A New Cycle of Art Songs Emerges at Pfeiffer
In the 19th century, several composers in the German-speaking world made their mark with the art song, a vocal genre in which poetry is set to music for a solo vocalist and piano. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote over 650 art songs, setting a standard that has inspired everyone from Robert Schumann (1810-1856) to composers of our time, including聽Dr. Brent Lawrence 鈥�13, a guitarist who teaches聽music聽at 黑料专区.
recently wrote A Wordsworth Triptych: Three Songs for Baritone and Electric Guitar, with each song featuring a different poem by (1770-1850), a founding and central figure of English Romanticism. Joe Judge 鈥�87, a baritone who serves as Pfeiffer鈥檚 Director of Vocal and Choral Music, and Lawrence have just made a recording of Triptych, which is available on and .
Triptych is the second song cycle composed by Lawrence, who majored in music at Pfeiffer. It finds inspiration in songs by Schubert and Schumann, but aims 鈥渇or an aesthetic that is slightly more contemporary than that of those composers,鈥� Lawrence said. The aesthetic eschews the piano, which Lawrence does not play, for the guitar, which he does, often in venues where jazz, blues, and folk are performed.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to meld two worlds: the troubadour singer-songwriter thing and the art song thing,鈥� Lawrence said. 鈥淎nd, because Wordsworth was an English poet, I also found inspiration in song cycles written by English composers, especially Benjamin Britten鈥檚 .鈥�
The poems in Triptych are (in order of appearance) ; ; and Lawrence sees them as 鈥渟omewhat autobiographical鈥� and, therefore, wanted 鈥渢o arrange them in a chronological narrative and perhaps a progression through a thought process or reflection that Wordsworth was writing about.鈥�
The song featuring 鈥淭here was a Boy鈥� recounts a boy鈥檚 closeness to nature, how he communes with its inhabitants, and the moment when he is taken from his mates. In the song featuring 鈥淎 Night-Piece,鈥� our perspective shifts to the night sky, with the boy, now a traveler, making his way through the night, first noticing the clouds and then how they part to reveal the moon and stars as they shine in the night sky. And in the final song, which features 鈥淚 Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,鈥� the traveler compares his lonely wandering around his boyhood home to the clouds passing above.
Judge was particularly taken with the final song, in which the poem, sometimes called 鈥淒affodils,鈥� paints a vivid picture of seeing, as if from a cloud, a large patch of daffodils dancing along the bank of a lake.
鈥淚 think Brent did a terrific job of setting the text musically, particularly in contrasting sections,鈥� Judge said. 鈥淭he guitar and the voice together present a musical picture of thousands of daffodils moving in the breeze, outdoing the waves on the lake.鈥�
If all goes as planned, A Wordsworth Triptych will be the first of many pieces that Lawrence writes for Pfeiffer鈥檚 music faculty. Judge is certainly on board with that.
鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of Brent and the work he has done,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e had the pleasure to watch him grow and develop as a musician since his freshman year at Pfeiffer to his coming full circle, as one of our best faculty in the Music Department. So, needless to say, it was my honor and privilege to be asked to sing these pieces.鈥�
Ken Keuffel, who authored this article, has served as Pfeiffer鈥檚 Assistant Director of Communications since December 2019. He welcomes story ideas from Pfeiffer鈥檚 faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends.