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A lecture-recital offers the audience a selection of art songs spaced between a narrative explaining the historical context of each of the pieces.
Below are the 5 most popular lecture-recital programs by Art Song Duo. With a wide range of knowledge in the Art Song and languages, a program may be developed according to your needs and interests. |
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American Art Song
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The Texas Woman
Her Heritage in Song |
500 Years of Mexican Song
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Jewish Song Composers of the 20th Century
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Ladino Song
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AMERICAN ART SONG |
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Ruth Friedberg has written the definitive work on “American Art Song and American Poetry,” which was published in a second edition in 2012. Flicka Rahn, with her settings of Amy Lowell, is one of the ten contemporary composers that Friedberg chose to add in the book’s second edition.
Together, they present programs of American art songs drawn from a rich literature that begins with Edward MacDowell at the end of the nineteenth century and stretches nearly 150 years to the present day. This literature includes composers of the stature of Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber setting the many treasures of the American poetic heritage extending all the way from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to Robert Frost, E.E.Cummings, and William Carlos Williams. The lecture material will include biographical information, inter-relationships between poets and composers, and illuminating details of the process of text-setting. | ||||
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The Texas Woman--HER HERITAGE IN SONG |
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This program has had enthusiastic audience response as it is designed to trace the history of Texas through the medium of song in the majority of languages that have been spoken in this region. The program begins with a native American love song, and then offers settings in the languages of Spain, France, Mexico, Germany, and the United States, the latter including samples of classical composition, negro spirituals, and the cowboy ballads of the southwest.
The program also has a strong visual component , as photographs are displayed of women from all the different historical eras and Ms. Rahn dons hats and shawls representative of the various time periods. |
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500 YEARS OF MEXICAN SONG |
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This program is a broadly historical/chronological survey of the last 500 years when these songs would have been heard and sung by those living in Mexico. The first group contains settings in the Ladino language, which is a form of old Spanish spoken by the Jews who lived in Spain during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. When they were expelled by royal edict in 1492, many immigrated to Mexico and the Ladino songs they brought with them have survived many generations.
The second group are songs by Manuel Ponce, who in the late 19th century began to give Mexican classical music a distinctive voice, combining indigenous elements and new European trends. The third group contains works by the well-known 20th century Mexican composer, Blas Galindo, consisting of four concert settings of songs which originated in Mexican folk-style. The program ends with three popular Mexican ballads. The first is by Ignacio Hernandez Esperon (known as “Tata Nacho”) and the last two are by Maria Grever who brought the passion and beauty of Mexico, her native land, to her compositions in her adopted country, the United States. | ||||
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LADINO ART SONG |
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When the Jews were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, they carried to their places of refuge around the Mediterranean a language called Ladino. This was the vernacular language they had spoken for hundreds of years which was a mixture of old Spanish and Hebrew. They also took with them many beautiful Ladino songs which they continued to sing, largely unaccompanied, during the ensuing centuries. Some of the Spanish Jews had converted to Christianity under duress, and a number of these immigrated to the New World during the 16th century. Many settled in Mexico City, and eventually made their way north to the regions which would become Monterrey and South Texas. In these areas, remnants of the Ladino language and melodies are still carried today in the traditions of families who are only recently becoming aware of their ancient Jewish ancestry.
In the twentieth century, classical composers set many of these Ladino songs to instrumental accompaniments that made them into art songs, suitable for concert performance. This lecture-recital presents the Ladino concert settings of four composers: Joaquin Rodrigo of Spain, Richard Neumann from the United States, Alberto Hemsi who was born in Turkey, and Joaquin Nin-Culmell, a citizen of the world who spent most of his musical career in this country. The program includes biographical information on the composers, and insights into the details of text-setting. |
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JEWISH SONG COMPOSERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY |
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From the Sanctuary to Broadway—Jewish Song in the 20th Century
This program opens with Hebrew settings by Jewish-American composers of liturgical texts from the Bible and prayer book. It continues with art songs by composers such as Aaron Copland and concludes with Broadway favorites by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. Jewish Women Composers
This is a somewhat shorter program intended for luncheon meetings and holiday events. It is also appropriate for Women’s History Month (March). It features the work of Ruth Schonthal setting German and Spanish poetry by Rilke and Garcia Lorca and Helen Greenberg’s settings of the English and Yiddish poetry of Kenneth Patchen and Ida Maza. | ||||
