After Love
Composer: Stephen Chatman Text author: Sara Teasdale Publisher: E.C. Schirmer Music Co. Abstract: In Sara Teasdale’s poem After Love, the opening line “There is no magic any more” establishes the theme of vanishing love. This setting of the poignant text, in the dark key of D-flat major, emphasizes the natural rhythm of the words, mixed meters, and irregular […]
Joy
Composer: Stephen Chatman Text author: Sara Teasdale Publisher: E.C. Schirmer Music Co. Abstract: This piece is a fast, joyous outburst with the initial lines “I am wild, I will sing to the trees” setting the jubilant tone. The perpetual motion of the syllabic stepwise vocal lines is punctuated by staccato chords and, eventually, high arpeggio figures in the […]
Listen, I Love You
Composer: Stephen Chatman Text author: Sara Teasdale Publisher: E.C. Schirmer Music Co. Abstract: The opening lines, “Listen, I love you. Do not turn your face / Nor touch me” reflect the somber feelings encompassing Sara Teasdale’s poem. Paired voices initially express contrapuntal melodic lines enhanced by underlying harmony and slow syncopation in the piano accompaniment. The middle and […]
Love Me
Composer: Stephen Chatman Text author: Sara Teasdale Publisher: E.C. Schirmer Music Co. Abstract: This setting of Sara Teasdale’s whimsical poem pertaining to a brown-thrush, love, and kisses emulates the meaning, strict rhythm, rhyme, and strophic structure of the text. The soft rolled chords of the harp-like piano accompaniment highlight the lilting 6/8-meter, folk-like melody, and consistent homophonic choral […]
The Mystery
Composer: Stephen Chatman Text author: Sara Teasdale Publisher: E.C. Schirmer Music Co. Abstract: This expressive setting of Sara Teadale’s poem The Mystery, which depicts deep lasting love, begins with a unison melody, supported by modulating harmonies in the piano accompaniment, and evolves toward four-part voices. The middle section, featuring rising vocal lines in imitative counterpoint, precedes a return to the […]
How Many Kinds of Rhythm Are There?
Author: Tenzer, Michael Publication details: The Philosophy of Rhythm: Aesthetics, Music, Poetics, edited by Peter Cheyne, Andy Hamilton, and Max Paddison, 199-215. New York: Oxford, 2019. Weblink: https://oxfordscholarship.com Abstract: The universe of possible rhythms comprises a timescape with a timescape embedded within it; that is, the full complement of rhythms that can be imagined engulfs […]
Experiencing Resonance as a Practice of Ritual Engagement
Author: Julia Ulehla, Manulani Aluli-Meyer, Delphine Armstrong, Mariel Belanger, Jill Carter, Cori Derickson, Claire Fogal, Vicki Kelly, Carolyn Kenny, Virginie Magnat, Joseph Naytowhow, and Winston Wuttunee Publication details: In Research and Reconciliation: Unsettling Ways of Knowing Through Indigenous Relationships, edited by Shawn Wilson, Adrea V. Breen, and Lindsay Dupré, 157-178. Toronto: Canadian Scholars, 2019 Weblink: ebookcentral.proquest.com Description: In this […]
Musicalische Friedens-Freud: the Westphalian Peace and Music in Protestant Nuremberg
Author: Fisher, Alexander Publication details: Rethinking Europe: War and Peace in the Early Modern German Lands, edited by Gerhild Scholz Williams, Sigrun Haude and Christian Schneider, 277-99. Chloe 48. Leiden: Brill, 2019. Weblink: https://go.exlibris.link/FYz6Jw52
Timely Negotiations: Formative Interactions in Cyclic Duets
Author: Roeder, John Publication details: Analytical Approaches to World Music 7, no. 1 (2019) Weblink: https://aawmjournal.com Abstract: Susanne Fürniss’s (2006) magisterial survey of Aka polyphony analyzes a remarkable duet in which each singer draws material from a regularly repeating cycle but varies it on the fly to complement her partner’s likewise varying repetitions. This texture […]
Naming and Singing the Psalter in Counter-Reformation Germany
Author: Fisher, Alexander Publication details: In Names and Naming in Early Modern Germany, edited by Joel F. Harrington and Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, 87-108. New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2019. Weblink: https://go.exlibris.link/tH46cDHx