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1.00pm on Tuesday 1st of April

Live and Free at Scots’ Church

Host: Michael Butcher

Art Songs for Voice and Guitar from Australia and France.

Soprano:  Christelise de Graaf     Guitar:   Meredith Connie

Five Songs by Margaret Sutherland, poetry by John Shaw Neilson

1.        For A Child

2.       When Kisses are as Strawberries

3.       May

4.       In the Dim Counties

5.       Song be Delicate

Alena Songs by Anne Cawrse, words by Anna Synkova

1.       For Olga

2.       I’ve Met Enough People

3.       Tears

Songs of Inanna by Meredith Connie, poetry by Enheduanna

1.       Foremost

2.       House

3.       Warrior

4.       Rite

5.       Praise

All Things Conspire by Elena Kats Chernin, poetry by Judith Wright

Receuil de Romances avec accompagnement de guitarre,  a selection of Romances and Aires from comic operas.  Guitar Accompaniments are original works by Hector Berlioz, the melodies are from various composers.

 Program Notes

Margaret Sutherland (1897-1984) was important as an advocate for Australian composition long before she was recognized as a composer in her own right, which came late in her life.  These songs were written in the late 1930s, and were originally written for Voice and Piano.  They document a see-sawing between the pleasures of the domestic, found in the eyes of a child or the taste of oranges or strawberries, and the destruction and devastation that was going on in the wider world.  This dichotomy is best expressed in the final song:

Let your voice be delicate, the bees are home: 

All their day’s love is sunken,

Safe in the comb.

Let your song be delicate, sing no loud hymn:

Death is abroad, oh the black season.

Anne Cawrse (1981 - ) is one of the few Australian composers to compose for the combination of voice and guitar; the Alena songs were originally written for Tenor and Guitar.  The text is from a book “I Never Saw Another Butterly”, a record of poetry and drawings from the children who were encamped at Terezin concentation camp, in what is now the Czech Republic.  The Songs look towards a better life and hope while at the same time asserting “I’ve met enough people, seldom a human being”, from the words of Anna Synkova. 

Meredith Connie (1973 - )  uses fragments of poetry found on Clay tablets written in Cuneiform that is estimated to have been written in 2300 B.C.E.  The poetry is the first known poetry in the history of the world, by priestess of the largest and most important temple in Ur, a Sumerian city, dedicated to the Goddess Inanna.  The grounds of the temple were massive, as were the various roles of Inanna, who was the guardian of the domestic (the sheepfold, the crops, the hearth) and the wider world, controlling the weather and winning wars.  The songs use small fragments written by Enheduanna, from the epic poem Lady of the Largest Heart to paint different aspects of her power and roles within Sumerian society.  

She, foremost of all the Gods/pulls the nose rope with her hands

She is a wood clamp pinching the Gods/ Shimmering fear shrouds the mountains

Strikes the roadways silent.  

– Fragment from Lady of the Largest Heart by Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna (2300 B.C.E.)

Elena Kats-Chernin (1957) is one of the most active and celebrated Australian composers.  This lovely short song was written for Katie Noonan, and explores the difficulties and sacrifices that love asks of women through the poetry of Judith Wright.  We can only hope she will write more for the combination of voice and guitar!