Songs of Love and Remembrance
Song cycle/chamber opera work for 3 voices (mezzo soprano, tenor, and baritone) and piano. Performance length 65 minutes with no intermission.
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune in its premiere staged production as “Lush … Lyrical … Rapturous … Dynamic,” Songs of Love and Remembrance is a song cycle which has been performed in staged productions as both a chamber opera and as a music theater piece (the latter titled, I Was Singing With You), and in concert as part of A Time for Healing AIDS benefits. Performances of the complete Songs or selections from Songs have taken place in Chicago, New York City, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Based on poems by Rumi, Joyce Carol Oates, Walt Whitman, and the composer, Ron Hirsch, Songs celebrates love in all its complexity. At turns playful, touching, dramatic, and starkly realistic, it is an uplifting tale of survival and growth. Marked by its beautiful melodies and accessible tonalities, the Tribune noted that, “it’s rich vocal line consistently serves the verse.” The Tribune further remarked that Hirsch’s setting of the Whitman poem “captures the sweep and tenderness of [Whitman’s] elegy with its grasp of the presence of death in the midst of life.”
To listen to excerpts, play the YouTube video below.
The excerpts are taken from:
Copyright © 1992 and 1993 by Ronald L. Hirsch
Love in Three Movements is based on three quatrains by Rumi (#1246,#1245, & #1242) as translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks and published in Open Secret, Copyright 1984 by Threshold Books, RD4, JBox 600, Putney, VT 05346. Poems used by permission of Threshold Books.
Nighthawks is based on the Joyce Carol Oates poem, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942, as published in The Time Traveler, © 1983-2989 by The Ontario Review, Inc. Poem used by permission of Ms. Oates through her representative, the William Morris Agency.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is based on a poem of the same title (sections 1, 2, and 16) by Walt Whitman. The poem is in the public domain.
Lovedream and Marty’s Nocturne are based on poems by Ronald Hirsch. Overture and Interlude are written to lyrics by Ronald Hirsch.
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune in its premiere staged production as “Lush … Lyrical … Rapturous … Dynamic,” Songs of Love and Remembrance is a song cycle which has been performed in staged productions as both a chamber opera and as a music theater piece (the latter titled, I Was Singing With You), and in concert as part of A Time for Healing AIDS benefits. Performances of the complete Songs or selections from Songs have taken place in Chicago, New York City, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Based on poems by Rumi, Joyce Carol Oates, Walt Whitman, and the composer, Ron Hirsch, Songs celebrates love in all its complexity. At turns playful, touching, dramatic, and starkly realistic, it is an uplifting tale of survival and growth. Marked by its beautiful melodies and accessible tonalities, the Tribune noted that, “it’s rich vocal line consistently serves the verse.” The Tribune further remarked that Hirsch’s setting of the Whitman poem “captures the sweep and tenderness of [Whitman’s] elegy with its grasp of the presence of death in the midst of life.”
To listen to excerpts, play the YouTube video below.
The excerpts are taken from:
- the 1995 Chicago concert performance of selections from the cycle – Janet Aman Burton, mezzo-soprano; Bill Chamberlain, tenor; Scott Cheffer, baritone; Dana Brown, piano;
- the 2001 Grand Rapids concert performance of selections from the cycle – Stephanie Wiltse, mezzo-soprano; Kurt Singer, tenor; Carl Wiltse, baritone; Phil Pletcher, piano; and
- the 1993 staged chamber opera production – Janet Aman Burton, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Potter, tenor; Dan Turek, baritone; Celeste Rue, piano; and
- the 1993 staged music theatre AIDS benefit production, titled I Was Singing With You, staring Hollis Resnik, the most honored singer-actress on the Chicago stage at that time, and co-starring Beuce Cain, baritone, and James Rank, tenor. The pianist is Dana Brown.
Copyright © 1992 and 1993 by Ronald L. Hirsch
Love in Three Movements is based on three quatrains by Rumi (#1246,#1245, & #1242) as translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks and published in Open Secret, Copyright 1984 by Threshold Books, RD4, JBox 600, Putney, VT 05346. Poems used by permission of Threshold Books.
Nighthawks is based on the Joyce Carol Oates poem, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942, as published in The Time Traveler, © 1983-2989 by The Ontario Review, Inc. Poem used by permission of Ms. Oates through her representative, the William Morris Agency.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is based on a poem of the same title (sections 1, 2, and 16) by Walt Whitman. The poem is in the public domain.
Lovedream and Marty’s Nocturne are based on poems by Ronald Hirsch. Overture and Interlude are written to lyrics by Ronald Hirsch.
