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Catalog: Song Information: Page 75 of 83Please keep this site alive by contributing song listings and other information to the catalog. See the bottom of every catalog page for how. "To a Friend, Planting"
This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Duration 1:30 Descending scales in the voice against faster ascending scales in the piano. Text Comments: Proceed, my Friend, pursue thy healthful toil, Dispose thy ground, and meliorate thy soil; Range thy young plants in walks, or clumps, or bow'rs, Diffuse o'er sunny banks thy fragrant flow'rs; And, while the new creation round thee springs, Enjoy uncheck'd the guiltless bliss it brings: But hope no more. Though Fancy forward stray These scenes of distant pleasure to survey, To expatiate fondly o'er the future grove, The happy haunt of Friendship and of Love; Know, each fair image form'd within thy mind, Far wide of truth thy sickening sight shall find. This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "To a Loose Woman"Song 6 (extractable) from set The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
This entry contributed by Lori Laitman around 9/28/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: quarter = 84 with underlying sixteenth and triplet eighth subdivisions. Frequently hangs around G5 and A5. syncopated; two arch portamenti. Text Comments:
[text based upon the poem "To a Loose Woman" by Sara Teasdale] This entry contributed by G&K around 9/28/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "To a Young Poet"Song 2 (extractable) from set Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
This entry contributed by G&K around 10/26/98 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: (2:07) Long vocal lines over tremolo piano accompaniment, passionate Text Comments: Full text: "Time cannot break the bird's wing from the bird. Bird and wing together Go down, one feather. No thing that ever flew, Not the lark, not you can die can die as others do as others do." This entry contributed by Richard Pearson Thomas around 10/26/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "To die takes just a little while"Song 1 (not extractable) from set Death and the Maiden
This entry contributed by Robert Jordahl around 10/5/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments:
tonal, with piquant wood harmonies.
Text Comments: To die takes just a little while. They say it does'nt hurt. It's only fainter by degrees, and then it's out of sight. This entry contributed by Robert Jordahl around 10/5/99. The contributor(s) composed the song. "To Old Age"Song 5 (extractable) from set Back by the Roadside
This entry contributed by G&K around 9/24/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: A beautiful piece; tonal with passing tones and suspensions in the piano part reminiscent of 16th C music. Slow and evocative. Perhaps my favorite from this cycle. Text Comments: Complete text: I see in you the estuary that enlarges and spreads itself grandly as it pours in the great sea. Recordings: none? This entry contributed by G&K around 9/24/98. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "To Old Roscoff: Lullaby in North-West minor"Song 4 (not extractable) from set Songs of Desperation and Comfort
This entry contributed by John Eaton around 3/27/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: The second song of comfort, also a lullaby, but to an old town rather than a young girl, is a translation by Patrick Creagh of a poem by Tristan Corbiere. It describes an old seaport on the coast of Brittany, still facing England in a threatening stance, but with flowers growing from its unloaded cannon. The voice treats the text in three distinct ways: it recites it on low pitches when speaking comfortingly to Old Roscoff, it declaims it in continuous glissandi, a kind of sprechstimme or sprechgesang , when more excited, and finally it breaks into a jaunty folktune-style at times, echoing the singer's admiration of the old town and joy at its steadfast endurance. Somehow the venerable nature of the "hero" of this song suggested to me the deeper woodwinds; so, I have made liberal use of the bass flute, English horn, bass and contrabass clarinets, and contrabassoon in this song. Text Comments:
Transl. Patrick Creagh This entry contributed by John Eaton around 3/28/99. The contributor(s) composed the song. "To One Who Might Have Borne a Message"Song 3 (extractable) from set Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
This entry contributed by G&K around 10/26/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: (3:06) Long vocal lines over gentle walking accompaniment, almost a feeling of self-restraint which breaks down with an emotional burst near the end of the song Text Comments: Full text: "Had I known that you were going I would have given you messages for her, Now two years dead, Whom I shall always love. As it is, should she entreat you how it goes with me, You must reply: as well as with most you fancy; That I love easily, and pass the time. And she will not know how all day long between My life and me her shadow intervenes, A young thin girl, wearing a white skirt and a purple sweater And a narrow pale blue ribbon about her hair. I used to say to her, "I love you Because your face is such a pretty colour, No other reason." But it was not true. Oh, had I only known that you were going, I could have given you messages for her!" This entry contributed by Richard Pearson Thomas around 10/26/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "To the Thawing Wind"
This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Quite slow, quarter=60. Begins with icy open fifths in the piano and spoken text from the singer, then moves soon into a very quick section marked "Blustery," quarter =112-120. Alternates between tempi as poem's mood changes. Gb5 is sustained, and Ab5 only touched upon. Ends with frenzy and slow thunder. Text Comments: Come with rain, O loud Southwester! Come with rain, O loud Southwester! Bring the singer, bring the nester; Give the buried flower a dream; Make the settled snow-bank steam; Find the brown beneath the white; But whate'er you do But what e'er you do tonight, Bathe my window, make it flow, Melt it as the ices go; Melt the glass and leave the sticks Like a hermit's crucifix'; Burst into my narrow stall; Swing the picture on the wall; Run the rattling pages o'er; Scatter poems on the floor; Turn the poet out of door. This entry contributed by G&K around 11/1/99. The contributor(s) heard the song. Music Comments: John Frantzen's "Three Frost Songs" exemplify the expressive potential of American art song by epitomizing the blend of American freshness and European style that makes this genre unique. The originality, honesty, and frankness of these settings evokes the idealized innocence and simplicity of American life and lends to them that touch of nostalgia which is the hallmark of so much great American music. At the same time, elements of Romantic intimacy and Impressionist tone-painting underscore the straightforward American sincerity of the music in a way that fits Frost's poetry exceptionally well. The natural flow and setting of the text is made all the more poignant by the subtle sophistication of the accompaniment, which finds a perfect balance between sentimentalism and intellectualism. Text, melody, and accompaniment are beautifully interwoven so that the music unfolds both naturally and inevitably. The result is a captivating and highly evocative song cycle that gently embraces the listener in its pure, uncomplicated expressiveness. These are truly moving songs. This entry contributed by Nick Wild around 11/7/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. Please contribute to the catalog
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