Episode 174. Song of Songs
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SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
This week is a continuation of my memorial tribute to my dear friend and colleague Susan May Schneider, who died last week after a long struggle with cancer. Susan’s husband Gary, a composer and conductor, wrote a stunning song cycle for Susan using texts from the biblical Song of Songs, and this episode is bookended with their live 2000 performance of two of those songs. I supplement this with further material which all use texts based on the Song of Songs. This includes choral works by composers from Brumel and Palestrina, Walton and Bairstow to Penderecki and Daniel-Lesur; pop songs by India Adams and Kate Bush; orchestral song cycles, cantatas, and oratorios performed by Lois Marshall, Elly Ameling, Jennie Tourel, Leontyne Price, Eleanor Steber, and Suzanne Danco; and works from such surprising compositional sources as Stockhausen and Vangelis.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gary M. Schneider: On my bed at night (Song of Songs, No. 1). Susan May Schneider, Gary Schneider [live Montclair, NJ 2000]
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Osculetur me osculo oris sui (Canticum Canticorum). Paul Hillier, Hilliard Ensemble [Lynne Dawson, Gillian Fisher, Michael Chance, David James, Rogers Covey-Crump, John Potter, Neville Boyling, Michael George] [1986]
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Momente, Part I (1965 version) [excerpt]. Martina Arroyo, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Aloys Kontarsky, Alfons Kontarsky, Kölner Rundfunkchor & Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester [1965]
Claudio Monteverdi: Nigra sum (Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610). Philip Langridge, John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Orchestra [1975]
Lukas Foss: Awake, o north wind (Song of Songs, No. 1). Jennie Tourel, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic [1960]
Antoine Brumel: Sicut lilium inter spinas. Joseph Jennings, Chanticleer [Louis Botto, Joseph Jennings, Stephen Rickards, Randall Wong, Mark Daniel, Neal Rogers, Bruce Sellers, Howard Bither, Tom Hart, Tim Gibler, Paul Guttry Mark Keller] [1991]
Herbert Elwell: I am the rose of Sharon (Pastorale, No. 2). Lois Marshall, Ernest MacMillan, Toronto Symphony Orchestra [1953]
Vic Mazzy, Jack Gould: Comfort Me with Apples. India Adams, Ray Martin & His Orchestra [1959]
Kate Bush: Song of Solomon [from The Red Shoes, 1993]
Edward Bairstow: I sat down under his shadow. Mark Williams, Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge [2014]
Two excerpts from Songs of the Rose of Sharon, Op. 9, by John LaMontaine:
I sat down under his shadow (Songs of the Rose of Sharon, Op. 6/3). Eleanor Steber, Nicholas Harsanyi, Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra [live Trenton 13.I.62]
The voice of my beloved (Songs of the Rose of Sharon, Op. 6/6). Leontyne Price, Howard Mitchell, National Symphony [live Washington 31.V.56 (world premiere)]
Krzysztof Penderecki: Canticum Canticorum Salomonis [excerpt]. Jerzy Katlewicz, Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir [1976]
Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur: Le songe (La cantique des cantiques). Eric Ericson, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir [1987]
Bertus van Lier: I sleep, but my heart waketh (Het Hooglied). Elly Ameling, Bernard Haitink, Concertgebouw Orchestra [live Amsterdam 18.XII.66]
Emmanuel Chabrier, Jean Richepin [after the Song of Songs]: Comme des javelines (La Sulamite). Suzanne Danco, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande [live 23.X.45]
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edmund Spenser [after the Song of Songs]: Wake Now (Epithalamion). Stephen Roberts, David Willcocks, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach Choir [1987]
Benjamin Britten, Francis Quarles [after the Song of Solomon]: My beloved is mind and I am his (Canticle I, Op. 40). Peter Pears, Sviatoslav Richter [live Aldeburgh 20.VI.67]
Vangelis: Asma Asmaton [excerpt]. Irene Papas, Vangelis [1986]
William Walton: Set me as a seal upon thine heart. Stephen Cleobury, Gautaum Rangarajan, Choir of King’s College Cambridge [1993]
Gary M. Schneider: I am my beloved’s and he is mine (Song of Songs). Susan May Schneider, Gary Schneider [live Montclair, NJ 2000]