Arias and Barcarolles

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

After playing Mozart and Gershwin at the White House in 1960, Leonard Bernstein experienced a somewhat awkward moment. President Eisenhower greeted him and said, “You know, I like the last piece you played; it’s got a theme, I like music with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles.”

According to President Eisenhower’s definition, Arias and Barcarolles at first seems to be music without a theme; the musical elements are separate and eclectic. There is twelve-tone music, rhythmic improvisation, late romanticism, scat-singing, and pure Coplandesque Americana. The texts, however do have theme, which is revealed in the opening lines of the turgid “Prelude”: “I love you, it’s easy to say it, and so easy to mean it too.” We have entered the private and sometimes dark thoughts of a couple, and are off on a musical exploration of different aspects of love. The piano part of the “Prelude” is spiky, discordant, and rhythmic and is periodically interrupted by the impassive vocal line which seems oblivious to the music storm around it. This theme of turmoil masked by outer calm is continued in the “Love Duet,” in which both characters sing a lyrical, random list of everyday questions, while narrowly avoiding the deeper conflicts lurking under their ironic detachment. Constant eight notes in 10/8 meter give the accompaniment a machine-like character, as the couple sing about the song that they are signing (their relationship). The song defies categorization by the couple, much like the music of Arias and Barcarolles.

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