I got to hear a livestream concert from the Tenth International Music by Women Festival yesterday that included a performance of these three pieces I wrote for voice, flute, and piano (the video is set to start just as soprano Lydia Beasley Kneer, flutist Brittney Patterson, and pianist Laurie Middaugh are ready to play). It was particularly exciting for me to hear these three pieces performed as a set.
The flutist is not playing a gold flute, but because the concert is being held in a gold room, golden reflections glint off the flute. There is something just right about that. Here is the text for the first song, which is a poem by Oscar Wilde.
In the Gold Room: A HarmonyHarry von Tilzer wrote "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" with Arthur Lamb in 1899, and I made a setting of Arthur Lamb's lyric in 2009 as part of a series I thought of as being "new tunes for old songs." Here is the text (which also has a lot of gold in it):
Her ivory hands on the ivory keys
Strayed in a fitful fantasy,
Like the silver gleam when the poplar trees
Rustle their pale-leaves listlessly,
Or the drifting foam of a restless sea
When the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze.
Her gold hair fell on the wall of gold
Like the delicate gossamer tangles spun
On the burnished disk of the marigold,
Or the sunflower turning to meet the sun
When the gloom of the dark blue night is done,
And the spear of the lily is aureoled.
And her sweet red lips on these lips of mine
Burned like the ruby fire set
In the swinging lamp of a crimson shrine,
Or the bleeding wounds of the pomegranate,
Or the heart of the lotus drenched and wet
With the spilt-out blood of the rose-red wine.
It shone with a thousand lights,Tilzer's song was wildly popular. My setting expresses Arthur Lamb's text very differently.
And there was a woman who passed along,
The fairest of all the sights,
A girl to her lover then softly sighed,
There's riches at her command;
But she married for wealth, not for love, he cried,
Though she lives in a mansion grand.
She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not, though she seems to be,
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold,
For an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage.
I stood in a churchyard just at eve',
When sunset adorned the west,
And looked at the people who'd come to grieve,
For loved ones now laid at rest,
A tall marble monument marked the grave,
Of one who'd been fashion's queen,
And I thought she is happier here at rest,
Than to have people say when seen,
She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not, though she seems to be,
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold,
For an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage.
Lamb also wrote the words for Henry W. Petrie's 1897 song "Asleep in the Deep." It is best known as a novelty song to show off the voice of a low bass singer. They lyrics are very dark, but the original setting of them is ironically light. I wanted to express the darkness of the text, so instead of a bass voice, I opted for the lower partials of the soprano voice. I also wanted to capture the movemnt of the waves in a dialogue between the piano and the flute, and wanted to make the bell-ringing in the refrain of the song a prominant musical motive.
Here is the text:
Stormy the night and the waves roll high, bravely the ship doth ride; Hark!
While the lighthouse bell's solemn cry rings o'er the sullen tide.
There on the deck see two lovers stand, heart to heart beating and hand in hand,
Though death be near, she knows no fear, while at her side is the one ever dear.
Loudly the bell in the old tower rings
Bidding us list to the warning it brings.
Sailor take care! Sailor take care!
Danger is near thee, beware! Beware!
Beware! Beware!
Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep so beware! Beware!
What of the storm when the night is o'er? There is no trace or sign!
Save where the wreckage hath strewn the shore, peaceful the sun doth shine.
But when the wild raging storm did cease, under the billows two hearts found peace.
No more to part, no more of pain, the bell may now toll its warning in vain.
Loudly the bell in the old tower rings
Biding us list to the warning it brings.
Sailor take care! Sailor take care!
Danger is near thee, beware! Beware!
Beware! Beware!
Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep so beware! Beware!
Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep so beware! Beware!
You can find the music for "Asleep in the Deep" on this page of the IMSLP, the music for "In the Gold Room" on this page (with a few alternate transcriptions), and the music for "A Bird in a Golden Cage" on this page.
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