Firmament: Carolyn Forché and Caroline Shaw

I head back to university teaching tomorrow—and I know many teachers and students who are already back at it. In honor of this back-to-school season, here's an episode on a wild and wonderful song by New-York-based composers Lainie Fefferman and Jascha Narveson. In addition to composing a wide variety of music as individual artists, they are part of a synth-pop duo called The Beverage Station. The duo will release a full album, including this song, on May 30, 2025, from Gold Bolus Recordings.  Labor DayLainie FeffermanBrand-new facesFamiliar hallsTracking pacesFeel it in my throatBones breakBack achesI could punch through wallsAnd then there's youHeart explosionsArms aglowBig emotionsPack up its time to goHours comeSeconds goCut to my fun walk homeWhere there is youFamiliar facesBrand-new hallsMaking spacesSharing all I loveCalm comesBack strokeKeeping tallies of smiles and cheersI know I've lost what I'm doing here

On September 27, 2024, Signum Records will release a recording of Rodrigo Ruiz's cycle of seventeen songs, Venus & Adonis, based on William Shakespeare's poem of the same name. In this episode, I dive into one of my favorite songs from the cycle, where Venus takes Adonis's hand and entreats him to open his heart to her.For more information about Rodrigo Ruiz, you can find him on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkTree.You can also learn more about his songs from this page on my website Art Song Augmented, and from this episode on his setting of a poem by Heinrich Heine.The recording in this episode features soprano Grace Davidson and pianist George Herbert, who also appear on the forthcoming album of the cycle.Frosty in DesireWilliam Shakespeare (adapted by Rodrigo Ruiz)POETWith this she seizeth on his sweating palm,and trembling in her passion, calls it balm,Earth’s sovereign salve to do a goddess good.Pure shame and awed resistance made him fret,which bred more beauty in his angry eyes.So fastened in her arms Adonis lies;still is he sullen, still he lours and frets,'twixt crimson shame and anger ashy pale.Still she entreats, and prettily entreats;     she red as coals of glowing fire,     he frosty in desire.(25, 27–8, 69–70, 68, 75–6, 73, 35–6)

The Mass for the Endangered, by Nathaniel Bellows and Sarah Kirkland Snider, appeals not to God but to nature itself and (in Snider's words) takes the "musical modes of spiritual contemplation" associated with the Latin mass and applies them to "concern for non-human life—animals, plants, and the environment." The third movement of the Mass, "Alleluia," describes the brutal destruction of the natural world yet at the same time offers a promise of renewal.The episode features a recording of the movement by Gallicantus, under the direction of Gabriel Crouch; an album of the entire Mass was released in 2020 by New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. If you're interested in learning about another haunting collaboration by Bellows and Snider, check out my podcast episode on "The River," from their song cycle Unremembered.AlleluiaNathaniel BellowsSea of cradle, foundling,current, cold and quelled as morning.Braid of vapored ashes,shadowed creche, collapsing.Contour, carve, corrode—breathe through camphor, coal,seed each breeze with gold.Poison, parch, pollute—plow the coast, the dune,flow toward constant moon. AlleluiaHearth of stone, of tar, of lava,shelter shielding mother.Oh, save us mother!   She who is sleeping,Is she who will wake.  Fracture, foist, defoul—shatter cliff and shoal,sand each stone to whole.Harbored, held, unharmed—she’ll wake, rise, rejoin,her daughters and her sons. Alleluia 

The title track from Rhiannon Giddens's recent album You're the One—which was just released by Nonesuch Records—is a love song, but not one about two adults; it's about a moment Giddens experienced with her newborn son, pressing her cheek against his and realizing that her world would never be the same again.In this episode I reference a book by Matt BaileyShea called Lines and Lyrics: An Introduction to Poetry and Song. If you're interested in learning more about how words and music relate in pop songs and art songs and everything in between, I'd urge  you check out his book. It's superb, and really accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike.You're the Oneby Rhiannon Giddens (the song was cowritten with Lalenja Harrington)I knew you were the one  Were my one and only And I knew  That you would always know me  Cause you were the one  Who kept me from feeling  So sad and lonely in my life andI never knew  Life could be so wonderful That there could be someone  Who was so beautiful And I never knew  That I could be so free  To love someone like you and I wanna love you forever And I’ll be with you  For worse and for better And I never thought I’d fall  But you’re the one  I thought my life was drawn  In shades of gray and  That washow I would live my everyday and  Aimless no direction foundMy destiny was going through the motions of a life andThen you came along  With your sweet sweet smile and  Then you put your cheek  Right next to mine and  All those shades of gray slowly turned into a  New technicolor world and  I’m gonna love you forever  And I’ll be with you  For worse and for better  And I never thought I’d fall  And I’m gonna love you forever and  I’ll be with you for worse and for better  And I never thought I’d fall  But you’re the one  You’re the one Your smile contains the sunRays of glory  You’re the one

Have you ever felt as though a single moment—gazing into someone's eyes, listening to a passage of music, looking at a landscape—transports you to another realm? Maurice Bouchor's poem is about just this kind of experience, an experience that the French composer Mel Bonis transforms into a magical sound world that deftly blends Romanticism and Impressionism.The episode features a recording of the song by Hélène Guilmette and Matin Dubé, from an album called L'Heure Rose. For more information about Mel Bonis, go to the Mel Bonis website, maintained by Christine Géliot. You can also learn more about her songs at my website Art Song Augmented.Songe (an excerpt from Vers le pur amour)by Maurice BouchorGuidé par de beaux yeux candides,Dans ma barque féerique aux reflets d'argent fin,Vers l'amour, je voudrais faire voile sans finSur des rêves bleus et splendides,Vers l'amour dont le souffle fraisBerce des champs de fleurs dans une île enchantéeEt qui, pour apaiser mon âme tourmentée,M'ouvrira de saintes forêts.Et plus tard, quand, loin de la terre,O Viola ! Guérie des brûlantes langueurs,Nous irons caresser les songes de nos coeursDans l'île heureuse du mystère.Dans le libre ciel des esprits,Quand nous aurons quitté la nature mortelle,Ne goûterons-nous pas une paix éternelle ?Rêveusement, tu me souris.———Guided by beautiful, innocent eyes,In my magic boat with reflections of fine silver,Toward love I would like to sail endlesslyOn blue and splendid dreams.Toward love, whose fresh breathCradles fields of flowers in an enchanted island,And which, to appease my tormented soul,Will open holy forests to me. And later, far from the earth,O Viola, cured of burning languor,We will go to caress the dreams of our heartsOn the happy island of mystery.In the free sky of the spirits,When we have left our mortal nature,Will we not taste eternal peace?Dreamily, you smile at me.

Arthur Symons's poem captures a lazy June afternoon, with a fountain burbling and the moon hanging in the sky, waiting for the coming of night. Elizabeth Maconchy transforms the poem into a song of mesmerizing stillness and beauty.The episode features a world-premiere recording by soprano Joanna Songi and pianist Matthew Fletcher, based on an unpublished manuscript found in the Maconchy archive at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. You can find a YouTube video of their performance here.For an illuminating look at Maconchy's life and work, see the final chapter of Anna Beer's book Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music.Also please check out the Maconchy page on my website Art Song Augmented, which includes another recording by Songi and Fletcher, as well as additional resources and access to scores.In Fountain Courtby Arthur SymonsThe fountain murmuring of sleep,A drowsy tune;The flickering green of leaves that keepThe light of June;Peace, through a slumbering afternoon,The peace of June.A waiting ghost, in the blue sky,The white curved moon;June, hushed and breathless, waits, and IWait too, with June;Come, through the lingering afternoon,Soon, love, come soon.

The Haitian-American composer Nathalie Joachim transforms a Haitian hymn, and in so doing creates a multi-layered tapestry of sound that evokes the many voices of Haiti—past, present, and future."Resevwa Li" comes from Joachim's Grammy-nominated 2019 album Fanm d'Ayiti (New Amsterdam Records), featuring the Spektral Quartet.Resevwa LiMen n’ap proche devan ou GranmètAvèk tout ti kado n yo papaLi mèt tout piti kou li ye,Tanpri resevwa liAdye papa soupleKisa pou m ta ba ouOu ki fè tout bagayOu ki mèt tout bagayKado nou pot pou ouSe tout jefò n ap fePou peyi n devlopePou lavi nou pi bèl.Receive ThemWe come before you, GodWith all of our little gifts, FatherAs little as they may bePlease receive themOh father, pleaseWhat should I give youYou, who make everythingYou, who create everythingThe gifts we bring to youAre all of our effortsTo benefit our countryFor our lives to be the most beautifultranslation by Nathalie Joachim

Connie Converse was one of the first singer-songwriters, an uncommon talent who predated Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. But she was barely known in her day, and after making a handful of low-fi recordings in the 1950s, she disappeared in 1974. Her songs weren't widely known until some of those low-fi recordings were released on CD in 2009. This episode looks at one of her most affecting songs, which appears on Walking in the Dark, a recent album by soprano Julia Bullock, in an arrangement by Jeremy Siskind. Julia Bullock performs the song with Christian Reif.For more information on Connie Converse's songs, go to her page on my website, Art Song Augmented. Also, be on the lookout for Howard Fishman's book about Connie Converse, To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse, which is forthcoming in May 2023.One by OneConnie ConverseWe go walking in the dark. We go walking out at night.And it's not as lovers go,Two by two, to and fro,But it's one by one.One by one in the darkWe go walking out at night.As we wander through the grassWe can hear each other pass,But we're far apart.Far apart in the darkWe go walking out at night.With the grass so dark and tallWe are lost past recallIf the moon is down.And the moon is down.We are walking in the dark.If I had your hand in mine,I could shine, I could shineLike the morning sun,Like the sun.

We know very little about the German composer Marie von Kehler (1822–1882), who served as a "lady in waiting" to a princess and seems to have been acquainted with Johannes Brahms. But we do know that she wrote over eighty songs that were published over a decade after her death—none of which had ever been recorded until Stephan Loges and Jocelyn Freeman recorded four of them for my website Art Song Augmented. This episode looks at one of the best Kehler song's, a setting of a poem by Julius Sturm about a strange prayer that someone says to a beloved who has wounded him.For more information on Marie von Kehler's songs, go to her page on Art Song Augmented and check out my blog post on her on the Women's Song Forum.Nur einmal möcht' ich dir noch sagenJulius SturmNur einmal möcht' ich dir noch sagen,Wie du unendlich lieb mir bist,Wie dich, so lang mein Herz wird schlagen,Auch meine Seele nie vergißt.Kein Wörtlein solltest du erwidern,Nur freundlich mir in's Auge sehn,Ja, mit gesenkten AugenlidernNur stumm und schweigend vor mir stehn.Ich aber legte meine HändeDir betend auf das schöne Haupt,Damit dir Gott den Frieden sende,Den meiner Seele du geraubt.———Just once yet I would like to tell youHow endlessly dear you are to me,How as long as my heart still beatsMy soul, too, will never forget you.You need not reply with a single word,Just look kindly into my eyes,Yes, with lowered eyelidsJust stand before me, speechless and quiet.But I laid my handsPrayerfully upon your beautiful head,So that God might send you the peaceThat you have stolen from me.Thanks to Sharon Krebs for her help with the English translation.

Carolyn Forché's 46-page poem "On Earth" forms the basis for a song cycle called The Blue Hour, which was composed by five women—Caroline Shaw, Shara Nova, Rachel Grimes, Angelica Negrón, and Sarah Kirkland Snider—and just released on CD this month by Nonesuch and New Amsterdam Records. This episode looks at one of Caroline Shaw's contributions to the cycle, a song that embraces Bach and plainchant and, in just over three minutes, captures the immensity of time and the cosmos. The episode features a recording of the song by the chamber ensemble A Far Cry, with Shara Nova.You can find the score to The Blue Hour here. Please also check out my episode on Caroline Shaw's "A Gradual Dazzle." Firmamentan excerpt from Carolyn Forché's "On Earth"firmament, fissure, flare stars, frottagefragments from the Second Brandenburgfresh wind of the linensfrom a gloved hand a flaming bottlefrom chance to chance, event to eventfrom earth to satellite, event to eventfrom our last train ride through the ricefieldsfrom the cathedral comes Kyrie