Play list:

Remember Me

Songs of Richard Faith
BRENDA BAKER, SOPRANO
RICHARD FAITH, PIANO

With Mika Sunago, piano;   Jennifer George, flute and alto flute;    Nancy Ives, cello

SONGS OF SPRINGTIME
1. Desire in Spring
2. Firefly
3. Spring Quiet
4. Spring the Sweet Spring

SONGS FOR FLUTE, PIANO, AND VOICE
Jennifer George - Flute, Alto Flute   Mika Sunago – Piano
5. I Cannot Dance
6. Come My Beloved
7. I Bind You By Oath

SONGS OF REMEMBRANCE
8. Music I heard with you
9. Time does not bring relief
10. Music when soft voices die
11. Echo
12. Remember me

SONGS FOR CELLO, PIANO, AND VOICE
Nancy Ives - Cello   Mika Sunago - Piano
13. Ships
14. I Have Embarked

SONGS OF NATURE
15. Though the Way May Be Dark
16. On the Isle of Skye
17. If I Were
18. It is a Beauteous Evening

Review

Richard Faith is a composer of rare gifts. In an age in which we are looking for American composers of art song who speak with a unique voice, Mr. Faith’s music is a lush and lyrical revelation. From his melodic sense to his harmonic palate, his songs convey the texts written by some truly great poets—many of them also American, with sensitivity and drama. For lovers of art song,

Indeed of all song forms, Richard Faith’s songs and Brenda Baker's evocative and artistic interpretations, given in her rich soprano voice, will leave you wanting to hear more.

And there is much more to hear! The selections on this CD represent Mr. Faith's complete catalogue quite nicely, but they do not begin to represent the totality of his work, for he is truly prolific. There are now three published books of his songs available from Leyerle Publications and many more songs yet to be published. I hope this is just the first in a series of recordings of the works of this soon-to-be-well-known composer.

Niel DePonte
Music Director and Conductor, Oregon Ballet Theatre

Sound Bites from CD

Remember Me	Come My Beloved
Music I Heard	Firefly

More Sound Bites from Brenda Baker

Program Lyrics

SONGS OF SPRINGTIME
Desire in Spring
Francis Ledwidge

I love the cradle songs the mothers sing in lonely places

When the twilight drops,

The slow endearing melodies that bring sleep to the weeping lids;

And, when she stops, I love the road-side birds

Upon the tops of dusty hedges in a world of spring.

And when the sunny rain drips from the edge of midday wind

And meadows lean one way,

And a long whisper passes thro’ the sedge,

Beside the broken water let me stay, while these old airs upon my memory play,

And silent changes color up the hedge.



Firefly
June Presswood

Darting swiftly, star of night, exciting little firefly,

You will be a sweet delight when I see you in springtime.

Firefly, light your lantern, glowing in the night.

You enhance the spring and summer, glowing, firefly.



Spring Quiet
Christina Rossetti

Gone were but the winter, come were but the spring,

I would go to a covert where the birds sing;

Where in the whitehorn singeth a thrush,

And a robin sings in a holly bush.

Full of fresh scents are the budding boughs

Arching high over a cool green house;

Full of sweet scents and whispering air which sayeth softly:

“We spread no snare; Here dwell in safety, here dwell alone,

With a clear stream and a mossy stone.

Here the sun shineth most shadily;

Here is heard an echo of the far sea, though far off it be”.



Spring the Sweet Spring
Thomas Nashe

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king;

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold does not sting, the pretty birds do sing,

Cuckoo, jug, jug, puwe, to witta woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay,

Cuckoo, jug, jug, puwe, to witta woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a sunning sit;

In ev’ry street, these tunes our ears do greet,

Cuckoo, jug, jug, puwe, to witta woo!

Spring, the sweet spring!



INCANTATIONS FOR FLUTE, PIANO AND VOICE
Jennifer George - Flute, Alto Flute
Mika Sunago - Piano

I Cannot Dance, O Lord
Mechtild of Magdeberg; Translated by Jane Hirshfield

I cannot dance, O Lord, Unless You lead me.

If You wish me to leap joyfully, Let me see You dance and sing.

Then I will leap into Love

And from Love into Knowledge, and from Knowledge into the Harvest.

That sweetest fruit beyond the human sense.

There I will stay with You shirling, shirling.

I cannot dance, O Lord, Unless You lead me.

If You wish me to leap joyfully, Let me see You dance and sing.



Come, My Beloved
Attributed to The Shulamite; Translated by Chana & Ariel Bloch

(Lyrics appear in CD booklet)


I Bind You By Oath
A Roman Spell (2nd –4th C.?); Translated by Robert Kraemer

I bind you by oath, great, eternal, ever eternal, all powerful god

Who is superior to the gods above.

I bind you by oath, creator of heaven and sea.

I bind you by oath, the one who divided the sea with the staff…

I bind you by oath, the one who made the ass stop giving birth.

I bind you by oath, the one who has separated the light from darkness.

I bind you by oath, the one who made the stars so as to bring light to all men.

I bind you by oath in the holy name which is not to be uttered…

I bind you by oath, the one who shook the world, and spewed out the mountains.

I bind you by oath, the one who made the signs in heaven, on earth and in the sea…

I bind you by oath, the eternal god, the great god, the all powerful

Whom all the mountains and valleys feared,

Through whom the earth and sea tremble…

Now, Now, Now, Quickly, Now, Now, Quickly!



SONGS OF REMEMBRANCE
Music I Heard With You
Conrad Aiken

Music I heard with you was more than music,

And bread I broke with you was more than bread;

Now that I am without you, all is desolate;

All that was once so beautiful is dead.

Your hands once touched this table and this silver,

And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.

These things do not remember you, beloved,

And yet your touch upon them will not pass.

For it was in my heart you moved among them, a

And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;

And in my heart they will remember always,

They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.



Time Does Not Bring Relief
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Time does not bring relief;

You have all lied who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt in every mountain side,

And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year’s bitter loving must remain heaped upon my heart,

And my old thoughts abide.

There are a hundred places where I fear to go—so with his memories they brim.

And entering with relief a quiet place where never fell his feet or shone his face I say,

“There are no memories of him here!”

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt in every mountainside,

And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year’s bitter loving must remain heaped upon my heart,

And my old thoughts abide.



Music, When Soft Voices Die
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Music, when soft voices die,

Vibrates in the memory.

Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,

Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;

And so thy thought, when thou art gone,

Love itself shall slumber on.



Echo
Christina Rossetti

Come to me in the silence of the night

Come in the speaking silence of a dream

Come with soft, rounded cheeks

And eyes as bright as sunlight on a stream

Come back in tears, oh memory, hope, love of finished years

Oh dream, how sweet, too sweet, too bittersweet

Whose wakening should have been in paradise

Where souls brim full of love abide and meet

Where thirsting, longing eyes watch the slow door

That opening letting in lets out no more

Come back to me in dreams that I may give

Pulse for pulse, breath for breath

Speak low; lean low, as long ago, my love

How long ago



Remember Me
Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me.

Remember me when I am gone away.

SONGS FOR CELLO, PIANO, AND VOICE
Nancy Ives – Cello   Mika Sunago - Piano

SHIPS
Jean de la Ville de Mirmont

Ships, we have loved you to no avail.

The last of you all has set sail upon the sea.

The setting sun has borne away so many spread sails

That this port and my heart are forever forsaken.

The sea has restored you to your destiny,

Beyond the shore where our steps must cease.

We could not have held your souls captive.

You have need of horizons to me unknown.

I belong to those whose desires are earthbound.

The breeze that elates you fills my heart with terror,

But your call when evening falls makes me despair,

For I feel within me an endless longing for great departures.

Ships, we have loved you to no avail;

The last of you all has set sail upon the sea.

I Have Embarked
Jean de la Ville de Mirmont

I have embarked on a ship which dances

And rolls from side to side,

And pitches and rocks.

My feet have forgotten the earth and its paths.

The supple waves have taught me other cadences

More beautiful than the weary rhythm of human songs.

To live among you, alas! Had I a soul?

My brothers, I have suffered all upon your shores!

I want only the sea,

I want only the wind

To rock me like a child

In the bosom of its waves.

Beyond the port which is no more than a fading image,

The tears of departure no longer burn my eyes.

I do not remember my last farewells!

Oh, my suffering, my suffering,

Where have I left you?

Ah, where have I left you?

SONGS OF NATURE
Though the Way May Be Dark
Carl A. Dallinger

Tonight the river is a mirror.

Within its pool, calm and deep, I see the stars.

To its brink I bring my troubled spirit.

Looking down, I see the heavens;

The soul that seemed to will I should sink into its depths is soothed.

I share its calm, its stars.

Though, like the river in its depths, the path is dark,

There’s light enough to mark my way, my way.

Tonight the river is a mirror.

On the Isle of Skye
Richard Faith

On the Isle of Skye at the edge of a northern sea,

There flow the birds o’er the lea,

There flow the birds from the sea!

And below by that shore where grinds the sea,

O endlessly the waves are mounting, mounting wild.y,

The ocean breaks forth from the earth

And invades the land, calling!

Ah, Ah the sea is rolling, rolling, moaning, calling!

On the Isle of Skye at the edge of a northern sea,

There flow the birds o’er the lea,

There flow the birds from the sea!

And below in the depths there lurks a shadow,

A ship from ages past that tells of men that roved the sea,

They sailed away into the sky one day

And were lulled by the wind into the bay:

And the wind rose, sighing, calling, sadly crying!

The sea heaved in anger, laid hold on the ship,

And wailing wildly, the wind broke the ship on the rocks!

And all was washed under!

On the Isle of Skye at the edge of a northern sea,

There flow the birds o’er the lea,

There flow the birds from the sea!

And below there lies the lonely land,

And above there fly the birds o’er the Isle of Skye!



If I Were
Traditional

If I were a bird I’d fly in your window,

I’d sit on your shoulder and sing a kind word

If I were a song I’d whisper your name, love

On lute strings of golden and flute melody

If I were a cloud I’d lift up your eye to a sky all of rainbows

And sunlight that sings

If I were a tree I’d grow in your garden and gather you mushrooms

And always be spring

If I were the time I’d sprinkle soft shadows across life’s deep canyons

And lift up your mind

If I were not me my spirit could dwell in a dove or a dolphin

And truly know thee

It is a Beauteous Evening
William Wordsworth

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,

The holy time is quite as a nun breathless with adoration;

The broad sun is sinking down in its tranquility;

The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea:

Listen! The mighty being is awake,

And doth with his eternal motion make a sound like thunder everlastingly.

Dear Child! Dear Girl! That walkest with me her,

If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,

Thy nature is not therefore less divine:

Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;

And worship’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,

God being with thee when we know it not.

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