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Schubert: Die Forelle

1/30/2021

1 Comment

 
By David Govertsen
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Schubertiade (1896), by Julius Schmidt
This Sunday we celebrate the birthday of Viennese composer and songsmith extraordinaire Franz Schubert.  As a pioneer of the song cycle genre with over six hundred songs written for solo voice and piano to his credit, he has clearly earned a place in the art song pantheon.

The music of Schubert has naturally found a home on many Fourth Coast concerts.  ‘Die Forelle’, heard here in an arrangement for vocal quartet and piano, kicked off our ‘What a Zoo!’ program, which I had the pleasure of curating two seasons ago. 
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Elliot Mandel Photography
Composed in 1817 when Schubert was barely twenty years old, the song tells the tale of the titular trout and a meddlesome fisherman.  The cheerful melody in the piano depicts the lively fish swimming about in the clear water as the fisherman attempts to catch it.  The fisherman grows impatient and muddies the waters in order to trick the trout; the fish is caught!  Here Schubert likewise muddies the musical waters with thick, crunchy chords in the left hand of the piano, returning to the original theme as the trout emerges from the water hooked on the fishing line.

I am always struck by the imagery that jumps off the page in a Schubert song.  Using only the keys of a piano and the voice of a singer he is able to conjure vivid depictions of nearly any subject; from the pounding of horses’ feet in ‘Erlkönig’, to the incessant turning of the spinning wheel in ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’, to the lively antics of the trout in ‘Die Forelle’.  To think that he achieved this in only thirty-one short years of life makes one wonder what could have been. 

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Herr Schubert!
This performance was recorded live on June 2, 2019 at the Logan Center for the Arts in Hyde Park with pianist Kuang-Hao Huang.  Audio by Joshua Sauvageau.
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Author

Bass-baritone David Govertsen joined Fourth Coast Ensemble in 2017.  He has been active as a professional singer and educator for nearly twenty years, portraying a wide variety of opera’s low-voiced heroes, villains, and buffoons.  He discovered Schubert’s magical marriage of text and music as an undergraduate and has been hooked on art song ever since.

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Sympathy, by Florence Price

1/18/2021

3 Comments

 
By Sarah van der Ploeg
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As we pause today to reflect on the legacy and ever-timely challenge presented by the life and words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am reminded of his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and his holy impatience with the slowness of progress towards racial equity in the United States.  I wonder what letters he would be writing to us today.  And I am struck by how relevant Florence Price’s undated song, “Sympathy,” feels in that context, and still to us today perhaps a century after she wrote it.

​Price’s setting of this poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) is a masterful one, showcasing her technical abilities as a composer and her unique musical voice while expressing the emotional weight of his words in an honest, unforced, and powerful way.
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Florence Price (1887-1953)
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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
The three sections of the song echo the three stanzas of the poem, beginning with lyrical lines that reflect the “sun … bright on the upland slopes” and the “wind stir[ring] soft through the springing grass” before chromatic descending lines that underscore the bittersweet images of the world beyond the cage.  More intense dynamics, rhythms, and pianism mark the second stanza, as Price knows “why the caged bird beats its wing / Till its blood is red on the cruel bars.”  The music crescendos before a resigned return to the first theme at the start of the third stanza, again acknowledging “why the caged bird sings, ah me, / When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore.”  Finally, at the end, the piece reaches its climax as it lays out the meaning behind the bird’s - and Price’s - song:
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
    But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings– 
I know why the caged bird sings!
It was an honor and privilege to lend my voice to Price’s music and Dunbar’s words in this 2018 concert with pianist Mark Bilyeu.  May we hear their plea ring in our ears, and may we work towards a world where this plea is less timely.
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Author

Soprano Sarah van der Ploeg has been a member of Fourth Coast Ensemble since 2017. A lover of many musical styles, she came to classical singing from origins in musical theater and viola by way of arts policy, and still believes all of those pieces make a more perfect whole. Sarah particularly loves art song’s ability to tell a huge story in a compact, intimate, exciting package.

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    Hello, and welcome to the blog!  We are Fourth Coast Ensemble, Chicago's classical vocal quartet.  Join a different member of our ensemble for insights into our favorite art songs, links to archival and new recordings, and reflections on why we value and continue to come back to this musical medium.  We proudly present, your #artsongfix!

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Fourth Coast Ensemble is supported in part by the generosity of Arts Work Fund at Chicago Community Trust, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Illinois Department of Commerce Community Development Fund.
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Website photography by Elliot Mandel Photography
  • About
    • The Organization
    • Quartet & Staff Members
  • On Stage
    • Upcoming >
      • 2024-25 Season >
        • 2024 Holiday Soirée
        • WordSong Chicago: Woodwinds by Ami Kaye
        • 6th Annual Chicago songSLAM
    • Past Seasons >
      • 2023-24 Season >
        • Chicago Public Art in Song
        • 2023 Holiday Soirée
        • Shores of Song Festival >
          • From Schumann to Chicago
          • WordSong Chicago
          • Off the Bench: Songs from the Pianist Perspective
          • Fifth Annual songSLAM Chicago
        • End of Season Kabarett
      • 2022-23 Season >
        • 2022 Gala: Chicago Public Art in Song
        • Laughterreise: Liebeslieder Edition
        • Chicago songSLAM
        • Fine Folk
        • End of Season Potluck
      • 2021-22 Season >
        • A Brush With Our Time, world premiere
        • Laughterreise
        • Roaring Twenties
        • Chicago songSLAM
        • End of Season Talent Show
      • 2021 HD Season >
        • Soprano | Mezzo Duo
        • Tenor | Bass Duo
        • Quartet Remix
        • songSLAM
      • 2019-20 Season >
        • Songs of Fourth Coast
        • American Woman
        • Between the Lines
        • Four by Four
  • Blog
  • Support
    • Give
  • Contact
  • Shop