On August 2nd, 2019, the Wayward Music series will present Songs from the Exotic, a unique song recital by vocalist Emily Ostrom and pianist Peter Nelson-King. Four major song sets are presented along with miniature gems (and a world premiere by Yours Truly), and among those sets is the enchanting Four Love Songs of Sara Teasdale by Utah-based Aaron J. Kirschner. Having earned degrees from the University of Iowa, Boston University and the University of Utah, Kirschner has won international success with his compositions and has established a firm place in the Salt Lake City music scene as a composer, clarinetist and theorist. This performance of his Teasdale Songs is the Pacific Northwest premiere of the work, and to celebrate this I did a correspondence interview to get a closer look at these songs.
How did you come across Sara Teasdale's poetry?
While I've known Teadale's poetry for many years, the specific idea of setting it came about in 2015. The soprano Elaina Robbins commissioned me to write a short, preferably bird-themed song, yet I struggled to find a suitable text. While my wife was antique shopping in a small town in Wyoming, I came across a first edition of Teasdale's Pulitzer Prize winning Love Songs. I happily added this wonderful collection to my library, and overnight the setting of "Swans" practically poured out; I had a complete sketch of the song before my wife woke up the next morning. I knew then that I wanted to set more poems from the collection, yet had to set them aside as my engagements moved towards large-scale instrumental mediums - particularly my Oboe Concerto Symphony. When I finally had a chance to return to vocal writing working with the baritone James Martin, I knew instinctively that I needed to work "Swans" into a larger cycle.
Teasdale's work, when she was in her peak of fame late in her life, was conservative compared to the poetry trends of her time, and many modern composers prefer to choose poetry for songs that is as "modernist" as the music they want to write. How did you balance using "old-fashioned" poetry with modern compositional techniques?
To me, the most strikingly conservative feature of Teasdale's work (and Love Songs in particular) is the acceptance of female submissiveness in romantic relationships. This stands in such stark contrast to much of today's poetry and art song, let alone public discourse, that I knew I could not ignore the interplay of the poetry's themes and the current socio-political climate. It would not do to treat these poems as if I were writing in 1917, nor do I even think it is possible. And yet, the beauty in the poems must be celebrated regardless of the context of 2019. In many ways, this was one of the greatest challenges I have faced as a composer. I did not want these songs to be an overt critique of conservative attitudes towards romantic relationships - many, both in 1917 and today, find personal happiness in such environments. Rather, I wished to celebrate the beauty of Teasdale's poems, while structuring the music in such a way as to allow multiple readings of the overall message and story. "Four Love Songs of Sara Teasdale" can be read as a celebration of both the message and verse, a subtly ironic setting (with the harmony pushing against the text in a way very much in contrast with the Romantic music it superficially resembles), or even as a religious allegory. Even I, as the composer, am not sure which is correct, nor do I think they are mutually exclusive.
The structure forms a kind of mirror, with outer movements featuring dense, neo-romantic piano writing and inner movements relying on sparser content and atmosphere. Did this concept come from the poems, or did you find poems to fit the content?
I'll be honest: I hate this question, as it presumes a false dichotomy of text-first versus structure-first attitudes towards vocal composition. Unquestionably, the text drives the music; every note of my vocal writing is in deference to the text. However, the most important factor to me was the overall emotional journey. The outer two songs, as an affirmation of love and the peace of acceptance, naturally lend themselves to a different character than the middle two, which take aim at the more frustrating and emotionally draining issues of romance. Thus, I feel that the "mirrored" structure arose naturally, with the music and text both in service of the larger narrative.
Have you considered other poets of Teasdale's time for art songs?
I've absolutely considered other poets of Teasdale's time, but only insofar as I will consider any poet or poem. I am not generally concerned with the time period of the poets I choose. I am looking for beautiful verse that music can defer to (this is much harder to find than it sounds!) and, at least in the case of my cycles, fits into the larger narrative arc.
When John Harbison arranged his Mirabai Songs for chamber ensemble after originally writing them for voice and piano, he stated that chamber songs were generally more successful at the time, and that art songs were a waning format. This was more than 30 years ago. Do you see voice and piano songs having a future, or at least one that is appealing to modernist composition?
I think there's a distinction that needs to be made between simply calling something "modern" music and actually calling something "Modernist". At the risk of encouraging Adorno-ish jokes, much of what we call "modern" music is really older "Modernist" music - in 2019, we are legitimately seeing art created over a century ago still referred to as "modern art". That said, to the question about piano/vocal art song versus chamber/vocal music...I see these as two distinct genres of music, both appealing to current composers. Again, I go back to deference to the text. Art song text differs from chamber/vocal text (and both differ again from opera); setting Teasdale is fundamentally different from setting Cummings. Teasdale's projects much better into the art song genre, while Cummings's - at least in my experience - is much better set as chamber/vocal. The text, not the instrumentation, is the motivation for vocal writing. The appeal of the text drives vocal composition, and given the large variance of wonderful texts I see no reason that any of the genres of vocal music should wane in appeal as we continue in the 21st century.
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Songs from the Exotic is performed on August 2nd, 2019, at 8 pm in the Chapel Performance Space of the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle. I hope to see you all there...
~PNK
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