4 Elizabethan Songs (Fine, Vivian)

Contents

Performances

Recordings

MP3 file (audio)
rhymes&chymes (2012/7/4)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymes&chymes (2012/7/4)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymes&chymes (2012/2/29)

MP3 file (audio)
rhymes&chymes (2012/2/29)

Publisher Info. Vivian Fine Estate
Performers Mary Catherine-George, soprano and Leslie Jones, piano
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Sheet Music

Scores

PDF scanned by Paul Hawkins
rhymes&chymes (2012/2/29)

Publisher. Info. Vivian Fine Estate
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General Information

Work Title Four Elizabethan Songs
Alternative. Title
Composer Fine, Vivian
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. IVF 22
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's 4 songs
  1. Daybreak (John Donne) - G minor
  2. Spring’s Welcome (John Lyly) - E minor
  3. Dirge (Shakespeare) - F major
  4. The Bargain (Sir Philip Sidney) - C minor
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. 1937-1940
First Performance. 1941-05-01 at the Composers Forum Laboratory, New York City. Hilda Bondi, soprano, and Erich Weil, piano
Librettist John Donne, John Lyly, William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney
Language English
Average DurationAvg. Duration 5 1/2 minutes
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period Modern
Piece Style Modern
Instrumentation soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano
External Links Vivian Fine website

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The songs have the same tonal approach as the Prelude for String Quartet….Keyboard gestures enhance the text….The writing is Rennaissance-like but in a contemporary setting. Fine never overwrites or uses cliches….frequently there is a surprising tonal subtlety….Humor is especially evident in ‘The Bargain.’ The vocal lines are well written and not complicated, and when necessary the piano provides pitch support.

–Heidi Von Gunden, The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press, 1999

REVIEWS

“Dirge (after Shakespeare)…a piece beautiful in its emotional depth and a calm, clear-eyed mastery mirroring an amazingly potent, fine intellect.”

–Lazare Saminsky, Musical Courier, February 1, 1943

“Four Elizabethan Songs…date from the end of the ‘30s, and as such are written in a more tonal style. Lois Stipp…communicated the alternately sombre and frolicking moods of these spare, economical art songs.”

–Richard Chon, The Buffalo News, April 27, 1987