Here's something you might be interested in.
There have been some great collaborations between literary types and composers: Richard Strauss and von Hofmannsthal, Mahler and Ruckert, Mozart and Da Ponte, Verdi and Shakespeare, Schubert and Schiller and Goethe, Schumann and Heine, and I’m sure there are others I’ve not included.
It is my opinion that at the top of this list is Vaughan Williams and Walt Whitman--at least for those whose vernacular is English.
I had that opinion confirmed by the La Jolla Symphony’s performance of Dona nobis pacem. The mystical vision of Vaughan Williams’ music is perfectly suited to Whitman’s transcendentalism.
Once again, the inclusion of super titles brought the union of text and music immediately to the audience’s attention.
The third movement of the piece, titled Reconciliation, was especially moving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5zOfYZO3Qk
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again
and ever again, this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
Dona nobis pacem continues beautifully until Vaughan Williams strays from Whitman and includes parts of a speech by John Bright regarding the Crimean War. That section works but once he starts using quotes from the biblical Book of Jeremiah and the Anglican Gloria the magic disappears.
That text belongs to a specific and limited tradition which, it could be argued, has fueled more wars than it has prevented. This makes the piece end somewhat awkwardly.
Taken as a whole, the performance and the music was a special moment in the musical life of San Diego.
Oh, and by the way, trumpet section, you guys killed it! Bravi.
There have been some great collaborations between literary types and composers: Richard Strauss and von Hofmannsthal, Mahler and Ruckert, Mozart and Da Ponte, Verdi and Shakespeare, Schubert and Schiller and Goethe, Schumann and Heine, and I’m sure there are others I’ve not included.
It is my opinion that at the top of this list is Vaughan Williams and Walt Whitman--at least for those whose vernacular is English.
I had that opinion confirmed by the La Jolla Symphony’s performance of Dona nobis pacem. The mystical vision of Vaughan Williams’ music is perfectly suited to Whitman’s transcendentalism.
Once again, the inclusion of super titles brought the union of text and music immediately to the audience’s attention.
The third movement of the piece, titled Reconciliation, was especially moving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5zOfYZO3Qk
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again
and ever again, this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
Dona nobis pacem continues beautifully until Vaughan Williams strays from Whitman and includes parts of a speech by John Bright regarding the Crimean War. That section works but once he starts using quotes from the biblical Book of Jeremiah and the Anglican Gloria the magic disappears.
That text belongs to a specific and limited tradition which, it could be argued, has fueled more wars than it has prevented. This makes the piece end somewhat awkwardly.
Taken as a whole, the performance and the music was a special moment in the musical life of San Diego.
Oh, and by the way, trumpet section, you guys killed it! Bravi.