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Introducing Darryl Taylor:
It was a foregone conclusion that Darryl Taylor would one day record the works of composer H. Leslie Adams. From the day of our first meeting in Los Angeles in the mid-1980's it was apparent to me that this young tenor was an artist with a two-fold mission: to champion the works of African-American composers, and to commission and otherwise encourage composers of whatever race or ethnicity to create new works for the singing voice.
During the subsequent years of his master's and doctoral studies with me at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, Darryl's dedication to foregrounding the vocal compositions of black composers resulted in a repertoire replete with works, both old and new, to which he gave vibrant voice and performances rich in commitment and artistic integrity.
Dr. Taylor has for years brought his telling artistry particularly to bear on the songs of Leslie Adams. My first exposure to Mr. Adams' works came at a recital of same performed by various artists at Steinway Hall in New York City in the early 1960's. On that occasion I was introduced to the lilting strains of “For you there is no song” and “Creole Girl,” among others. At the end of the performance I asked Leslie for copies of his songs, to which request he graciously responded, gifting me with hand-written duplicates that today constitute a valued part of my personal library.
To have played a role in the development of a young artist-scholar like Darryl Taylor gives tremendous satisfaction. In his performances, lectures, workshops, writings, and studio teaching he has focused a spotlight on the works of African-American composers of concert, recital, and operatic literatures. In addition he has mastered the electronic communication technologies of our age and bent them to this purpose. Dr. Taylor's formation, in 1997, of the African-American Art Song Alliance on the world-wide-web began a new era of public access to these compositions, with links to related websites around the globe. This resource is proving to be an asset of immeasurable importance to all who seek the material, or information related to it. In short, Darryl Taylor is doing yeoman service in promoting a significant body of American vocal literature that deserves to be known, appreciated, and performed.
This CD recording of songs from the prolific pen of Leslie Adams is a shining example of Dr. Taylor's sterling artistry and dedication to the perpetuation and performance of American art song.
— George I. Shirley, Metropolitan Opera tenor
Joseph E. Maddy Distinguished University
Director, Vocal Arts Division
The University of Michigan
It is appropriate that this first compact disc dedicated to the music of Leslie Adams be of his songs, for he is certainly one of the most gifted and immediately lyrical composers of the time. This is evident not only in these songs, the opera (Blake), and in his choral writing, but in instrumental works as well: the ballet A Kiss in Xanadu, the piano concerto, his symphony, and the sonatas for horn, for violin, and for piano, and other compositions.
When asked what he looks for in poetry that is being considered for a musical setting, Leslie Adams stated that he is concerned about the “feel” and general contours of the text. Doubtlessly involved in this instinctive approach is sensitivity to potential word painting, not dissimilar from that encountered since the time of madrigalists. This is obviously evident in Flying — the only melismatic example, but it also is present in a subtler manner as he does exactly what a song (or opera) composer accomplishes: to enhance the text and to provide the emotional nuance of the moment, making the result an organic unit. The process includes his choice of keys — usually tending for the darker colors provided here by E-flat minor with five songs, and B-flat minor, with four. The sharp keys (A,D and G majors) are used in only four instances, these being for the more joyous poems. It should not be suggested, however, that Dr. Adams has not provided some transposed versions for baritones and mezzo-sopranos. The range encompassed by these songs nevertheless spans two full octaves.
For the most part, the poetry expresses universal concepts, no matter how personalized. This is perhaps implicit in R. H. Grenville's The Wider View and Dr. Adams' choice of that text as the name for the cycle. While the harmonic eclectic language is never too far from the African American, it is this factor that becomes particularly evident, as encouraged by the poetry, in Drums of Tragedy (Langston Hughes), and Creole Girl (Leslie Morgan Collins). Sence you went away (Paul Laurence Dunbar), certainly one of the most poignant works in the repertoire is in the same category, but not for rhythmic reasons. Paul Laurence Dunbar's Li'l Gal, may be known in the 1901 setting of J. Rosamond Johnson, popularized by the 1926 recording by Paul Robeson (Later available on New World Records NW 247), Homesick Blues is a special case. The poem of Langston Hughes is pure blues; each verse follows the classic AAB pattern with a commentary following two statements of the condition, with basically the traditional I IV V I harmonic progressions.
The piano plays various roles, sometimes revealing by arpeggios or other idiomatic figurations the harmony implicit in the vocal line, and sometimes responding to the melody, or providing an echo. At other times, it assumes melodic responsibility, or retains a thought while the voice moves on to a new idea. It is given handfuls of lush harmonies — tonal and luxuriantly colored triads. The cadences are often unexpected fresh delights, casting speculation on the modality that has led up to them. The rhythm grows immediately from the texts. Thus the works establish an organic unity and mood, immediately defining the emotional frame.
A chronology of the composition of these songs indicates Adams found his voice early: the Five Millay Songs come from 1960 followed the next year by Nightsongs (originally titled Songs on Texts by Afro-American Poets). In 1981 he wrote the Dunbar Songs (the third, “the Valse,” is included here). The Wider View dates from 1988, with the remainder coming from the following decade: Love Memory (1990), Amazing Grace (1992, the only song set to the composer's own text), Flying and Lullaby Eternal (both 1993) with Daybirth from the next year.
More than 20 recitals and concerts in the first part of 2000 were dedicated to performances of Adams' songs, choral works, compositions for piano and for organ, orchestral works, and arias from his opera, Blake, taking place in churches, concert halls, and on university campuses from Maryland and New York to California. At a 1993 concert in Cleveland, soprano Martina Arroyo told the appreciative crowd that she programmed an aria from Blake because she believes that it is “a great opera that will one day be in the repertoire of all American companies.” It might now be expected that these extraordinary songs would enter the canon of this country's vocal music.
These works, as well as other compositions by H. Leslie Adams are distributed by Henry Carl Music (HCM). Contact HCM for the Adams catalog and order forms at: 7588 Middle Ridge Road; Madison, Ohio 44057. E mail contact: nmiller@ncp.net
Visit the H. Leslie Adams Home Page at http://www.under.org/cpcc/ladams.htm
— Dominique-René de Lerma
(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
For you there is no song,
Only the shaking of the voice that meant to sing,
The sound of the strong voice breaking.
Strange in my hand appears the pen,
There are ink and tears on the page.
Only the tears have spoken.
(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
Branch by branch this tree has died.
Green only is one last bough
Moving its leaves in the sun.
Or the white worm behind the shedding bark
You and I have only one thing to do,
Saw, saw, saw the trunk through.
(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
As I sat down by saddle stream
To bathe my dusty feet there,
A girl was standing on the bridge
Any lad would meet there.
As I went over woody knob
And dipped into the hollow,
A youth was coming up the hill
Then in I turned at my own gate,
And nothing to be sad for,
To such a wife as any man
Would pass a pretty lass for.
Amazing Grace you fill my heart with song,
A song of love that lasts the whole day long!
Amazing Grace, surround me
with the strength of your caress,
Renew my trust that I'm forever blessed!
Amazing Truth speak to me with your voice,
Uniting all within that says, “Rejoice!”
Amazing Truth unfold the joy that only you can bring,
The joy that comes when I begin to sing!
Abiding hope, abiding faith
Abiding strength that comes to me.
Abiding life, abiding love,
Abiding song of eternity!
Amazing Grace, surround me
with the strength of your caress,
Renew my trust that I'm forever blessed!
Amazing Grace you fill my heart with song,
A song of love that lasts the whole day long!
A song of peace that frees my heart and lifts me high above,
Amazing Grace, you fill me with your love!
Which crown to put upon my hair?
I do not know, Lord God, I do not know.
Beat the drums of tragedy for me.
Beat the drums of tragedy and death.
And let the choir sing a stormy song
To drown out the rattle of my dying breath.
Beat the drums of tragedy for me.
And let the white violins whir thin and slow,
But blow one blaring trumpet note of sun
To go with me to the darkness where I go.
(Georgia Douglas Johnson)
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn
As a lone bird, soft winging so restlessly on.
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam.
In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.
The night was made for rest and sleep,
For winds that softly sigh;
It was not made for grief and tears;
The wind that blows through leafy trees
Is soft and warm and sweet;
For me the night is a gracious cloak
To hide my soul's defeat.
Just one dark hour of shaken depths,
Another day will find me brave
Seems lak to me de stars don't shine so bright,
Seems lak to me de sun done loss his light,
Seems lak to me der's nothin' goin' right,
Seems lak to me de sky ain't half so blue,
Seems lak to me dat ev'rything wants you,
Seems lak to me I don't know what to do,
De day's jes twice as long,
De bird's forgot his song
Seems lak to me I jes can't he'p but sigh,
Seems lak to me ma th'oat keeps gittin dry,
Seems lak to me a tear stays in my eye
When you dance, do you think of Spain,
Purple skirts and clipping castanets,
When you laugh, do you think of France,
Golden wine and mincing minuets,
When you sing, do you think of young America,
Grey guns and battling bayonets?
When you cry, do you think of Africa,
Blue nights and casual canzonets?
When you dance, do you think of Spain,
Purple skirts and clipping castanets,
Angel wing or eagle wing,
Any pinioned, pulsating thing lifts the spirit free.
Fly in foam where ether is,
Surge ahead or soar above,
Dream of wings and liberty, feel the upward pull!
Gravity's the enemy, fling the mass aside!
Lifting into space, swoop and sweep and glide!
Angel wing or eagle wing,
Any pinioned, pulsating thing lifts the spirit free.
Sleep, my little one, lie still upon my chest—
I know the world is waiting for you,
But stay with me and rest.
Tonight you light my life with tender smiles.
Stay close within my arms,
You're mine but for awhile.
Soon tomorrow comes, child,
With things that you must do.
And know the world waits for you.
I know the world is waiting for you,
But stay with me and rest.
I throw my coat across my arm
and run toward the sunrise.
My footsteps in the dew-wet grass
And yet where blades are bent
Perhaps some following set of feet
may find the joy that comes
When all of heaven's dome is lit by that glad surety:
Too large a concept to contain
with in the hollow of my hand;
I throw it to the wind and laugh,
Cool is the wind, for the summer is waning,
where the dead leaves are raining,
Knapsack and alpenstock press hand and shoulder,
Prick of the brier and roll of the boulder;
This be your lot while the seasons grow older;
Up and away in the hush of the morning,
Vagabonds we, all conventions ascorning,
Music of warblers so merrily singing,
Draughts from the rill from the roadside upspringing,
Nectar of grapes from the vines lowly swinging,
Now ev'ry house is a hut or a hovel,
Mankind and moles in the dark love to grovel,
Throw off the loads that are bending you double;
Love is for life, only labor is trouble;
Truce to the town who's best gift is a bubble:
De railroad bridge's a sad song in de air.
De railroad bridge's a sad song in de air.
Ever time de trains pass I want to go somewhere.
Oh, I went down to de station.
Ma heart was in ma mouth.
Went down to de station. Heart was in ma mouth.
Lookin' for a box car to roll me to de South.
Homesick blues, Lawd, `S a ter'ble thing to have.
Homesick blues, Lawd, `S a ter'ble thing to have.
To keep from cryin', I opens ma mouth an' laughs.
Oh, de weathah it is balmy an' de breeze is sighin' low,
An' de mockin' bird is singin' in de locus by de do',
Dere's a-hummin' an' a-bummin'
in de lan' f'om eas' to wes',
I's a-sighin' fu you, honey, an' I nevah know no res'.
Fu' dey's lots a-trouble brewin'
an' a-stewin' in my breas', Li'l' gal.
Whut's de mattah wid de weathah,
what's de mattah wid de breeze, Li'l gal?
Whut's de mattah wid de locus'
dat's a-singin' in de trees, Li'l' gal?
W'y dey knows dey ladies love `em,
an' dey knows dey love `em true,
An' dey love `em back, I reckon,
des' lak I's a-lovin' you;
Dat's de reason dey's a-weavin'
an' a-sighin' thoo an' thoo, Li'l' gal.
Don't you let no fella fool you
cause de clo'es he waihs is fine, Li'l' gal.
Deys a hones' hea't a-beatin
unnerneaf dese rags o' mine, Li'l' gal.
Co'se dey ain' no use in mockin'
whut de birds an' weathah do.
But I's so'y I can't `spress it
w'en I knows I loves you, true,
Dat's de reason I's a-sighin' an' a-singin' now fu' you, Li'l' gal!
(Georgia Douglas Johnson)
Consider me a memory, a dream that passed away;
Or yet a flower that has blown and shattered in a day;
For passion sleeps, alas,
and keeps no vigil with the years
And wakens to no conjuring of orisons or tears.
Consider me a melody that served its simple turn,
Or but the residue of fire that settles in the urn,
For love defies pure reasoning and undeterred flows
Within, without the vassal heart—its reasoning, who knows?
In my childhood I was won't
to see the horizon as a boundary,
The sky as roof, the wood as wall,
my world as intimate and small.
But as I learned of other places,
loftier heights and wider spaces,
The wonder in my spirit grew to match the fresh,
I used to think of life as breath,
a measured span from birth to death,
With Time the stern horizon line
to mark day's ending and decline.
But now I see beyond confusion,
all boundaries are but illusion;
That love's vast luminous creation
can tolerate no separation.
There is no barrier nor wall between us
There's always more to do and be.
You can't exhaust infinity.
I walk alone upon a lonely beach
And none but I walk here.
On ev'ry side the world is mine as far as I can reach
Oh, the sea and sky and earth stretch wide.
Why am I then as if confined
When I have all this endless ev'rywhere?
Who locks me in this cage of mind?
And why is this bare world so hard to bear?
O love, come close and circumscribe me round
With love's dear otherness, encompass me
In bonds so fair for when I am bound by love
O love, you are the only narrow door through which myself can reach to the yet more.
And Love Rejoices, Love Rejoice!
The Valse, from DUNBAR SONGS
When to sweet music my lady is dancing
My heart to mild frenzy her beauty inspires.
Into my face are her brown eyes a-glancing,
And swift my whole frame thrills with tremulous fires.
Dance, lady, dance, for the moments are fleeting
Pause not to place yon refractory curl;
Life is for love and the night is for sweeting;
Dreamily, joyously circle and whirl.
Oh, how those viols are throbbing and pleading;
A prayer is scarce needed in sound of their strain.
Surely and lightly as round you are speeding,
You turn to confusion my heart and my brain.
Dance, lady, dance to the viol's soft calling,
Skip it and trip it as light as the air;
Dance, for the moments like rose leaves are falling,
Strikes now the clock from its place on the stair.
Now sinks the melody lower and lower
The weary musicians scarce seeming to play.
Ah, love your steps are now slower and slower,
The smile on your face is more sad and less gay.
Dance, lady, dance to the brink of our parting,
My heart and your step must not fail to be light.
Dance! Just a turn tho' the teardrop be starting.
Thou art the soul of a summer's day,
Thou art the breath of the rose.
Where are they gone, who knows?
Thou art the blood of my heart o' hearts,
Thou art my soul's repose
Where art thou, love, who knows?
Thou art the hope of my after years—
Where shall we meet, who knows?
When Phyllis sighs and from her eyes
The light dies out; my soul replies
With misery of deep drawn breath,
E'en as it were at war with death.
When Phyllis smiles, her glance beguiles
My heart through lovelit woodland aisles,
And through the silence high and clear,
A wooing warbler's song I hear.
But if she frown, despair comes down,
I put me on my sackcloth gown;
So frown not, Phyllis, lest I die,
But look on me with smile or sigh.
Best known for his opera, Blake, his art songs and choral writing, Harrison Leslie Adams has made significant contributions to the genres of vocal and instrumental music. Currently a full-time composer living in Cleveland, Ohio, Adams' music has earned him national attention. Born in 1932, Cleveland, Ohio, his early training included piano lessons and private voice. Adams completed a bachelor of music degree at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in 1955, where he studied voice, piano, conducting and composition (with Herbert Elwell and Joseph Wood). Following private compositional study with Robert Starer in 1959 and Vittorio Giannini in 1960, Adams studied composition with Leon Dallin and Robert Tyndall at California State University at Long Beach (now Long Beach State University), receiving a master of music degree in 1967. Ohio State University awarded his Ph.D. in 1973, where he studied with Marshall Barnes. His works have been performed by major orchestras including: the Iceland Symphony (under Everett Lee), Cleveland Orchestra (under Jahja Ling, Gareth Morrell, Mathis Dulack and Alan Gilbert), Minneapolis Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony (under Julius Williams) and Buffalo Philharmonic (under Julius Rudel and William-Eddins), Indianapolis (under William Henry Curry and Charles Darden), Detroit Symphony (under Leslie Dunner); Savannah Symphony (under Phillip Greenberg); Springfield Symphony (under John Ferrito); Oakland-Pontiac Symphony (under David Daniels); Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and Black Music Repertory Ensemble (under Michael Morgan and Kay George Roberts). Metropolitan Opera artists have performed his vocal works internationally. Adams is listed in Groves Dictionary of Music 2000, Who's Who in America; Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary; Who's Who in Classical Music, International Dictionary of Black Composers (1999), World Edition of International Profiles, Blacks in the Performing Arts: 1850 - 1976, and many other reference works. Adams use of tonality suggests atonality while remaining within a diatonic framework. His works are published by American Composers Alliance. His professional memberships include: Life memberships in Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Delta Kappa, Pi Kappa Lambda, American Choral Directors Association; American Guild of Organists; Advisory Council, Music Arts Association (Cleveland Orchestra, 1982.
Darryl Taylor has a career highlighted by performances of art song, opera and oratorio in which he has appeared in the USA and in Europe. These include the Johann Strauss Sinfonietta of Vienna, the W.A. Mozart Philharmonic of Cluj, Romania, Camerata Mediterania of Barcelona, and the Aspen Music Festival (Young Artists Series), under the batons of conductors Conxita Garcia, Cristian Florea, Gert Meditz, Gustav Meier, James Vail, Rebecca Burkhardt, and Bruce Nehring. His operatic credits include lead roles in The Magic Flute, Albert Herring, Così fan Tutte, H.M.S. Pinafore, Highway One, USA (Still), Porgy and Bess, and Falstaff. Taylor's international itinerary includes19 tours of Spain. Of special note among these performances is his singing the Evangelist in Bach's Passion According to Saint Matthew, a first in the 500-year history in the basilica of the famous Montserrat monastery. This critically acclaimed performance was broadcast over national television and radio in Spain and later released on videocassette. Recent peformance highlights include a recital at the famed Liszt Music Academy in Budapest; Spanish television and radio broadcasts of his singing Bach's Magnificat from Barcelona's Palau de la Música; featured artist under the sponsorship of the Cultural Committee for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona; Messiah at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC; and featured artist for the historic E. Azalia Hackley Concert Series of the Detroit Public Library. Taylor's recitals introduce audiences to works of composers like William Grant Still, George Walker, Adolphus Hailstork, John Musto, Deon Nielsen Price, Lena McLin, Ted Wiprud, Leslie Adams, and Hale Smith. Many of these works were written especially for Taylor's voice. In 1990 he recorded To the Children of War, a cycle of six songs composed by Price with texts by Maya Angelou, for Cambria Records. He is much sought after as a lecturer on African-American Art Song, having given lecture-recitals at the Julliard School, the University of Michigan, Florida State University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida A&M University, Bethune-Cookman College, Virginia Union University, Marygrove College, for the International Alliance for Women in Music, the NATS Convention in Philadelphia, and at Morehouse College, among many others. In 1997, he founded the African-American Art Song Alliance (http://www.uni.edu/taylord). A native of Detroit, Michigan, Darryl Taylor holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, where he studied with renowned tenor, George Shirley. He is on the voice faculty of the University of Northern Iowa.
Robin Guy is an Associate Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano at the University of Northern Iowa. She spends her summers performing and teaching piano at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Guy maintains an active concert schedule throughout the United States and abroad. As a soloist, she has performed concerti with ensembles in Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Minnesota, and Iowa. As a collaborative pianist, she has worked with Henry Charles Smith, Eric Ruske, Tom Bacon, Denis Brott, Phillipa Davies, Dan Perantoni, and has toured for Affiliate Artists of New York. Guest appearances have included St. Petersburg, “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor and several International Flute Festivals in Brazil and Ecuador. She performs regularly with Trio Ariana, a soprano-viola-piano ensemble. Guy can be heard on Vienna Modern Masters recording “From a Woman's Perspective: Art Songs by Women Composers” with mezzo soprano Katherine Eberle and on Mark Records “Passages” with Jeff Funderburk, tuba. Prior to her appointment at UNI in 1990, she served on the piano faculties of the University of Arizona, Grand Canyon University, and Brewton-Parker College. Guy earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of Arizona. Her Bachelor and Master's degrees are from Baldwin-Wallace College and Baylor University respectively.
Love Rejoices: Songs of H. Leslie Adams
1 For you there is no song (2:27)
2 Branch by branch (2:17)
3 The Return from Town (2:04)
6 Drums of Tragedy (1:33)
7 The heart of a woman (2:15)
9 Sence You Went Away (4:42)
12 Lullaby Eternal (5:12)
17 Love Come and Gone (5:17)
Executive Producer: Louise Toppin
Recording Producers: Darryl Taylor and Timothy Jones
Recording Engineer: Peter Nothnagle
Graphic Design: Elizabeth La Velle
Taylor Photography: Sean Kenney
Adams Photography: Hek Reis
Davis Hall, Gallagher-Bluedorn
University of Northern Iowa,
This recording was generously funded by the following sources:
University of Northern Iowa
College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Center for Multicultural Education
Office of the the Vice President
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