“Poetry in Song”

The world’s greatest dramatist, one of America’s most renowned poets, one of America’s outstanding choral composers, and an Anglo-American jazz legend–that’s a combination that’s hard to beat. And that is the combination that forms today’s concert, with some of Shakespeare’s songs and sonnets set to music by jazz composer George Shearing (b 1919), and some of the poems of Robert Frost (1874-1963) set to music by Randall Thompson (1899-1984).

Music was very much a part of Shakespeare’s plays, and his theatre company had numerous instruments it could use, including plucked instruments (such as the lute), bowed string instruments, woodwinds, brass, and drums. So Shakespeare used, for example, martial drums to accompany battlefield scenes, trumpet flourishes for royal entrances and exits, and other instruments to provide mood-setting pieces (such as the “sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not” in The Tempest, a play that is suffused with music). In addition, there were numerous songs sung by characters during the action of the plays. There’s no doubt that if George Shearing had been available, Shakespeare would have made use of his talents.

Shearing’s “Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare,” for choir, jazz piano, and double bass, was commissioned by the Mostly Madrigal Singers of Illinois, and premièred on 9 July 1999, with English composer John Rutter conducting, and Shearing at the piano. Alas, the words to the first song, “Live with me and be my love,” are not Shakespeare’s and are generally attributed to his fellow dramatist, Christopher Marlowe (1564 -1593). However, unlike some other contemporary writers, Marlowe did not attempt to pass off his poem as Shakespeare’s.

“When daffodils begin to peer” comes from The Winter’s Tale (act 4 scene 2) where it is sung by the vagabond thief, Autolycus, “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.” And, as the song tells us, his irresponsibility extends to women of easy virtue. Next comes the very familiar “It was a lover and his lass” from As You Like It (act 5 scene 3) where it is sung by a Page. In the play, Touchstone, the clown, comments that it is a foolish song–“there was no great matter in the ditty”–but it and the familiar tune have retained their hold over the years.

Far less familiar is the fourth song, “Spring,” taken from a play that is seldom performed, Love’s Labour’s Lost (act 5 scene 2). The song and a companion piece (“Winter”) form part of a pageant that closes the play; the two songs praise the cuckoo and the owl respectively. The next song, “Who is Sylvia?” from The Two Gentlemen of Verona (act 4 scene 2), hardly needs an introduction, especially after it was made famous by Schubert’s setting of the lyrics. Shearing’s variation might, perhaps, be somewhat too languorous for the stage, but it certainly conveys the dreamy fantasy of a lover’s imagination.

The sixth song (“Fie on sinful fantasy”), which occurs in the final scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor (act 5 scene 5), provides a complete change of pace and mood. In the play, Falstaff has been tricked into appearing dressed up in stag’s horns as Herne the Hunter in expectation of a liaison with Mistress Page and Mistress Ford; instead, Falstaff is burned with tapers by other characters disguised as fairies and is berated for his lustfulness. The final song, “When that I was and a little tiny boy,” is sung by the clown, Feste, at the very end of Twelfth Night. The words summarize the unfortunate life of a drunkard, a sharp contrast with the much happier resolution afforded to the lovers in the play. Shearing provides his own appropriate ending, a brief concluding riff.

While Frost’s poetry is readily accessible on the surface, the poems often gain a deeper resonance the more the reader ponders Frost’s words. And, of course, when the words are set to music, there’s a further dimension to appreciate. Frostiana (1959) was the result of a commission from the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, for a work to commemorate the town’s 200th anniversary. The choice of poems is Thompson’s own and forms an interesting collection of related ideas about the human experience in a pastoral setting. At the same time much larger themes are suggested, and all the various aspects are pulled together in the final poem.

Frost’s familiar and famous “The Road Not Taken” presents the choices people have–to take this road or that, and what might ensue as a result. However, Frost’s description of the roads themselves does not, on closer examination, appear to be particularly distinct, and thus his choice of roads is perhaps just impulsive since it is the “one less traveled by,” as indeed the poet’s calling must be. Thompson reinforces this notion by adding a short musical interlude before a repetition of the final line of the poem (“and that has made all the difference”). Thompson uses a similar repetitive device at the end of “The Pasture” (for men’s voices only) which characterizes the daily chores on a New England farm–cleaning up a spring in the pasture, bringing in a newly-born calf–while inviting the audience to “come too.”

The third song, “Come In,” depicts dark, mysterious woods; they threaten and tempt simultaneously, particularly when the seductive notes of a thrush lure the listener to enter in. But Frost rejects the temptation because he “was out for stars” and possibly the infinity they embody. The women’s voices Thompson uses for this song add a celestial, ethereal dimension; however, it is the thrush’s notes that prefaced the piece that persist to the end.

The mood changes immediately with the playful and fanciful, “The Telephone,” a dialogue between two lovers in which the man comes across a flower that he pretends is a telephone. The resulting miniature “conversation” resembles a brief verbal fencing match of the “I want to know what you thought first” variety. The playful mood continues with “A Girl’s Garden” (sung appropriately by the ladies) in which Thompson manages to squeeze the whole poem into just two minutes of fast-paced music. Frost offers his own gentle critique of the young would-be farmer who dumps a load of useful manure along the roadside and whose crop is “a little bit of everything, and a great deal of none.” Now older, the woman appears to know “how village things go,” but takes care not to repeat her tale to anyone (perhaps because she might not be able to tell it accurately the next time).

With “Stopping by Woods,” Frost and Thompson take us back to “The Road Not Taken,” and “Come In,” by combining the fascination of dark woods (which belong to a man who, somewhat ironically, lives elsewhere) with a road that must be traveled. On this occasion, the impetus to move on is a sense of commitment, the “promises” that must be kept–although exactly what they are Frost declines to specify; instead, he emphasizes the nature of what a promise entails.

The concluding song, “Choose Something like a Star,” offers a possible answer to whatever questions people may have. The star (embodied in a sustained high note sung by the sopranos) is remote, visible only at night, and doesn’t even reveal its temperature; but, like the ardent lover in Keats’ poem “Eremite,” the star remains unwavering “in its sphere,” making no demands. Therein lies the steadfast support we need “when at times the mob is swayed.” At the conclusion of the première, Frost jumped up and wanted the piece sung again–surely the best testament to the effectiveness of Thompson’s music.