My playlist this week is full of song cycles! WTF is a song cycle? Literally a group of songs meant to be performed together, usually in a specific order. I’ve picked 6 cycles that are wildly different for you to sink your ears into.
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I give this playlist a Difficult Listening Hour rating of 4/10.
Songs from Liquid Days by Philip Glass, lyrics by Lyrics by Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Paul Simon and Suzanne Vega. Album: Songs from Liquid Days. From the composer, “The words come first. From these I fashioned a set of six songs which, together, form a cycle of themes ranging from reflections on nature to classic romantic settings. After the music was written, I — along with producer Kurt Munkacsi and conductor Michael Riesman— began the long and difficult process of “casting” singers for the individual songs. We felt that the interpretation a singer brings to a song is an immense contribution to its character — contributing their own personality to the work perhaps more than any other performer.”
Behind the Wallpaper by Alex Temple performed by the Spektral Quartet and Julia Holter. Album: Behind the Wallpaper. From the composer, “Behind the Wallpaper is a story about someone undergoing a mysterious transformation. At first her life is mundane, even dreary — but moments of altered perception reveal something sinister flickering in the corners. And then, late one night, she has an inexplicable encounter in a university science park. Soon she finds herself changing, in ways that may or may not be visible to others. Like the cycle’s unnamed protagonist, the music slips unnoticed through the cracks in the walls, drawing on indie pop, Weimar cabaret, Elizabethan music and 19th-century Romanticism.”
Folk Songs by Luciano Berio performed by Jean Stilwell and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. Album: Folk Songs / Pribaoutki / Minnelieder. From the Hollywood Bowl’s notes about this piece, “Folk Songs dates mainly from 1964 and Berio’s residency at Mills College, then a hotbed of progressive music-making, in Oakland, California. It was created specifically for the composer’s then-wife, mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian (1928-1983), a pioneer in the devising and employment of extended vocal techniques. […] In one telling note, Berio described his connection to folk music as follows: “My links with folk music are often of an emotional character. When I work with that music I am always caught by the thrill of discovery… I return again and again to folk music because I try to establish contact between that and my own ideas about music. I have a utopian dream, though I know it cannot be realized: I would like to create a unity between folk music and our music — a real, perceptible, understandable conduit between ancient, popular music-making which is so close to everyday work and music.”
are you worried about the rising cost of funerals by Errollyn Wallen performed by Patricia Rozario and Ensemble X. Album: The Girl in My Alphabet.
Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok by Dmitri Shostakovich performed by Trio Wanderer and Ekaterina Semenchuk. Album: Piano Quintet | Seven Romances (On Poems By Alexander Blok). A program note reads, “… was composed in 1967 at a time when Shostakovich was suffering from considerable health problems. The work is dedicated to the wife of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya. ‘He read a lot at that time,’ says composer, Shostakovich friend and biographer Krzysztof Meyer. In the winter of 1966, he turned to the poems of Alexander Blok, whose poem ‘The Twelve’ was one of his favourites. In comparison to earlier vocal works and also the instrumental works, this cycle contains completely new character traits. ‘Shostakovich creates music that is reflective, introverted, strongly chamber-musical and focussed on the essentials – music that he apparently wrote mainly for himself.’ -Helmut Peters”
American Death Ballads by David Conte performed by Brian Thorsett and John Churchwell. Album: Everyone Sang: Vocal Music of David Conte. Liner notes, “Partly inspired by Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs” and Conrad Susa’s “Murder Ballads,” “American Death Ballads” features four texts on death, dying, and murder. These works are superbly performed by tenor Brian Thorsett and the San Francisco Conservatory Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jeffrey Thomas.”