Songs

The show on Songs aired as scheduled.  Here are the podcast files for the show, in four quarters.

Part A
Part B
Part C
Part D

This is one of the earliest shows I put together, and one with which I was most pleased when it was finished.  If you go back to the blog post for when it first aired, there is mention of a bad bass rumble.  It turns out that my own subwoofer was turned up a little too high, and when the station software turns up the bass just a little ö—most of the music it plays sounds a little better with a punchier bass, I suppose— the result was a little overwhelming.

My script for the show is incomplete; as the deadline grew closer, I threw the script out and ad-libbed the introductions to each song, or just left them completely out!  So here are short remarks to go with each song.  All the featured works were songs, or more properly, arias.

Michael Arne: The Lass with the Delicate Air
Michael Arne was the son of Thomas Arne, who wrote Rule Britannia, which, as I remarked on the show, was a wildly patriotic British anthem, still sung on patriotic occasions over there.

This song, a very lighthearted one, was sung by Julie Andrews in an early recording, when she was in her twenties, at most.  There is rather an affected flourish with which she ends it, but it doesn’t seem inappropriate for the song, in retrospect.

Thomas Arne: Where the Bee Sucks
This is a song very well known in Britain, taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  Emma Kirkby, one of Britain’s greatest sopranos, married to Christopher Hogwood, incidentally, does a great job, as does Mr. Hogwood himself in the accompaniment.

Kurt Weill: Moritat Vom Mackie Messer
Lotte Lenya, who was said to be Kurt Weill’s muse, made this song from The Threepenny Opera popular throughout Europe, and then the song went on to be a hit for American singers from Louis Armstrong to Bobby Darrin, in its English translation as Mack the Knife.  We merged two recordings: one with Lotte Lenya singing it in German, with a second one where she sings it with Louis Armstrong in English.

Joseph Haydn: Nun beut die Flur
Milton’s Paradise Lost was proposed to Joseph Haydn as a possible libretto for an oratorio.  The gentleman who brought it to Haydn’s attention provided a German translation, and the result was one of the greatest entries in the oratorio form: Haydn’s Creation.  In this song, the Angel Gabriel wonders at the beauty of the newly-created flora.  The soprano is Helen Donath, who was born in Texas, but went on to excel in German opera in Germany and Vienna.

P. D. Q. Bach: Now is the season
P.D.Q. Bach is the fictional 20th son on Johann Sebastian Bach, an invention of Peter Schickele, the talented and imaginative American composer and graduate from Juilliard, who performed in Williamsport around 1985 in the Scottish Rite Auditorium.  The aria, sung by the brilliant Lorna Haywood, is from the Oratorio The Seasonings.  (In case you miss the joke, there is more than one Oratorio named The Seasons, notably one by Haydn.)

Schumann: Der Nussbaum
This is a beautiful Lied, by Robert Schumann, sung by Emmy Ameling.  (Der Nussbaum means The Nut Tree.)

Tom Lehrer: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
Possibly the best known song by Tom Lehrer, this song should be sung in April, ideally.  Someone who was around in the spring of 1965 would be better able to describe the facts around the curious title: did they actually poison pigeons back then?  They must have, otherwise the song would not be so funny.

George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
This was one of George Harrison’s most lovely songs, but I think this rendering by Paul McCartney, during a memorial concert for George Harrison, is almost better than George’s own, but that might be sacrilege.

Richard Strauss: Im Abendrot
A cousin of the Waltz Strausses, Richard Strauss is best known today for writing the tone poem Thus Spake Zarathustra, whose stunning opening theme was borrowed by Stanley Kubrik for 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Strauss wrote Four Last Songs, a tour-de-force of Wagnerian songwriting, and this is one of them: Im Abendrot---at Sunset.  You hear birds flying away several times, depicted by a pair of trilling flutes.  I don’t understand the original German, but I would venture a guess that it is about departure.

J. S. Bach: Mein glaubiges Herze
This is a complete reversal of mood, quite unintentionally.  This aria from Cantata 68 is a reworking (a parody aria) of an earlier aria from a Secular Cantata, about Hercules at the Crossroads, or something like that.  At any rate, in the earlier tune, there is an extensive postlude that goes on for about a minute.  When Bach borrowed the tune for his church cantata, he could not bring himself to abbreviate the long postlude, so it remains as an extended ending to Mein glaubiges Herze (My joyful heart, or “My heart ever faithful,” in the versified English translation.  This is sung by Julianne Baird, Professor Emeritus of music at Rutgers, accompanied by the Aulos Ensemble.

Richard Wagner: The Making of the Prize Song
I introduced the Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, in an earlier show.  Walther von Stoltzing is a young aristocrat who comes into Nuremburg to meet with Hans Sachs, a skilled poet and composer of the 16th century, to further his musical education.  While there, he sees and falls in love with Eva, the young daughter of the city Goldsmith.  Unfortunately, the Goldsmith, who is the President of the Guild of Mastersingers, has promised that the winner of the annual song competition shall have first choice to marry Eva.  (If Eva turns the song champion down, she must remain unmarried for life.  Evidently they had moved beyond forced marriages, at least in Wagner’s imagination.)

Walther, once he learns of this, is desperate to join the Guild, and win the competition, which is impossible.  But this is opera, so he succeeds.  In this scene, Hans Sachs helps the young fellow to write a suitable song in the required form, for the competition.  I rudely provide a translation as a sort of voice-over.

Steve Goodman: City Of New Orleans
You should read up the history of this song, which was made popular by Arlo Guthrie (the son of Woody Guthrie).

J. S. Bach: Vergnügte Ruh
This lovely Bach aria is sung by Guillemette Laurens, and accompanied by Diego Fasolis and I Barrochisti.

Arthur Sullivan: Yum-Yum's Song
This is a lovely aria from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, sung here by Marie McLaughlin.

Edie Brickel: 'Stwisted
Texan Edie Brickel first became famous as a singer songwriter with her group the New Bohemians.  Edie Brickel was later married to Paul Simon.  This is sung by long-time Williamsport resident Uma, with her now-defunct group Episodes.

Meredith Willson: Till There Was You
Paul McCartney loved this song from The Music Man, and sang it with the Beatles in an early album.  There is a lovely acoustic guitar interlude, which gives it a sort of C & W flavor.

Nelson Lee: Welela
One of Miriam Makeba’s best known songs.  Miriam Makeba, a brilliant South African singer, was admired and promoted by Harry Belafonte.

Anonymous Folk Melody: Deep River
This song was made popular by Paul Robeson, and featured in the movie Showboat.  Here it is sung by Bryn Terfel, the Welsh bass.

P. I. Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart
Paul Robeson sings this Tchaikovsky song, which has been frequently reviled as being too sentimental.  Evidently the words are a translation of a poem by Johann von Goethe

Giaccomo Puccini: O mio babbino caro
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sings this well-known Puccini aria.

Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years
From the album There goes Rhymin’ Simon comes this Paul Simon song, with a lovely saxophone interlude.

W. A. Mozart: Laudate Dominum
In my younger days I bought a Laserlight CD of The Best of Mozart, and this lovely piece was in it, sung by Maria Zadori.  I have never heard anything sung by this lady with such a lovely voice since, but I tried to find out more about her, and have only turned up that she is Hungarian, and a Handel expert.  Unfortunately, European Handel experts are seldom heard in the US, since Brits have got a lock on all things Handelian.

Björk: Human Behavior
This whimsical singer from Iceland has created some amazing songs, which were brought to my attention by my daughter.


Tomás Méndez: Cucurucucu Paloma
This song written in 1954 was performed by numerous singers, including Harry Belafonte, who sings it here.

George and Dhani Harrison: Horse to the Water
This song was one of the last sung by George Harrison, with Jools Holland’s Blues Band.  On the Concert for George, it was performed by Sam Brown, and this track is taken from the video performance.

WXPI is trying very hard to attract more listeners, and we're trying to expand and improve our website.  One thing we're going to do is to put a brief music file, a sampler of the type of material on the show.  Here's the track I will be putting there, as soon as it can be arranged.  Take a listen, and write in your suggestions!

Archie