations for viol consort (or string ensembles) on February 19, 2012, it was time to sit down to do Robinsongs, a set of songs for, well, the Robinsons. But then I had a concert of my music at Duke, followed by a month of depression, added a section to Strange Songs, and the usual end-of-semester tangle at my job teaching physics at NCSU. After false starts with other lyrics, I managed to start scribbling Lewis Carroll's Some Hallucinations on April 30, but progress was quite difficult. I guess at 57 I'm feeling my age! I was wondering if I'd written myself out, and it was time to retire. A month of bronchitis did not help. After that came Ogden Nash's The Purist. (I've made a good-faith effort to find the holder of the copyright—but then, my music is so far from profitable that I don't suppose royalties will be an issue.) Finally after much struggle and an uncommonly slow season of composition, came another Lewis Carroll poem, You Are Old, Father William, finished on the ominous date of September 11. Lyrics Some Hallucinations He thought he saw an Elephant, That practiced on a fife: He looked again, and found it was A letter from his wife. "At length I realize," he said, "The bitterness of life." He thought he saw a Buffalo Upon the chimneypiece: He looked again, and found it was His Sister's Husband's Niece. "Unless you leave this house," he said, "I'll send for the Police!" He thought he saw a Rattlesnake That questioned him in Greek: He looked again, and found it was The Middle of Next Week. "The one thing I regret," he said, "Is that it cannot speak!" He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk Descending from the 'bus: He looked again, and found it was A Hippopotamus. "If this should stay to dine," he said, "There won't be much for us!" --Lewis Carroll The Purist I give you now Professor Twist, A conscientious scientist, Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!" And sent him off to distant jungles. Camped on a tropic riverside, One day he missed his loving bride. She had, the guide informed him later, Been eaten by an alligator. Professor Twist could not but smile. "You mean," he said, "a crocodile." --Ogden Nash You Are Old, Father William "You are old, father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- Do you think, at your age, it is right?" "In my youth," father William replied to his son, "I feared it might injure the brain; But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, Why, I do it again and again." "You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before, And have grown most uncommonly fat; Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door-- Pray what is the reason of that?" "In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, "I kept all my limbs very supple By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box-- Allow me to sell you a couple?" "You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are to weak For anything tougher than suet; Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak-- Pray, how did you manage to do it?" "In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law, And argued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw, Has lasted the rest of my life." "You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose That your eye was as steady as ever; Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose-- What made you so awfully clever?" "I have answered three questions and that is enough," Said the father. "Don't give yourself airs! Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!" ---Lewis Carroll