Canticles for Jerusalem (Fine, Vivian)

Contents

Performances

Recordings

MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)

⇒ 4 more: 2. This year I traveled far • 3. Light against the Tower of David • 4. By the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137) • 5. Ode to Zion (Judah Halevi)

MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)

MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)

MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/6/30)

MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/6/30)

Publisher Info. Vivian Fine Estate
Performers Maria Tegzes, soprano and Geoffrey Burleson, piano
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Sheet Music

Scores

PDF scanned by Paul Hawkins
Rhymes&chymes (2012/2/7)

Publisher. Info. Vivian Fine Estate
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General Information

Work Title Canticles for Jerusalem
Alternative. Title
Composer Fine, Vivian
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. IVF 6
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's 5 sections
  1. My heart’s in the East
  2. This year I traveled far
  3. Light against the Tower of David
  4. By the rivers of Babylon
  5. Ode to Zion
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. 1983
First Performance. 1989-04-16, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Maria Tegzes, soprano and Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Librettist Judah Halevi (transl. by Robert Alter and T. Carmi), Yehuda Amichai (transl. by Harold Schimmel), Psalm CXXXVII from the Old Testament
Language English and Hebrew
Average DurationAvg. Duration 15-20 minutes
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period Modern
Piece Style Modern
Instrumentation mezzo-soprano and piano
External Links Vivian Fine website

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Commissioned by Stephanie Friedman and Lois Brandynne


Fine titles the Canticles a song cycle, a new term for her. There are five songs using various Hebrew texts in translations, but together they form a whole, with the first song, “My heart’s in the East,” describing the desire to return to Jerusalem. The song begins with a beautiful unaccompanied melismatic vocal phrase whose head motif, C-B flat-G flat and other pitches, are re-used in this and later songs. The piano provides the unity and dramatic expression for the cycle.

…The second song, “This year I traveled far,” describes the visit to Jerusalem, which is coupled with interior suffering: “but the howl I heard within is still from my Judean desert.”….The third song, “Light against the Tower of David,” is marked “Joyous,” which is portrayed by the accompaniment’s rapid figuration. At times segments of the figuration are heard as a slower moving vocal melody. Even more unity is achieved when part of a phrase from song two, originally unaccompanied, is reset with new text and accompaniment …The fourth song, “By the rivers of Babylon,” is Psalm 137 and forms a contrast in the cycle. Strummed chords on the piano strings evoke the harps mentioned in the psalm….The final song, “Ode to Zion,” is recapitulatory. Phrase segments from previous vocal lines and dyads from the opening accompaniment to “My heart’s in the East” return. A prominent melody from the last song later becomes part of a piano interlude and an ending canonic passage. Although each song is focused upon a particular expression, such as longing or light, Fine treated the five songs as part of a whole rather than as four or five independent songs, as in her earlier groupings.

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


Fine later made an instrumental version of this work. See: http://imslp.org/wiki/Canticles_from_the_Other_Side_of_the_River_(Fine,_Vivian).

Also recorded on Milken Archive 0804.