American Liebeslieder

Notes on the Program

Liebeslied by John Corigliano

In this short waltz, the four singers celebrate several aspects of love (love of another, love of love, love of self) with only three words.  Emphasis is all.

 We Two Boys Together Clinging by Jeffrey Stock

After looking through dozens of texts from unusual sources, I came across this little poem in the Big Book (Leaves of Grass).  I couldn't resist its tone of celebration and exultation.  The poem's references to mocking statutes and alarming priests present a telling sketch of Whitman's own persona, while at the same time foretelling today's headlines.  Whitman often seems to be looking through time right at you, and is sometimes eerily conscious of it, as in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry":  "It avails not, time nor place--distance avails not/I am with you."  He sees not only with clarity and conviction, but also with generosity of spirit.  These are the qualities that made me want to set "We Two Boys" to music.

I'm always looking for texts that are somewhat off the beaten track.  While Christina Rossetti is far from an obscure poet, her works have not been the subject of a vast number of musical settings.  Having always felt a kinship to the pre-Raphaelites, I was delighted to have discovered the Rossetti sonnets.  Both inspired by and eventually compared to the works of Dante and Petrarch, Christina Rossetti's sonnets express her devotion to God along with basic human emotions and dilemmas.  I wish I could remember that first day is my attempt to illustrate in a simple manner the frustration of lost love, and the nostalgia that usually accompanies it.  I felt that an interesting way to do this would be by having two singers express the same thoughts, almost as though they were thinking of one another.

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