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Song cycles (Waterhouse)

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Graham Waterhouse in 2011

Graham Waterhouse, cellist and composer especially of chamber music, has written a number of song cycles. As a cellist, he has used string instruments or a Pierrot ensemble instead of the typical piano to accompany a singer. In 2003 he composed a first cycle of songs based on late poems by Friedrich Hölderlin. In 2016, he set nursery rhymes, excerpts from James Joyce, and texts by Shakespeare. In 2017, he wrote settings of poems by Irish female writers, and in 2022 a cycle of Buddhist texts for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano.

Overview

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The following table contains for every song cycle the title with translation, the year of composition, the text source and its language(s), voice type (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor) and instrument or ensemble, and the number of movements. When ensemble is mentioned, it is always the Pierrot ensemble which Arnold Schoenberg introduced in his Pierrot Lunaire of 1912: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion.

Song cycles by Graham Waterhouse
Title Translation Year Text source Language Voice Instrument(s) Movements
Sechs späteste Lieder Six latest songs 2003 Hölderlin German mezzo-soprano cello 7
Moonbass 2014 medieval poems
  • French
  • English
  • German
 soprano cello 3
De Natura Of nature 2015 poems about nature English tenor string quartet 5
Hinx Minx 2016 nursery rhymes English mezzo-soprano cello 6
Music of Sighs 2016 James Joyce English mezzo-soprano ensemble 3
Drei Lieder nach Shakespeare Three Songs After Shakespeare 2016 Shakespeare English soprano string quartet 3
Irish Phoenix 2017 Irish female writers English soprano ensemble 7
Shravana 2022 Buddhist texts Sanskrit mezzo-soprano cello and piano 5

Sechs späteste Lieder

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Sechs späteste Lieder
Based onPoems by Hölderlin
Performed11 April 2010 (2010-04-11)
Movements7
Scoring
  • Mezzo-soprano
  • cello

The cycle, composed in 2003, sets six of the late poems by Hölderlin for mezzo-soprano voice and cello in seven movements, with a prelude by the cello, and the final poem spoken as a melodrama:[1]

  1. Vorspiel (Cello)
  2. Das Angenehme dieser Welt
  3. Nicht alle Tage
  4. Der Winter
  5. Die Aussicht
  6. Der Herbst
  7. Auf den Tod eines Kindes

It was performed and live recorded at the Gasteig in Munich by Martina Koppelstetter and the composer on 11 April 2010, in a composer's portrait concert, along with chamber music, early songs and the premiere of the setting of the poem Im Gebirg (On the Mountains) by Hans Krieger, scored for mezzo-soprano, alto flute and piano.[2]

Moonbass

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Moonbass
TextMedieval poems
Performed28 November 2014 (2014-11-28)
Movements3
Scoring
  • Soprano
  • cello

The cycle is a setting of three medieval poems in different languages, for soprano and cello. It was composed for a colloquium at the University of Oldenburg with Violeta Dinescu.

  1. He Lune! (Christine de Pisan, 1365–1430)
  2. Man in the Moon (anon., translated from Old English by J. Draycott)
  3. Der Tunkel Sterne (Der von Kürenberg, c. 1150–1170)

It was premiered on 28 November 2014 by Stephanie Kühne and the composer.[3]

De Natura

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De Natura
TextPoems about nature
Performed1 November 2015 (2015-11-01)
Movements5
Scoring
  • Tenor
  • string quartet

De Natura (Of Nature) is a song cycle for tenor and string quartet. The texts have in common that they deal with phenomena of nature.

  1. Hymn to Helios (anon., 1st century BC)
  2. The Moon (Charles Best, 1608)
  3. On a Nightingale in April (William Sharp, c. 1890)
  4. The Amphisbaena (A. E. Housman, c. 1920)
  5. Saint Hugh (Thomas Dekker, c. 1630)

It was premiered at the Gasteig on 1 November 2015 by tenor Colin Howard and a string quartet formed by Joe Rappaport, Lorenz Chen, Dorothea Galler and the composer.[4]

Hinx Minx

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Hinx Minx
Based onNursery rhymes
Performed28 February 2016 (2016-02-28)
Movements6
Scoring
  • Mezzo-soprano
  • cello

The cycle of settings of six nursery rhymes from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes[5] was composed for a concert for children on the Museumsinsel Hombroich, performed on 28 February 2016 by Eva Vogel, mezzo-soprano, and the composer as the cellist.[6]

  1. Sing, sing
  2. Anna Elise
  3. Hector Protector
  4. Hinx, Minx
  5. Solomon Grundy
  6. Chinese counting

Music of Sighs

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Music of Sighs
Textby James Joyce
Performed24 April 2016 (2016-04-24)
Movements3
Scoring
  • Mezzo-soprano
  • ensemble

The texts for the cycle are all by James Joyce; Arise from Chamber Music (No. 14) is framed by two excerpt from Finnegans Wake:

  1. Bulbulone
  2. Arise
  3. Buzzard

Scored for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, the cycle was first performed at the Gasteig on 24 April 2016 by Julia Kraushaar and the Ensemble Blauer Reiter.[7]

Drei Lieder nach Shakespeare

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Drei Lieder nach Shakespeare
TextSongs from Shakespeare's The Tempest
Performed9 November 2016 (2016-11-09)
Movements3
Scoring
  • Soprano
  • string quartet

Waterhouse set three songs by Shakespeare from his play The Tempest for soprano and string quartet, to be first performed in an homage concert for Shakespeare, ... play fast and loose ..., at the Gasteig on 9 October 2016 by Anna Karmasin and the Pelaar Quartet:[8]

  1. Say my Spirit
  2. Where the Bee sucks
  3. Juno and Ceres

Irish Phoenix

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Irish Phoenix
Textpoems by Irish women
Performed1 April 2017 (2017-04-01)
Movements8
Scoring
  • Soprano
  • ensemble

The cycle is based on poems by Irish women writers from the 8th to the 21st century.[9] It is scored for soprano and an instrumental ensemble matching Anton Webern's arrangement of Schoenberg's first Chamber Symphony, Op. 9:[9] flute (doubling piccolo), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), violin, cello, piano and percussion. Settings of seven poems and an interlude form the cycle:

  1. Eve (anon, 8th century)
  2. News (Colette Nic Aodha)
  3. The Spring (Katharine Tynan)
  4. Song (Rebecca Scott, 1870)
  5. Interlude
  6. Small Breaths (Eileen Hulme, 1990)
  7. The Poetry Bug (Colette Bryce, early 21st century)
  8. The Irish Phoenix (anon, 18th century)

It was first performed by Anna Karmasin and the ensemble Blauer Reiter at the Gasteig on 1 April 2017.[9]

Shravana

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Shravana
Premiere at the Gasteig
Based onBuddhist texts
Performed12 March 2022 (2022-03-12)
Movements5
Scoring
  • Soprano
  • cello
  • piano

The cycle Shravana for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano is music in five movements for different combinations of the three performers, all with Buddhist overtones.

  1. Gate Paragate
  2. Om Tare
  3. Vajrakilaya
  4. Vokalise
  5. Vaidurya

It was first performed at the Gasteig on 12 March 2022 by Anna-Doris Capitelli, the composer and Miku Nishimoto-Neubert.[5][10]

References

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  1. ^ "Sechs späteste Lieder" (in German). Graham Waterhouse. 2003. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  2. ^ "Konzertante Musik für Mezzosopran, Flöte, Cello und Klavier" (in German). Gasteig. 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  3. ^ "Celloklänge und elektronische Sounds beim Komponisten-Colloquium" (in German). University of Oldenburg. 2014. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  4. ^ ""Music for a While" / Kammermusik von Henry Purcell und Graham Waterhouse" (in German). Gasteig. 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  5. ^ a b Blaumeiser, Martin (June 2022). "In den Fußstapfen von John Foulds". Neue Musikzeitung. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Konzert für Kinder / Hinx, Minx, Hexen Einmaleins and other songs" (PDF) (in German). Verein zur Förderung der Kinder Insel Hombroich. 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  7. ^ "British Modern / Neue und Alte Musik aus Großbritannien" (in German). Gasteig. 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  8. ^ ""... play fast and loose ..." – Homage to Shakespeare" (in German). Gasteig. 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  9. ^ a b c "code modern #6 Schoenberg Hinx Minx" (in German). Gasteig. 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Entdeckungen 2: Musik für Mezzosopran, Cello und Klavier von und mit Graham Waterhouse" (PDF). Gasteig (in German). June 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
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