Tag Archives: Aaron Copland

Episode 268. Will Parker Redux

June 26, 2024Art Song, Great Baritones, Listeners' Favorites, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century MusicAaron Copland, André Emelianoff, Banalités, Benjamin Hudson, Billy Budd, Carol Zeavin, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Claude Debussy, Columbia String Quartet, Elly Ameling, Ernst Bacon, Francis Poulenc, Georg Friedrich Daumer, Gerard van Blerk, Guillaume Apollinaire, Herman Melville, Janet Hill, Johannes Brahms, John Jacob Niles, Le promenoir des deux amants, Norman Shetler, Old American Songs, Robert Evett, Rudolf Jansen, Thomas Merton, Tristan L’Hermite, Virgil Blackwell, William Huckaby, William Parkercountermelody

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Today I revisit the life and legacy of lyric baritone William Parker (05 August 1943 – 29 March 1993), to whom I devoted an episode exactly a year ago. To further explore his unmatched contribution to the art of song, I present a second episode which was originally published as a bonus episode at the same time, featuring Will in four contrasting song cycles by Charles Wakefield Cadman, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland, and Francis Poulenc, recorded between 1975 and 1987, when he was in his absolute prime. He is accompanied by William Huckaby, Gérard van Blerk, and the late Rudolf Jansen. Also included are two haunting settings of Herman Melville’s “Billy in the Darbies,” a segment added posthumously to his Billy Budd novella; in two settings by Robert Evett and Ernst Bacon. The episode is prefaced by a brief tribute to the pianist Norman Shetler, who died yesterday in Austria nine days after observing his 93rd birthday; as well as a brief introduction by Will Parker’s nephew, Mark Doty.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available exclusively to Patreon supporters are currently available and further bonus content including interviews and livestreams is planned for the upcoming season.

Episode 259. Lawrence Winters Revisited

April 27, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month 2024, Broadway, Crossover, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Giuseppe Verdi, Great Baritones, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Schubert, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century Opera, VerismoAaron Copland, Anacreon, Andrea Chénier, Anny Schlemm, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Armand Silvestre, Carlo Pepoli, Charles F. Keary, Cole Porter, Der Bajazzo, Francesco Cimmino, Francesco Maria Piave, Franz Schubert, Franz von Bruchmann, Frederick Delius, Gabriel Faure, George Frideric Handel, Gerhard Gregor, Giacomo Rossi, Giovanni Battista Guarini, Giuseppe Verdi, Gustave Flaubert, Hans-Arno Simon, Harry Hermann, Henri Grémont, Hermann Spitz, Hermann von Gilm, Hérodiade, I Puritani, Il Trovatore, János Kulka, Jerome Kern, Jules Massenet, Julius Rudel, Karl Henckell, Koanga, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Winters, Luigi Illica, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pagliacci, Paolo Tosti, Paul Milliet, Pietro Metastasio, Richard Rodgers, Richard Strauss, Rida Johnson Young, Rigoletto, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Salvadore Cammarano, Show Boat, Sigmund Romberg, South Pacific, Stanford Robinson, Troubled Island, Umberto Giordano, Verna Arvey, Victor Hugo, Vincenzo Bellini, Walter Martin, Wilhelm Schüchter, William Grant Still, Willy Hoffmanncountermelody

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During the first season of Countermelody I presented the great African American baritone Lawrence Winters in an episode which paired him with his contemporary Robert McFerrin. Today Winters (born Lawrence Whisonant in South Carolina on 12 November 1915 and died of cancer in Hamburg at age 49 on 24 September 1965) returns center stage to Countermelody in a program which focuses on his prowess in standard operatic repertoire and art song. After vocal study with Todd Duncan at Howard University, Winters toured for several years with the Eva Jessye Choir before enlisting as a member of the Armed Forces. Upon returning to the US, he appeared in Harold Rome’s Broadway musical revue Call Me Mister. In 1948 he debuted at New York City Opera, the first Black male singer to perform there; he performed there for seven seasons, returning for a single performance as Porgy in 1962. He made his first trip to Europe in 1949 and in 1950 joined the roster of the Royal Swedish Opera, with whom he sang for two seasons. Thereafter, he joined the ensemble of the Hamburg Opera and later, the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He also performed at the Wiener Staatsoper and the San Francisco Opera. He returned to the Broadway stage in 1960, garnering a Tony nomination for his appearance opposite Joya Sherrill in the play The Long Dream. In the last year of his life he also appeared in Germany in the title role of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. He made a large number of recordings for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon and other labels, as well as a slew of radio recordings, many of the latter of which are featured on this episode. A certified star in Germany, Winters was often featured in pop music that appealed to the German public of the time but which, frankly, was not always worthy of his talent. In this episode I present him in repertoire that reveals him as one of the primarily Verdi and verismo baritones of his era, even when he was singing those roles in German translation. We also hear Winters in excerpts from two operas in which the protagonists are specifically Black: Frederick Delius’s Koanga and William Grant Still’s Troubled Island.

Episode 257. The Marvelous Marvis Martin

April 9, 2024African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month, Black History Month 2024, French Opera, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Tenors, Happy Birthday, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAaron Copland, Carlo Sigismondo Capece, Charles Mackerras, Die tote Stadt, DuBose Heyward, Edward H.S. Boatner, Elijah, Emily Dickinson, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Eve Queler, Felix Dahn, Felix Mendelssohn, Gary Ledet, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Gianbattista Varesco, Gustave Charpentier, Henry Lewis, Idomeneo, Ira Gershwin, Jahja Ling, James Agee, James Levine, James Paul, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Jeffrey Kahane, Jerry Hadley, Joseph-Marie Canteloube, Julius Korngold, Kees Bakkels, Leontyne Price, Libor Pešek, Ludovico Ariosti, Marvis Martin, Messiah, Ned Rorem, Opera Orchestra of New York, Orlando (Handel), Porgy and Bess, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Samuel Barber, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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I have been juggling a number of brand new episode ideas for the coming weeks, but when I discovered that Sunday April 7 was the birthday of Marvis Martin, one of my favorite sopranos, I put all those ideas on the back burner and eagerly put together this birthday tribute to a singer who not only is celebrated as possessing one of the most beautiful voices of her generation, but who has also had a long, successful, and unconventional career. For whatever arbitrary reason, Marvis Martin made only a handful of major label recording releases, but, for us lucky persons who live in the age of YouTube, there are a growing number of gorgeous live recordings available that feature this artist in her prime. In some ways she reminds me of Veronica Tyler, whose career I charted in a popular episode of the podcast a few months ago. In the case of the highly respected and frankly marvelous Marvis Martin, we are able to personally present her with the flowers that she so richly deserves. I have curated a wonderful setlist today of mostly live material that includes representative selections from each of the platforms on which her career was focused: opera, concert, and recital, everything from Mozart and Handel to Copland, Rorem, and Barber; from selections from Porgy and spirituals, to Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Korngold. My dear friend Jerry Hadley appears as a duet partner in a rare live Idomeneo performance and conductors Georg Solti, Henry Lewis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Levine, Charles Mackerras, Eve Queler, and Libor Pešek, among others, support this magnificent singer from the podium.

Episode 204. Roberta Alexander Sings America

July 4, 2023African American Singers, Art Song, Broadway, Comic Relief, Crossover, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAaron Copland, Alec Wilder, Alfred Heller, Brian Masuda, Charles Ives, David Triestram, Du Bose Heyward, Edo de Waart, Emily Dickinson, Eric Stern, Florence Price, Gary Miller, George Gershwin, George Meredith, Girl Crazy, Harry T. Burleigh, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, James Agee, James Joyce, Jerry Bock, Jerry Hadley, John Avery Lomax, John Greenleaf Whittier, John Jacob Niles, Kees Bakels, Larry Moore, Leonard Bernstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Old American Songs, Porgy and Bess, Reinbert de Leeuw, Roberta Alexander, Roger VIgnoles, Samuel Barber, Sheldon Harnick, Spirituals, Stephen Sondheim, Tan Crone, Thomas Hampson, Tom Lehrercountermelody

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Posting a few days early in celebration of the Fourth of July and in further recognition of the beloved American soprano Roberta Alexander, whose birthday we celebrated on Countermelody last March. Ms. Alexander has made a number of exquisite recordings over the years, many of them for the small Dutch label Etcetera. Many of these releases feature songs by the greatest American composers: Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Samuel Barber, as well as two releases featuring light classical and Broadway songs. The recordings range in date from 1976 (a live performance of Ives at the Holland Festival, in honor of the American Bicentennial) through 2009 (a live performance of Roberta as Maria in Porgy and Bess conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt). We also hear material by Berlin, Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Alec Wilder, Bock and Harnick, John Jacob Niles, and Tom Lehrer, accompanied by pianists Reinbert de Leeuw, Roger Vignoles, Alfred Heller, Brian Masuda, Tan Crone, and David Triestram and conductors Kees Bakels and Edo de Waart. Throughout, Roberta Alexander’s approach to this material is perfectly on target, revealing both pathos and a crackling sense of (often sardonic) humor, all grounded in a love of the music of her native country and wrapped in a red, white, and blue bow.

Episode 202. William Parker (Pride 2023)

June 23, 2023Art Song, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Protest Songs, Queer Pride, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaAaron Copland, Alan Marks, Anthony Dean Griffey, Anthony Martin, Bruce Lamott, Caligrammes, Charles d’Orléans, Charles Ives, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Claude Debussy, Dalton Baldwin, David Bergman, David Bowles, David Tayler, Dominick Argento, Donald Wheelock, Drew Hemenger, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Faure, Gerald Finzi, Gerard van Blerk, Gonzalo Ruiz, Guillaume Apollinaire, Helmine von Chézy, Henri Duparc, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John B. Tabb, John Jacob Niles, John Musto, Kurt Ollmann, L’horizon chimérique, Lanford Wilson, Lee Hoiby, Lisa Weiss, Ludwig Hölty, Marc Shachman, Melvin Dixon, Ned Rorem, Nicholas McGegan, Old American Songs, Pierre Jean de Bélanger, Rafael Campo, Robert de Bonnières, Rudolf Jansen, Salomon August Andrée, Sarah Davol, Stephen Foster, Steven Lehning, Summer and Smoke, Susan Snively, Tennessee Williams, The Andrée Exposition, Thomas Bagwell, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Merton, William Huckaby, William Parker, Witter Bynnercountermelody

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Today’s episode celebrates the life and legacy of lyric baritone William Parker (05 August 1943 – 29 March 1993), the finest American recitalist of the late twentieth century and one of the most beautiful baritone voices I have ever heard. His mastery of the German, American (and, especially for me, French) song repertoire sends one scrambling back to the earlier days of recorded sound to find suitable parallels. Though we had many friends and colleagues in common, I never met him personally. But this week, at my request as I was preparing this episode, many who loved him have been in touch with me: family, friends, colleagues, lovers, and they have provided me with a wealth of beautiful reminiscences and memories of their beloved Will. I have also compiled a setlist for the episode which displays the full breadth and depth of his artistry. At the end of his life, Will, dying of AIDS, created an initiative called the AIDS Quilt Songbook, to which some of the greatest composers and poets of the day provided songs and texts. Like the AIDS Quilt itself, this is a living legacy which continues to expand and grow. There are numerous works from the Songbook in its various iterations, performed not just by Will, but also by Kurt Ollmann and Anthony Dean Griffey, which serve not only as a painful reminder of an entire generation lost to AIDS, but also as a moving reminder of the LGBTQ+ community’s ability to face down ignorance, hatred, prejudice, even death, and in the end not only to triumph, but to provide an example for present and future generations of our resilience.

Episode 201. Britten – Pears (Pride 2023)

June 16, 2023Art Song, Comic Relief, Drag Performance, Great Tenors, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Orchestral Songs, Queer Pride, Schubert, Singers in Old Age, Twentieth Century Music, Twentieth Century OperaA Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman, Aaron Copland, Adrian Mitchell, Alexander Pushkin, Anton Friedrich Reil, Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Charles Dibdin, Claudio Arrau, Colin McPhee, Curlew River, Death in Venice, Dichterliebe, E.M. Forster, Eric Crozier, Francis Quarles, Frank Bridge, Franz Schubert, Gabriel Faure, Georg Friedrich Daumer, George Crabbe, Glenda Jackson, Gustav Holst, Heather Harper, Heinrich Heine, Herman Melville, Humbert Wolfe, Johannes Brahms, Kanze Jūrō, La bonne chanson, Leslie Woodgate, Liebeslieder-Walzer, Meredith Davies, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Montagu Slater, Myfanwy Piper, On this Island, Paul Verlaine, Peter Grimes, Peter Pears, Peter Warlock, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Reginald Goodall, Richard Peaslee, Robert Schumann, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Stevie Smith, Sumidagawa, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Mann, W.H. Auden, War Requiem, Wilfred Owen, William Butler Yeats, William Plomer, William Shakespeare, Winter Words, Yevgeny Onegin, Zorian String Quartetcountermelody

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Today’s episode explores the lives and loves of two of the most significant figures in twentieth century music: Benjamin Britten, the dean of British composers and the tenor Peter Pears, his partner, lover, inspiration and muse for nearly forty years. When as a lost young gay boy I first encountered their music-making I intuited that these two men were lovers, that they represented a way forward for me out of a lonely and forlorn childhood. Whether in the many songs and cycles that Britten fashioned for him or the operatic roles, beginning with the title role of Peter Grimes, that were tailor-made for him, Pears remains the ideal interpreter of his partner’s music, possessed as he was of a distinctive (some would say peculiar) voice, supple, reedy yet surprisingly powerful, along with pinpoint musical precision, plangent expressivity and dramatic aptitude. The episode features excerpts from many of Britten’s most explicitly gay compositions, surprising for a man living in Britain while sex between men was still illegal, including the operas Peter Grimes, Curlew River, Billy Budd, and Death in Venice and his settings of poetry by Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Auden, and Francis Quarles. We also hear Pears and Britten in live and recorded performance of songs and arias by other composers, including composers Britten revered (Schumann, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Frank Bridge), and those of whose music he was much less fond (including Vaughan Williams and Brahms). The episode contains more biographical information than your typical Countermelody episode, and does not shy away from some of the thorniest questions that one must confront when discussing these two controversial figures. But in the end it is first and foremost a celebration of the music Britten and Pears made together and the love they shared for 40 years. The episode begins with a heartfelt (and heartbroken) tribute to the great Glenda Jackson, who died this week at the age of 87.

Episode 154. Adele Addison @ 97

July 22, 2022African American Singers, Art Song, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Happy Birthday, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Singers of Color, Twentieth Century Music, Voiceless WondersA.E. Housman, Aaron Copland, Adele Addison, Albert da Costa, Andre Previn, Arthur Rimbaud, Benjamin Lees, Brooks Smith, Canterbury Tales, Celius Dougherty, Charles Munch, Claude Debussy, Dawn Upshaw, DuBose Heyward, Earl Kim, Emily Dickinson, Francis Poulenc, Frederic Waldman, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frideric Handel, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonard Bernstein, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, Milton Katims, Paul Verlaine, Porgy and Bess, Povla Frijsh, Robert Conant, Robert McFerrin, Robert Shaw, Samuel Beckett, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Walt Whitman, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartcountermelody

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This Sunday, 24 July 2022, the great African American lyric soprano Adele Addison observes her 97th birthday. This Countermelody tribute presents this great artist in live and studio recordings during the glory years of her career, including performances conducted by three of her most important conductor collaborators, Robert Shaw, Charles Munch, and Leonard Bernstein. Addison might be best remembered today as providing the ghost voice for Dorothy Dandridge in Otto Preminger’s controversial 1959 film of Porgy and Bess, but her greatest artistic achievement undoubtedly centers on her concert and recital work. Among countless world premieres in which she participated, the most significant was probably the Gloria of Francis Poulenc, first heard in Boston in January 1961. Other contemporary composers represented in this episode are Aaron Copland, Lester Trimble, Lukas Foss, and Benjamin Lees; Addison’s exceptional performances of Handel, Bach, Mozart, and Debussy are also featured. Vocal guest stars include Robert McFerrin, with whom she duets in an excerpt from Porgy; the eminent recitalist Povla Frijsh, who was her voice teacher and coach; and Dawn Upshaw, probably her most renowned student. Please join me in celebrating the long life and legacy of this exceptional artist and teacher.

Episode 120. Bethany Beardslee

December 17, 2021Art Song, Happy Birthday, Holiday Music, Lieder, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century MusicAaron Copland, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, August Strindberg, Basil Reeve, Bethany Beardslee, Charles Baudelaire, Cheryl Seltzer, Claude Debussy, Das buch der hängenden gärten, David Epstein, e.e. cummings, Ernest Guiraud, Fred Lerdahl, Friedrich Rückert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Godfrey Winham, Hermann Weigert, James Joyce, James Purdy, Joel Sachs, Johannes Brahms, John Hollander, Joseph von Eichendorff, Lois Shapiro, Lotte Lehmann, Mel Powell, Milton Babbitt, Murray Panitz, Otto Erich Hartleben, Paul Verlaine, Peter Altenberg, Philomel (Babbitt), Pierrot lunaire, Richard Goode, Robert Craft, Robert Helps, Robert Schumann, Theodor Storm, William Shakespearecountermelody

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Today’s episode celebrates a pioneer in the performance of twentieth century vocal music in anticipation of her 96th birthday on Christmas Day. Bethany Beardslee was a titan who set standards in the performance of the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Milton Babbitt in particular, but who also acted as muse to a host of mid-twentieth century avant garde composers whose work she premiered and often recorded. But she was also a member of the pioneering early music ensemble New York Pro Musica in the late 1950s and was an innovator in programming daring and diverse recital repertoire which combined Lieder and melodies with the contemporary music for which she was best known. This episode samples her recordings over the course of more than thirty years, and includes composers such as John Dowland, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Johannes Brahms alongside such twentieth century giants as Anton Webern, Ernst Krenek, Igor Stravinsky, Ben Weber, Mel Powell, Robert Helps, Fred Lerdahl, and Godfrey Winham, her second husband. Throughout the course of a career devoted to, to paraphrase the title of her autobiography, “singing the unsingable,” Bethany Beardslee combined rock solid-technique and silvery tone with peerless musicianship and interpretive acuity to set standards that have yet to be surpassed. Please join me in celebrating this great artist.

Episode 93. Evelyn Lear sings Sondheim and Bernstein (and other Queer Composers)

June 13, 2021Art Song, Broadway, Crossover, Great Baritones, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Twentieth Century MusicAaron Copland, Adolph Green, Alan Mandel, Betty Comden, Charles Ives, Evelyn Lear, Franz Schubert, Jewish Cantorial Chant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Martin Katz, Maxwell Anderson, Nina Quartin, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Reynaldo Hahn, Stephen Foster, Stephen Sondheim, Thomas Stewart, Zavel Kwartincountermelody

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I had intended a no-holds-barred Queer Pride extravaganza for this week’s episode, but life got in the way, so I elected to do a more modest, chamber-music-sized celebration instead, which encompasses both the life and artistry of Evelyn Lear, the ninth anniversary of whose death we observe on July First. Her 1980 release Evelyn Lear sings Sondheim and Bernstein, recorded in collaboration with her most frequent recital partner, pianist Martin Katz, finds this artist lending her distinctive voice, style, and interpretive flair to ten songs by these two composers, who are seen today as, among other things, queer icons. I round out the episode with performances by Evelyn Lear and her husband Thomas Stewart, of songs by a number of other composers (Schubert, Hahn, Tchaikovsky, Copland and Foster) who are, by my assessment at least, also guiding beacons for the queer community.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” Occasional guests from the “business” (singers, conductors, composers, coaches, and teachers) lend their distinctive insights. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. And please head to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available only to Patreon supporters are currently available.

Episode 81. Happy Songs (straight up)

March 21, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, Bel canto, Broadway, Giuseppe Verdi, Happy Birthday, In Memoriam, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle Drop, Operetta, Pop Icons, Queer Pride, Richard Strauss, Voiceless WondersAaron Copland, Alberta Hunter, Andy Kim, Anthony Newley, Arlene Saunders, Arpad Sandor, Barbara [Monique Serf], Barbra Streisand, Christa Ludwig, Claramae Turner, Conchita Supervia, Dorothy Maynor, Frances Wayne, Franz Allers, Franz Lehár, George Frideric Handel, Gerald Moore, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Harold Arlen, Horace Everett, James Levine, Janet Williams, Jeff Barry, Jo Bouillon, Johannes Brahms, Johnny Nash, Joséphine Baker, Joy Clements, Kathleen Battle, Leopold Stokowski, Leslie Bricusse, Lisa Della Casa, Mahalia Jackson, Margaret Bonds, Maria Callas, Max Hansen, Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone, Norman Treigle, Oleta Adams, Peter Matz, Pointer Sisters, Ralph Benatzky, Richard Cassilly, Richard Fredricks, Richard Strauss, Robert Gilbert, Ted Koehler, The Archies, The Tender Land (Copland & Everett), Tullio Serafin, Woody Herman, Yip Harburgcountermelody

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This week I offset the gloom of last week’s music with straight-up joy. No gimmicks, no goofiness, no weird accents. Whether the composer is Giuseppe Verdi, Ralph Benatzky, Aaron Copland, Oleta Adams, or Harold Arlen, and whether sung by Nancy Wilson, Dorothy Maynor, Tina Turner, Maria Callas, Max Hansen, Conchita Supervia, Barbra Streisand, Mahalia Jackson, Lisa Della Casa, or the Pointer Sisters, all today’s selections are guaranteed to make you feel a little lighter, a little more joyous. And in today’s continuing climate of pandemic uncertainty, who doesn’t need a little more of that?

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” Occasional guests from the “business” (singers, conductors, composers, coaches, and teachers) lend their distinctive insights. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. And please head to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available only to Patreon supporters are currently available.

Episode 76. William Warfield (BHM 2021 IV)

February 21, 2021African American Singers, Art Song, Black History Month, Broadway, Crossover, Full-Figured Baroque, Great Baritones, Lieder, Music for a World in Crisis Series, Needle DropA Lincoln Portrait (Copland), Aaron Copland, Alexander Smallens, Arthur Gold, Bach Aria Group, Carl Loewe, Celius Dougherty, David Garvey, Dorothy Maynor, George Gershwin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Karl Weigl, Langston Hughes, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Leopold Simoneau, Liederkreis Op. 39 (Schumann), Old American Songs (Copland), Otto Herz, Porgy and Bess, Robert Fizdale, Robert Schumann, Spanische Liebeslieder (Schumann), Spirituals, Vier ernste Gesänge (Brahms), Vincent Youmans, Virgil Fox, Voice of Firestone, William Marshall, William Warfieldcountermelody

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This week’s subject is one of the towering figures of 20th century music: the African American bass-baritone William Warfield (1920–2002). Though he sprang to prominence as Joe in the 1951 MGM remake of Show Boat and as Porgy opposite his then-wife Leontyne Price in the US State Department-sponsored 1952 international tour of Porgy and Bess, in my opinion his greatest accomplishments were as a concert singer. This episode focuses on his performances of Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs, his interpretations of German lieder, and, from later in his career, his narration of Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait and the poetry of Langston Hughes. I knew William Warfield, universally known to his students and younger colleagues as “Uncle Bill,” when I was one of the accompanists in his vocal studio at the University of Illinois where I was obtaining my master’s degree. His kindness and his dedication to his craft inspired us all to give of our best. It is my privilege to celebrate the unique and multi-faceted artistry of this unforgettable and treasurable man.

Countermelody is a podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and journalist yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” Occasional guests from the “business” (singers, conductors, composers, coaches, and teachers) lend their distinctive insights. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. At Countermelody’s core is the interaction between singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. Please visit the Countermelody website (www.countermelodypodcast.com) for additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. And please head to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/countermelody to pledge your monthly support at whatever level you can afford. Bonus episodes available only to Patreon supporters are currently available.