Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791)

Writer, painter, musician, politician

Wrote music especially for the young performer.

Negro Minstrel Songs

Performances in which white performers would dress in “black-face” and sing songs reflecting the lives of the slaves living on plantations.

Stephen Foster (1826-1864)

Around 200 songs. Most were composed for Minstrel Shows

“Old Folks at Home”

“Oh! Susanna”

“Old Black Joe”

“My Old Kentucky Home”

“Massa’s de Cold Ground”

Dan Emmett (1815-1904)

“Dixie”

Early American ‘Art-Songs’

Most American composers studied in Germany. Many of the songs of this time are reminders of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Composers set German text often

Early 20^th Century Composers

Dudley Buck (1839-1909) Best known today for his sacred songs and cantatas, but was partially

responsible for the advancement of the American Art song.

John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)

Homer Bartlett (1845-1920). Helped move the American Artsong out of the parlor and onto the

concert stage. Best known for his sacred music.

Arthur Foote (1853-1937) The “Last Victorian.” Around 100 songs. Educated in America.

George Chadwick (1854-1931) Around 100 songs.

Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) Studied in Germany and France. Most songs are to French

Poetry.

Edward MacDowell (1861-1908) The first American composer of international reputation. Greatly admired Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Lizst and Wagner. Studied in France and Germany. Composed 42 songs.

Carrie Jacobs Bond (1862-1946) Sentimental songs

Horatio Parker (1863-1919) Charles Ives’s composition teacher

Ethelbert Nevin (1863-1901)

Sydney Homer (1864-1953)

About 100 songs, not much else.

Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866-1949) America’s first prominent black composer. Best known

for his many arrangements of spirituals, but his original songs, which number about 150, are equally as interesting.

Amy (Mrs. H. H. A.) Beach (1867-1944) First important female composer in America.

Composerd about 120 songs.

CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)

· Studied music at Yale.

· Insurance salesman by profession.

· Although his music is now somewhat popular, while he was composing, his music was misunderstood and did not get the respect that it deserved.

· Son of a military band director who was unusually curious about music and the combination of different sounds. This curiousity was passed on to Charles.

· Grew up in a small town in Connecticut.

· Published by the composer in 1922. But composed between 1888 and 1910.

114 Songs by Charles Ives

· Published by the composer in 1922. But composed between 1888 and 1910.

· Sentimental ballads in the popular style

· Settings of German and French poems

· Biographical songs

· Quotations of American Hymns (these Hymn tunes serve not as artistic inspiration, but as symbols of Ives’s life and memories.

· Settings of texts by Ives or

· Sacred and secular songs

· His sense of humor comes through in many of his songs

· There are a few groupings of songs in the collection. These were usually not composed together, but Ives grouped them in specific ways for the publication.

Henry Clough-Leighter (1874-1956) Composed over 100 songs

Oley Speaks (1874-1948) Church songs are frequently performed. An outdated style, but the songs are accessible and enjoyable.

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) Influenced by Debussy

Four Negro Songs (Langston Hughes) (1927)

Four Poems by Paul Verlaine (1912)

Frederic Ayres (1876-1926) Composed about 50 songs

Louis Campbell-Tipton (1877-1921)

Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946) Several hundred songs. Many are devoted to American

Indian themes.

Gena Branscombe (1881-1977)

Richard Hageman (1882-1966) As an accompanist, he played in Paris in the studio of Mathilde

Marchesi. Was a coach at the Metropolitan Opera beginning in 1913.

Charles T. Griffes (1884-1920) “First American born composer of consequence whose work was

closely linked to international scene of his time.” Studied on Berlin, composed 25 songs to German texts. After returning to America composed 34 songs to English texts (some translations of Chinese, Japanese and Rumanian texts)

Five Songs of Ancient China and Japan (1916-17)

Mid 20^th Century Composers

The Art song was not an important genre for many of these composers. They focused on larger scale works: operas, ballets, symphonies, choral works.

Alice Barnett (1886-1975) Composed about 50 songs

In a Gondola (1920) This cycle of eight songs could be performed by soprano and tenor

alternating songs.

Marion Bauer (1887-1955) Promoter of twentieth century music. Respected composer of her day.

Studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) Arranger and performer of American folksongs. Some,but definitely not all of his original songs sound like folk songs.

Douglas Moore (1893-1969) Best known for his operas.Studied with Vincent D’Indy, Ernst

Bloch and Nadia Boulanger.

Ernest Charles (1895-1984) 45 Songs. Very popular on the concert stage and on the radio during

his life.

William Grant Still (1895-1978) The ‘dean’ of African American composers. His songs combine

qualities found in romantic operatic arias, spirituals, and blues songs.

Virgil Thomson (1896-19??) Settings of Gertrude Stein

Roger Sessions (1896-1985) Composed only one song.

“On the Beach at Fontana” (1929)

Henry Cowell (1897-1965) Best known as a composer of experimental music, but most of his

songs were composed after that phase had ended. Only a few of his songs have been published.

Ernst Bacon (1898-1990) Influenced by the German artsong. Often set German texts. Many

settings of Emily Dickinson. Composed more than 200 songs. Somgs published in several collections: including Quiet Airs (1952), Six Songs, Four Songs, and Tributaries (1978).

Five Poems of Emily Dickinson (1944)

It’s all I have to bring

So bashful

Poor little heart

To make a prairie

And this of all my hopes

John Duke (1899-1984) One of America’s foremost Artsong composers.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

2 sets of Old American Songs

Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950) soprano and piano, very challenging musically,

vocally and intellectually.

George Antheil (1900-19??) Studied with Ernst Bloch. Best know for his Avant-garde music

composed in Europe in the 1930s.

Five Songs: 1919-1920 (for soprano) (Crapsey)

November Night

Triad

Susanna and the Elders

Fate Defied

The Warning

Songs of Experience. Cycle of nine songs written in his later neo-romantic style. Songs

are as yet unpublished.

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953). American folksong compiler. Her few songs were

composed in the earlier part of her career.

Theodore Chanler (1902-1961) Most influenced by Faure. Only about 30 songs. Highly prized

by many contemporary composers, including Virgil Thompson.

Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) Studied with Nadia Boulanger and Arnold Schoenberg

From Marion’s Book (1960) (EECummings) cycle of seven songs

Six Elizabethan Songs (1958)

Paul Creston (1906-1985) Very challenging songs. Only 9 published songs.

Elliot Carter (1908) Only a few art songs, all dating from the early 1940s.

Paul Nordoff (1909-19??) Influenced by pre-Debussy French artsongs

Jean Berger (1909-2004) German born. French citizen for a few years then came to America in

1941. Taught composition at University of Boulder.

Quatre Chants d’Amour

Israel Citkowitz (1909-1974) Polish born. Studied with Copland, Sessions and Boulanger.

Composed a few songs, all setting of James Joyce.

Serge Kagen (1909-1964) voice teacher, coach, accompanist, writer, editor. Realized several

volumes of Purcell songs. Edited several volumes fo Handel arias. Composed 48 original songs, mostly between 1948 and 1950.

Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991) Published about 100 songs (he destroyed about 100 songs as well)

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Well-known American composer. Only about 40 published songs.

Collection of all of Barber’s songs is available: Samuel Barber: Collected Songs.

Opus 2:

“The Daisies” (Stephens)

“With Rue my Heart is Laden” (Housman)

“Bessie Bobtail” (Stephens)

“I Hear an Army” (James Joyce)

Despite and Still (1969) Dedicated to Leontyne Price. Cycleof six songs.

Hermit Songs (1952) cycle of ten songs. Texts by anonymous Irish monks and scholars of

the 8^th through 13^th centuries.

Melodies passageres (1952) French texts. Dedicated to Pierre Bernac and Francis

Poulenc.

“A Nun Takes a Veil” (1937) (Hopkins)

“Sure on this Shining Night” (1938) (Agee)

Dover Beach. Baritone and String quartet. Available with piano accompaniment.

Knoxville Summer of 1915. Soprano and orchestra. Available with piano accompaniment.

Paul Bowles (1910-19??)

William Schuman (1910-1992) Best known for his orchestral music; 10 symphonies; lots of choral music. Very few songs.

Alan Hovahness (1911) Draws on many non-western styles. Vocal writing is often chant-like.

John Cage (1912-1992) Avant-gardist. Chance music. Most of his vocal works go far beyond the

traditional perception of a ‘song.’

Norman Dello Joio (1913) Better known for larger scale compositions. Large number of songs

very lyrical -Verdi was his idol.

David Diamond (1915) Around 100 songs

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) Most of his songs are from the 1950s.

Gordon Binkerd (1916) Many of his songs are long and difficult.

Milton Babbitt (1916-19??) Studied with Roger Sessions, best known as a composer of serial and electronic music.

Du (Straum) Short song cycle for soprano in German.

“The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” (W. C. Williams)

Sounds and Words

Three Theatrical Songs (1946) Jazz influence

Robert Fairfax Birch (1917) Eight volumes of Haiku settings as well as many others songs.

Robert Ward (b. 1917) More often composed music in large forms. Wrote a few songs.

Sacred Songs for Pantheists (1951). Cycle of five songs for high voice and orchestra or

piano.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

I hate Music (1943)

La bonne cuisine (1949) texts are four recipes

Howard Boatwright (1918) Born in Newport News, VA. Best known for his choral works..

Studied with Hindemith.

George Rochberg (1918)

Songs of Solomon (1945)

Seven Early Love Songs

Both of these are early compositions and are tonal.

All others are later works and are atonal, or they combine the two practices.

Seymour Barab (1921-19??) Composed 12 operas and about 200 songs. Most songs are

published.

A Child’s Garden of Verses (1985) two volumes of twelve songs each. Later arranged for

orchestral accompaniment.

Parodies (1986) Six songs in the style of six different composers.

Jack Beeson (b. 1921) Opera composer, Lizzie Bordon

William Bergsma (1921)

Leslie Bassett (b. 1923) University of Michigan composition professor. All songs are atonal and

rhythmically complicated.

Daniel Pinkham (1923)

NED ROREM (1923) Currently, America’s foremost art song composer. He wrote songs quite

consistently until 1976. The wrote them with much less frequency. Songs are available in 4 volumes. Very literary minded composer.

War Scenes (Whitman) (1969) cycle of 5 songs for baritone and piano.

Louis Calabro (1926) Student of Persichetti. Composed one song cycle.

Macabre Reflections (1969) six songs for mezzo-soprano and piano.

Lee Hoiby (1926) Is indebted to Mozart, Schubert, R. Strauss, Puccini, Barber, Menotti, Cat

Stevens and Joni Mitchell.

Dominick Argento (b. 1927) Studied with Hugo Weisgall, Henry Cowell, Luigi Dallapiccola (in

Italy), Howard Hanson, Bernard Rogers and Alan Hovhaness. One of the best known American composers of vocal music.

The Andree Expedition (1983) A large work for baritone and piano. 40 minutes. Texts

come from the discovered diaries and letters of those on a failed expedition to the North Pole by Hot Air Balloon in 1897)

Casa Guidi (E. B. Browning) (1983) Cycle of Five songs for mezzo-soprano and piano.

Text comes from letters, not poems from Browning during a trip to Italy. Composed for Frederica von Stade.

From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (1974) Cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano. Originally

for orchestra, reduced by the composer. Composed for Janet Baker.

Six Elizabethan Songs (1957) Cycle for high voice and piano. Later, in 1962, Argento

orchestrated the accompaniment for baroque ensemble.

Spring (Nash)

Sleep (Daniel)

Winter (Shakespeare)

Dirge (Shakespeare)

Diaphenia (Constable)

Hymn (Johnson)

Songs about Spring (E.E. Cummings) (1951) Composed while Argento was a student.

Written for arolyn Bailey. Later arranged small orchestra.

who knows if the moon’s balloon

Spring is like a perhaps hand

In Just-spring

in Spring comes

when faces called flowers float out of the ground

Letters from Composers. Cycle for tenor and guitar. Texts are from letters written by

various composers.

Samuel Adler (b. 1928) German born.

Samuel Adler: Collected Songs for Voice and Piano (1991) (22 songs)

Four Songs of James Stephens (1963)

Three Songs (1979)

But I was Young and Fooling (Yeats)

Old Age (Stampfer)

Time you Old Gypsy Man (Hodgson)

Three Songs about Love (1974)

Go Lovely Rose (Waller)

A Ditto (Sidney)

Song

Two Snogs for Three Years (1974)

My Daughter the Cypress (Whitman)

Song to be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children (Nash)

Two Songs from the Portugese (1978) (Longfellow)

Simple Song

Ballad

Unholy Sonnets (Donne) Five secular love poems by Donne. The cycle’s title is probably

meant to distinguish it from Britten’s Holy Sonnet of John Donne. These are the most effective of Adler’s later songs.

The good-morrow

The Broken Heart

Woman’s Constancy

The Indifferent

The Triple Foole

Richard Hundley (1933) Studied with William Flanagan, Virgil Thompson and Israel Citkowitz.

He sang in the Met chorus. Through this connection he showed his songs to many established singers who began programming his songs in their recitals.

“Come ready and see me” (1971)

Ramiro Cortes (1933-1984) One of the first established Mexican-American composers in the

classical idiom. Composed about 50 songs. Only four have been published.

David del Tredici (1937)

Four Songs (James Joyce) (1960)

Robert Baksa (b. 1938) Hungarian descent. Most songs composed and published in the 1960’s.

Little if any experimentalism. Most songs are tonally and classical in style.

A Cynic’s Cycle (1968) Four songs, text from the Devil’s Dictionary

Housman Songs (1964) Six settings for baritone and piano

Seven Songs to Emily Dickinson (1963-6)

More Songs to Emily Dickinson (1967) seven songs.

John Corigliano (b. 1938)

The Cloisters (Hoffmann) (1965)

Fort Tryton Park

September

Song to the Witch of the Cloisters

Christmas at the Cloisters

The Unicorn

Petit Fours (A Song Cyclette) (1981)

Six Songs of Bob Dylan

Thomas Pasatieri (1945) Wrote accessible, singable songs in the romantic vein.