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Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Samuel Barber
was one of the most frequently performed American composers during his
lifetime. Aside from his 160 songs, his compositions include full
symphonic works, chamber works, operas and virtuosic works for solo
piano. Surrounded by a musical environment from his youth, Barber began
his piano studies when he was a child, improvising and composing as
well. His mother was a pianist, his maternal aunt the famous opera
contralto Louise Homer, and his uncle, the well-known composer Sidney
Homer, who was an influential mentor until his death in 1953. At age 14
Barber was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where
he continued piano studies, started singing lessons, and studied
composition and conducting. At the Curtis Institute, he also made
lifelong friendships and professional associations, particularly with
Gian Carlo Menotti who was to collaborate often with Barber, providing
librettos for his first opera, Vanessa, and for other vocal works.
Barber's style is lyrical and romantic but, in
its melodic and harmonic aspects, distinctive and original, frequently
combining a romantic tonality with a more modern stamp of irregular
accents and irregular phrase-lengths. Though tending toward European
models, his music remains quintessentially American, writing directly
and simply with an appealing quality that makes it easy to understand.
It is in his songs, in which his superlative melodic gifts combine with
brilliant pianistic writing, that Barber's particular empathy for vocal
composition can be most appreciated. Like all good song-writers, he
combines a fine poetic sense with an eloquently lyrical manner of
setting the text. The melodic line seems to spring out of a supremely
traditional singability, and is 'eminently vocal', falling
"intellectually to the mind and beautifully on the ear."
In Barber's own words: "...if I'm writing music for words, then I
immerse myself in those words, and let the music flow out of them."
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Known principally for his hugely successful
opera Carmen, Bizet grew up in a household that fostered his
musical creativity; his father taught singing and composition, while
his mother was an excellent pianist. His talents, even as a child, were
remarkable and he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire at the unusually
young age of 9 years old. Very quickly, beginning in 1849, he began to
win prizes: in solfege, in piano, in organ and in fugue. In 1855 he won
the Prix de Rome competition with his cantata David and shared
a prize in a competition organized by Offenbach for his operetta Le
Docteur Miracle. In 1857, with his cantata Clovis et Clotilde,
he again won the Prix de Rome which awarded him a five year monetary
grant, the first three years of which he spent in Italy. Bizet's
repeated attempts to infiltrate the theatrical world included the opera
Les Pêcheurs de Perles (1863), two other operas La
jolie fille de Perth (1867) and Djamileh (1872), incidental
music for a play by Daudot, L'Arlésienne (1872), from
which he subsequently derived an orchestral suite, and his opera Carmen,
first performed in 1874. None of these attempts achieved success in
France during his lifetime, but Carmen quickly became a success
outside of France.
If Bizet's early works were influenced heavily by
the prevailing influence of Meyerbeer's operas, his more mature works
reflected his newfound admiration for Mozart, Rossini, Schumann and
Mendelssohn as well as his fascination with the character and rhythms
of the music of Spain and Provence, exploited with great success in
both L'Arlesienne and Carmen. Bizet's innate genius for
orchestration expressed itself in light, delicate colors and 'luminous'
tonal mixtures. His songs combine his brilliance as a pianist with his
gift for melody. He composed around 48 songs using, with the exception
of Victor Hugo, mostly minor poets. The best of them reflect the same
qualities that excite us in his orchestrations: color, texture, melody
and rhythmic excitement.
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Benjamin Britten grew up in modest circumstances
in Lowestoft, Suffolk in England, the son of an orthodontist and an
amateur singer. As a boy, he studied piano (at which he later excelled)
and viola, as well as composition with Frank Bridge. In 1930 he began
studies at the Royal College of Music in London, continuing with piano
and studying composition with John Ireland. Britten's compositions
began to be published even at this early date, eventually winning him
admiration from artists and public alike. He composed brilliantly in
many different genres, including opera, ballet, orchestral pieces,
incidental music for film, plays and radio, and many vocal works for
solo and choral voices.
Britten was in constant association with singers
and was greatly stimulated by them. At a time when the introduction of
mechanical recording devices spawned a decline in the popularity of
'drawing room singing' and a consequent decline in new compositions in
the song genre, Britten's timely contribution to the art song
literature revived and invigorated English song. Rather than focusing
on a precise setting of text, Britten consciously tried to distill the
essence of the poem and translate it into music. He enlarged the
harmonic resources of song composition and harked back to Henry
Purcell's expansive fluidity in his treatment of melody. In Britten's
own words, one of his chief aims was "to try to restore to the musical
setting of the English language a brilliance, freedom, and vitality
that have been curiously rare since the death of Purcell." Britten used
short melodic motives in the building of accompaniments, not always
relying on chords to create a flowing line. Most importantly, Britten
had a gift for melody, for the "popular, easy, swinging tune."
Most of his songs are composed in sets and cycles, with his most
popular being his arrangements of British and French folk songs.
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957)
Marie-Joseph Canteloube (de Malaret) was born
in the Auvergne region of southern France and spent most of his early
years there. His mother, an accomplished pianist in her own right,
had him study piano from age six with a local Polish refugee, Amélie
Doetzer, who had been a friend and student of Chopin. From early on
Canteloube acquired a love of the Auvergne folk song and dance music
tradition garnered from his many walks through the countryside with his
father, the memory of which he cherished even to his last days. At age 12
he was sent to a Catholic boarding school outside of Lyon in western
France, but in 1896, at the end of his schooling, his father died and he
returned to the ancestral home in Auvergne (at Bagnac de Malaret),
where his love of the local music was reinvigorated. He began working
on and publishing his first compositions at this time. Following his mother's
death in 1900, Canteloube remained in Bagnac, married and, in 1902, established
a correspondence with Vincent D'Indy who, sharing his interest and respect
of folk music, became his teacher and ultimately his dear friend. In 1906-7
Canteloube moved to Paris to formally study composition with D'Indy at the
'Schola Cantorum'. In Paris, Canteloube became involved with L'Auvergnat de Paris,
an organization devoted to uniting and inspiring Auvergne compatriots living in Paris.
Later, in 1925, Canteloube formed a subsidiary of this group called the 'Bourée',
expressly for those Auvergnat-born eager to explore and reacquaint themselves with
the folklore, music and beauty of their homeland.
Canteloube is one of those composers who might very well have
slipped into obscurity were it not for one or two works so memorable and so colorful
that they are returned to again and again by repeated generations of performers. His
two operas, his numerous choral, orchestral and keyboard compositions...remain available
but unperformed. His biographies of D'Indy and of Séverac, his musicological
publications on the folk songs of the French provinces...remain obscure and relatively
unkown. By contrast, his five volumes of arrangements of the folk songs of the Auvergne
(Chants d'Auvergne) have been performed and recorded by uncountable
artists since their publication, with various recorded interpretations
having a devoted following up to the present time. Colorful, richly and
luxuriantly harmonized, arranged for both piano or orchestra, Canteloube's
Chants d'Auvergne reflect his enduring love of the Auvergne countryside and it's
sounds. "When the peasant sings at his work or during the harvest, there is an accompaniment
which surrounds his song.... Only poets and artists will feel it.... It is Nature herself, the earth
which makes this, and the peasant and his songs cannot be separated from this...." In his Chants d'Auvergne,
Canteloube richly recreates the sound and passion of Auvergne itself.
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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Leo Delibes (1836-1891)
Born in France, Delibes received his early
training with his mother and an uncle. He began his formal training at
the Paris Conservatory in 1847. In 1853 he became organist of St.
Pierre de Chaillot and accompanist at the Théâtre-Lyrique.
He later (1863) became accompanist at the Paris Opéra and, in
1884, professor of composition at the Conservatoire. He is best known
for his enduringly popular opera Lakmé, and as the first
composer to write music of high quality for the ballet, exemplified by
his large-scale ballet Coppélia, ou la Fille aux yeux
d'émail. Delibes also wrote church music and several songs
which are often exotic in content.
Delibes had a gift for expressive character in
his music, a new idea at the time, producing music that contains early
impressionist elements and some use of the leitmotif. His best
compositions reflect a distinctive elegance and charm with colorful
timbres and a fondness for profuse melodies, text painting and vivid
orchestration. His songs, although not of equal quality, nevertheless
demonstrate Delibes's innate melodic gift and his flair for bringing
out the best elements of the voice, writing with grace and attractive
rhythms to bring the text vividly to life.
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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John Duke (1899-1984)
Born in Cumberland, Maryland, the oldest of six
children, John Duke was one of America's finest composers of art songs.
Duke began his piano studies at age eleven, having already had some
musical education from his mother who was a singer. At 16, he entered
the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and during World War I, served as
a volunteer with the Student Army Training Corps at Columbia University
in New York City, remaining there after the war to pursue musical
studies with Howard Brockway and Bernard Wagenaar, who at the time were
both publishing art songs. After debuting as a concert pianist in 1922
he accepted a professorship at Smith College in Northampton,
Massachusetts, teaching piano there until his retirement in 1967. In
1929-30, during his first sabbatical year from Smith College, Duke
studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and piano with Arthur
Schnabel in Berlin. Throughout his professorship years, Duke continued
to concertize as well as to compose and, as his reputation grew, was
master teacher at several different locations in the northeastern U.S.
While Duke's professional career centered around his piano
concertizing and teaching, he quietly also composed hundreds of
art songs which, for the most part, remained unpublished in his
lifetime. In his own words, Duke was attracted to the "strange
and marvelous chemistry of words and music," devoting much thought
to song and to singing. His love for both the piano and the voice
is apparent in all his compositions. Duke's songs are notable for
their variety of style, their superb craftsmanship, and the genuine
emotion and expression he is able to convey. His choice of poetry
was most frequently drawn from his American contemporaries, particularly
Frost, Teasdale, cummings, Van Doren, Millay, and E.A. Robinson. His
prolific output of 256 songs combined with a consistent quality of
composition represent a major contribution to the American art song
literature. Subsequent to his death, more and more of his songs were
gradually published with the devoted financial assistance of concerned
admiring friends and colleagues who had long recognized the their quality,
artistic beauty, and musical importance.
Copyright © 2005 Amelia Seyssel
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