The Austin, Texas-based choir, Conspirare, give voice to poets and writers from across the spectrum of nationality and gender in their latest recording, The Singing Guitar. Founder and director, Craig Hella Johnson, commissioned new works from composers such as Reena Esmail, Nico Muhly, and Kile Smith that highlight the words of the Sufi poet Hafiz, pioneer and indigenous women in the 1880s; and of the Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore.
Giving “The Singing Guitar” an added literal and figurative quality are no fewer than three guitar quartets: the Los Angeles, Texas and Austin quartets are heard most fully in How Little You Are, by Nico Muhly. Cellist Douglas Harvey joins Conspirare for The Dawn’s Early Light, and Craig Hella Johnson’s The Song that I Came to Sing. Listen to John Pitman’s conversation with Johnson to learn more.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, cellist John-Henry Crawford has already made strides in the field of classical music, in one case as First Prize winner of the 2019 International Carlos Prieto Competition; and more recently with this debut release, Dialogo. Crawford chose the title after the unaccompanied cello work by Hungarian composer, György Ligeti. In it, the cello portrays both voices, of the composer and the woman he’d fallen for, hence the “dialogue” depicted in the music.
Mr. Crawford also shares the fascinating history of the cello he plays, which has been in his family for over a century. His grandfather, Dr. Robert Popper, saw “the writing on the wall” as Nazism was on the rise in Austria, made a decision that saved both his life and kept the instrument safe. Crawford shares the full story, as well as insight into the cello sonatas of Brahms and Shostakovich, in his conversation with John Pitman. Love seems to flow through each of the pieces that this American cellist plays and makes the voice of the cello a true treasure, rescued from almost certain destruction.
This Pride Month, we would like to share with you a short playlist of 20th and 21st century music exploring queer experiences. In this list, you’ll find songs, operas, and a symphony: some by LGBTQI+ composers, some exploring LGBTQI+ characters. You can also listen to a similar selection of music in this article’s companion playlist on Spotify.
Possession
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
From Three Songs(1913) by Dame Ethel Smyth
It was no great secret that English composer Ethel Smyth loved women. Among the most important loves of her life was Emmeline Pankhurst, whom the composer met in 1910. Pankhurst was the co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to women’s suffrage. Smyth became deeply attached to Pankhurst, and joined the suffragist movement, even composing the WSPU’s anthem, March of the Women.
Along with several colleagues, the two spent two months together in Holloway Prison for their suffragist activism. In her autobiography, Female Pipings for Eden (1933), Smyth reminisced, “The ensuing two months in Holloway, though one never got accustomed to an unpleasant sensation when the iron door was slammed and the key turned, were as nothing to me because Mrs. Pankhurst was with us.” (Female Pipings for Eden,209)
Published in 1913, Smyth’s “Possession” is a setting of a poem by Ethel Carnie. The poem is a tender reflection on giving freedom to one’s beloved. Smyth dedicated the song to “E.P.” – Emmeline Pankhurst.
Symphony No. 1
Photograph of John Corigliano by J. Henry Fair, courtesy of the composer’s website
by John Corigliano
Composed in 1988, John Corigliano’s First Symphony is a tribute to friends lost to the AIDS epidemic. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra commissioned the piece while Corigliano was serving as their Composer in Residence, and they played its premiere in 1990 under Daniel Barenboim. The work went on to win multiple awards, including two Grammys.
In his program notes for the work, John Corigliano reflects on the genesis of his First Symphony, and its symbolic structure.
“Historically, many symphonists (Berlioz, Mahler, and Shostakovich, to name a few) have been inspired by important events affecting their lives, and perhaps occasionally their choice of the symphonic form was dictated by extramusical events. During the past decade I have lost many friends and colleagues to the AIDS epidemic, and the cumulative effect of those losses has, naturally, deeply affected me. My Symphony No. 1 was generated by feelings of loss, anger, and frustration.
A few years ago I was extremely moved when I first saw ‘The Quilt,’ an ambitious interweaving of several thousand fabric panels, each memorializing a person who had died of AIDS, and, most importantly, each designed and constructed by his or her loved ones. This made me want to memorialize in music those I have lost, and reflect on those I am losing. I decided to relate the first three movements of the symphony to three lifelong musician-friends. In the third movement, still other friends are recalled in a quilt-like interweaving of motivic melodies.”
Personal Ad
Photograph of David Del Tredici by Paula Court, courtesy of the composer’s website
From Gay Life by David Del Tredici
American composer David Del Tredici has made a point of exploring gay experiences in his compositions: prominent works include his string sextet Bullycide and his song cycle, Gay Life. Composed between 1996-2000, the texts set in Gay Life include poems by Allen Ginsberg, Paul Monette, Thom Gunn, W. H. Kidde, and Michael D. Calhoun. The San Francisco Symphony commissioned the work and played its premiere on May 3, 2001, with baritone William Sharp and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. Del Tredici subsequently arranged the cycle for voice and piano. “Personal Ad,” a setting of a poem by Allen Ginsburg, is the cycle’s third number.
In his program notes, Del Tredici explains, “Gay Life was initially envisioned as a cycle of eight songs, each touching on the ‘gay experience’ from a different angle. The music came to me in a burst — a burst, really, of gay pride. It began in august 1996 as a result of my experience at The Body Electric School’s weeklong retreat called ‘The Dear Love of Comrades’…
…Throughout the world, the ‘personal’ advertisement provides a time-honored method for potential lovers to meet each other. In the United States, such advertisements enjoyed a vogue a century ago; when they in recent years re-emerged in popularity, the gay community embraced the ‘personals’ with enthusiasm. In ‘Personals Ad,’ a businesslike, almost comical, setting is given to what is ultimately a touching poem, full of tenderness and the advertiser’s manifest sincerity. The subsequent interlude builds from near-stasis, heating up (incalzando) to the festive outburst of the fourth song.”
I’ve Been Called Many Things
Photograph of Ricky Ian Gordon by Kevin Doyle, courtesy of Ricky Ian Gordon
From 27 by Ricky Ian Gordon
27 is an opera by American composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek. Commissioned by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, it premiered in 2014 with American mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe in the lead role. Gordon knew he’d be writing the opera as a vehicle for Blythe, and inspired by this great contemporary singer, he chose to cast her as Gertrude Stein. “I’ve Been Called Many Things” is Gertrude’s final aria, leading into the finale of Act V of 27.
In his program notes, Gordon reflects on his inspiration for 27: “When James Robinson asked me to write an opera for the great Stephanie Blythe, I thought immediately of a lifelong obsession, Gertrude Stein. At Carnegie Mellon University, at the age of seventeen, I picked up the book Charmed Circle just before catching a terrible cold, and read it in the course of a week in bed. I remember nothing that week but eating tangerines and reading about Gertrude and Alice and their milieu. I was mesmerized by their world. Gertrude was in many ways a perfect role model. She was committed to her own muse, ruggedly individual, unswayed by others’ opinions, and uninhibited in terms of being who she was, loving whom she loved, weighing what she weighed, having opinions and facing the repercussions of them bravely. She loved beauty and was constantly interpreting and reinterpreting what she thought was beautiful. Mostly, she believed in herself with such rigor it fascinated me. And her world – the habitués of her salon, Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, anyone who was doing anything of interest, thinking anything worth thinking – came through her Paris salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, until finally, it was Alice who came through and stole her heart. I believe I was meant to write an opera about these two, about their world, because it what I wanted my world to be. When I left school, I held salons in my New York apartment. Everything I wrote, I premiered there.”
Patience and Sarah
Photograph of Paula M. Kimper courtesy of the Paula Kimper Ensemble
By Paula M. Kimper
Patience and Sarah: A Pioneering Love Story, by American composer Paula Kimper and librettist Wende Persons, is often identified as the first Lesbian opera. It premiered at Lincoln Center Festival in July of 1998, and has enjoy many productions since. The opera is adapted from the eponymous 1969 novel by Isabel Miller, which was itself inspired by true events: the love story between 19th-century American folk artist Mary Ann Wilson and her partner Florence Brundage.
The Paula Kimper Ensemble’s website on Patience and Sarah summarizes the opera’s story: “Set in Connecticut in the winter of 1816, the opera tells the powerful story of two young women who meet, fall in love and resolve to devote their lives to each other. The artist Patience White, sister to a middle-class Connecticut landowner, and tough-minded, adventurous Sarah Dowling, the daughter of a poor farmer, share a mutual dream of leaving behind their repressive lives to go pioneering together, defying their families’ attempts to prevent it.”
In this scene from a 2016 production by the Paula Kimper Ensemble, Patience and Sarah meet for the first time.
As One
Photograph of Laura Kaminsky by Rebecca Allan, courtesy of the composer’s website
By Laura Kaminsky
As One is a chamber opera by American composer Laura Kaminsky and librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. It was commissioned by American Opera Projects, and since its premiere in 2014 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it has become one of the most popular new American operas, enjoying more than two dozen productions: including a 2019 production the Portland Opera.
As One is an intimate portrait of a transgender character named Hannah. It is scored string quartet and two singers who embody one role. American Opera Projects explains, “As One is a chamber opera in which two voices—Hannah after (mezzo-soprano) and Hannah before (baritone)—share the part of a sole transgender protagonist. Fifteen songs comprise the three-part narrative; with empathy and humor, they trace Hannah’s experiences from her youth in a small town to her college years—and finally traveling alone to a different country, where she realizes some truths about herself.”
Saturday, June 19th was the 156th anniversary of the day news of emancipation finally reached the westernmost area of the former Confederate states in Galveston Bay, Texas. On All Classical Portland, we’re honoring this Juneteenth with music by African-American composers, and other composers of African heritage. Here are a few of the works you can look forward to hearing this Juneteenth.
Dream Variation
By Margaret Bonds
American composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), a student of Florence Price and William Levi Dawson, was particularly prolific as a composer of vocal music. “Dream Variation,” from her cycle Three Dream Portraits, is a setting of the poem “Dream Variations” from The Dream Keeper, a 1932 collection by her friend and frequent collaborator Langston Hughes. Hughes and Bonds also collaborated on a musical, a cantata, and many more art songs.
Image courtesy of the composer’s website
Umoja: Anthem of Unity
By Valerie Coleman
The orchestral version of Umoja, by contemporary composer Valerie Coleman, was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and premiered in 2019. In her program note, Coleman explains that “Umoja” is “the Swahili word for Unity and the first principle of the African Diaspora holiday Kwanzaa.” Of the orchestral version, she adds, “This version honors the simple melody that ever was, but is now a full exploration into the meaning of freedom and unity. Now more than ever, Umoja has to ring as a strong and beautiful anthem for the world we live in today.”
Mephisto Masque
By Edmond Dédé
Edmond Dédé (c.1827/9-1901) was born in New Orleans but emigrated to France to attend the Paris Conservatory and build a career as a composer and conductor. He composed Mephisto Masque in 1899, shortly after a concert tour in America, during which he’d faced much greater racial prejudice than he was used to in France. Mephisto Masque is a satirical piece with a prominent part for mirlitons, or kazoos – Dédé dedicated this snarky piece “aux Bigotopgonistes,” a pun which can mean either “to kazooists” or “to bigots.”
Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80
By Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was one of the first composers of color to achieve international fame in classical music. He composed his Violin Concerto, Op. 80, for one of several visits to the United States. American violinist Maud Powell played the work’s premiere in Norfolk, Connecticut in July of 1912, less than three months before the composer’s untimely death in September of that year.
Negro Folk Symphony
By William Levi Dawson
William Levi Dawson (1899-1990) was an American composer and teacher. During his long tenure at Tuskegee University, he transformed the Tuskegee Choir into an ensemble of international acclaim. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony premiered in 1934 in a performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. Dawson’s program note from the premiere explains, “The themes are taken from what are popularly known as Negro Spirituals. In this composition, the composer has employed three themes taken from typical melodies over which he has brooded since childhood, having learned them at his mother’s knee.”
Treemonisha: Act 3 Finale: “A Real Slow Drag”
By Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin (1867/1868-1917) is well-known as the King of Ragtime; he was also one of the first African-American composers to write operas. His second opera, Treemonisha (1910) is a magical tale celebrating the power of education for African-American women and men. The opera remained unperformed during Joplin’s lifetime. In 1976, a year after the belated professional premiere of Treemonisha, Joplin was a awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.
Photograph courtesy of Discogs.com
Mother Nozipo
By Dumisani Maraire
Zimbabwean composer and mbira virtuoso Dumisani Maraire (1944-1999) spent much of his career teaching ethnomusicology at universities in Washington State, and introducing the Pacific Northwest to African musics. He composed Mother Nozipo, a musical tribute to his mother, in 1990 for the Kronos Quartet. The work is scored for string quartet and percussion, and Maraire appears as the percussionist in the work’s recording, from the Kronos Quartet’s 1992 album Pieces of Africa.
Photograph courtesy of the composer’s website
Dancing Barefoot in the Rain
By Nkeiru Okoye
Nkeiru Okoye is a contemporary American composer who grew up in New York and Nigeria. In 2020, she became the inaugural recipient of the Florence Price Award for Composition. “Dancing Barefoot in the Rain” comes from Okoye’s African Sketches, a four-movement piano suite completed in 2008. The suite has found a place in the international repertoire of contemporary concert pianists.
Symphony no. 3 in c minor
By Florence Price
American composer Florence Price (1887-1953) is perhaps best known as the first African-American woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra: her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, which the Chicago Symphony premiered in 1933. She composed her Third Symphony in 1940, for the Detroit Civic Orchestra, a branch of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Music Project. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Chicago in 1940 and heard a rehearsal of Price’s symphony. In an article recounting her visit, she praised both the WPA orchestra and the composer, saying, “They played two movements in a new symphony by Florence Price, one of the few women to write symphonic music.”
Afro-American Symphony
By William Grant Still
William Grant Still (1895-1978) is often called the “Dean of African American Composers,” and with good reason: he was the first African-American to have an opera premiered by a major opera company; he was the first African-American to conduct a major American orchestra; and in 1931, his Symphony No. 1 in A-flat Major, “Afro-American,” became the first symphony by an African-American composer premiered by a major orchestra. Built on a single blues-inflected motif that appears in the first movement, Still’s symphony explores African-American history in four movements, which he entitled “Longing,” “Sorrow,” “Humor,” and “Aspiration.”
In a continued effort to support collaborative relationships between artists in the local community, on Saturday, June 12th, All Classical Portland facilitated an artistic collaboration between visual artist Philip Krohn and cellist Nancy Ives.
The AUXART sculpture and sound work grew from Philip Krohn’s 9 week residency in Portland’s new creative space Building 5. AUXART is a play on the idea of using an installation space and large scale structural sculpture to amplify various creative inputs across artistic disciplines. As an exclamation point and project finale Nancy Ives played her cello from the heart of the sculpture. Nancy’s performance combined the work of Bach and works of her own composition she felt were harmonically tuned to the spirit and feeling of the sculptural environment.
Nancy Ives’ program included —
Prelude from Suite for cello and Vocal Obligato J.S. Bach: Prelude from Suite in G Major for Violoncello Solo Nancy Ives: Allemande from Suite for cello and Vocal Obligato J.S. Bach: Allemande from Suite in G Major for Voloncello Solo Nancy Ives: Sarabande! from Suite for Cello and Vocal Obligato J.S. Bach: Sarabande! from Suite in G Major for Voloncello Solo Celilo Fisherman by Nancy Ives, poem by Ed Edmo (used with permission) On the Root Glacier by Nancy Ives
Montenegro-born, and London-based classical guitarist Miloš, celebrates his 10th anniversary with the recording label Decca by releasing The Moon and the Forest, which includes two concertos written for him.
Miloš (whose full name is Miloš Karadaglić), asked two composers as famous for their film music as for their concert works: Joby Talbot (who has residences in both Oregon and Great Britain), and Howard Shore. Both created concertos that the guitarist considers a dream come true: works that truly integrate the guitar and the orchestra, rather than works that pit the soloist against the orchestra. They are very original, distinctive works; atmospheric, rhythmic, melodic, exciting and meditative. These concertos both, as Miloš says in his conversation with John Pitman, “allow the guitar to sing.”
Lili‘uokalani (1838-1917) was the Queen Regnant of Hawai‘i from 1891-1893, and was the nation’s last monarch. During her reign, she resisted the annexation of Hawai‘i by the United States, and after the coup that deposed her, she remained dedicated to the interests of the Hawaiian people.
A trained singer, choir director and organist, Lili‘uokalani composed more than 150 mele, Hawaiian songs and chants. Her legacy of music remains greatly loved: she is one of the most-performed composers among Hawaiian musicians. The Queen’s songs transcend genre and are constantly reinterpreted, whether it be in popular or folk styles, as accompaniment to Hawaiian dance, in hymnlike choral arrangements, or as songs with piano.
“To compose was as natural as to breath…”
Lili’uokalani in 1865
The Queen was born Lydia Kamaka‘eha on September 2, 1838. She would assume the name Lili‘uokalani when she was named heir-apparent to the Hawaiian throne. When she was a schoolgirl, her instructors discovered her remarkable talent for sight-singing. This skill, which depends on the ability to read and hear music accurately in one’s mind, served her well throughout her life: when she became a political prisoner with no access to a piano, the Queen was still able to compose.
In her autobiographical and political book, Hawaii’s Story, Lili‘uokalani reflected, “To compose was as natural to me as to breathe; and this gift of nature, never having been suffered to fall into disuse, remains a source of the greatest consolation to this day….Hours of which it is not yet in place to speak, which I might have found long and lonely, passed quickly and cheerfully by, occupied and soothed by the expression of my thoughts in music; and even when I was denied the aid of an instrument I could transcribe to paper the tones of my voice.” (Hawaii’s Story, 31).
Composing a National Anthem
Lili‘uokalani composed one of her first important early works in 1866. She tells the story herself in Hawaii’s Story: “In the early years of the reign of Kamehameha V. he brought to my notice the fact that the Hawaiian people had no national air. Each nation, he said, but ours had its expression of patriotism and love of country in its own music; but we were using for that purpose on state occasions the time-honored British anthem, ‘God save the Queen.’ This he desired me to supplant by one of my own composition. In one week’s time I notified the king that I had completed my task.” (Hawaii’s Story, 31)
Lili‘uokalani, who was then serving as choir director at Kawaiahao Church in Honolulu, conducted her choir in the premiere of the new anthem, He Mele Lāhui Hawai`i (Song of the Hawaiian Nation). As is the case with most of her compositions, Lili‘uokalani wrote both the lyrics and the musical setting. The King “admired not only the beauty of the music, but spoke enthusiastically of the appropriate words, so well adapted to the air and to the purpose for which they were written.” (Hawaii’s Story, 31-32)
The Queen’s Jubilee
In 1887, Princess Lili‘uokalani attended the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee as a part of a royal delegation that included the Queen Consort Kapiʻolani. Upon their arrival in England, the royal Hawaiian party were given an audience with Queen Victoria and were seated with international royalty at the Queen’s Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey.
In only a few years, Lili‘uokalani would be fighting for the acknowledgement of her position: in fact, before the delegation returned from the Queen’s Jubilee, King David Kalākaua was forced to sign away most of his power at pressure from American plantation owners and annexation supporters, in what was called the Bayonet Constitution.
Lili‘uokalani composed a song in honor of Queen Victoria’s royal anniversary, known as “The Queen’s Jubilee.” Its lyrics, saluting Victoria as a fellow monarch, ring poignantly in hindsight.
A Kingdom Overthrown
In 1891, Lili‘uokalani ascended the throne after the death of her brother, King Kalākaua. When she proposed to reverse the Bayonet Constitution, restoring power to the monarchy, a group of American businessmen who owned lucrative plantations on Hawaii conspired to stage a coup. Calling themselves the “Committee of Safety,” the group created a militia which gathered outside the royal residence of Iolani Palace on January 17, 1893. They were supported by a contingent of United States marines sent by John L. Stevens, the United States’ minister to Hawai’i.
To avoid an outbreak of violence, Lili‘uokalani abdicated the throne. She explained her decision in a statement to President Benjamin Harrison: “This action on my part was prompted by three reasons: The futility of a conflict with the United States; the desire to avoid violence, bloodshed, and the destruction of life and property; and the certainty which I feel that you and your government will right whatever wrongs may have been inflicted on us in the premises.” (Hawaii’s Story, 395)
Sanford Dole, an American lawyer who had served the Hawaiian kingdom as a Supreme Court justice, became leader of a “Provisional Government,” with the goal of convincing the United States to annex Hawaii and consolidating control of the islands in the hands of the island’s American plantation owners.
Resistance Through Song
In 1895, an uprising took place to regain Hawaiian independence and reinstate the Queen. As a result, Lili‘uokalani was tried for treason and imprisoned in the former royal residence, Iolani Palace. During the Queen’s imprisonment, she was cut off from the outside world, and forbidden access to any political news. Kuʻu Pua I Paoakalani, one of the songs she composed during this time, offers a coded reference to her efforts to stay informed. The song is dedicated to John Wilson, the son of her companion Evelyn Townsend Wilson, who regularly sent the Queen flowers from her royal garden, Uluhaimalama. The flowers arrived wrapped in newspaper – pages which the Queen was able to read, and keep abreast of political developments.
The Queen’s Prayer
Ke Aloha o ka Haku, or The Queen’s Prayer, is another composition from the Queen’s imprisonment at Iolani. Like many of her works, this song is in a style known as hīmeni, a genre that combines Protestant hymnody structure with the melodic contours of Hawaiian mele. The Queen’s Prayer is a direct response to her experience as a political prisoner, but its poetic text is broad enough to offer timeless spiritual resonance. The Queen dedicated this song to her royal heir apparent, Victoria Kaiulani.
To display the versatility of Lili’uokalani’s music, here are three interpretations of The Queen’s Prayer. This unaccompanied performance is sung by Hawaiian soloist Nalani Olds.
When Liliʻuokalani was released from house arrest, she dedicated herself to advocating for Hawaiian independence. In early 1897, the Queen and her adopted daughter traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Grover Cleveland and ask for his aid in reinstating the Hawaiian monarchy. Cleveland, an anti-imperialist, was an ally of the Queen, and had opposed the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. However, his administration ended that same year, and the new President, William McKinley, favored the annexation of Hawaii.
In the fall of 1897, the Queen was joined in Washington by delegates from Hawaii carrying a Petition Against Annexation, signed by 21,269 Hawaiians. They continued to lobby against the annexation of Hawaii, finally losing the in 1898, when the outbreak of the Spanish-American War convinced members of Congress that Hawaii was a valuable strategic location. McKinley signed the annexation into law on July 7, 1898.
Liliʻuokalani lived the rest of her life as a private citizen in Hawaii, but remained a strong symbol of leadership and Hawaiian identity. Her continued resistance to the American annexation included years of tireless, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to regain royal land holdings that had been seized by the United States.
Aloha ‘Oe
Queen Liliʻuokalani’s most famous composition remains Aloha ‘Oe, a tender song of two lovers parting. According to legend, the Queen was inspired to write this song when she saw a Hawaiian royal officer receiving a lei as a parting gift from a Hawaiian girl. This lovely mele eventually gained another layer of significance, as a song of mourning for the loss of Hawaiian independence. When the Queen died in 1917, a children’s choir sang Aloha ‘Oe at her entombment, at the close of a funeral procession that was attended by around 1500 people.
According to a contemporary report, elderly Hawaiians present at the funeral – those who remembered Hawaiian independence – were particularly sorrowful. “Tears flowed fast down their cheeks as they sensed the actuality of the departure of every vestige of former royalty and the existence of the monarchy from Iolani Palace. The spirit of Liliuokalani had winged its way to eternity.” (The Christian Advocate, December 27, 1917)
At her death, Queen Liliʻuokalani bequeathed what land holdings she still had in a trust to benefit the orphaned and destitute children of Hawaii. The Lili‘uokalani Trust endowed the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center, which continues to provide care for Hawaiian families to the present day.
Learn More
Lili ‘uokalani in 1908
The following sources were invaluable in writing this article. Check them out to learn more about Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawai‘i.
Fry, William Henry. “A Royal Funeral under the Stars and Stripes.” The Christian Advocate. December 27, 1917. In The Christian Advocate, Vol. 92. United States: T. Carlton & J. Porter, 1917. 1392-1393.
John’s latest conversation with American pianist Simone Dinnerstein on her second recording made at home during the pandemic: An American Mosaic. The title is for the multi-movement piece written for her by Richard Danielpour who, finding himself isolated during lockdown, found solace in Ms. Dinnerstein’s recordings. Each movement is a portrait of groups of people who responded to the pandemic, both in helpful and obstructive ways.
An American Mosaic was commissioned by the Oregon Bach Festival and debuted (online, understandably), by Dinnerstein, and is now available on disc. John’s recorded chat with Simone sheds more light on this timely, moving and very personal work.
Composers, teachers, performers, conductors, singers, and cantors: the outstanding contributions of Jewishwomen to American music are ubiquitous. May is Jewish-American Heritage Month, and as part of our celebration at All Classical Portland, we hope you enjoy this playlist of music by remarkable Jewish-American women.
Check out our Spotify Playlist, which features these composers in a slightly different lineup of compositions.
Sun Splendor, Op. 19c
Photograph of Marion Bauer Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Marion Bauer (1882-1955)
Marion Bauer was a significant American modernist composer, as well as a teacher and a music critic. She was Nadia Boulanger’s first American student, and became an influential pedagogue herself, teaching composition at New York City University and the Julliard School. Bauer was also a Pacific Northwest composer: she was born in Walla-Walla and her parents were married at Temple Beth Israel right here in Portland, Oregon!
In this video, the Portland Youth Philharmonic plays Bauer’s tone poem Sun Splendor in a 2016 performance at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Sun Splendor originally premiered in 1947, in a performance by the New York Philharmonic directed Leopold Stokowski.
Prelude, Op. 73
Photograph of Mana-Zucca courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Mana–Zucca (1885-1981)
Piano prodigy, singer, actress, and composer Gussie Zuckermann was born in New York City to a Polish immigrant family. She adopted her unique stage name in her teens. Mana–Zucca’s early successes included a Carnegie Hall performance in 1902 in a concert presented by Walter Damrosch, followed by a European concert tour, during which she met musical luminaries such as Teresa Carreño. Mana–Zucca was incredibly versatile: she wrote orchestral music, chamber music, and popular songs; she sang in musical comedies; she established a musical salon at her Miami home. In this video, you’ll hear three of her piano works: her Prelude, Op. 73; Bolero de Concert, Op. 72, No. 2; and Badinage, Op. 288.
New England Suite
Photograph of Vally Weigl courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Vally Weigl (1884 or 1889-1982)
Born in Austria, Vally Weigl studied musicology at Vienna University, as well as composition and piano. She and her husband, composer Karl Weigl, emigrated to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi oppression. (Weigl’s sister, Käthe, would be murdered at a Nazi death camp several years later). In addition to composing, Weigl was an influential music therapist, serving at New York Medical College and publishing widely in her field.
Our Weigl selection is her New England Suite, composed in the 1950s. This lyrical, rapturous chamber work describes scenes from New England in four movements: “Vermont Nocturne,” “Maine Interlude,” “Berkshire Pastorale” and “Connecticut Country Fair.”
Piece for Muted Strings (Elegiac Song)
Photograph of Vivian Fine courtesy of VivianFine.com
Vivian Fine (1913-2000)
American composer and pianist Vivian Fine enrolled at Chicago Musical College at a mere five years of age, and as an adult, she went on to study with Ruth Crawford Seeger and Roger Sessions. Her work as a collaborative pianist for New York dance companies led to several dance compositions, including one for Martha Graham. Among Fine’s many accomplishments, she taught at the Julliard School, New York University, and Bennington College in Vermont, and she helped found the American Composers’ Alliance. Vivian Fine composed her Piece for Muted Strings (Elegiac Song) in 1937, and it premiered in March of 1939 at a League of Composers concert in New York City. The work is a response to the Spanish Civil War: Fine was strongly opposed to Franco’s Fascist regime. Fine designated the work “for the children of Spain.”
Air for Violin and Piano
Photograph of Miriam Gideon courtesy of the Milken Archive
Miriam Gideon (1906-1996)
Miriam Gideon was particularly drawn to sacred music. Her father was a Reform rabbi, and her uncle, whom she visited every summer as a child, was the director of music at Temple Israel in Boston. Gideon studied composition with Lazare Saminsky and Roger Sessions, as well earning degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she also taught for forty years. Gideon holds the distinction of being the first woman commissioned to compose a setting for Jewish liturgy. In addition to her many sacred and choral works, Gideon’s instrumental pieces, like this Air for Violin and Piano (1950) display a compelling, expressive, freely atonal musical language.
Hark My Love
Photograph of Judith Shatin by Peter Schaaf, courtesy of JudithShatin.com
Judith Shatin (b. 1949)
Judith Shatin is a composer equally at home in traditional classical sonorities and electronic music. A graduate of the Julliard School and Princeton University, Shatin is Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia and the founder of the Virginia Center for Electronic Music. Shatin’s Hark My Love (1991) is a tender piece for choir and piano, dedicated to Shatin’s husband.
In her program note, Shatin writes, “Hark My Love is a setting of verses from the Song of Songs in Marvin Pope’s translation for the Anchor Bible (verses 8-10, 14, 16-17). This richly-textured symbolic text sparked my musical imagination, and the lyrical translation and rhythmic flow of this translation seemed especially apt for musical interpretation. I tried to capture something of the spirit and content of the word in the musical flow and text setting.”
Birds of Paradise
Photograph of Shulamit Ran courtesy of the Milken Family Foundation
Shulamit Ran (b. 1949)
Israeli-American composer Shulamit Ran wrote her first songs in Hebrew when she was a child growing up in Tel Aviv. Ran studied at the Mannes School of Music, and she serves on the faculty of the University of Chicago. Her many accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for music. Our playlist features Ran’s Birds of Paradise, a work for flute and piano commissioned by the Chicago Flute Club’s 25th Anniversary Commission. In her program note for Birds of Paradise, Ran writes, “My decision to name this 12-minute work Birds of Paradise was based purely on the imagined vision of a fantastical bird of many bright and amazing colors and the ability to soar high and in different speeds, conjured up in my mind.”
Fire in My Mouth
Photograph of Julia Wolfe by Peter Serling, courtesy of JuliaWolfeMusic.com
Julia Wolfe (b. 1958)
Julia Wolfe is an American composer whose eclectic style draws on classical, folk, minimalist and rock musics. In 2015, her oratorio Anthracite Fields, about Pennsylvania coal mining, won the Pulitzer Prize for music. The oratorio was part of a series she has created about the American worker, which continued in 2019 with Wolfe’s Fire in My Mouth. Scored for women’s and girls’ choirs and orchestra, this composition explores the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a tragedy in which 146 garment workers perished due to the lack of safety precautions taken by factory management. Wolfe commemorated the fire’s victims by scoring the piece for exactly 146 vocalists.
In her program note, Wolfe explains, “I had been thinking about immigrant women in the workforce at the turn of the century. They fled their homelands to escape poverty and persecution. The garment workers arrived to these shores with sewing skills. Many of the women wound up working on these huge factory floors — hundreds of women sitting at sewing machines. Fire in My Mouth tells the story of the women who persevered and endured challenging conditions, women who led the fight for reform in the workplace.”
24 Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op. 46
Photograph of Lera Auerbach by Friedrich Reinhold, courtesy of LeraAuerbach.com
Lera Auerbach (b. 1973)
Lera Auerbach is a leading contemporary composer and a versatile artist: she is also a concert pianist, visual artist and poet. Her catalogue includes symphonies, string quartets, ballets and operas: she frequently explores traditional genres in a contemporary voice. Aurebach’s 1999 set of 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano is part of a tradition laid down by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which explored each major and minor key in preludes and fugues for keyboard. Chopin’s 24 Préludes extended this tradition in a curious way: Chopin’s “preludes” were not a prelude to anything else, simply standalone miniatures in forms of his own devising. Chopin’s take on preludes gave composers a genre that offers a great deal of freedom. Auerbach first dove into this tradition with her 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41 (1998), and she explored it further in her 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano, Op. 47.
Music is a natural complement to the poetry of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). Her lyrical voice is often cast in the singable meters of American hymnody: for example, just try singing this Dickinson text to the tune of “Amazing Grace:”
The Bee is not afraid of me. I know the Butterfly. The pretty people in the Woods Receive me cordially —
The line between music and text can blur in Dickinson’s poetry. Not only does poetry sing for Emily Dickinson, but music talks as well:
I’ve heard an Organ talk, sometimes — In a Cathedral Aisle, And understood no word it said — Yet held my breath, the while —
It’s no wonder that composers are often drawn to Emily Dickinson. In honor of National Poetry Month, here is a playlist featuring just a few of the pieces inspired by her work.
Dickinson’s idiosyncratic punctuation and syntax led to a variety of editorial changes in printed versions of her poems. The poems quoted in this article are mostly taken from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. In some of these musical works, the text set to music differs slightly.
Heart, We Will Forget Him
From Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson by Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland composed this song cycle in 1950, and it is among the best-known musical settings of Dickinson. The cycle became a recital staple for many singers, including the late American soprano Phyllis Curtin, who admired Copland’s sensitivity to Dickinson’s unique syntax: “It is the pattern of Emily’s remarkable speech that Aaron understood absolutely.”
Heart! We will forget him! You and I — tonight! You may forget the warmth he gave — I will forget the light!
When you have done, pray tell me, That I may straight begin! Haste! lest while you’re lagging I remember him!
Summer of Hesperides
From Three Pieces after Emily Dickinson by Mary Howe
Three Pieces after Emily Dickinson (1941) is a work for string quartet by American composer and pianist Mary Howe. Howe, a student of Nadia Boulanger, was an important musical force in early 20th-century Washington, D.C.: she was a co-founder of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Washington. Along with Amy Beach, Howe also co-founded the Society of American Women Composers in 1925. “Summer of Hesperides” is inspired by the last line this Dickinson poem:
Except the smaller size No lives are round — These — hurry to a sphere And show and end — The larger — slower grow And later hang — The Summers of Hesperides Are long.
I Went to Heaven
From Nine Songs by George Walker
American composer George Walker had a strong affinity for vocal music. His Lilacs, for voice and orchestra, won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1996 – the first won by an African-American composer. Walker’s many art songs include several Emily Dickinson settings, including “I Went to Heaven,” from his 1991 cycle of Nine Songs.
I went to Heaven — ‘Twas a small Town — Lit — with a Ruby — Lathed — with Down —
Stiller — than the fields At the full Dew — Beautiful — as Pictures — No Man drew. People — like the Moth — Of Mechlin — frames — Duties — of Gossamer — And Eider — names — Almost — contented — I — could be — ‘Mong such unique Society —
The most triumphant Bird I ever knew or met
From Of Being Is a Bird by Augusta Read Thomas
Of Being Is a Bird (Emily Dickinson Settings) is a 2015 work for soprano and orchestra by American composer Augusta Read Thomas. “The most triumphant Bird I ever knew or met” is the third movement in the cycle. This exuberant setting portrays the bird’s delightfully unpredictable flight patterns, and its contrapuntally treated melodies show the stylized influence of birdsong.
The most triumphant Bird I ever knew or met Embarked upon a twig today And till Dominion set I famish to behold so eminent a sight And sang for nothing scrutable But intimate Delight. Retired, and resumed his transitive Estate — To what delicious Accident Does finest Glory fit!
Quotation of Dream: “Say sea, take me!”
By Tōru Takemitsu
Quotation of Dream (1991) for two pianos and orchestra is a neo-impressionist work inspired by the ocean. Water, in all its forms, is a common theme in the music of Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu. This work, which the composer wrote for Paul Crossley and Peter Serkin, explores its extra-musical theme with quotations: musical quotations from Debussy’s tone poem La mer, and a subtitle quoted from Emily Dickinson’s “My river runs to thee.”
My River runs to thee — Blue Sea! Wilt welcome me? My River wait reply — Oh Sea — look graciously — I’ll fetch thee Brooks From spotted nooks — Say — Sea — Take Me!
I Never Saw a Moor
From Seven Dickinson Songs by Emily Lau
American composer Emily Lau is the founder of The Broken Consort, an innovative chamber ensemble that is in residence with Portland’s own Big Mouth Society. Lau’s Seven Dickinson Songs come from The Broken Consort’s 2019 album, Isle of Majesty. “I Never Saw a Moor” is a haunting, neo-Renaissance work scored for early instruments and percussion, which beautifully captures the mystery of Dickinson’s rather metaphysical text. You may have heard Emily Lau’s Dickinson settings recently on our show Club Mod!
I never saw a Moor — I never saw the Sea — Yet know I how the Heather looks And what a Billow be.
I never spoke with God, Nor visited in Heaven — Yet certain am I of the spot As if the Checks were given —
Chorus: “Hope” is the thing with feathers
From Letters from Emily by Grant Edwards
Letters from Emily is a new oratorio by Portland composer Grant Edwards, which premiered in 2019. The work sets twenty-seven Dickinson poems to music, and one is referenced in the title:
This is my letter to the world That never wrote to me,—
Edwards explains, “Our lives are our ‘letters to the world’—a world which promises nothing in return. The sun sets, the sun rises, love is gained and lost, sanity is exposed as madness (and vice-versa)—yet, at times, hope flies in from where we least expect it.”
The ninth movement is an exhilarating chorus on one of Dickinson’s most beloved poems.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers— That perches in the soul— And sings the tune without the words— And never stops—at all—
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard— And sore must be the storm— That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm—
I’ve heard it in the chillest land— And on the strangest Sea— Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb—of Me.
Photograph of Marion Bauer Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photograph of Mana-Zucca courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photograph of Vally Weigl courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photograph of Vivian Fine courtesy of VivianFine.com
Photograph of Miriam Gideon courtesy of the Milken Archive
Photograph of Judith Shatin by Peter Schaaf, courtesy of JudithShatin.com
Photograph of Shulamit Ran courtesy of the Milken Family Foundation
Photograph of Julia Wolfe by Peter Serling, courtesy of JuliaWolfeMusic.com
Photograph of Lera Auerbach by Friedrich Reinhold, courtesy of LeraAuerbach.com
