So You Want to Sing Chamber Music: A Guide for Performers
ONLINE RESOURCES:
Chapters 2 & 3 Resources Chapter 4 Resources Chapter 5 Resources Index
Chapter 1 – Brief History of Chamber Music
Early Chamber Music:
- Philippe de Vitry: "O canenda vulgo per compita"
- Philippe de Vitry: "Ay, amours! tant me dure"
- Guillaume de Machaut: "De ma dolour"
- Guillaume de Machaut: "Se quanque amours"
The Renaissance:
- Luca Marenzio: "Vaghi e lieti fanciulla à 6 voci"
- Carlo Gesualdo: "Moro, e mentre sospiro"
- John Dowland: "Tell Me, True Love"
Baroque Period:
- Claudio Monteverdi: "Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti," SV 251
- Claudio Monteverdi: "Duo belli occhi fur larmi, onde traffitta," SV 155
- Barbara Strozzi: "Begl'occhi superbi"
- Alessandro Scarlatti: "Ardo, è ver, per te d'amore," H62
- JS Bach: "Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht"
- GF Handel: "Meine Seele hört im Sehen" HWV 207
- Henry Purcell: "Lost Is My Quiet Forever"
Classical Period:
- JC Bach: "Pur nel sonno," Op. 4, No. 3
- Ludwig van Beethoven: "Oh! Thou Art the Lad of My Heart," Op. 108, No. 11
- Louis Spohr: "Erlkönig," Op. 154, No. 4
- Franz Schubert: "Licht und Liebe," D352
- Franz Schubert: "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen," D965
Romantic Period:
- Gioachino Rossini: "La regata veneziana" from Soirées musicales
- Felix Mendelssohn: "Herbstlied," Op. 63, No. 4
- Robert Schumann: "Dunkler Lichtglanz," Op. 138, No. 10
- Johannes Brahms: "Verzicht, o Herz auf Rettung" from Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 65
- Gabriel Fauré: "Tarantelle," Op. 10, No. 2
- Henri Duparc: "La Fuite"
- Camille Saint-Saëns: "Violons dans le soir"
Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries:
- Arnold Schoenberg: "Mondestrunken," Op. 21, No. 1
- Igor Stravinsky: “Tsaraiuki" from Three Japanese Lyrics, No. 3
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
- Rebecca Clarke: Three Old English Songs
- Heitor Villa-Lobos: “Cantilena" from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
- Samuel Barber: Dover Beach, Op. 3
- Pierre Boulez: “Bourreaux de solitude" from Le marteau sans maître
- Lori Laitman: “The Butterfly" from I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Chapter 2 – Why Sing Chamber Music?
Chapter 3 – How to Program Vocal Chamber Music
Examples from Text:
- Jake Heggie: “Into the Fire”
- Jocelyn Hagen: “Gwendolen's Dream”
- Timothy Hoekman: Three Poems of William Butler Yeats
- Ricky Ian Gordon: “He Came to Houston" from Green Sneakers
Beginner:
- Hector Berlioz: “Pleure, pauvre Colette”
- Giacomo Carissimi: “Rimanti in pace" from Duetti da camera
- Stefano Donaudy: "Amor s'apprende"
- Cesar Franck: "Soleil," Op. 89, No. 5
- Felix Mendelssohn: "Ich wollt meine Lieb," Op. 63, No. 1
- Robert Schumann: "Liebesgarten," Op. 34, No. 1
- Francesco Tosti: "Venetian Song"
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: “It Was a Lover and His Lass”
Moderate:
- Amy Beach: "A Canadian Boat Song," Op. 10, No. 1
- Johannes Brahms: "Die Schwestern," Op. 61, No. 1
- Charles Gounod: "Barcarola"
- Jules Massenet: "Matinée d'été"
- Émile Paladilhe: "Au bord de l'eau"
- Gioacchino Rossini: "I gondolieri"
- Franz Schubert: "An die Sonne," D439
- Francesco Tosti: "Allons voir"
Advanced:
- Henri Duparc: La fuite
- Gabriel Fauré: "Tarantelle," Op. 10, No. 2
- Francis Poulenc: "Colloque," FP 108
- Franz Schubert: "Gebet," D815
- Peter Cornelius: "Ich und du"
- Pauline Viardot: "Habanera"
- Max Reger: "Sommernacht," Op. 14, No. 3
- Jocelyn Hagen: "Arise, My Love"
- Dominick Argento - Six Elizabethan Songs (with piano)
- Dominick Argento - Six Elizabethan Songs (with ensemble)
Suggested Listening – Examples of Chamber Music with Voices:
- JC Bach: "Gia la notte s'avvicina," Op. 4, No. 1
- Franz Joseph Haydn: "Alles hat seine Zeit"
- Felix Mendelssohn: "Maiglöckchen und die Blümelein," Op. 63, No. 6
- Johannes Brahms: "Fragen," Op. 64, No. 3
- Max Reger: "Nachts," Op. 14, No. 1
- Robert Schumann: "Es ist verraten," Op. 74, No. 5
- Carl Maria von Weber: "Va, ti consola," Op. 31, No. 2
- Benjamin Britten: "Mother Comfort" from Two Ballads
Suggested Listening – Examples of Chamber Music with Instruments:
- GF Handel: "Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden," HWV 210
- Ludwig van Beethoven: "What Shall I Do?" WoO 152, No. 6
- Franz Schubert: "Der Hirt auf den Felsen," D965
- Louis Spohr: "Sei still mein Herz," Op. 103, No. 1
- Johannes Brahms: "Gestillte Sehnsucht," Op. 91, No. 1
- Camille Saint-Saëns: "Le bonheur est chose légère
- Gustav Holst: "My Soul Has Nought but Fire and Ice," Op. 35, No. 2
- Ernest Chausson: Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37
- Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses
- Benjamin Britten: "The Stream in the Valley"
- Joseph Schwantner: Sparrows
- John Corigliano: "The Foggy Dew" from Three Irish Folksong Settings
- Lowell Liebermann: "Die gar traurige Geschichte," Op. 51, No. 1
- André Previn: The Giraffes Go to Hamburg
- Eric Ewazen: "Everyone Said It Snowed Last Night"
- Jake Heggie: "My True Love Hath My Heart"
Chapter 4 – Breathe with the Bow: Communicating with Instrumentalists
String Instruments:
Wind Instruments:
Brass Instruments:
Percussion and Other Instruments:
- Virgil Thomson: “Thou That Dwellest" from Five Phrases from the Song of Solomon
- Jocelyn Hagen: Dear Theo: Letters from Vincent Van Gogh
Chapter 5 – Stylistic Considerations
- Ludwig van Beethoven: "Moonlight" Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2 (on fortepiano)
- JS Bach: "Coffee" Cantata, BWV 211 (in baroque tuning)
- JS Bach: "Coffee" Cantata, BWV 211 (in modern tuning)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les amants trahis
- Ludwig van Beethoven: "Once More I Hail Thee," WoO 152, No. 3
- Johannes Brahms: "Gestillte Sehnsucht," Op. 91, No. 1
- Example of Sprechstimme
- Example of Prepared Piano
- Example of Instrumental Extended Technique
