2021 Recital series - Robin Flower vocal recital скачать в хорошем качестве

2021 Recital series - Robin Flower vocal recital

Vocal recital at Brecon Cathedral by Robin Flower. If music be the food of love – Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Music for a while – Henry Purcell The Spirit’s song – Joseph Haydn (1732-1809 Litanei – Franz Schubert (1797-1828) An die Musik – Franz Schubert Le secret - Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Silent Noon – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) The Call - Ralph Vaughan Williams If Music be the Food of Love was first published in 1692 then reproduced with alterations in 1693, this is the first of Purcell’s settings of Colonel Henry Heveningham’s ‘If music be the food of love’. The text takes the first line from a famous passage from Duke Orsino in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Purcell’s music is a wonderfully tasteful melody of accented passing notes and flowing phrases, interspersed with short phrases with repeated words like ‘sing on’ and ‘so fierce’ in the second verse. Music for a while is the second of four movements in Purcell's incidental music to Oedipus written in 1692, published posthumously in 1702. The voice is accompanied by an ascending bass pattern that repeats throughout the piece, moving the music forwards. The ground bass is three bars long rather than the usual four, giving the music part of its unpredictable feel. It is a song about two priests and a future teller who summon the ghost of King Laius to find out who murdered him. Alecto, one of the Erinyes in Greek mythology and the daughter of Gaia, is calmed and Music for a While tells the story of this. The melody is mostly scalic with passing notes. The Spirit’s Song is one of Haydn’s canzonettas, a series of English songs written for soloist and a piano accompaniment. The words are by Anne Hunter, a close friend to Haydn. This poem is written from the perspective of a spirit and in many aspects is a love song. It is a message from a dead man to his lover who, being alive, is out of his reach. The song begins with the phrase ‘Hark, what I tell to thee’, an order from the spirit and Haydn’s music reflects this with the word repeated and on loud sustained notes. The middle section is more lyrical with longer musical phrases and a clearer melody and accompaniment. Finally, the message from the beginning is repeated, with more emphasis on ‘my spirit wanders free, And wait till thine shall come’. Litanei features a repeating pattern with a verse and a response every verse of ‘Alle Seelen ruhn in Frieden’, meaning ‘may all souls rest in peace’. These passages give examples of the souls they must pray for, including ‘those sated with life’, ‘The souls of girls in love’ and ‘those who never smiled at the sun’. The melody is simple and pure, with an accompaniment full of expressive power. This song is one of the most famous of Schubert’s lieder, and this may well be because of its simplicity. However, there is simplicity in the tune which comes from Schubert’s Italianate education under Antonio Salieri during his time at school in Vienna, but there is also the very deep and profound word-setting. An die Musik was composed in 1817, another of Schubert’s lieder but from slightly later in his life. Again, this is a famous and popular piece for its melody, simple harmonies and a strong bass. It is a hymn to the beauty of music and the good it can bring, so it is fitting that it should be pure in its music. The music for the two verses is greatly written to fit both verses of words, keeping the stresses in the correct places and the word painting just right for each line. The poem 'Le secret' is from Silvestre’s collection 'Le pays des roses' from 1882. The song carries many similarities to Fauré’s Requiem, with the accompaniment much like an organ. It is most commonly performed with a tempo so slow that the music feels almost stationary at times, giving a mesmerising, minimalistic feel. The poem is in three verses, each being about a part of the day. The narrator expresses his love for dawn, day and night, and blurs the lines between them for each verse. Silent noon is one of Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ famous songs which takes words from a poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The accompaniment in the first section follows a repeating rhythm pattern, giving a constant flow. The mood then changes, giving the piano a slowly ascending chordal line which accompanies the voice’s simplistic, long phrases. The voice is given a recitative when talking of the dragonfly until the final phrase leading into the recapitulation. The melody and accompaniment return, this time louder. The Call is one of Vaughan-Williams’ Five Mystical Songs. It reflects the hymnic nature of the poem that it is based on. It is very direct in the delivery of the words with no repetition, and the music complements this with the first triad, establishing the key with vigour. The song is musically ‘mystical’. For example, the melisma at the end of each stanza and at the centre of the final stanza which represents an inexpressible and overflowing emotion.