A Smorgasbord of Song Groups

COMPOSER FRANCIS POULENC placed great importance on the placement of songs in recital group, comparing it to the presentation of paintings in an art museum. is all question of 'the hanging,' as essential in music as in painting.1 If we take Poulenc's statement as guideline for putting together recital group, then we need strong song to build the group around. It might be the most intense emotionally, the most dramatic or colorful, or the longest. Build the group out from there towards the first song, and then, on to the last. If the set is three songs, this central song is obviously flanked by one song on either side; if the set is four songs, it might be the third song. A five-song set needs two songs on each side of the central song, and so forth. Try to avoid putting two songs together and calling that a Junior recitals are often programmed this way, and leaving the stage after two songs and coming back for the next two is needless motion. Try instead to make four-song group of two or more composers. I invite readers to access Kurt Adler's classic reference The Art of Accompanying and Coaching, in which he gives guidelines for putting together song groups.2 He also gives rule of thumb for recital length: usually twenty songs for full recital, or five to six song groups, depending on length and vocal/technical demands of the music. Usually the first half of the program contains three groups, and the second half two groups. If there is cycle of considerable length being performed, this pattern may be varied. In designing group of songs, be careful that you have variety in key, tempo, and mood between the component songs in the group. Tempo and key provide atmosphere-one tempo sets one mood, another sets different mood. You do not want group of slow songs, nor songs in one tempo or key. There are many ways to build song groups. The familiar and all-too-predictable program of song groups by one composer or in one language needs little shaking up. The list below contains assorted subjects that will serve as springboards to explore different formats. Try putting together group of songs that fit under these headings: * Settings of one poet by different composers. * Settings of one or two poems by different composers. * Songs with common theme or topic. * Songs that refer to, or come from specific historical period. * Songs by women composers and/or women poets. * Songs whose texts contain the same character, similar characters, or characters from specific group. The lists that follow were shaped by fitting repertoire to topic and are not intended for any specific voice type. The song titles are meant only to spark the imagination and provide useful ideas for building blocks of song for recital presentations. GROUPINGS BY POET There are many poets whose verses have been used in musical settings: William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Dickinson, Robert Browning, A. E. Housman, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Ruckert, Paul Verlaine, Guillaume Apollinaire, and e. e. cummings are but few of these. To illustrate, Table 1 is list of songs setting poems by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), one of the major figures in French poetry. The list is not all-inclusive, but it gives an idea of the diversity of composers who have set Ronsard's poetry. Further, Dickinsons verses have always been popular source for many composers. In 1992 author Carlton Lowenberg published Angels Wrestle Everywhere, which cited 276 composers who had set Dickinson's texts.3 Mezzo soprano Virginia Dupuy, who has identified over 3,000 settings for solo voice and chorus, writes: Emily Dickinson allows singer and composer to frame very poignant and personal feelings, curiosities about life, death, and the 'in between' where most of us live most of the time. …