Music Expresses - Settings of British Poetry and Folksongs April 25, 2010

San Francisco Lyric Chorus present "Music Expresses," settings of British poetry and folksongs, with Robert Train Adams, Music Director
and Jerome Lenk, Piano.

"Music expresses what cannot be put into words and which cannot remain unsaid." —Victor Hugo

Robert Train Adams - Music Expresses; Ralph Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music, Springtime of the Year, Dark Eyed Sailor; Gerald Finzi - My Spirit Sang All Day, I Praise the Tender Flower, Haste On, My Joys!; George Shearing - Music to Hear; Matthew Harris - Shakespeare Songs, Book I; Gustav Holst - I Love My Love; Jonathan Quick - Loch Lomond; Halsey Stevens - Like as the Culver; Robert Pearsall - Lay a Garland; J. David Moore - Searching for Lambs.

The San Francisco Lyric Chorus, under the direction of Music Director, Robert Train Adams, presents: Music Expresses, a wonderful variety of British folksong and poetry settings.

Our theme, Music Expresses, is a statement by the French poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, artist, statesman, and human rights activist, Victor Hugo (1802-1885), “Music expresses what cannot be put into words and which cannot remain unsaid.” Music Director Robert Train Adams has composed a beautiful setting for this meaningful text.

Our major work, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, is a lush and Romantic setting of texts from Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in which the characters discuss music and the music of the spheres. Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) also was a major figure in the preservation of the British folk song, and we present two of his examples, Springtime of the Year and Dark Eyed Sailor.

In 1934, composer Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) set seven of English poet laureate Robert Bridges’ (1844-1930) poems as unaccompanied part songs. We sing I Praise the Tender Flower, My Spirit Sang All Day, and Haste On, My Joys! from this set.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934), English composer and partner of Ralph Vaughan Williams in saving the British folk song, is represented by his passionate and creative setting of I Love My Love.

Anglo-American jazz pianist and ensemble leader George Shearing (1919- ), known for his composition Lullaby Of Birdland, has both a gentle and whimsical approach to setting Shakespeare texts in his Music to Hear.

Probably his most famous work, Victorian composer Robert Pearsall’s (1795-1856) eight-part Lay a Garland is a wonderful example of the 19th century English madrigal revival. With text from Beaumont and Fletcher’s The Maid’s Tragedy (1608-1611), this exquisite composition demonstrates Pearsall’s gifts in setting part songs.

American composer and academic Halsey Stevens (1908-1989) creates a plaintive setting of Edmund Spenser’s (1552-1599) gentle poem, Like as the Culver.

American composer Matthew Harris (1956- ) chooses a variety of moods for his settings of texts from Shakespeare plays in Book I of his Shakespeare Songs.

Minnesota composer J. David Moore (1962- ) and Canadian composer Jonathan Quick each have created powerful settings of British folk songs, Moore’s Searching for Lambs (English) and Quick’s Loch Lomond (Scottish).

Further information at http://www.sflc.org