Vocal Works
De Profundis
For a mixed chorus of men's voices (TTBB)
It once occurred to me that when one is depressed, kind of down, distressed, feeling really low, music which is rather sad and melancholy, often seems to raise the spirit more than happy, joyous, exuberant, or otherwise consciously upbeat music. Naturally, I’ve never cared to think about the why of that too much. Yet, think of some music of Schubert or Tchaikovsky, or of the moodier compositions of Chopin, and numerous great songs from the American Musical Theater. It is in this spirit that I wrote De Profundis, a generally lugubrious composition based on an even more lugubrious Psalm, for a music-loving close friend who was going through a tough time. Intended to be performed a cappella, it is originally scored for Alto solo, with a chorus of mixed voices, in three movements. Presented here is only the opening movement, scored for a chorus of male voices (TTBB) with rehearsal piano. Miraculously, it worked for my friend, and he was up and about feeling his old self soon again. Perhaps it could do the same for you?
Johann Sebastian Bach
Often, I Smoke My Pipe
Musically realized, and translated with a free English lyric by Lawrence Rosen
We know that over 100 Bach Cantatas were forever lost to the world, and who knows how many B Minor Masses, Preludes and Fugues, and Partitas as well? However, found among the kapellmeister’s papers after his passing was a single handwritten manuscript page with a monophonic line of melody scrawled upon it - no harmony, accompaniment, or even figured bass - and with an arcane little poem, or lyric, assumed to be by Bach himself, meant to go with the bare melody, apparently about . . . pipe smoking!??
Yes indeed, J. S. Bach was an avid, regular pipe smoker. One can only imagine, in his solitude, and while performing his monumental, lifetime labors, what a comfort, even a mild diversion, this common practice must have been. I printed the entire composition, framed it, and had it hung on the wall of the smoking room in our local smoke shop for all to enjoy.
I took the Bach melody and provided a fully realized (i.e., worked out and arranged) keyboard setting for it. The original lyric is in a kind of highly colloquial, almost slang low German so, in addition to the original lyric, I provided a very free, interpreted English translation: Often, I Smoke My Pipe.
As sober an individual as we imagine Bach to be, imagine what fun it might have been to kick back a bit at the local pub or coffee house, lift a pint or two, fire up a pipe or cigar, and shoot the breeze for awhile with the one-day-to-be-legendary Leipzig master. Though I wonder if anyone knows whether or not Bach ever actually “shot the breeze?”
Six Ballads and a Rondo Furioso
What is a “Stage Song?”
Literally, by definition, it is a song of some sort which is, or can be, sung on a stage . . . a perfectly fine and technically 100% accurate explanation. But for me, the definition is, at once, much broader, as well as more narrowly defined.
In any work for the musical stage (musical comedy, opera, music drama, masque, stage musical, etc.,) the place to heighten or illuminate a musical moment is chosen for its dramatic importance, and its relation to the story, plot, the character(s) singing, or important continuity of the drama. Also, it is commonly written to illuminate a character’s (or moment’s) specific mood, nature, feeling, thought, emotion, personality change, or important commentary at that specific place and time. If both placement and contents are chosen and executed well (and it is very difficult to do so) the number will alter or redefine the course of the play action, and the character will be, more than likely, a changed person at the conclusion of the song.
Throughout my many and varied works for the musical stage, there are numbers and musicalized moments that I find particularly attractive (objectively speaking,) or, for some reason, merely interest me more than others. I will then choose to extract such numbers from the show and give them a separate life, a (forgive the phraseology) "re-imagining," by setting them within an arrangement of a small group of instruments. Combined into a set, a group of these numbers may or may not have a theme which runs through or binds the numbers. This is how I’ve come to have written my six (and counting) series of Stage Songs.
Offered here is Stage Songs, Series VI, subtitled Six Ballads and a Rondo Furioso, the seven numbers chosen from a group of four shows, produced or yet to be produced. Each of the individual numbers carries its own musical scoring. Although they are designed to be performed as a set, any number can be excerpted from the set and performed on its own. A full score is provided for each number, and a full set of parts is also included. Stage Songs, Series VI is the first to be offered on this site, and eventually Series 1 through V will appear here as well. Please check back often!
