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MIT MUSIC & THEATER ARTS ADVANCED MUSIC PERFORMANCE RECITAL SERIES PRESENTS Youngmoo Kim, baritone Charles Shadle, piano Selections from Composizioni da camera per canto e pianoforte La farfalletta (1813) Tre ariette Il fervido desiderio (1827-1833) Dolente immagine di Fille mia (1821) Vaga luna, che inargenti (1827-1833) Quando incise su quel marmo (1821) Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) L'Horizon Chimérique, op. 118 (1921) Text by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont (d. 1921) La mer est infinie Je me suis embarqué Diane, Séléné Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Hermit Songs, op. 29 (1952-1953) At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory Church Bell at Night St. Ita’s Vision The Heavenly Banquet The Crucifixion Sea-Snatch Promiscuity The Monk and His Cat The Praises of God The Desire for Hermitage Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Dover Beach, op. 3 (1931) Rachel Levinson ’01, violin Dawn Perlner ’01, violin Jennifer Grucza G, viola Bernd Schoner G, cello Samuel Barber (1910-1981) 5 PM • WEDNESDAY, 7 APRIL 1999 KILLIAN HALL MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Killian Hall is located on the first floor of Building 14W (adjacent to Memorial Drive) on the MIT campus. Follow this link for a map highlighting its location. Youngmoo Kim is a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab. He has performed extensively at Swarthmore College, where he was an undergraduate, and at Stanford University, where he received Masters degrees in Music and Electrical Engineering. He was music director of the Stanford Fleet Street Singers, an award winning a cappella ensemble. Youngmoo also appeared in American Musical Theater of San Jose's productions of Anything Goes and Kismet in the 1996-97 season. At MIT he has been a soloist for the MIT Chamber Choir, and played the roles of Otto Kringelein in the Dramashop prodcution of Grand Hotel, and the Baker in Musical Theater Guildıs production of Into the Woods. Youngmoo is a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Program Notes: Within the span of his tragically short life, Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) became the leading voice at the dawn of Italian romantic opera. Before his death due to illness at the age of 33, he achieved great success as the composer of such stage works as Norma, Capuleti e I Montecchi, and I puritani. It is these works that to this day define Bellini’s contribution to music. Throughout his life, Bellini also composed a number of pieces for voice and piano, ranging from academic exercises to songs dedicated to various noble dilettantes. His publisher, Ricordi, collected many of these disparate pieces, and published them in 1935 as the collection Composizion da camera per canto e pianoforte. The first of his songs, La farfalletta, was written at the age of 12 for a childhood sweetheart (Marietta Politi, a music student of Bellini’s father). The young Vincenzo’s and Marietta’s favorite pastime was playing with a puppet theater, and it is for one of these puppet productions that Bellini composed La farfalletta, a little song about a girl attempting to catch a butterfly to give to her boyfriend. The Tre arietta were composed and published at different times, but were later published together as Tre Ariette per camera, and then included as one in the 1935 collection. Il fervido desiderio and Vaga luna che inargenti were composed between 1827 and 1833, when Bellini had settled in Milan. They are both dedicated to women, Contessa Sofia Voina and Giulietta Pezzi, respectively. It is during this period in Milan that Bellini first achieved notoriety for his operas, and these two pieces exhibit the same gift for melody within a very simple harmonic vocabulary that propelled his operatic success. The middle piece of the Tre arietta, Dolente immagine di fille mia, was composed earlier in 1821 while Bellini was a student at Naples Conservatory. The sadness of the melody led many to believe that this piece was the result of Bellini’s relationship with one of his students, Maddalena Fumaroli, whose parents disapproved of their relationship. However, the autograph bears the date 1821, before Maddalena and Bellini met. The final piece, Quando inciso su quel marmo, is a scene and aria written as an academic exercise for the conservatory, and was also composed while Bellini was a student in Naples. This piece demonstrates his flair for stage writing and hints that even in his chamber works, Bellini always kept the theater in mind. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) composed over 100 songs over the span of his career, the last of which were the cycle L’Horizon Chimerique. It was composed in 1921, and first performed by its dedicatee, the great French baritone Charles Panzéra, on June 22, 1922 at a benefit concert at the Sorbonne celebrating Fauré’s contributions to music. By this time Fauré had achieved a great deal of fame and respect, as the director of the Conservatoire, though he never had much monetary success. Also at this late stage of his career, Fauré was almost completely deaf and thus was unable to hear his work performed. The text of L’Horizon Chimerique was taken from an eponymous volume by a young writer named Jean de la Ville de Mirmont, who died at the front in 1914 at the age of 24. From this volume, Fauré chose four poems for his cycle. Thus, the simple forms of the text are the work of a young man, swept in imagery and the magnitude of life’s possibilities, while the music is extraordinarily economical, from a composer in the twilight of his years. Panzéra described the combination of words and music as "the ineffable communion of two sensitive spirits at opposite poles of the human adventure". The cycle is linked only by text and musical style; there are no common motives connecting the pieces. The accompaniment in the first song, La Mer est infinie, evokes the restless energy of the sea as alluded to in the text, and the rise and fall of the melody mimics the forceful motion of the waves crashing against the cliffs. In the second piece, Je me suis embarqué, the composer captures the rocking of the "ship which dances and rolls from side to side", which has carried the poet away from the suffering of land. The spare accompaniment of Diane, Séléné counters the energy of the first two pieces, painting a perfect atmosphere of moonlit calm and clarity. The sea returns in the fourth song, Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés. But this time the motion of the waves in the piano is directed outward, away from the shore, as the poet is bidding farewell to the vessels, which represent the great departures he yearns for, but lacks the courage to follow. Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was one of the most successful American composers of the twentieth century, and his compositions for voice permeate the modern singer’s repertoire. Born near Philadelphia, Barber displayed early aptitude for music, and became a charter student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia while still in high school. Upon graduation from high school, he remained at Curtis and studied piano, composition, and voice. He was a talented singer; perhaps his intimate knowledge of the voice has contributed to the longevity of his vocal works. Barber composed Dover Beach while still a student at Curtis in 1931, and the first performance of the piece was given for a private audience by the composer himself. The profoundly pessimistic text is by the British poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), and is a synthesis of literary Romanticism and Modernism, which is echoed by the musical setting. The combination of 19th and 20th century musical techniques is representative of Barber’s early works. The poem depicts human misery as the isolation of each person from one another due to the loss of faith. The image of ebbing tides on the beach provides a metaphor for the ebbing of the "Sea of Faith", as nature offers not comfort, but confirmation of man’s problems. The piece begins as an atmospheric setting of the calm shores of Dover Beach. As the poem shifts from scenic to emotive, the music similarly shifts, bringing in the denser harmonies of the Romantic period. The orchestration, for voice and string quartet, is unusual, but the rich string timbres are used for maximum emotional effect. The structure of the piece is ternary (A B A’) which reinforces the inevitable circularity of man’s fate as offered in the poem. The Hermit Songs were composed from 1952 to 1953, and are representative of Barber’s later musical style: strong lyrical and emotional elements with modern harmonies and rhythms. This cycle of songs was commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and was premiered at the Library of Congress on October 30, 1953 by soprano Leontyne Price with the composer accompanying. Barber’s own note perhaps best explains the origin and character of the texts: They are settings of anonymous Irish texts of the eighth to thirteenth centuries written by monks and scholars, often on the margins of manuscripts they were copying or illuminating–perhaps not always meant to be seen by their Father Superiors. They are small poems, thoughts or observations, some very short, and speak in straighforward, droll, and often surprisingly modern terms of the simple life these men led, close to nature, to animals and to God. Barber’s reading of early Irish poetry must have been extensive, as the texts of the Hermit Songs come from at least five different sources, including some translations made especially for Barber. As indicated in his note, the texts are quite varied (from the reverent "Crucifixion" to the playful "Monk and His Cat"). The settings are equally varied and showcase the composer’s enormous range, as well as his sense of humor. The Hermit Songs remain one of Barber’s most popular works. Texts and Translations La Farfalletta Farfalletta, aspetta, aspetta; non volar con tanta fretta. Far del mal non ti vogl’io; ferma appaga itl desir mio. Vo’baciarti e il cibo darti, da’perigli preservarti. Di cristallo stanza avrai e tranquilla ognor avrai L’ali aurate, screzïate so che Aprile t’ha ingemmate, Che sei vaga, vispa e snella, fra tue eguali la più bella. Ma crin d’oro ha il mio tesoro, il fanciullo ch’amo, e adoro, E a te pari vispo e snello fra I suo’eguali egli è il più bello. Vo’carpirti, ad esso offrirti; più che rose, gigli e mirti Ti fia caro il mio fanciullo, ed a lui sarai trastullo. Nell’aspetto e terso petto rose, e gigli ha il mio diletto. Vienni, scampa da’perigli, non cercar più rose e gigli. Little butterfly, wait, wait; don't fly in such a hurry. I don't want to hurt you; stop, do as I wish. I want to kiss you and give you something to eat, protect you from danger You shall have a room made of crystal and always live in peace I know that April has set your golden, flecked wings with gems that you are pretty, bright and nimble, the most beautiful of all your equals. But my treasure, the little boy I love and adore, has golden hair, is as bright and nimble as you and is the finest looking of all his equals I am going to catch you and give you to the little boy. He will be dearer to you than roses, lilies and myrtles, and you will be his plaything. My dear child clearly looks like roses and lilies, pink and white. Come, avoid danger, do not continue looking for roses and lilies. Tre Ariette I. Il fervido desiderio Three Ariettas Quando verrà quel di che riveder potrò Quel che l’amante cor tanto desia? Quando verrà quel di che in sen t’accoglierò, Bella fiamma d’amor, anima mia? When will that day come when I shall be able to see once more what my loving heart so desires? When will that day come when I shall clasp you to my heart, lovely flame of love, my very soul? II. Dolente immagine di Fille mia Dolente immagine di Fille mia, Perche si squallida mi siedi accanto? Che più desideri? Dirotto pianto io sul tuo cenere versai finor. Temi che immemore de’sacri giuri Io possa accendermi ad altra face? Ombra di Fillide, riposa in pace; È inestinguibile l’antico ardor. Sorrowful figure of my Phyllis, why do you sit so wretchedly at my side? What more do you desire? So far I have shed continuous tears on your ashes. Do you fear that, forgetful of my sacred vows, I may be inflamed with love for another woman? Ghost of Phyllis, rest in peace; our old love cannot be extinguished. III. Vaga luna che inargenti Vaga luna che inargenti queste rive e questi fiori Ed inspiri agli elementi il linguaggio dell’amor; Testimonio or sei tu sola del mio fervido desir, Ed a lei che m’innamora conta I palpiti ei sospir. Dille pur che lontanaza il mio duol non può lenir, Che se nutro una speranza, ella è sol nell’avvenir. Dille pur che giorno e sera conto l’ore del dolor, Che una speme lusinghiera mi conforta nell’amor. Lovely moon who touches with silver these banks and these flowers, and inspire the elements with the language of flowers; you are the only witness of my fervent desires. Count the hearthrobs and sighs of my beloved. Tell her too that distance cannot alleviate my grief and that if I nurse a hope it is only in the future. Tell her too that day and night I count the hours of suffering, that one flattering hope conforts me in my love. Quando incise su quel marmo (Scena ed aria) Questa è la valle, il sasso è questo in cui di Gilda al nome unito Il mio nome è scolpino, e in queste guise, Se tradirmi volea, perchè l’incise? Quando incise su quel marmo l’infedele il nome mio, Invocando il cieco Dio fede eterna a me giurò. Spergiura! Spergiura! e questa pietra il mio nome addita ancora. Ma l’idea di chi t’adora nel tuo sen si cancellò. This is the valley, the stone is where my name is engraved together with Gilda's. And so, if she wanted to betray me, why did she engrave it? When the unfaithful woman engraved my name on that marble, invoking the blind god of Love, she swore to be eternally true to me. Perjured liar! Liar! And this stone still indicates my name. But the idea of the one who adores you is obliterated in your heart L’Horizon chimérique 1. La Mer est infinie The illusory horizon 1. The sea is infinite La Mer est infinie et mes rêves sont fous. La mer chante au soleil en battant les falaises Et mes rêves légers ne se sentent plus d’aise De danser sur la mer comme des oiseaux soûls. Le vaste mouvement des vagues les emporte, La brise les agite et les roule en ses plis ; Jouant dans le sillage. Ils feront une escorte Aux vaisseaux que mon coeur dans leur fuite a suivis. Ivres d’air et de sel et brûlés par l’écume De la mer qui console et qui lave des pleurs Ils connaîtront le large et sa bonne amertume ; Les goélands perdus les prendront pour des leurs. The sea is infinite and my dreams are wild The sea sings to the sun as it beats against the cliffs and my light dreams are overjoyed beyond words to dance upon the sea like tipsy birds The vast movement of the waves bears them away the breeze tosses them and rolls them in its folds playing in the ship’s track, they will form an escort to the vessels whose flight my heart has followed Intoxicated with air and salt, and stung by the foam of the sea which consoles and washes away tears they will know the open sea and its salutary bitterness the vagrant seagulls will take them for their own 2. Je me suis embarqué 2. I have embarked Je me suis embarqué sur un vaisseau qui danse Et roule bord sur bord et tangue et se balance. Mes pieds ont oublié la terre et ses chemins ; Les vagues souples m’ont appris d’autres cadences Plus belles que le rythme las des chants humains. A vivre parmi vous, hèlas ! avais-je une âme? Mes frères, j’ai souffert sur tous vos continents. Je ne veux que la mer, je ne veux que le vent Pour me bercer, comme un enfant, au creux des lames. Hors du port qui n’est plus qu’une image effacée, Les larmes du départ ne brûlent plus mes yeux. Je ne me souviens pas de mes derniers adieux... O ma peine, ma peine, où vous ai-je laissée? I have embraked on a ship which dances and rolls from side to side, and pitches and rocks. My feet have forgotten the earth and its paths; the supple waves have taught me other cadences more beautiful than the weary rhythm of human songs. To live among you, alas! Had I a soul? My brothers, I have suffered on all your shores. I want only the sea, I want only the wind to rock me like a child in the bosom of its waves Beyond the port which is no more than a fading image the tears of departure no longer burn my eyes, I do not remember my last farewells... O my suffering, my suffering, where have I left you? 3. Diane, Séléné 3. Diane, Silene Diane, Séléné, lune de beau métal, Qui reflète vers nous, par ta face déserte, Dans l’immortel ennui du calme sidéral, Le regret d’un soleil dont nous pleurons la perte. O lune, je t’en veux de ta limpidité Injurieuse au trouble vain des pauvres âmes, Et mon coeur, toujours las et toujours agité, Aspire vers la paix de ta nocturne flamme. Diana, Silene, moon of beauteous metal, reflecting towards us on your desolate surface, in the eternal monotony of sidereal calm, the regret for a sun whose loss we mourn. O moon, I begrudge you your limpidity, humiliating to the vain striving of poor souls, and my heart, ever weary and ever restless, yearns for the peace of your nocturnal flame. 4. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés 4. Ships, we have loved you Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte; Le dernier de vous tous est parti sur la mer. Le couchant emporta tant de voiles ouvertes Que ce port et mon coeur sont à jamais déserts. La mer vous a rendus à votre destinée, Au-delà du rivage où s’arrêtent nos pas. Nous ne pouvions garder vos âmes enchaînées; Il vous faut des lointains que je ne connais pas Je suis de ceux dont les désirs sont sur la terre. Le souffle qui vous grise emplit mon coeur d’effroi, Mais votre appel, au fond des soirs, me désespère, Car j’ai de grands départs inassouvis en moi. Ships, we have loved you to no avail; the last of you all has set sail upon the sea. The setting sun has borne away so many spread sails that this port and my heart are forever forsaken The sea has restored you to your destiny, beyond the shore where our steps must cease. We could not have held your souls captive; you have need of distances unknown to me. I belong to those whose desires are earthbound. The breeze that elates you fills my heart with terror, but your call when evening falls makes me despair, For I feel within me an unappeased longing for great departures Hermit Songs 1. At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory Pity me on my pilgrimage to Loch Derg! O King of the churches and the bells bewailing your sores and your wounds, but not a tear can I squeeze from my eyes! Not moisten an eye after so much sin! Pity me, O King! What shall I do with a heart that seeks only its own ease? O only begotten Son by whom all men were made, who shunned not the death by three wounds, Pity me on my pilgrimage to Loch Derg and I with a heart not softer than a stone! 2. Church Bell at Night Sweet little bell, struck on a windy night, I would liefer keep tryst with thee than be with a light and foolish woman. 3. Saint lta’s Vision "I will take nothing from my Lord," said she, "unless He gives me His Son from Heaven In the form of a Baby that I may nurse Him". So that Christ came down to her in the form of a Baby and then she said: "Infant Jesus, at my breast, Nothing in this world is true Save, O tiny nursling, You. Infant Jesus at my breast, By my heart every night, You I nurse are not a churl But were begot on Mary the Jewess By Heaven’s light. Infant Jesus at my breast, What King is there but You who could Give everlasting good? Wherefore I give my food. Sing to Him, maidens, sing your best! There is none that has such right To your song as Heaven’s King Who every night Is Infant Jesus at my breast". 4. The Heavenly Banquet I would like to have the men of Heaven in my own house; with vats of good cheer laid out for them. I would like to have the three Mary’s, their fame is so great. I would like people from every corner of Heaven. I would like them to be cheerful in their drinking. I would like to have Jesus sitting here among them. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven’s family Drinking it through all eternity. 5. The Crucifixion At the cry of the first bird They began to crucify Thee, O Swan! Never shall lament cease because of that. It was like the parting of day from night. Ah, sore was the suffering borne By the body of Mary’s Son, But sorer still to Him was the grief Which for His sake Came upon His Mother. 6. Sea-Snatch It has broken us, it has crushed us, it has drowned us, O King of the starbright Kingdom of Heaven! The wind has consumed us, swallowed us, as timber is devoured by crimson fire from Heaven. It has broken us, it has crushed us, it has drowned us, O King of the starbright Kingdom of Heaven! 7. Promiscuity I do not know with whom Edan will sleep, but I do know that fair Edan will not sleep alone. 8. The Monk and his Cat Pangur, white Pangur, How happy we are Alone together, Scholar and cat. Each has his own work to do daily; For you it is hunting, for me study. Your shining eye watches the wall; my feeble eye is fixed on a book. You rejoice when your claws entrap a mouse; I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem. Pleased with his own art Neither hinders the other; Thus we live ever without tedium and envy. Pangur, white Pangur, How happy we are Alone together, Scholar and cat. 9. The Praises of God How foolish the man who does not raise His voice and praise with joyful words, As he alone can, Heaven’s High King. To whom the light birds with no soul but air, All day, everywhere laudations sing. 10. The Desire for Hermitage Ah! To be all alone in a little cell with nobody near me; beloved that pilgrimage before the last pilgrimage to death. Singing the passing hours to cloudy Heaven; Feeding upon dry bread and water from the cold spring. That will be an end to evil when I am alone in a lovely little corner among tombs far from the houses of the great. Ah! To be all alone in a littie cell, to be alone, all alone: Alone I came into the world alone I shall go from it. Dover Beach The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast, the light Gleams, and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the lone line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanch’d sand, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegaen, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.