Inception of the Art Song: Germany, France, Italy and England
In Joon Yang, tenor Carl Cranmer, piano
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Ware Family Recital Hall
Swope Music Building 7:30 PM
ARTIST PROFILES
In Joon Yang, tenor, DMA, is a native of Seoul, Korea, and began his voice studies at the age of fifteen. He entered Seoul National University as a voice student. During his time as a student, he was already recognized for his talent when he debuted as a professional singer as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic flute at the Seoul Art Center. Upon graduation, he pursued further studies in the United States, earning a Master of Music degree from Temple University, and later obtaining a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the same university. While studying at Temple University, Dr. Yang was a district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and he was subsequently selected for the Lake George Opera Young Artist Program, one of the most prestigious artist programs in the United States, making his American debut as Don José in the opera Carmen. Following this, Dr. Yang went on to perform leading roles in over 30 operas in both the United States and South Korea including Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, title role in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, Alfred in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata, Duca in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Mayor in Britten’s Albert Herring, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, and title role in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. He also made his debut at Carnegie Hall as the soloist in Beethoven's Choral Symphony with the World Civic Orchestra, and performed as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, J. S. Bach’s Matthew’s Passion, and Bruckner’s Te Deum, among hundreds of other concerts. Dr. Yang served as an adjunct professor at Temple University and is currently an associate professor at the music education department of the Gongju National University in Gongju, South Korea.
Carl Cranmer made his orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age nine, playing Mozart’s Concerto in A Major, K. 488. In addition to solo recitals in Europe, Asia, and North America, he has performed with the Royal Philharmonic of England, the Gulbenkian Orquesta of Portugal, the Juilliard Orchestra and several other orchestras in the U.S. and Asia. Cranmer has performed chamber music with the Grammy-winning Takacs Quartet, violinist Axel Strauss and Akiko Suwanai, and tenor Robert White,among others. The New York Times’ James Oesterreich, commenting on his Liszt 2nd Concerto performance with the Juilliard Orchestra said, “He made light work of Liszt’s fiendishly demanding octaves, scales, and glissandos, showing a fine lyrical strain to boot. And he did it all with lovely, controlled tone.”
In recent years he performed the quartet version of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Dali Quartet, solo recitals in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Xian, China and Seoul, South Korea, and Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Helena Symphony and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony in 2020. In recent years his solo recitals have been in Anchorage, AK, Salt Lake City, UT and Guangzhou, China. In summer 2019 he was a member of the teaching faculty of the Aruba Symphony International Music Festival His performances have been televised in Madrid, Tokyo, Montreal, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, and have been aired on American National Public Radio, and radio stations in Tokyo, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Boston, and Atlanta. Cranmer performed two solo concert tours of Spain after winning the Spanish Music and Finalist Prizes in the Santander Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition in Santander, and he was also the Grand Prize winner of the Missouri Southern Piano Competition. He has also performed solo concerts in France, England, Austria, Japan, South Korea, China, and Canada. His recordings include “Soirée,” an album of the music of Poulenc, Fauré, Liszt, Granados, West Chester native Samuel Barber, and a CD of the complete published solo piano music of Barber. He also recorded Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Russian Philharmonic in 2008. In 2025 he will record select two-piano works of Rachmaninov and Medtner with pianist Young-Ah Tak. Cranmer has performed in Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Weill Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Academy of Music, Verizon Hall and the Perelman Theater in Philadelphia. In 2024, some of Cranmer’s performances include the Gershwin F major Concerto with the Grand Symphony orchestra in Korea and Helena Symphony orchestras, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, and many recitals of the cello and piano works of Brahms and Beethoven with 'cellist Ovidiu Marinescu.
Cranmer currently a professor of piano at the Wells School of Music at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. In 2016 he became Visiting Artist at the new Guangdong Open College-Conservatory in Foshan, China, and in August 2018 he was invited to be a juror of the international jury for the 12th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition in Foshan, China. Cranmer founded and was the director of the American Summer International Piano Forum (APF) at West Chester University, formed in 2016. Cranmer is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Robert Shannon, and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Martin Canin and received his Professional Studies Certificate and Master and Doctoral degrees.
Inception of the Art Song: Germany, France, Italy and England
An examination of the history of art song in Germany, France, Italy, and England reveals a notable parallel: each nation features pioneering composers who established foundational frameworks for their art songs, followed by figures who heralded the emergence of distinctive styles within their respective traditions. Composers such as Schubert, who succeeded Beethoven; Fauré, who followed Berlioz; Tosti, a successor to Rossini; and Quilter who built upon Elgar’s legacy, occupy comparable positions in the landscape of art song, despite the differing contexts of their eras. The works of these composers not only embody unique literary and musical characteristics intrinsic to their nations but also boast substantial repertoires each having composed at least 100 songs rendering them indispensable to the canon of Western music history. Schubert, often referred to as the king of art songs, effectively demonstrated the full spectrum of song composition through his extensive oeuvre of over 600 works. The piece performed today is drawn from his posthumously published collection Schwanengesang (Swan Song), exemplifying the quintessence of Schubert’s contributions to the genre. Fauré’s songs can be categorized into three distinct periods, with the selections featured in today’s performance origination from his early works. These compositions, characterized by their beautiful melodies and unique French harmonic sensibilities, aptly illustrate why Fauré is esteemed as a master of French art song.
Despite being an inheritor of the legacy of eminent opera composers in Italy, Tosti surprisingly never composed any operas. Nonetheless, his songs manifest the popular appeal associated with Italian opera. His repertoire, ranging from folk tunes to art songs and salon music, features some of the most familiar melodies, making them favorites among classical singers.
Quilter’s art songs, distinguished by their emotive and lyrical melodies complemented by sensuous and colored piano accompaniments, rank among the most frequently performed English songs of the 20th century. His settings of Shakespearean texts particularly underscore his significance as a pivotal figure in the development of English art song.
TRANSLATIONS
Liebesbotschaft (The messenger of love)
Rushing little stream, so silver and bright, do you hurry to my beloved, so lively and light? Ah, dear little stream, be my messenger true; bring her my greetings from far away to you. All the flowers she tends in her lovely garden, which she holds close to her heart so pardon, And her roses, in crimson glow, refresh them, little stream, with your cooling flow. When she’s by the bank, lost in her dreams, thinking of me, her head softly leans; Comfort the sweet one with a friendly glance, for her beloved will soon return, perchance. As the sun sets with a reddish hue, rock her to slumber, my darling, so true. Gently murmuring, bring her sweet rest, whisper her dreams of love at its best.
Kriegers Ahnung (A soldier’s intuition)
In deep repose, around me lies the circle of my comrades brave; My heart feels heavy, filled with sighs, with longing’s heat, I crave. How often have I sweetly rested against her warm embrace! How friendly seemed the glow, invested, when she lay in my space! Here, where the flames’ dark light only dances on the steel, Here, my heart feels so alone, and tears of sorrow reveal. Heart! May comfort not depart! Many battles still await. Soon I will rest and sleep so tight, my dearest-good night!
Ständchen (Serenade)
Softly my songs entreat through the night to you; in the quite grove below, my dear, come to me, too! Whispering slender treetops sway in the moon’s soft light; fear not, beloved, the traitor’s play, for I’m with you tonight. Do you hear the nightingales calling? Ah! They plead for you, with sweet tones of sorrow falling, they plead for me too. The understand the heart’s desire, know of love’s deep pain, touching with their silver choir every tender vein. Let your heart, too, be stirred, my love, hear my plea! I await you, trembling and blurred; come, bring joy to me!
Aufenthalt (Dwelling)
Rushing stream, roaring wood, staring rock, my place of rest. As wave upon wave in endless years that are always mine. High in the crowns, waves gently sway, so unceasingly my heart bears away. And like the ancient ore of the rock so old, forever the same will my pain unfold.
Die Taubenpost (The pigeon post)
I have a carrier pigeon in my service, she’s devoted and true, she never falls short of her aim, and never flies askew. I send her out countless times on errands every day, past many a lovely place, to my beloved’s way. There she peeks in through the window, eavesdropping on her glance and stride, Delivering my greetings playfully and taking hers in stride. No little note do I need to write, I send her my very tears: Oh, she surely cannot bear them, so eagerly she appears. By day, by night, in wake and dream, for her it’s all the same: If she can just wander forth, then she’s rich with her aim! She never tires, she never grows faint, the path is always new; she needs no lure, she needs no reward, this pigeon is true! That’s way I hold her close to my heart, assured of the sweetest prize; Her name is-longing! Do you know her? The messenger of loyal ties.
Nell (Nell)
Your purple rose in your bright sunlight, O June, sparkling with intoxication, Bend your golden cup toward me, too: My heart is like your rose. Under the gentle shelter of leafy shade, a sigh of pleasure begins to rise; Many a dove sings in the secluded wood. O my heart, its plaintive love cries. How sweet is your pearl in the fragrant sky, star of the pensive night! But how much sweeter is the bright clarity that shines in my heart, in my charmed heart! The singing sea along the shore will hush its eternal murmur, Before in my heart, dear love, o Nell, your image no longer blooms.
Après un rêve (After a dream)
In a sleep enchanted by your image, I dreamed of happiness, a burning mirage, Your eyes were sweeter, your voice pure and clear, you shone like a sky lit by dawn’s first cheer; You called to me, and I left the earth to flee with you toward the light’s rebirth, The heavens opened their clouds for us, unknown splendors, divine glimmers discussed. Alas! Sad awakening from dreams, I call to you, O night, give back your schemes, Return, radiant one, come back, O mysterious night, my sun!
Mai (May)
Since May calls us with flowers in the fields, come! Do not tire of mingling with your soul The countryside, the woods, the charming shade, the wide moonlit clearings by the sleeping waves, The path that ends where the road begins, and the air and spring and the vast horizon, The horizon that this world binds, humble and joyful, like a lip at the hem of the robe of the skies! Come! And let the gaze of the modest stars that falls upon the earth through so many veils, Let the tree filled with perfumes and songs, Let the fiery breath of noon in the fields, And the shadow and the sun, and the wave and the greenery, and the radiance of all nature Cause to bloom, like a double flower, beauty upon your brow and love in your heart!
Automne (Autumn)
Autumn in the misty sky, with sorrowful horizons, with swift sunsets and pale dawns, I watch your days flow, like the water of torrents, made of melancholy. On the wings of regret, my spirits carried away as if it were possible for our youth to be reborn! Wander, dreaming, through the enchanted hills where my youth once smiled. I feel, in the clear sunlight of victorious memory, the roses unfurling in bouquets, And tears rise to my eyes that in my heart, my twenty years had forgotten!
Fleur jetée (Discarded flower)
Carry away my folly on the whim of the wind, a flower gathered in song and cast aside in dreaming Like the cut flower, love perished: The hand that touched you fleets from my hand without return. May the wind that dried you, O poor flower, just a moment ago so fresh, and tomorrow colorless
Non t’amo piu (I no longer love you)
Do you still remember the day we met? Do you still recall your promises? Mad with love, I follower you we loved, and beside you, I dreamed, mad with love. I dreamed happily, of caresses and kisses, a chain dissolving in the sky; But your words were deceitful for your soul is made of ice. Do you still remember? Now my faith, the immense desire, my dream of love you are no longer you: I dream of another ideal; I no longer love you. In the dear days we spent together, I scattered flowers along your path You were the only hope of my heart; you were the only thought in my mind. You saw me pray, you saw me turn pale, you saw me cry before you; Just to satisfy your desire I would have given my blood and my faith.
Ideale (Ideal)
I followed you like a rainbow of peace along the paths of the sky: I followed you like a friendly face in the veil of the night. And I felt you in the light, in the air, in the scent of the flowers; And the solitary room was full of you, of your splendors. Captivated by you, at the sound of your voice, I dreamed for a long time; And I forgot every burden, every cross, in that dream of mine. Come back, dear ideal, come back for a moment to smile at me once more, And to me will shine, in your form, a new dawn.
Malia (Enchantment)
What was in the flower you gave me? Perhaps a potion, a hidden power? When I touched it, my heart trembled, its fragrance disturbed my thoughts. What vague movements do you possess? Does an enchantment perhaps come with you? The air quivers where you go, a flower blooms where your foot passes. I do not ask what blessed would you have lingered in until now: I do not ask if you are a Nymph, a Fairy, if you are a blonde apparition! But what is in your fatal gaze? What do you have in your magical words? If you look at me, a dizzy spell overwhelms me, if you speak to me, I feel I could die!
Tristezza (Sadness)
Look; far, far away the sun dies in the waves; flocks of birds return to the plain. A melancholy I feel in my heart and yet I do not know why; looking into your eyes, oh my beauty, I silently hold you close. A shadow covers things, the sky, the sea; I feel tears trembling in my eyes. The “Ave Maria” plays and it is so sad and yet I do not know why: You pray devoutly, oh my beauty, I pray along with you. Tender in the evening that fills with light, from the heart of our lovers the prayer rises. And the melancholy makes me think and yet I do not know why, That one day, alas, my like will have to lose the dream and you!
L’ultima canzone (The last song)
They told me that tomorrow Nina, you will be wed, and I still sing you the serenade. There in the desolate plains, there in the shadowy valley, oh, how many times I have sung it to you!
Leaf of a rose O flower of amaranth, if you become a bride, I will always be by your side. Tomorrow you will have around you festivities, smiles, and flowers, nor will you think of our old loves. But always, night and day, full of passion, my song will come to you, lamenting. Leaf of mint, O flower of pomegranate, Nina, remember the kisses I gave you!
Go, lovely rose!
Go, lovely rose! Tell her, that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, when I resemble her to thee, how sweet and fair she seems to be. Tell her that’s young, and shuns to have her graces spied
That hadst thou sprung in deserts, where no men abide, thou must have uncommended died. Small is the worth of beauty from the light retired; Bid her come forth, suffer herself to be desired, and not blush so to be admired. Then die! That she the common fate of all things rare
May read in thee: How small a part of time they share that are so wondrous sweet and fair!
Autumn evening
The yellow poplar leaves have strown thy quite mound, thou slumberest Where winter’s wind will be unknown; so deep thy rest. Sleep on, my love, thy dreams are sweet, if thou hast dreams: the flowers I brought I lay aside for passing feet, thou needest nought.
The grapes are gathered from the hills, the wood is piled, the song bird gone, The breath of early evening chills; my love, sleep on.
It was a lover and his lass
It was a lover and his lass, with a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino
That o’er the green corn-field did pass. In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding; sweet lovers love the spring. Between the acres of the rye, with a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty country folks would lie, in the spring time, the only pretty ring time; This carol they began that hour; with a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, How that a like was but a flower in the spring time, the only pretty ring time, And therefore take the present time with a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, For love is crownéd with the prime in the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
Fear no more the heat o’the sun
Fear no more the hear o’the sun, nor the furious winter’s rages; thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages: Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o’the great thou art past the tyrant’s stroke; care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak: The sceptre, learning, physic, must all follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning flash, nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone; fear not slander, censure rash; Thou hast finish’d joy and moan: All lovers young, all lovers must consign to thee, and come to dust. No exorciser harm thee! Nor no witchcraft charm thee! Ghost unlaid forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have; and renowned be thy grave!
When that I was and a little tiny boy
When that I was and a little tiny boy, with hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy, for the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate, ‘gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, But when I came, alas! To wive, by swaggering could I never thrive, A great while ago the world begun, but that’s all one, our play is done, And we’ll strive to please you every day.
UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS
