5 Victorian Songs (Fine, Vivian)

Contents

Performances

Recordings

MP3 file (audio)
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

4 more: 2. Cadmus and Harmonia • 3. Spring and Fall: to a young child • 4. Invictus • 5. Sonnet from the Portuguese

MP3 file (audio)
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

Publisher Info. Vivian Fine Estate
Performers The Capitol Chamber Artists
Janet Stasio, soprano; Mary Lou Saetta, violin and viola;
Irvin Gilman, flute; Charles Stancampiano, clarinet; Ann Alton, cello
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Sheet Music

Scores

PDF typeset by Paul Hawkins
rhymesandchymes (2012/3/20)

Publisher. Info. Vivian Fine Estate
Copyright
Misc. Notes See also Four Victorian Songs, a scoring for piano and voice of four of the songs.
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General Information

Work Title Five Victorian Songs
Alternative. Title
Composer Fine, Vivian
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. IVF 80
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's Five songs:
  1. Aloof
  2. Cadmus and Harmonia
  3. Spring and Fall: to a young child
  4. Invictus
  5. Sonnet from the Portuguese
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. 1988
First Performance. 1988-03-04 at Green Mountain College, Poultney, Vermont.
Janet Stasio, soprano, Mary Lou Saetta, violin and viola, Irvin Gilman, flute, Charles Stancampiano, clarinet, Ann Alton, cello
Librettist see listing
  1. Christina Rossetti
  2. Matthew Arnold
  3. Gerard Manley Hopkins
  4. William Ernest Henley
  5. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Language English
Average DurationAvg. Duration 17 minutes
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period Modern
Piece Style Modern
Instrumentation Soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello

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Commissioned by the Capitol Chamber Artists


Fifty-five years earlier Fine wrote Four Songs (1933) for soprano and string quartet, then The Great Wall of China (1947) for soprano, flute, violin, cello, and piano, followed by The Confession (1963), for soprano, flute, strings, and piano, the stunning Missa Brevis for Four Cellos and Taped Voice (1972), and the more recent Ode to Henry Purcell (1984) a song cycle for soprano and string quartet.

Five Victorian Songs is in the same tradition of her most challenging music….Fine was careful to observe rhythmic subtleties of the texts, generally writing syllabically and aiming for vocal clarity. Her recent contrapuntal emphasis is apparent…however, there is a greater unity between the singer and instruments than before.

Each song has a unifying feature. In 'Cadmus and Harmonia' by Matthew Arnold, the flute and clarinet have snakelike figures portraying Cadmus’s and Harmonia’s final state while the violin doubles the soprano….In the other songs Fine has a previous vocal melody be an instrumental counterpoint to a new vocal line. In 1991 she scored the collection as Four Victorian Songs for piano and voice, thinning the canonic textures and omitting one of the poems.

—Heidi Von Gunden, The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press, 1999