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RECITAL  PROGRAM

Dear listeners,


            It is with great appreciation that myself, Dr. Ryan Behan and Sean Ferguson present this recital.  If truth were known, I am most appreciative of Dr. Behan and Sean Ferguson’s patience with me as I wrestled with and cajoled them into adding their musicality and talent to this recital.  I am honored to share the stage with them and make music.

              I have been honored to perform frequently with many of our student ensembles and great inspiration from those opportunities. In the interim since my start at OSU in 2013 , I have experienced amazing opportunities with my colleagues both here at OSU and across the country.  In the last years, I have struggled with my own mortality and artistic expression but also reveled in the opportunities for collaboration, performance and research that went beyond my time on the stage.  Daily, I am reminded through my colleagues and my students as to the value of music making.  It is a call to reflect the most magnificent aspects and the most tragic heartache of the human condition.  That call begins in the practice rooms of our university but the impact extends beyond degree, year and instrument. 

            This program is a highly personal choice of musical selections.  In an odd way they hold together thematically.  Some of the pieces I have not sung in 20+ years and it has been a great journey to find how my life has changed the lens through which I perceive and communicate these pieces.  They have become new friends and songs that surpass what my 20 year old self saw as vocal obstacles, and have instead become internal dialogues reflective of the fear of death and struggles of family and home and the increased value of ability, wellness, musicality, life, love and struggles found in a contemplated life. 

            I thank you all for coming and hope that you enjoy.

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PROGRAM ORDER

Part One

The first half of this recital encompasses music that looks to the past for insight into present states of being and “current” social constructs.  These pieces engage the listener to view the present through the filter of past experience, either through subject matter, poetry or cultural tradition.  In the case of Purcell it is in exploration of myth that the listener is charged with finding peace.  For Debussy, the inclusion of classical poetry and content extends the opportunity to reflect on sexual morays of society.  Debussy also merges western and eastern cultural musical characteristics as a promotion of cultural diversity. Paul Bowles looks to include colloquial cultural musical identity in celebrating the American South.  In addition he reflects, as does collaborator Tennessee Williams, on the impact of loneliness, pain and unfulfilled potential both inherent in their own lives and also as a unifying characteristic of the American identity.

I. MUSIC FOR A WHILE (Z583)                             HENRY PURCELL (1659-1695)
ACT III, SCENE ONE OF OEDIPUS

II. LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS                          CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

            LA FLÛTE DE PAN

            LE CHEVELURE

            LE TOMBEAU DES NAÏADES

III.  BLUE MOUNTAIN BALLADS                         PAUL BOWLES (1910-1999)

            HEAVENLY GRASS

            LONESOME MAN

            CABIN

            SUGAR IN THE CANE

INTERMISSION

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PROGRAM ORDER

Part Two

Thematically, the second portion of the program continues the contemplation of life and love.  Focused on the homogenization of past and present, the pieces included seek to find purpose in the future.  Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther searches for meaning in her future as she is faced with the impending reunion with Werther. She imagines a future of solitude and pain as she navigates her family obligation and marital status with her hidden passion and love for the young poet Werther.  Mahler’s masterful song cycle also looks to find meaning and future in a love denied.  A perfect mirror to the Massenet, each composition offers reflections on a life void of love from a female and male perspective.

IV. AIR DES LETTRES  FROM WERTHER        JULES MASSENET (1842-1912)
ACT 3, SCENE 2, CHRISTMAS EVE

Ryan Behan - piano

V. LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN     GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911)

  WENN MEIN SCHATZ HOCHZEITMACHT

  GING HEUT MORGAN ÜBER’S FELD

  ICH HAB’ EIN GLÜHEND MESSER

  DIE ZWEI BLAUEN AUGEN VON MEINEM -

  SCHATZ

Ryan Behan – Piano

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PROGRAM NOTES

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HENRY PURCELL - (1659-1695)

       Music for a While (Z583)

          

Music is often a reflection of political upheaval and demonstration.  It can be, at times, patriotic and at other times the embodiment of anarchy.  I will say now that this opening choice for the recital is not an intentional reflection of a political viewpoint but rather perhaps unconsciously is a call to arms.  It is a call to “music” …if just for a while (or forever!).

Henry Purcell lived in a chaotic political landscape.  Europe had weathered multiple wars including a civil war. This was the beginning of the Restoration Period in which the political scenery was drastically and violently returned to prior constructs. The monarchy was restored to power, and the Church of England was reinstituted as the national religious entity of England. It was reversal of Puritan morality and repression.  In response to this reversal, women were allowed to perform commercially on stage for the first time.  

            Henry Purcell was a musician defined and educated by the Church of England. While a large portion of his compositions were sacred, he also explored secular compositions. An example is his incidental music for dramatic plays. Unlike the current contemporary definition of a “play” which contains little or no music, the Restoration Theater used music as an intregal portion of its form.  Music could define scenes, the passage of time, and/or increase the emotional intensity of a scene (Crouse, 2013).  This piece was composed as the first of four movements to Nathaniel Lee and John Dryden’s tragic play Oedipus. Just prior to the publishing of Music for a While there was yet another overturn in historical events in which the previously “restored” king was deposed, and the glorious revolution initiated the reign of Queen Mary II and her husband King William III.  Music for a While outlines the use of music to calm the troubles of the listener emanating from war, jealousy and punisher of mortal crimes as embodied by the mythical figure of Alecto.

        

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CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

Les Chansons de Bilitis

                           

Composed in 1901, Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis shares many of the thematic and unique compositional gestures as demonstrated in Debussy’s instrumental works, including Prélude àl’après-midi d’un faune.  Early in his compositional career Debussy displayed a strong connection to poetry and text as an inspiration/collaboration for which and by which the music interacts.  These songs are a perfect example of Debussy’s mastery of text painting. He began collaborations with some of the most notable poets and writers of the day including Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé and Pierre Louÿs.  These writers, poets and authors focused on symbolism and embraced the esoteric. The poetry in these songs perfectly illustrates the cohesion of symbolic textual painting through the inclusion of musical gesture.  Debussy throws form and harmonic tradition to the proverbial wind and instead becomes a slave to the textual intent as a guide for musical form and function.  His inclusion of both eastern and western harmonic ideas is most evident in his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, but the genome of those musical characteristics is also evident in these songs.

            The text of Chanson de Bilitis is by Pierre Louÿs.  Originally Pierre Louÿs asserted that the poetry was ancient Greek classical text based on the mythological figures of Aphrodite and the works of Sappho.  This was not true, but rather was a highly convincing imposter and a reflection of Louÿs’ own talent and value of Greek classical text and language.  Louÿs worked in his own writings to assimilate a musicality into his form, phrasing and word use. In response to his passion for classical literature he pens these poems as an ode to a Greek woman named Bilits.  Louÿs used his works to highlight his social commentary regarding sexuality and taboos.  The poems included in the Chansons de Bilitis are a direct reflection of this commentary, and encompass thematic material centered on sexuality - specifically lesbianism.  They are a compilation of writings in which the female perspective on love/sex is admired and celebrated. To encourage sexual and gender equality, Louÿs uses ancient settings as a model to instruct and comment on current life. Similar to Purcell, Debussy and Louÿs seek to beguile the listener into a new way of thinking and listening by reflecting and accessing the past.  This contemplation of the past is the key to envisioning a better future/present in Louÿs’ and Debussy’s minds.


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PAUL BOWLES (1910-1999)

Blue Mountain Ballads          

Writer, translator, composer and expatriate Paul Bowles collaborated with poet Tennessee Williams to present the song cycle Blue Mountain Ballads.  A native of New York, Bowles became a symbol of American immigration by spending the bulk of his life abroad in Tangier and Sri Lanka.  While not traditionally trained as a musician, Bowles pursued his composition with the assistance of his mentors Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.

            The identities of Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles are inevitably forged by their family situations. Paul Bowles’ family life was marked by the distant, emotionless, and abusive engagement of his father.  Later in life his identity is further impacted by the long-term illness of his wife.  Tennessee Williams is also a product forged of family interactions and illness.  The mental illness of his sister becomes the seed of inspiration for his main character in Street Car Named Desire for which he won the Pulitzer Prize - the same year in which he collaborated with Bowles in Blue Mountain Ballads. Composed in 1947 as a musical song cycle, the songs highlight the Southern American experience.  The tonalities reference jazz, ragtime and blues.  Each song has a unique form and they are independent of each other.  Collectively they highlight the evocative musical and linguistic characteristics of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia.  This area is known for its musical and linguistic identity, which later would be highlighted in Carlisle Floyd’s opera Susanna.

            I spent many summers in this area and have been enamored of these pieces for many years.  In reflection of this recital I wanted to include a musical element and identity from my own past.  However, the original bravado I felt singing these in my youth was replaced with a more introspective interpretation of these songs.  To assist with that introspection and to pay homage to the area, culture and musical elements of the cycle, I encouraged Sean to transcribe these for guitar and voice.  Given the obvious blues influence and my own experience of the music of that area being driven by guitars played on porches, this realization offered the reflection/intimacy I was searching for.  While not specifically sequential in their order, there does seem to be a seasonal feeling or progression to these pieces.  To my knowledge this is the first time these songs have been transcribed for guitar.

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JULES MASSENET (1842-1912)

Air des lettres  from Werther  

Act 3, Scene 2, Christmas Eve

Loosely based on the Goethe novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, the opera by Jules Massenet paints the story of unrequited love and obligation.  As the oldest woman in her family, Charlotte is bound by a deathbed promise to her mother  to marry family friend Albert.  This presents an agonizing conflict for Charlotte, who has begun to fall in love with the romantic poet and friend Werther.  Werther represents the epitome of passion, laughter, romance and friendship.  Following a declaration of love by Werther, Charlotte sends him away as she sets her mind to fulfilling her duty and marrying another.  This aria occurs in Act III, where Charlotte is informed of the return of Werther for Christmas.  On Christmas eve Charlotte reviews letters sent to her through the year by Werther.  In so doing, her own passion and the fierceness of that passion is highlighted.  It sets the foreshadowing of Charlotte’s belief that she will be alone in her love and is judged for her inability to express her emotions to Werther.  The scene also foreshadows the impending tragedy of Werther’s suicide.  Each letter included in the aria spans a particular season with coordinating musical gesture and character.  In subject, tone and intention, the letters draw a life in desperation, longing, conflicted and imbued with Werther’s unrequited love for Charlotte. 

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GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911)

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Composed in response to a failed relationship with soprano Johanna Richter, this cycle was originally composed for piano and voice, then later orchestrated.  Much of the thematic musical material can also be found in his symphonies, most notably in his first symphony. The text for the cycle is by Mahler but with strong influence by the German folk poetry collection “Der Knaben Wunderhorn”. Similar to the pathos of Werther, the wanderer in Mahler’s cycle finds despair in looking for peace and love.   The final song outlines the culmination of the wanderer’s grief and his inability to stay in a world with such sadness.  While it is not overt, it is my interpretation that his resolution of this pain and despair end in his death/suicide.  The poetry leads the listener to believe that the wayfarer has found resolution in lying beneath a linden tree. The inclusion of a dirge-like rhythm also suggests that the wayfarer’s resolution is death.  It may be the actual death of the wayfarer, a death of his love, or even a death of his struggle and embracing of the world around him. It should also be noted that traditionally the symbolic aspect of the linden tree in German folklore is as the “tree for lovers”, as a means to unearth the truth and a link to holiness and judgment. In Greek mythology the linden tree signaled a time when gods died. For this program I see the end as an actual death, and reflective of the German romantic tragedy reflected in Goethe’s and Massenet’s Werther.

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