Mastering the Aria through Song: Daron Hagen’s Amelia, “Apostrophe to the Stars,” and Selected Hagen Art Songs

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Kelci Kosin
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Art Song ◽  
Art Songs ◽  
Vocal Repertoire ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Voice Teachers ◽  
Open Mind

Contemporary arias in English are too often excluded from student repertoire because they are perceived as being overly complex atonal works that are too challenging for the student. In order to counter this misconception, voice teachers should foster curiosity within students to seek repertoire with an open mind. Exploring music of living composers such as Daron Hagen can ignite student interest in contemporary art song and opera literature that expands the realms of what is thought to be traditional or appropriate vocal repertoire for students seeking a professional singing career.

Sidney's Verse Adaptations to Two Sixteenth-Century Italian Art Songs

1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank J . Fabry
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Art Song ◽  
Art Songs ◽  
Sir Philip Sidney ◽  
National Anthem ◽  
Italian Art ◽  
Sister Arts

It is well known that Sir Philip Sidney modeled eight of his thirty-two 'Certaine Sonnets’ upon existing ‘tunes,’ as he called them. To date, only one, relatively unimportant, musical model is known—the current Dutch National Anthem, to which Sidney wrote CS 23, ‘Who hath his fancy pleased.’ The result of this association of the sister arts is a simple, metrically precise, stylistically dull lyric whose numbers are directly proportioned to the regularity of its musical model. Of his other models, one, ‘The Smokes of Melancholy,’ appears to have been an English consort song; the others (five Italian, one Spanish) are probably variant forms of the villanella, a type of sixteenth-century art-song written for three or four voices and distinguished by its rhythmic lightness, its homophonic (chordal) structure, and its mildly satirical or openly vulgar text.

DARON HAGEN (b. 1961)Muldoon Songs (1989 and 1992)

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-114
Author(s):  
Jane Manning
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Art Song ◽  
The Third ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Voice

This chapter explores the Muldoon Songs by Daron Hagen. This succinct, appealing cycle comes from a generous, attractively presented volume, replete with notes by both the composer and Paul Sperry, who has done so much for contemporary art song. This cycle consists of seven contrasting songs; the third and fourth mere fragments. The sixth was added last, at the request of Paul Sperry, who commissioned the piece. Much of the intriguingly acerbic text is set straightforwardly. Through this cycle, Hagen shows a masterly grasp of the voice–piano idiom, along with a love of words, and a refined instinct for setting them. His writing seems unfettered and entirely natural, encompassing an exceptionally wide range of styles with unerring craftsmanship and sometimes deceptive simplicity. Indeed, as this chapter shows, the music breathes freely, maintaining elasticity and rhythmic verve.

Vocal Repertoire for the Twenty-First Century, Volume 2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Manning
Keyword(s):  
Performance Guide ◽  
Art Songs ◽  
Song Cycles ◽  
First Century ◽  
Vocal Repertoire ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Selection Of

In this new follow-up to her highly regarded New Vocal Repertory, volumes 1 and 2, English concert and opera soprano Jane Manning provides a seasoned expert’s guidance and insight into the vocal genre she calls home. Manning’s comprehensive selection of contemporary art songs in Vocal Repertoire for the Twenty-First Century ranges from the avant-garde to the more easily accessible, including substantial song cycles, shorter encore pieces, and songs suitable for auditions and competitions. Each of the selections is accompanied by a highly detailed performance guide, music examples, levels of difficulty, and a brief encapsulation of vocal characteristics or challenges contained in the piece. A supplemental companion website provides composer biographies and an up-to-date list of recommended recordings. With a focus on younger composers in addition to prominent figures, Manning encourages singers to refresh and expand their recital repertoire into less familiar territory, and discover the rewards therein.

scholarly journals Dylan Thomas’s “Over Sir John’s Hill”: The Motif of His Art Songs

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
S Bharadwaj
Keyword(s):  
Art Song ◽  
Art Songs ◽  
Main Thrust ◽  
Tragic Vision ◽  
Dylan Thomas

In the last dramatic art song “Over Sir John’s Hill,” Dylan Thomas reiterates that the motif of his art songs has been the Yeatsian introspective process of individuation and integration, transfiguration and transformation, the mortal vision of Grecian altruistic art song as seen in his early poem 18 Poems. His Yeatsian process of tragic happiness, his warm impersonal art, his paradoxical sensibility that makes him an artist of success and popularity in contrast to W.H. Auden’s Eliotian motif of metaphysical process of self-annihilation and immortal art, his aesthetic amoral impersonal art, his tragic vision of art song which deprives him of his grandeur and influence. However, the main thrust is extending to the dismembered and discontented Auden the very same process of regeneration that Thomas has offered to the victims of Auden’s art song while ignoring everything about … allegations of tilting, toppling and conspiracy against him. The song also testifies to his Yeatsian cosmopolitan culture maintaining his equanimity and magnanimity when he confronts an atmosphere of envy and ill-will, and hatred and violence.

A Singer-Composer Learns His Craft

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean E. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Art Song ◽  
Art Songs ◽  
American Art ◽  
American Art Song ◽  
Instrumental Works ◽  
Choral Arrangements ◽  
Sacred Songs ◽  
Schola Cantorum

This chapter examines Harry T. Burleigh's work as a composer during the period 1896–1913. Burleigh's 200-plus vocal and instrumental works brought him national and international renown in the first half of the twentieth century. Burleigh's songs reflected his thorough knowledge of the prevailing forms and musical idioms of the European and American art song, both as a singer and as a composer. All his songs were written for the recital or concert stage, and they often set the same lyrics. Two of Burleigh's compositional output are choral arrangements of spirituals—“Deep River” and “Dig My Grave”—that were written for Kurt Schindler's Schola Cantorum. Also, it was not unusual for Burleigh himself to appear in concert or recital with other song composers. This chapter considers Burleigh's compositions published from 1896 to 1903 and from 1904 to 1913, including art songs, plantation songs, piano sketches, and sacred songs.

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