Program/Peformance notes:
Songs of the Poet is a song cycle, not in the sense
of telling a narrative, but rather in depicting some of the major themes
set forth by Walt Whitman—albeit set with a dramatic arc. The
composer chose a rather traditional tonal framework for the songs because
he felt that this best conveyed the intense passions portrayed in the
poetry. The cycle begins on an ambiguous D-major-minor tonal center
but ends triumphantly in D major. In all of Mathews’s songs the
piano plays an equal role with the singer. His grouping of Whitman poems
deals with the essentiality of love to the human spirit and its redeeming
qualities, even when unrequited; the enormous importance of music and
nature to Whitman’s writing; how the artist’s work mirrors
the essence of his being; and the transcendence of the soul. The title
for the cycle was chosen because of the inordinate number of instances
in which Whitman refers to his poems as songs.
In Sometimes With One I Love, Whitman expresses his belief
that love, even when “unreturn’d,” is of imminent
value. Mathews expresses the rejection with great passion, which then
serves as the catalyst of artistic creation. In Ned Rorem’s fascinating
but divergent approach to this same poem, he seemingly treated the rejection
with resignation.
That Music Always Round Me is Whitman’s paean to music—not
only performed music, but the music in nature and in everyday events.
Mathews treats the various performers referred to in the poem as a full
orchestra with vocal soloists, whose musical lines are suspended above
the impressionistic arpeggio figures of the accompaniment.
Here The Frailest Leaves of Me is the simplest and most melodically
accessible song in the cycle. Harmonically and melodically, here Mathews
summons the hues and contours of the great French melodist, Francis
Poulenc.
Tears is the most tragic, and, consequently, the most dissonant
song in the cycle. Mathews uses polychordal harmonies (e.g., a B-minor
chord superimposed over a C-minor chord) to convey the overwhelming
force of tragic loss. The powerful agitato section requires the performer
to impart a dark descent almost into madness, before coming to a more
reflective calm.
As the Time Draws Nigh is one Whitman’s many poems contemplating
the soul and the preparations for an impending death. Mathews uses the
second mode of the A melodic minor scale (i.e., B, C, D, E, F-Sharp,
G-Sharp, A, B), juxtaposed with the second mode of the C melodic minor
scale (i.e., D, E-Flat, F, G, A, B, C, D) to create an unworldly sound.
The scales commingle and eventually evolve into a B-major scale as death
is accepted as a natural part of life. Though not specifically religious
in nature, the song is suitable for certain religious services.
Grand is The Seen is the most overtly joyous piece in the cycle,
celebrating the individual and his or her place in the universe. The
song is set to an almost virtuosic accompaniment.
The Last Invocation evokes through sumptuous melody the transcendence
of the soul as it frees itself from its bodily prison. This song won
Mathews the Recognition of Excellence award at the Fifth Diana Barnhart
American Art Song Competition in 2003 (adjudicators were John Harbison,
composer of the opera The Great Gatsby, and tenor Paul Sperry).
The song is suitable in both secular contexts and as part of a sacred
service.
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