Show 111: Duets

[Added on 2015/7/18:  This used to be called Show 11.  I've renumbered the shows, so that this one is Show111.  The July 4th show for this year will be numbered numbered Show201, and so on.  If you didn't figure this out yet, my first show aired the week of July 4th, 2014.]

Show 11, Part A
Show 11, Part B

NPR, or at least our local NPR station, was doing duets last week, so I thought we should do some, too.

There are only a few actual duets in the program; unfortunately, a  lot of what we might regard informally as duets are not classified as such in classical music; they're called either Double Concertos, where there are two soloists playing a multi-movement work with orchestra; or Sonata for two instruments, and so on.  In opera of course, as you can imagine, there are lots of duets.

The situation is worse.  If two instruments are accompanied by a piano, for instance, it really qualifies as a Trio, because in classical music, whenever only three instruments are involved, it is invariably a trio, whereas if only two instruments are involved, such as in a violin sonata accompanied by piano, it is called a violin sonata, quite unfairly.  Anyhoo ...
 
Introduction
Collaboration between two people often leads to interesting performances or pieces.  Last week we already looked at Double Concertos, where two soloists are featured in the same concerto.  The essence of a concerto is the dramatic contrast between either the soloist —or soloists— and the orchestra, or between one soloist and another.  In the Brahms Double Concerto, the violin and the cello were most definitely on the same side, and sometimes this is the case.

Bach: Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe
Bach wrote a number of concertos in his thirties, and then, when he moved to the great city of Leipzig to take up the post of the music director at St. Thomas’s Church and School there, he had several talented sons who were already excellent keyboardists, and he reworked his violin concertos as harpsichord concertos.

One of the best known was the Double Concerto in D minor, BWV 1060.  Bach music scholars studied this concerto, and came to the conclusion that it was really a rewrite of an earlier concerto for violin and oboe.  Here’s a snippet of the actually existing two-harpsichord double concerto:

As you must have noticed, that was actually two pianos and strings, not even harpsichords, so it’s a bit of a ripoff right there.  Anyway, here’s the conjectural violin and oboe concerto, as reconstructed by Christopher Hogwood.  This is the first movement.

Mozart: Pamina and Papageno duet, from Magic Flute
Mozart’s Magic Flute was not a traditional opera.  It is much more like opera today than when it was first performed; if you saw Amadeus, you might have got this strong impression.  The basic plot is that a wandering oriental prince, Tamino, is sent to “rescue” the daughter of the Queen of the Night, with the help of an innocent birdcatcher, Papageno, and a couple of magical objects: a magic glockenspiel, and a magic flute.

When they get near to where the girl Pamina happens to be, our intrepid duo get split up, and Papageno finds himself with Pamina, and they sing this quite unexpected little philosophy, about men and women and stuff like that.  It is just lovely, especially, to my mind, as the two young people are not romantically involved.  You might recognize it, because the tune has been used as the basis of a hymn-tune.

Don’t fall in love with a dreamer
Kenny Rogers sang some songs that I really like.  This is Don’t fall in love with a dreamer, which he sings with Kim Carnes.

Handel: The trumpet shall sound    The great baritone William Warfield has been unjustly neglected in my opinion.  He sang in the movie Showboat, and was a featured performer in a dozen major Broadway productions, and a few opera.
The aria The Trumpet shall Sound, from Messiah, is a sort of duet for Bass and Trumpet.  Here it is sung by William Warfield and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Beatles: If I fell
This lovely song was featured in A Hard Day’s Night.  It is a signature duet by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Bach: trio Sonata in E Flat, BWV 525
This is a piece I’ve played (for you) before, but here is it played by a flute and an Oboe.

Delibes: Flower duet from Lakme
One time I was traveling from New York to Colombo, passing through London, when for some reason the plane I was on was full, and because I did not have an overnight visa for London I was put on a plane to Bangkok.  That plane was almost empty, and I was boarded, and this amazing song came on, with an even more amazing video.  That video is on YouTube, just look for Opera Extraordinaire.  [Added later: this video has vanished from YouTube; there must be some interesting story behind the disappearance.]

This is from an opera by Leo Delibes, called The Pearl Fishers, which is, incidentally, set in Ceylon, or Sri Lanka.  It is called The Flower Duet.  This is Dame Joan Sutherland, and Jane Berbié.

Handel: He shall feed his flock / Come unto him
Handel’s Messiah has a really unusual duet.  Actually this duet is present in a few versions of Messiah, which Handel left to us in a number of different versions. In other versions, the whole number is sung by a single soloist.

The two-part aria has a contralto singing a passage from the Old Testament, in F major.  Then the music seems to stop, and then simply continues in B Flat major, with almost the same tune, but with a soprano singing a passage from the New Testament!  It’s a sentimental device on the face of it, but it is very moving for anyone who takes these things seriously.  Here is Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with soloists Heather Harper, and Helen Watts.  Ms. Watts sings the first part, and Ms Harper sings the second part.

Mozart: Che soave Zephiretto
The opera The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart, is a miraculous work for a number of reasons.  If you saw the movie Amadeus, you would have learned some of the (political) reasons why it is such a fabulous work.  But, simply as a story, it is just amazing.

Basically, Figaro and Susanna are respectively the valet and the maid of a man, Count Almaviva, and a woman, Rosina, an orphan whom the Count was wooing.  Their love story is told in The Barber of Seville, a comic opera by somebody completely different from Mozart.  [Actually, Rossini, who wrote William Tell.]  But the main protagonist, the valet (actually, a barber in the earlier opera,) was so beloved by the opera-going public that Mozart decided to write a sequel.  So Count Almaviva has married Rosina who is now the Countess, and they’re, you know, in their early thirties, shall we say, and Susanna and Figaro are their personal servants.  The two servants have decided to marry, and the Count has given his permission.  But, according to the custom of those times, the Count was allowed to initiate the young bride to the joys of sex before she joined her husband.  This practice continued as late as the 18th century, but it was stopped at about the time of the French Revolution.  At the time of Figaro, the story, it was just going out of use, and the theme of the opera is: is the Count going to insist on his right, or is he not?

Anyway, Rosina, the Countess, and Susanna are very close.  [Rosina is aware that Susanna is unhappy about the prospect of having the Count take her virginity before the wedding, and is sympathetic.  By the way, this practice is technically coll Droit de Seigneur, which means, literally, the Privilege of the Master.]  Part of the charm of the opera is the friendship between the two women, and the sly sparring between the two men.  There are side plots, involving a silly young page, which is just brilliant comic relief, really, and if you can bring yourself to do it, I urge you to watch a video of The Marriage of Figaro, which is almost certainly available in the James V Brown Library.  (Incidentally, they’re gearing up for a massive membership campaign right now, so go get yourself a membership card.)

This next duet, is sung by Susanna, and Rosina, the Countess, writing a naughty love-letter to the Count, to lure him out into the garden.  The letter is supposed to be from Susanna, the maid, pretending to have a crush on the Count, to preemptively precipitate any designs he might have on the girl before the wedding takes place.  Just listen.  Okay, this is chick stuff, but, how nicely it has been done!

“A little song on the breeze (the title)
“What a gentle little Zephyr,
“This evening, will sigh
“Under the pines in the little grove.”
...And the rest he'll understand.

Bach-Camerata Brasil: Double Concerto in D minor for 2 violins, BWV 1043 Camerata Brasil, a group that performs classical pieces with guitars and banjos, performs the  Bach Double Concerto in D minor for two violins, BWV 1043.

Vaughan-Williams: British Folk Songs Suite
OK, this one has nothing to do with duets.  It is a piece by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, the British Folk Song Suite for wind band.  This is the Lycoming College Band playing under the direction of Bill Ciabbatari.

Weyl: Mack the Knife
Here’s a flashback to an earlier edition of our show: Mack the Knife, sung by Lotte Lenya and Louis Armstrong.

Bach: Qui Sedes, Ad dextram Patris
One of my most favorite singers is the late Kathleen Ferrier.  Here she sings the Qui Sedes from the B minor mass.  It is a sort of duet between the Contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, and the oboe.

Joan Szymko: Itakes a Village
The saying “It takes a village to raise a child” was said to come to us from Africa, and it was a favorite saying of Hilary Clinton, when Bill Clinton was in the White House.  It has been set to music by Joan Szymko, and was performed by the Lycoming Choir last weekend, for a Parent’s Weekend concert.  It is a fun song, accompanied by drums, very syncopated, and given a very African flavor.  Here’s the Lycoming Choir, conducted by Chris Jackson.

Lennon and Maisy: That’s what’s up
Lennon and Maisy, two sisters, sing a song called That’s what’s up

Gershwin: A woman is a sometime thing
I was looking for a duet from Porgy and Bess, but I couldn’t find one I thought would fit here.  So here’s Louis Armstrong singing A woman is a sometime thing.

Raposo: Sing
The children’s TV show Sesame Street had a lot of songs composed for it by a fellow called Joe Raposo.  They had the Carpenters appear on the show one time, and Mr. Raposo had written a song for Karen Carpenter called Sing.  This really catchy song had a brief burst of fame, and later the Sesame Street kids sang it by themselves, and I wish it were heard a lot more frequently.  Here’s Sing, performed by the Carpenters.

The Count: The Song of the Count
While we’re talking about Sesame Street, let’s celebrate the brilliant Jerry Nelson, who created the roles of The Count, and the Magnificent Mumford, the magician.  This is the Song of the Count, sung by Jerry Nelson.

Bach: Ach Herr mein Gott, BWV 113
I think I might have played the next piece for you before: it is soprano Magdalena Kozena and Counter-tenor William Towers singing a duet from a Bach Cantata, No 113.  It is just gorgeous, so please listen, especially if you haven’t yet begin to appreciate the sound of a counter-tenor, who are men who sing alto with a falsetto voice.

Pajama Game: Hey there
 If you remember, Pajama Game was a Broadway show whose story was inspired by an incident at a pajama factory, and the Pajama Factory here in Williamsport was used for some of the scenes in the movie Pajama Game.  (I said that the story of the play was actually inspired by events here in Williamsport, but that has not been confirmed.)  Anyway, here is a duet from the musical.

Pajama Game: There once was a man
Another duet, by Janet Paige and John Raitt.  Awesome singing by both singers.

Halvarson: The Entry March of the Boyars
Another piece by the Lycoming Band played at the Parents’ Weekend Concert by the Lycoming Band, conducted by William Ciabbatari.

Michael Jackson Medley
Lycoming Band, William Ciabbatari.