for singing cellist [1993]
by Martin Wesley-Smith [b. 1945]

Commissioned by Tall Poppies for Australian cellist David Pereira, who premièred it and recorded it, this piece was subsequently taken up by Rachel Scott, an ex-student of David's, who has performed it many times in many countries - including at the first Yarrawa Estate concert in 2006. It is a companion piece to Jerrinja Song, which Rachel played and sang at last year's concert.

Martin is currently working on a third piece in the series.

for voice & piano, 1879 (?)
poem by Paul-Armand Silvestre [1837-1901], set to music by Gabriel Fauré [1845-1924]

Fauré was a French organist, pianist and teacher - and the foremost French composer of his generation. The master of French art song, his musical style influenced many 20th century composers. His works ranged from an early romantic style, when in his early years he emulated the style of Mendelssohn and others, to late 19th century Romantic, and finally to a 20th century aesthetic. His work was based on a strong understanding of harmonic structures which he received from his harmony teacher Gustave Lefèvre ... In contrast with his harmonic and melodic style, which pushed the bounds for his time, Fauré's rhythmic motives tended to be subtle and repetitive, with little to break the flow of the line, although he did utilize subtle large scale syncopations, similar to those found in Brahms's works. In fact, American composer Aaron Copland referred to him as the 'French Brahms' ... Fauré's piano works often use arpeggiated figures with the melody interspersed between the two hands, and include finger substitutions natural for organists. These aspects make them daunting for some pianists, but they are nonetheless central works ... [more]

Notre Amour Notre amour est chose légère Comme les parfums que le vent Prend aux cimes de la fougère Pour qu'on les respire en rêvant. Notre amour est chose légère! Notre amour est chose charmante, Comme les chansons du matin Où nul regret ne se lamente, Où vibre un espoir incertain. Notre amour est chose charmante! Notre amour est chose sacrée, Comme les mystères des bois Où tressaille une âme ignorée, Où les silences ont des voix. Notre amour est chose sacrée! Notre amour est chose infinie, Comme les chemins des couchants Où la mer, aux cieux réunie, S'endort sous les soleils penchants. Notre amour est chose éternelle, Comme tout ce qu'un dieu vainqueur A touché du feu de son aile, Comme tout ce qui vient du coeur, Notre amour est chose éternelle!

Our Love Our love is a light thing, Like the perfumes that the wind Takes upon the summits from the fern So that they can be inhaled while dreaming. Our love is a light thing! Our love is a charming thing, Like the songs of the morning, In which no sorrow is lamented, In which an uncertain hope vibrates. Our love is a charming thing! Our love is a sacred thing, Like the mysteries of the woods Where an unknown soul is throbbing, Where silences have voices. Our love is a sacred thing! Our love is an infinite thing, Like the paths of sunsets Where the sea, reunited with the skies, Falls asleep under the declining suns. Our love is an eternal thing, Like everything that a conquering god Has touched with the fire of his wing, Like everthing that comes from the heart, Our love is an eternal thing!

Gabriel Fauré

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for voice & piano, Op. 8 No.1 [1875]

poem by Sully Prudhomme [1839-1907], set to music by Gabriel Fauré [1845-1924]

"By the mid-1870s, when Fauré was in his early thirties, the composer's mature style had begun to crystallize in such works as the Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 (1875 - 76) and the Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15 (1876 - 79). Au bord de l'eau, from the Three Songs, Op. 8, is an especially felicitous example. For the alternately long and short lines of Prudhomme's Parnassian poem ("To sit together at the edge of the stream which goes by, / To see it go by, / Together, if a cloud glides by in the air / To see it glide by...." ), Fauré conjured a bewitchingly insinuating, echoing vocal line which unfolds over constant piquant modulations and deft shifts between the minor and major modes that mirror the poem's doubt that love, amid transience, can last. The final major chord suggests that it can." (Answers.com)

Sully Prudhomme was the pseudonym of René-Francois-Armand Prudhomme, French poet who was a leading member of the Parnassian movement, which sought to restore elegance, balance, and aesthetic standards to poetry, in reaction to the excesses of Romanticism ... In 1865 he began to publish fluent and melancholic verse inspired by an unhappy love affair. Stances et poemes (1865) contains his best known poem, Le vase brisé (The Broken Vase). Les Épreuves (1866; Trials), and Les Solitudes (1869; Solitude) are also written in this first, sentimental style. Prudhomme later renounced personal lyricism for the more objective approach of the Parnassians, writing poems attempting to represent philosophical concepts in verse. Two of the best known works in this vein are La Justice (1878; Justice) and Le Bonheur (1888; Happiness), the latter an exploration of the Faustian search for love and knowledge. His later work is sometimes obscure and shows a naive approach to the problem of expressing philosophical themes in verse. He was elected to the French Academy in 1881 and awarded the first Nobel Prize for Literature in 1901. [more]

poem by Louise de Vilmorin [1902-1969] set to music by Francis Poulenc [1899-1963]

from http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Poulenc-Francis.htm: Brilliant French composer Francis (Jean Marcel) Poulenc was born into a wealthy family of pharmaceutical manufacturers. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play, and music formed a part of family life ... A decisive turn in his development as a composer occurred when he attracted the attention of Erik Satie, the arbiter elegantiarum of the arts and social amenities in Paris. Deeply impressed by Satie's fruitful eccentricities in the then-shocking manner of Dadaism, Poulenc joined an ostentatiously self-descriptive musical group called the Nouveaux Jeunes. In a gratuitous parallel with the Russian Five, the French critic Henri Collet dubbed the "New Youths" Le Groupe de Six, and the label stuck under the designation Les Six. The six musicians comprised, besides Poulenc, Auric, Durey, Arthur Honegger, Milhaud and Tailleferre ... Compared with his fortuitous comrades-in-six, Poulenc appears a classicist. He never experimented with the asymmetrical rhythms and poly-harmonies cultivated by Honegger and Milhaud. Futuristic projections had little interest for him; he was content to follow the gentle neo-Classical formation of Ravel's piano music and songs ... A master of artificial simplicity, Poulenc pleases even sophisticated listeners by his bland triadic tonalities, spiced with quickly passing diaphonous discords ... [more] American singer Paul J. Sperry once wrote: "Poulenc once wrote, Don't analyze my music, love it. I love it."

Louise de Vilmorin - friend to Jean Cocteau and, at the end of her life, companion to the statesman André Malraux - was Poulenc's preferred woman poet (so that he could write for the female voice as well) from 1937 on; he sang (literally) the praises of her "sensitive impertinence, libertinage, and appetite." The exquisite C'est ainsi que tu es is the centerpiece of the Mémorphoses; it is the epitome of tender promiscuity - we begin by invoking "la chair", or flesh - whose protagonists understand that one must move on to another lover and do so in meditative, melancholy mode ... Poulenc nearly literally sang her praises, considering her an equal to Paul Eluard and Max Jacob. He found in her writing "a sort of sensitive impertinence, libertinage, and appetite which carried on into song [is] what I tried to express in my extreme youth in Les Biches." She had a limp but possessed an ethereal elegance. Evelyn Waugh described "Loulou" to Nancy Mitford as "an Hungarian countess who pretended to be a French poet. An egocentric maniac with the eyes of a witch. She is the Spirit of France. How I hate the French." Mitford concurred: "Oh how glad I am you feel this about Lulu - I can't sit in a room with her she makes me so nervous. And vicious ... She is much more like a middle European than a French woman." ... [more]

a setting, by Francis Poulenc [1899-1963], of a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire [1880-1918], who wrote:

lyric & music by Cole Porter [1891-1964]

Peter Wesley-Smith taught law for many years at the University of Hong Kong. A graduating student once said to him: "Professor, you have been the greatest inspiration to me: because of you I am going to give up law and write musicals instead!" In 1913 at Harvard Law School, a law school dean, frustrated at a student's performance, suggested he not waste his time studying law but, rather, focus on music. At that, Cole Porter transferred to the School of Music.

At Yale, Porter sang in both the Yale Glee Club and in the original line-up of the Whiffenpoofs. In 1915, his first song on Broadway, Esmeralda, appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure; his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First (book by Lawrason Riggs), was a flop, closing after two weeks. Porter soon started to feel the crunch of rejection, as other revues for which he wrote were also flops. After the string of failures, Porter banished himself to Paris, selling songs and living off an allowance partly from his grandfather and partly from his mother. In the late 1920s, Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway with the musical Paris [1928], which featured one of his greatest "list" songs, Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love). Many successful shows followed, including Fifty Million Frenchmen [1929], Wake Up and Dream [1929], The New Yorkers [1930] (which included the song Love for Sale), Fred Astaire's last stage show Gay Divorce (which included Porter's best known song, Night and Day), Anything Goes [1934] ... and so on, with many songs becoming part of the Great American Songbook e.g. I Get a Kick Out of You and Begin the Beguine. Porter had some flops, but came back in 1948 with what was by far his biggest hit show, Kiss Me, Kate. After Out of This World [1950], he had a major hit with Can-Can [1952] (book by Abe Burrows) and the song I Love Paris. [more]

words & music by Lou Reed (from Transformer [1972]), arranged for piano & cello by Ben Sibson

Lou Reed is an American rock singer/songwriter and guitarist who first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer/songwriter of The Velvet Underground [1965-1973]. The band became one of the most influential of their era. As its main songwriter, Reed analyzed subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including a variety of sexual topics and drug culture and use. As a guitarist, he was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and non-standard tunings. He had a solo hit in 1972 with Walk on the Wild Side, though for more than a decade he seemed to wilfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him. One of rock's most volatile personalities, Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented: "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." By the late 1980s, however, he had garnered recognition as an elder statesman of rock ... [more]

Since graduating with honours in composition from the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music in 1997, Ben Sibson (left) has been working as a freelance composer and percussionist on a variety of projects in many genres. He has a keen interest in the integration of physical instruments with electronic sound creation and manipulation, especially within the recorded medium. His original chamber music and electronic works have been performed live within Tasmania and broadcast on national radio. He has produced music and sound for various professional theatre companies. Commissions include Strange Views from Within Walls and Voices of History. Recordings include works on the compilation CDs The Keating Tangos (for clarinet and piano), the Tasmanian Saxophone Quartet's Ride, and Temple Place Jazz Live. When not composing, Sibson makes a living by performing as a kit drummer/percussionist with several ensembles, spanning genres from Salsa to Funk. He has also been the musical director and orchestra manger/conductor for several musical theatre productions ... [more]

from Old American Songs 1 [1950] by Aaron Copland [1900-1990]

Aaron Copland (left) was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a balance between modern music and American folk styles. The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He also incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows in a broad range of works for concert hall, theater, ballet, and films. Aside from composing, Copland was a teacher, lecturer, critic, writer, and conductor (generally, but not always) of his own works ... [more] Old American Songs is a set of five songs originally scored for voice and piano and reworked for baritone with orchestral accompaniment. It is divided into two sets composed in 1950 and 1952 respectively. Set I, which contains I Bought Me a Cat, was first performed by Peter Pears (tenor) and Benjamin Britten (piano). The preceding songs are The Boatmen's Dance (a minstrel song from 1843), The Dodger (a campaign son), Long Time Ago (a ballad), and Simple Gifts (a Shaker song) ... [more]

Rachel Scott writes: "I heard this when I was 8, and have loved it ever since. Nicole and I have performed it to hundreds of children - and they guffaw with laughter. I find it wonderful that children STILL love it - and enjoy the fact that even though Copland never had children of his own, he understood their humour perfectly."

from Sonata in G major, for two cellos, by Jean-Baptiste Barrière [1707-1747], arranged for voice & cello by Bobby McFerrin [b. 1950]

Jean-Baptiste Barrière was a French cellist and composer. He first studied the viol, and published a set of viol sonatas. In due course, however, he became a skilled cellist during a period when the cello was gaining popularity over the viol in France, and later came to completely replace it - as indeed had already happened in Italy some 40 years prior. He became one of the best known virtuoso cellists of his time ... His works are best known for their sensitivity and fine tonality, their emotional resonance and deep sonority. Several of his works are quite demanding in terms of technical performance, especially in terms of left and right hand coordination, and with complicated fingerings and frequent complex bowing techniques. Much subtlety is required to achieve virtuosity in the performance of several of his pieces, for while he assimilated elements of Italian style, there is also a rich French flavour in his musical discourse and its subtlety ... [more] Robert "Bobby" McFerrin Jr. is a ten-time Grammy Award-winning jazz-influenced a cappella vocal performer and conductor, best known for his 1988 hit song Don't Worry, Be Happy. He was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of the late operatic baritone Robert McFerrin and opera singer and professor Sara Copper. Robert, Sr. was the first African-American to be a regular with New York's Metropolitan Opera. Using his unusually large vocal range of four octaves, in many performances McFerrin switches rapidly and fluidly between normal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, effectively performing both the main melody and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of vocal percussion created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. McFerrin is also capable of throat singing, a practice common in central Asian regions, such as Tuva and Tibet, in which the singer excites the natural overtones from the fundamental vocal pitch, producing a two-or three-part chord of notes from one voice ... In addition to his vocal performing career, McFerrin makes regular tours as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras. In his concert appearances, he combines serious conducting of classical pieces with his own unique vocal improvisations, often with participation from the audience and the orchestra. For example, his concerts often end with McFerrin conducting the orchestra in an a cappella rendition of the William Tell Overture, in which the orchestra members sing their musical parts in McFerrin's vocal style, instead of playing their parts on their instruments ... [more] This version of Barrière's Allegro Prestissimo appeared on the 1992 Sony Yo-Yo Ma/Bobby McFerrin CD Hush.

from Annie Get Your Gun [1946]; lyric & music by Irving Berlin [1888-1989]

In Annie Get Your Gun, Annie Oakley is a riflewoman who beats Frank Butler, the sharpshooting star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, in a small contest and falls in love with him. She then becomes a huge star and steals the show from Frank causing him to run off. Annie is heartbroken until they meet again and both declare their love for each other. In the end, Frank sets his pride aside and forms a gun shooting partnership with Annie. See here. Irving Berlin, who wrote the lyrics and music to a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, was one of the most prolific American songwriters in history. Although he never learned to read music beyond a rudimentary level, with the help of various uncredited musical assistants or collaborators he eventually composed over 3,000 songs, many of which (e.g. God Bless America and White Christmas) left an indelible mark on music and culture worldwide. He composed seventeen film scores and twenty-one Broadway scores, Annie Get Your Gun, with its hit numbers Anything You Can Do and There's No Business Like Show Business, the most successful ... [more] left: Irving Berlin

for two sopranos, choir, piano & cello; original song: 1991; this arrangement: 2009
lyric: Peter Wesley-Smith; music: Martin Wesley-Smith

this, which The Song Company also sings, is perhaps the ultimate love-song and thus a fitting finale to Love in the Vineyards ...

Together I've known you since I saw you in a gym slip All those many years ago I took you to a barn dance in the wool-shed You were sweet sixteen - I recall the scene And your face when I trod upon your toe Our mutual regard and close devotion All these years have grown and grown Overwhelming now, and yet, somehow We're growing old and gray alone Let's grow old and grey together, surrounded by souvenirs We'll tend to the garden when arteries harden Together we'll pass the years Let's mature and grow together In step with the march of time As partners endeavour to live life forever Together we'll pass our prime Let's grow old and grey together, improving like fine old wine And covered in glory, when we've become hoary Together we'll soon decline Let's grow stooped and drooped together - We'll mildew and fade away They'll mash up our fodder when we start to dodder Together we'll both decay Let's grow old and grey together, Becoming both shrewd and sage We'll blather and blither, we'll waste and we'll wither And live to a ripe old age Let's grow old and die together And drop like a poor dead rose Together we'll cherish the moment we perish Together we'll decompose © Peter Wesley-Smith 1991, 2009

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