A photo dump, but with words

I'm so random (*￣∇￣*)

Well, shut it down, folks. I’ve just come across a paper I wrote my freshman year of college, where I ask the question: “should artists stick to what people perceive they are ‘best’ at, or should integrity and ingenuity prevail?”

Apparently, I’ve been pursuing this same line of questioning since I was a veritable fetus - although I will say that, upon reading the rest of the paper, it seems I was a bit preoccupied with the notion that opera singers *cannot* divert from what is written on the page in any situation; these days I feel I am a bit more open-minded on that particular front.

There’s not a whole lot I can write about in a cohesive way this week: I am roundly preoccupied with my concerts, ever since I was in a meeting on Monday morning and said confidently “I have 2 months left to prepare” and then immediately realized I have 1 month to prepare…so instead of what I normally do (ramble about three things and find a way to tie them together in the last paragraph), I’ll do something completely different (ramble on about three things and not tie them together at all). Isn’t fear a beautiful motivator?

A few days ago I was researching some little-known songs by Ivor Gurney, and upon pasting the name of a song in my Spotify search bar, this playlist came up as the only result:

I’m kind of obsessed with this person who is probably 17 and just went though a breakup (or is possibly in their mid-30s and just went through a breakup because I’m not convinced any 17 year-olds know what Yellow by Coldplay is), mostly because the song title I was searching for was All the words that I utter, which is a piece set to a poem by Yeats, so this person was being unwittingly (I think) quite profound. Anyway, I’ve also been listening to another one of their playlists this week and as the kids would say, it slaps.

In all seriousness, I went into a research hole this week that I have only semi-emerged from. A piece of music I need for one of my concerts was backordered indefinitely, and so I thought I should find something new to sing - again, cut to me sweating slightly and wondering how to tell my collaborative pianist that I wanted to make yet another change to the program. To make a long story short, I spent a full day glued to leider.net, IMSLP and Wikipedia, to no avail. I guess there really is a limited amount of art song out there that is either a) composed by an Irish composer of the late 19th/early 20th century or b) has an Irish poet or librettist, that is about either fairies or the ocean, and is available on IMSLP (meaning it’s free to download). In fact, I think I’ve probably seen every single piece that falls under these categories and have listened to hundreds upon hundreds of recordings out there, ranging from the gorgeous (Patricia Wright, Dame Janet Baker, Kathleen Ferrier) etc, to the ridiculous (I won’t name, but let’s just say I’ve watched a fair few high school and college recitals that have scarred me for life). Ultimately, I wound up ordering a copy of the original song from a different website that *promised me* they had it in stock, so let’s all join hands and pray that it arrives next week.

One nice thing that came from my countless hours of listening was that I came across some really gorgeous stuff. I’ve even started a new playlist of songs I would have programmed if the concert themes were slightly different (and I *may* have the opportunity to perform them at some point if we all just manifest hard enough!). One album that I’ve been loving that I found and has nothing at all to do with art song is by composer Helen Hopekirk. I’ve found that it’s the perfect album for getting work done - in fact, I’m listening to it right now.

Lastly, I wanted to share this poem by Yeats that was apparently set to music by the slightly obscure composer Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley for soprano, flute, oboe, string quartet and piano (before you ask, NO I have not found a recording of it - if you know of one, please send it to me!). I’ve come back to it a few times as I’ve been reading through Yeats’s collection The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems a bunch since I’ve been here. I think it’s one of my absolute favorites of his, and would love to hear it set to music at some point.

Ephemera

"Your eyes that once were never weary of mine
Are bowed in sorrow under pendulous lids,
Because our love is waning."
And then She:
"Although our love is waning, let us stand
By the lone border of the lake once more,
Together in that hour of gentleness
When the poor tired child, passion, falls asleep.
How far away the stars seem, and how far
Is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart!"
Pensive they paced along the faded leaves,
While slowly he whose hand held hers replied:
"Passion has often worn our wandering hearts."
The woods were round them, and the yellow leaves
Fell like faint meteors in the gloom, and once
A rabbit old and lame limped down the path;
Autumn was over him: and now they stood
On the lone border of the lake once more:
Turning, he saw that she had thrust dead leaves
Gathered in silence, dewy as her eyes,
In bosom and hair.
"Ah, do not mourn," he said,
"That we are tired, for other loves await us;
Hate on and love through unrepining hours.
Before us lies eternity; our souls
Are love, and a continual farewell."