Canticles for Jerusalem (Fine, Vivian)
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Performances
Recordings
1. My heart's in the East
*#176680 - 2.28MB - 5 minutes - (0) - - !N/!N/!N - 112x⇩
MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)
2. This year I traveled far
*#176681 - 1.59MB - 3 1/2 minutes - (0) - - !N/!N/!N - 41x⇩
MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)
3. Light against the Tower of David
*#176682 - 0.67MB - 1 1/2 minutes - (0) - - !N/!N/!N - 40x⇩
MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/2/7)
4. By the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137)
*#239458 - 10.69MB - 5:50 - (0) - - !N/!N/!N - 30x⇩
MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/6/30)
5. Ode to Zion (Judah Halevi)
*#239459 - 6.51MB - 3:33 - (0) - - !N/!N/!N - 20x⇩
MP3 file (audio)
Peggy Karp (2012/6/30)
Maria Tegzes, soprano and Geoffrey Burleson, piano
Vivian Fine Estate
Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 [tag/del]
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Sheet Music
Scores
Complete score
*#176670 - 5.15MB, 23 pp. - (0) - !N/!N/!N - 134x⇩
PDF scanned by Paul Hawkins
Rhymes&chymes (2012/2/7)
Vivian Fine Estate
Performance Restricted Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 1.0 [tag/del]
However, the lawful copyright owner has generously released the file for distribution at IMSLP under one of the Creative Commons licenses or the IMSLP Performance Restricted License, which allow for the free distribution (with proper attribution) of the file with various levels of restriction with respect to the creation of derivative works, commercial usage, or public performances.
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General Information
| Work Title | Canticles for Jerusalem |
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| Alternative Title |
| Composer | Fine, Vivian |
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| Movements/Sections | 5 sections
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| Year/Date of Composition | 1983 |
| First Performance | 1989-04-16, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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| Librettist | Judah Halevi (transl. by Robert Alter and T. Carmi), Yehuda Amichai (transl. by Harold Schimmel), Psalm 137 from the Old Testament |
| Language | English and Hebrew |
| Average Duration | 15 minutes |
| Piece Style | Modern |
| Instrumentation | mezzo-soprano and piano |
| External Links | Vivian Fine website |
Misc. Comments
Commissioned by Stephanie Friedman and Lois Brandynne
Fine titles the Canticles a song cycle, a new term for her. There are five songs using various Hebrew texts in translations, but together they form a whole, with the first song, “My heart’s in the East,” describing the desire to return to Jerusalem. The song begins with a beautiful unaccompanied melismatic vocal phrase whose head motif, C-B flat-G flat and other pitches, are re-used in this and later songs. The piano provides the unity and dramatic expression for the cycle.
…The second song, “This year I traveled far,” describes the visit to Jerusalem, which is coupled with interior suffering: “but the howl I heard within is still from my Judean desert.”….The third song, “Light against the Tower of David,” is marked “Joyous,” which is portrayed by the accompaniment’s rapid figuration. At times segments of the figuration are heard as a slower moving vocal melody. Even more unity is achieved when part of a phrase from song two, originally unaccompanied, is reset with new text and accompaniment …The fourth song, “By the rivers of Babylon,” is Psalm 137 and forms a contrast in the cycle. Strummed chords on the piano strings evoke the harps mentioned in the psalm….The final song, “Ode to Zion,” is recapitulatory. Phrase segments from previous vocal lines and dyads from the opening accompaniment to “My heart’s in the East” return. A prominent melody from the last song later becomes part of a piano interlude and an ending canonic passage. Although each song is focused upon a particular expression, such as longing or light, Fine treated the five songs as part of a whole rather than as four or five independent songs, as in her earlier groupings.
- —Heidi Von Gunden, The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press, 1999
Fine later made an instrumental version of this work. See: http://imslp.org/wiki/Canticles_from_the_Other_Side_of_the_River_(Fine,_Vivian).
