PETER FRANCIS JAMES, NARRATOR Peter Francis James is an acclaimed American actor and voice-over artist whose career spans stage, screen, and television. He made his professional debut in 1979 in Coriolanus , appearing alongside Earle Hyman and Morgan Freeman. From 2000 to 2020, he taught Shakespeare at the Yale School of Drama, nurturing the next generation of classical actors. James is a two-time Obie Award winner: first for his performance as Claire in Jean Genet’s The Maids , and again for his portrayal of Colin Powell in David Hare’s Stuff Happens , which also earned him Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. He played Oscar opposite Dame Maggie Smith in Edward Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, later reprising the role opposite Jane Alexander in New York. On television, James is widely recognized for his role as Raymond Parks in The Rosa Parks Story (2002), and for his recurring performances as Judge Kevin Beck on Law & Order: SVU and as Jahfree Neema in HBO’s Oz . Other TV credits include Gossip Girl , Third Watch , Law & Order , Criminal Intent , and Guiding Light , where he played Clayton Boudreau. His film and television movie appearances include Double Platinum , Long Day’s Journey into Night (1982), and Hamlet (1990), directed by Kevin Kline. He portrayed Thurgood Marshall in PBS’s American Experience: Simple Justice (1993) and played Isaac Coles in the miniseries The Wedding (1998).

DR. GARETH ICENOGLE, NARRATOR Dr. Gareth Icenogle became the Senior Pastor of West Side Presbyterian Church in February, 2009. He has degrees in ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, and music degrees from the University of California, Riverside, and California State University of Los Angeles. His masters degrees are in music (voice and composition) and divinity, and his doctorate is in ministry, with a focus on spiritual formation and discipleship. He has written an internationally used textbook on the theology, purposes, and dynamics of faith formation through small groups. Gareth comes to West Side from the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, where he served as Senior Pastor from 2004 to 2008. Before that he served First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, PA, as Senior Pastor and Co-Senior Pastor for 14 years. Previously he was the Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Seminary. Both natives of southern California, Gareth and his wife, Vida Smith, have been married for 36 years. They have two daughters, Tamara, 29, and Tonya, 26.

October 30, 2016: Wu Han, piano; Philip Setzer, violin; David Finckel, cello LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Trio in E-flat major, op. 1, no. 1 October 30, 2016: Wu Han, piano; Philip Setzer, violin; David Finckel, cello Beethoven carefully considered his presentation to the musical world of Vienna. Though he had composed quite a few works by 1795, he chose the three Trios that form Opus 1 as his first publication. He had been sponsored by Elector Maximilian Franz to move from his hometown of Bonn to Vienna at the end of 1792, to study with the great Joseph Haydn and to make his name in a musically more active world. Haydn was writing piano trios at that time, and though Beethoven probably had started work on his trios before he left Bonn, it was natural for him to work on them under the influence of his new teacher. When Haydn left for a sojourn in London in January 1794, Beethoven immediately began studies with Johann Albrechtsberger, which continued for fourteen months until Haydn’s return. A sketch for one of the movements of the G major Trio, op. 1, no. 2, was found among lessons Beethoven had done for Albrechtsberger. The Trios were performed privately in 1794 at the house of Prince Lichnowsky, the dedicatee of the Opus 1 Trios. Ferdinand Ries, later Beethoven’s pupil, reported many years after the fact that Haydn was among the distinguished guests in the audience and that the older composer had many nice things to say about the works, but advised against publishing the Third in C minor, saying the public would have difficulty understanding it. Ries also reported that Beethoven took this to be a sign of jealousy on Haydn’s part. It has been shown more recently that Ries’s account mixed up the chronology and that possible qualms Haydn may have had about the C minor Trio were raised upon his second return from London in 1795, after the Trios had already been published. In response to this and other accounts that Haydn was envious of the younger composer, esteemed musicologist James Webster wrote, “[I]t is inconceivable that the powerful and original genius of Haydn at the height of his powers should have had any difficulty with this work . . . or indeed any of Beethoven’s music of the 1790s, unless for reasons that reflect on Beethoven’s limitations rather than his own.” Furthermore, Webster demonstrated that no irreparable falling out between the two composers occurred in the 1790s, though they did experience a period of distrust between 1800 and 1804. Beethoven may have worked more on the Trios after the 1794 performance and perhaps other performances of them at Prince Lichnowsky’s. But his most likely reason for delaying their publication until 1795 was to build up a following—meaning a sufficient number of subscribers. Like the other Opus 1 Trios and the Opus 2 Piano Sonatas, Beethoven conceived of the E-flat major Trio in four movements, despite the custom of the day to compose chamber works with piano in three movements. Beethoven’s first public utterance, the first theme of the first movement, takes simple repeated chords and upward-rushing arpeggios and makes distinct motives out of them—short “building-block” kinds of motives that remained central to his mature style. Three quiet repeated chords begin the second theme, which stays within a narrow range in contrast to the more ebullient first theme. His sonata-form movement concludes with an extended coda, showing even in his early work the tendency toward substantial codas that begin almost as second development sections. The Adagio cantabile gently follows a rondo scheme as three presentations of the graceful main theme alternate with two contrasting episodes. Beethoven adds ornamental variants with each recurrence of the main theme and subtracts from its total length in the second appearance to make a more concise form. Beethoven wrote a scherzo instead of a minuet for the third movement of his Trio. Haydn had written minuets in fast enough tempos to be considered scherzos and even used the term Scherzo in his Opus 33 Quartets of 1781, but he was not writing scherzos in his piano trios or for that matter giving them a fourth movement. Beethoven’s sense of humor surfaces in the present Scherzo as it merrily begins in a key twice removed from the home key (the dominant of the dominant). The recurring little three-note motive with a grace note contributes to the section’s cheerful character. The Trio certainly changes character and texture, with long sustained notes in the strings supporting quiet legato figures in the piano. A striking leap of a tenth, heard three times, initiates the exuberant Presto Finale, which contains elements of both sonata and rondo form. The second theme, with its arpeggiated then stepwise descent, enters in each instrument in turn—violin, cello, piano, and again in the violin. Beethoven shows a little harmonic ingenuity late in the movement when this theme appears in E major before returning dramatically to the home key of E-flat. Just before the affirmative closing measures he has a bit of fun with his leaping motive. All in all the Trio makes a very assured as well as promising first opus. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

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BRAD GEMEINHARDT, HORN Praised by the New York Times as having performed “with poetry and backbone” at a recent performance on solo horn Mahler’s 5th Symphony at Carnegie Hall, hornist Brad Gemeinhardt is Principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera, where he has been a member of the orchestra since 2007. Over his extensive and varied career spanning the last quarter century, in addition to countless performances at the Met, Mr. Gemeinhardt has performed as a Guest Principal horn of such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also performed in numerous Broadway shows, as well as with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony, among many others. Also he can be heard on television shows, radio jingles, commercial recordings and in many feature films, beginning with The Producers (2005) to the more recent The Joker (2019) and In the Heights (2021). Mr. Gemeinhardt also appears frequently with the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble’s performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, where he has performed the Brandenburg 1st Concerto, the Brahms Horn Trio, Schubert Octet, among other pieces, all to great acclaim. Brad Gemeinhardt is sought after as a teacher and mentor for young, aspiring French horn players. He serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School Pre-College Division and Columbia University, and is a Valade Fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In addition, he is regularly invited to give master classes as a guest artist, most recently at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and New York University. Mr. Gemeinhardt received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied horn with the late Jerome Ashby. He resides in Manhattan with his wife Dana, his teenagers Alex and Marin and his cavapoo Macintosh.

JULIE GUNN, PIANO Julie is a music director, vocal coach, and song arranger, and she is passionate about songs and singers. She designs and performs song recitals, and has appeared on many prestigious series over the last several years, including the Carnegie Hall Pure Voice Series, Lincoln Center Great Performers, Londonís Queen Elizabeth Hall, Brussels Theatre de la Monnaie, the 92nd Street Y, University of Chicago Presents, San Francisco Performances, Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Oberlin College, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Scheduled for the upcoming year are recitals at Dominican University, Torontoís Roy Thompson Hall, and cabaret performances in Orange County, Sun Valley, and the Allerton Barn Festival. In 2008 she had the privilege of playing a private recital for members of the United States Supreme Court. Julie Gunn also enjoys teaching and training the younger generation, and in her faculty appointment at the UI, she works with both singers and pianists. She has served on the music staff at the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program, Wolf Trap Opera, St. Louis Opera Theatre, Southern Methodist University, Opera North, Theaterworks, Chicago Opera Theater, and Illinois Opera Theater, and given master classes at universities and young artists’ programs all over the United States, including the Ryan Young Artists’ Program, Houston Grand Opera Studio, and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Dr. Gunn is a leader in the promotion of American arts. She works diligently as an advocate for local arts organizations in her home community in the development of projects ranging from constructing arts buildings to establishing patron groups. On a national level, she solicits and programs the work of emerging and established American songwriters on recitals, and is proud to have been the music director of her husband Nathan Gunn’s solo disc, Just before Sunrise, recently released by Sony/BMG records, which included arrangements of songs by Gene Scheer, Ben Moore, Joe Thalken, Billy Joel, Sting, and Charles Ives. Her arrangements of traditional American songs have been programmed by orchestras throughout the country. She seeks to encourage young composers by strengthening their relationships with singers and pianists, and by providing them with more established composers as mentors. Julie Gunn lives in Champaign with her husband and five children.

November 19, 2017: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet PAT METHENY Road to the Sun November 19, 2017: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet Guitar is an interesting instrument. Across virtually all genres, it remains an ongoing research project – in the best possible sense. It is an instrument that in general is somewhat undefined by any single approach. There are seemingly infinite ways to deploy the potential of what it offers. And in multiples, those potentials grow exponentially. A few years back, I was flattered to have one of my compositions included in the LAGQ’s Grammy winning CD Guitar Heroes. Not long after that the idea came up that I might someday write something new for them. The idea of writing a guitar quartet inspired by the talents of the LAGQ has been simmering somewhere in the back of my mind ever since. The thought of really addressing the instrument in a more formal way under the auspices of what this quartet has come to embody, not to mention the sheer, almost overwhelming individual skills of the four players, was something I really wanted to do. It was just a matter of finding the time I knew that I would need to do it. Luckily for me, I am very busy as a bandleader and I feel privileged to be able to record and tour almost constantly with my own groups. But after a particularly active year in 2014 where I did more than 150 concerts around the world, I decided, for the first time, to take a year off from the road in 2015. Hopefully, I thought, I could get caught up with a few things. Kind of on my list was this lingering idea of finally writing something for the LAGQ. Near the end of the year, I saw a window opening up where I would have a few weeks that I might dedicate to this. With the approval of the guys and a few really useful tips from all of them, I jumped in, hoping to write a concert piece of 7 to 9 minutes. Two weeks later, I found myself with a nearly 30 minute, 6 movement treatise on the aforementioned potentials of what can happen in a multi-guitar format, blazingly inspired by the thought of hearing these four incredible guitarists play these notes. The piece just literally poured out. In truth, as much as I am identified as being a guitarist myself, I don’t really spend a whole lot of time thinking about the instrument in a specific way. It has always been an almost inadvertent tool for me to translate ideas into sound, and mostly as an improviser at that. And in fact, when I do compose for various projects or for my bands, I almost always am doing it at the piano, a much more forgiving and logical universe to write in than the odd geometry of guitar-thought. But for this piece, I decided to really embrace the instrument and kind of get under the hood of a bunch of things that I do with the instrument, things that are somewhat identified with what it seems has now become my particular style, while at the same time reach for the narrative element of storytelling that is the imperative and primary function for me always as a musician. And yet, with the piece now complete, as much as those components provided an aspirational environment to work from, the main quality that I think the piece offers is the emotional journey that it takes. Somehow through the challenge of writing for this unique platform and aiming it towards the hands of these especially talented players, I was able to get to a very personal area of what music itself is to me. It feels like a journey to me, almost a road trip in scale and scope. In settling on the title “Road to the Sun”, I thought back to my trip up to Glacier National Park on the famous “Going-to-the-Sun Road”, the day after hearing LAGQ play live for the first time at a festival in Montana. It has been a thrill to get the chance to write for the amazing Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and I am very excited to hear what William, Scott, John and Matt will do on their journey with this work. -Pat Metheny February 2016 Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun (2016) was commissioned through the International Arts Foundation, Inc. for the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet by the lead commissioners: Newman Center for the Performing Arts/University of Denver and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, College of Fine + Applied Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Additional support provided by co-commissioners: Lobero Theater Foundation, Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, 92nd Street Y, Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College and Soka University of America/Soka Performing Arts Center. Return to Parlance Program Notes

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2017 AT 3 PM PETER SERKIN: MOZART AND BACH BUY TICKETS PETER SERKIN, PIANO “Serkin is a great pianist because he is an original musical thinker…Serkin consistently provided an amazing and illuminating amount of subtle detail; every chord was fascinatingly voiced, every phrase tenderly sculpted, the counterpoint limned a way a great Bach player does.” — The Boston Globe “Mr. Serkin played as if channeling the music from another realm.” — The New York Times FEATURING ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE BUY TICKETS On October 29, pianist Peter Serkin will make his long-awaited Parlance debut. Hailed worldwide as an artist of passion and integrity, Serkin is one of the most thoughtful and individualistic musicians appearing before the public today. His program will feature sublime works by Mozart and Bach , culminating in the pinnacle of Bach’s keyboard art, The Goldberg Variations . PROGRAM Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Adagio in B minor, K. 540 Program Notes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata in B flat, K. 570 Program Notes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Goldberg Variations BWV 988 Program Notes Hear Peter Serkin perform the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations: Hear Peter Serkin perform Variation 1 from Bach’s Goldberg Variations:

November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Preludes November 12, 2023: Angel Blue, soprano; Bryan Wagorn, piano On Saturday afternoon, December 4, 1926, at the Hotel Roosevelt, Gershwin performed five preludes for piano on the first of several recitals with contralto Marguerite d’Alvarez. (For more about Gershwin’s background as a composer of songs and shows, see “American Songbook below.”) Two of these preludes had been published as Short Story, two “novelettes” for violin and piano, after violinist Samuel Dushkin had seen them in one of Gershwin’s notebooks marked “Preludes” and been given permission to make them into violin and piano pieces for a 1925 recital. Neither the five piano preludes nor the violin-piano arrangements attracted much attention. The five preludes plus a sixth, which Gershwin performed when the recital was repeated in Boston the following month, formed part of a project he had had in mind for some time: a set of twenty-four piano preludes to be called The Melting Pot. (The sixth was never written down in final form.) Although he abandoned the larger project, he published three of the preludes as a set, which has since become an established part of the repertoire. He dedicated them to his friend composer-conductor-pianist-arranger Bill Daly. This afternoon we hear the first two of the set, both heavily influenced by jazz. A bluesy syncopated five-note motive opens the first Prelude and serves as the building material for the piece’s jazzy rhythmic dance. Gershwin once called the second Prelude “a sort of blue lullaby,” and indeed it unfolds as a kind of nocturne over a repeating pattern. Following a new middle section with the melody in the bass, the languid opening returns. —©Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes

WU HAN, PIANO Pianist Wu Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. Leading an unusually multifaceted artistic career, she has risen to international prominence through her wide-ranging activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. In high demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, Wu Han has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious concert series and venues across the United States and around the world. She is a frequent collaborator with many of today’s finest musicians and ensembles. Wu Han appears extensively each season as duo pianist with cellist David Finckel, and in 2012, they were the recipients of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year award, one of the highest honors granted by the music industry. London’s Musical Opinion said of the duo’s Wigmore Hall debut: “They enthralled both myself and the audience with performances whose idiomatic command, technical mastery and unsullied integrity of vision made me think right back to the days of Schnabel and Fournier, Solomon and Piatigorsky.” In addition to her distinction as one of classical music’s most accomplished performers, Wu Han has established a reputation for her dynamic and innovative approach to the recording studio. In 1997, Wu Han and David Finckel launched ArtistLed, classical music’s first musician-directed and Internet-based recording company, whose catalogue of eighteen albums has won widespread critical acclaim. The duo’s recording for the ArtistLed label of the Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev sonatas for cello and piano received BBC Music Magazine’s coveted “Editor’s Choice” award. The most recent addition to the ArtistLed catalogue, Wu Han LIVE, was released in December 2014 in collaboration with the Music@Menlo LIVE label and features Wu Han performing solo and chamber works of Mendelssohn, Bach, and Haydn. Now in their third term as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, David Finckel and Wu Han hold the longest tenure since Charles Wadsworth, the founding Artistic Director. They are the founding Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim, soon to celebrate its thirteenth season. David Finckel and Wu Han also serve as Artistic Directors of Chamber Music Today, an annual festival held in Seoul, Korea. The festival, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, is at the forefront of expanding the presence of chamber music in the Far East. Wu Han has achieved universal renown for her passionate commitment to nurturing the careers of countless young artists through a wide array of education initiatives. For many years, she taught alongside the late Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. Under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Wu Han and David Finckel direct the LG Chamber Music School, which provides workshops for young artists in Korea. In 2013, Wu Han and David Finckel established a chamber music studio at Aspen Music Festival.

EMERSON STRING QUARTET The Emerson String Quartet has amassed an unparalleled list of achievements over four decades: more than thirty acclaimed recordings, nine Grammys® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” and collaborations with many of the greatest artists of our time. The arrival of Paul Watkins in 2013 has had a profound effect on the Emerson Quartet. Mr. Watkins, a distinguished soloist, award-winning conductor, and devoted chamber musician, joined the ensemble in its 37th season, and his dedication and enthusiasm have infused the Quartet with a warm, rich tone and a palpable joy in the collaborative process. The reconfigured group has been praised by critics and fans alike around the world. “The Emerson brought the requisite virtuosity to every phrase. But this music is equally demanding emotionally and intellectually, and the group’s powers of concentration and sustained intensity were at least as impressive.” The New York Times The 2016-17 season marks the Emerson Quartet’s 40th Anniversary, and highlights of this milestone year reflect all aspects of the Quartet’s venerable artistry with high-profile projects and collaborations, commissions and recordings. Universal Music Group has reissued their entire Deutsche Grammophon discography in a 52-CD boxed set. After recent engagements together at the Kennedy Center and Tanglewood, illustrious soprano Renée Fleming joins the Emerson at Walt Disney Concert Hall, performing works by Alban Berg and Egon Wellesz from their first collaborative recording, released by Decca in fall of 2015. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center has programmed celebratory concerts at Alice Tully Hall, as well as in Chicago and Purchase, NY, in October: the Calidore Quartet teamed up with the Emerson for the Mendelssohn Octet, and the Emerson gave the New York premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Shroud (co-commissioned by CMS). Former Emerson cellist David Finckel appears as a special guest for Schubert’s Quintet in C Major. In May 2017, international acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman will join the Quartet for a performance of the Brahms Quintet at Carnegie Hall. Additional highlights include a concert with clarinetist David Shifrin as part of the Quartet’s season-long residency at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, as well as a collaboration with cellist Clive Greensmith at the Soka Performing Arts Center in California. The Emerson continues its series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC for its 38th season, and the quartet members have been selected as Artistic Advisors for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at The Barns in Virginia, curating the series in celebration of its 20th season. On April 21, 2017 the Quartet releases its latest album, Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell, the first release on Universal Music Classics’ new US classical record label, Decca Gold. Multiple tours of Europe comprise dates in Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom (including Wigmore Hall for a 40th Anniversary Gala);the Quartet also tours South America and Asia. Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson was one of the first quartets whose violinists alternated in the first chair position. The Emerson Quartet, which took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, is Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. During the spring of 2016, full-time Stony Brook faculty members Philip Setzer and Lawrence Dutton received the honor of Distinguished Professor, and part-time faculty members Eugene Drucker and Paul Watkins were awarded the title of Honorary Distinguished Professor. In January 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

March 29, 2015 – Matthew Polenzani, tenor; Ken Noda, piano SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981) Hermit Songs, Op. 29 March 29, 2015 – Matthew Polenzani, tenor; Ken Noda, piano Samuel Barber excelled in both singing and composition as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Upon graduation he worked briefly as a baritone for NBC on the Music Guild Series and was even hired for his own series of weekly song broadcasts in 1935. As a composer he was naturally drawn to vocal expression—two-thirds of his compositions consist of songs—but even his instrumental works are infused with a lyrical impulse. In November 1952, Barber was already a well-established composer and had just completed his lighthearted ballet Souvenirs, when another project seized his fancy, drawing on his love of Irish literature and poetry. He wrote to his uncle, composer Sidney Homer, who served as his mentor for much of his career: I have come across some poems of the 10th century, translated into Modern English by various people, and am making a song cycle of them, to be called, perhaps “Hermit Songs.” These were extraordinary men, monks or hermits or what not, and they wrote these little poems on the corners of MSS they were illuminating or just copying. I find them very direct, unspoiled, and often curiously contemporaneous in feeling. Barber himself was something of a hermit, often holing up to compose, so the idea of these ancient scholars scribbling in unguarded moments greatly appealed to him. He elaborated further in his printed preface: They are settings of anonymous Irish texts of the eighth to thirteenth centuries written by monks and scholars, often on the margins of manuscripts they were copying or illuminating—perhaps not always meant to be seen by their Father Superiors. They are small poems, thoughts or observations, some very short, and speak in straightforward, droll, and often surprisingly modern terms of the simple life these men led, close to nature, to animals, and to God. Some are very literal translation, and others, where existing translation seemed inadequate, were especially made by W. H. Auden [“The Monk and his Cat” and “The Praises of God”] and Chester Kallman [“St. Ita’s Vision”]. Barber composed four of the Hermit Songs immediately and by mid-February had completed the other six. A year after he had begun, he received a commission for the cycle from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation—Mrs. Coolidge had been a great supporter of his work for thirty years. Barber’s search for the ideal singer to present the songs culminated with Leontyne Price, who had recently become known for her portrayal of Bess in Porgy and Bess but had yet to make her recital debut. Price, with Barber at the piano, gave the first performance at the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Mrs. Coolidge’s eighty-ninth birthday, October 30, 1953. She presented them again with the composer in April in Rome at the Twentieth-Century Music Conference and in November at her New York recital debut—thus began a long and rewarding friendship. The ten songs vary considerably in length and mood according to their subjects, from the tender lullaby of “St. Ita’s Vision” to the bombast of “Sea-Snatch.” But they make a cohesive group based in part on ancient-sounding fourths and fifths and other shared motivic material (a descending whole tone followed by a descending fourth appears in eight of the songs). Whether fast or slow, jaunty or reflective, Barber’s style of declamation fits the text precisely because he allows unhampered metric flow by omitting time signatures altogether. Attested to by the frequency of their performance and by the remarkable number of studies devoted to both their textual and musical analysis, The Hermit Songs rank among the great songs cycles of the twentieth century. © Jane Vial Jaffe Return to Parlance Program Notes