Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Songfest : A Cycle of American Poems (1977)

for 6 singers and orchestra

  • General information
    • Composition date: 1977
    • Duration: 41 mn
    • Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
    • Dedication: à ma mère
    • Libretto (details, author):

      voir noms de parties.

Detailed formation
  • 3 flutes (also piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, Eb clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 4 percussionists [ou 5] , harp, piano [ou célesta ou clavier électrique] , electric bass guitar [fender] , strings

Premiere information

  • Date: October 1977
    Location:

    États-Unis, Washington, D.C., Kennedy Center


    Performers:

    Clamma Dale : soprano, Rosalind Elias : mezzo-soprano, Neil Rosenshein : ténor, John Reardon : baryton, Donald Gramm : baryton-basse, le National Symphony Orchestra, direction : Leonard Bernstein.

Observations

Il existe également une version pour orchestre réduit, arrangée en 1996 par Charlie Harmon, Sid Ramin et George Steel et éditée chez Boosey & Hawkes.

Table of contents

I. Sextet : 1. To the Poem (Frank O'Hara) ; II. Three Solos : 2. The Pennycandystore Beyond the El (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) ; 3. A Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos) ; 4. To What You Said (Walt Whitman) ; III. Three Ensembles : 5. Duet : I, Too, Sing America (Langston Hughes) / Okay "Negroes" (June Jordan) ; 6. Trio : To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet) ; 7. Duet : Storyette H.M. (Gertrude Stein) ; IV. Sextet : 8. 'if you can't eat you got to' (E. E. Cummings) ; V. Three Solos : 9. Music I Heard With You (Conrad Aiken) ; 10. Zizi's Lament (Gregory Corso) ; 11. Sonnet : 'What lips my lips have kissed' (Edna St. Vincent Millay) ; VI. Sextet : 12. Israfel (Edgar Allan Poe).