LET EVENING COME for Soprano, Viola and Piano
2010; Routledge; Volume: 67; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Musicology and Musical Analysis
ResumoBOLCOM, WILLIAM (b. 1938). LET EVENING COME for soprano, viola and piano. Edward B. Marks Music Company, 2003 (Hal Leonard). Tonal and X; D^sub 4^-A[musical flat]^sub 5^; less: M, CR; regular and irregular meters; slow to moderate tempos with much variation; V/M-mD, P/M-mD, Vla/M-mD; 20 pages. Titles: Alley, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield (Maya Angelou); 'Tis not that Dying hurts us (Emily Dickinson); Interlude (instrumental); Let Evening Come (Jane Kenyon). In 1993 the composer was asked to write a duet for Tatiana Troyanos, mezzo soprano, and Benita Valente, soprano. Before the texts were even chosen, Tatiana Troyanos died very unexpectedly. The sponsors of the commission requested that Bolcom compose a duo for soprano, piano, and viola in memory of Troyanos. This cantata is the result, and it was recorded by Benita Valente with Cynthia Raim, piano, and Michael Tree, viola, for Centaur Records (CRC2464). Dedicated to the memory of Tatiana Troyanos, the settings of these three poems constitute a work that focuses on the gradual acceptance of death. At first there is shock: When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder . . . small things recoil into silence . . . Great souls and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. . . . We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of cold caves. But after some time has passed peace blooms, slowly . . . Spaces fill with a of soothing electric vibration . . . Our senses . . . whisper to us. They We can be. Be and be better. For they existed. These words of Maya Angelou describe a progression toward acceptance of loss. Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield (Tonal on G; D^sub 4^-B[musical flat]^sub 5^; Tess: CR; V/mD, P/M, Vla/M), powerful figures in the African American pantheon of artists, evokes music that begins with fortissimo chords falling by octave from high in the treble to low in the bass of the keyboard, countered by a rising viola line that prepares the way for the strong entrance of the vocal line using the same melody. This music continues through the lines that refer to the effects of great trees falling in the forest. At the analogy, When great souls die, the music becomes quiet, with a hesitant vocal line over widely spaced soft chords in the piano and a sustained harmonic in the viola. As memory takes over, regretting kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken, the music remains quiet, only beginning to build in intensity towards the emotional experience of being in a dark, cold cave where the viola expresses grief in a dramatic solo line. As shock subsides and equilibrium begins to return, the viola provides a soothing flow of sixteenth notes in a broken chord pattern over the slow chords in the piano that support the more melodic vocal line. …
Referência(s)