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  • 兰斯顿·休斯的肖像画——梦想家
    DREAMER: A PORTRAIT OF LANGSTON HUGHES
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• • 兰斯顿·休斯的肖像画——梦想家 / DREAMER: A PORTRAIT OF LANGSTON HUGHES
  • [ 读物介绍 ]
  • Langston Hughes and Music The composer Elie Siegmeister once declared of LangstonHughes (1902-1967) that he was the “most musical poet of the twentiethcentury”. True or false, this judgement underscores the unquestionable factsthat much of Hughes’s poetry lends itself fairly readily to musical setting,and that, for Hughes, music was perhaps the primary inspiration, other than thehistory and culture of African-Americans in general, for his writing. In the early 1920s, before the blossoming of the HarlemRenaissance, the young poet turned away from traditional verse and boldlylinked his literary art to jazz and the blues. His first volume of verse,appropriately enough, was The Weary Blues (1926). The result of this fusion wasa new kind of poetry that formed the foundation of Hughes’s later literarycareer and inspired eventually a new approach to writing byAfrican-Americans. However, alsostarting in the 1920s, Hughes lovingly created a body of lyrical poems thatappealed consistently to musicians both white and black, and led to thecomposition of art songs, cantatas, and even operas. This breadth of interest and appeal was typical of LangstonHughes. Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes grew up inLawrence, Kansas. He spent a year in Lincoln, Illinois, and then attended highschool in Cleveland, Ohio. In high school, between 1916 and 1920, he publishedverse and short stories. In the 1920s he lived in or travelled to Mexico, NewYork City (where he briefly attended Columbia University), Africa, France, andItaly. In New York, he helped to lead the Harlem Renaissance with two books ofverse, a novel, Not Without Laughter (1930), and an essay, The Negro Artist andthe Racial Mountain (1926), that became the manifesto of the younger blackwriters. In the 1930s, swinging far to the left politically, he spenta year in the Soviet Union as his poetry shifted away from lyricism topropagandistic forms urging class consciousness and revolution. With the onset of World War II, however,Hughes patriotically supported the war effort and his poetry returned toearlier themes and forms. About this time he began to develop an interest inwriting song lyrics. None of his songs was a huge success, but he was ready in1946 when Kurt Weill and Elmer Rice invited him to join them as lyricist ontheir development of a musical version of Rice’s 1929 prizewinning play, StreetScene. Following the success of Street Scene on Broadway in 1947,which brought Hughes the first financial windfall of his career, his work beganto attract even more musicians. These included African-American composers suchas Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still. Bonds set to music several ofHughes’s poems, including his signature piece from 1921, The Negro Speaks ofRivers. William Grant Still collaborated with him on the opera Troubled Island,based on a play by Hughes about the revolution that led to the foundation ofthe black republic of Haiti. The opera had its première, to mixed reviews, in1949 in New York City. White musicians also found Hughes’s words compelling.Perhaps Hughes’s closest relationship as a librettist was with the German-bornimmigrant composer Jan Meyerowitz. Together they worked on The Barrier, basedon Hughes’s 1935 Broadway play Mulatto, a tragedy on the theme of miscegenationin the South. The Barrier enjoyed excellent reviews but then failed miserablyon Broadway in 1950. Other collaborations between the two men include the operaEsther, inspired by the Bible, which was first performed in 1958 in Boston.Later, Hughes joined David Amram to produce their cantata Let Us Remember.Commissioned for a convention of Reformed Judaism, the piece was firstperformed in 1965 by a 150-voice chorus and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra. Hughes was proud of these collaborations even though hismain interest in music remained tied to the blues and jazz and, in the lastyears of his life, gospel. He virtually invented the gospel musical play, inwhich a limited story-line links performances of stirring gospel songs byaccomplished singers. He enjoyed critical as well as commercial success withworks such as The Prodigal Son and, especially, Black Nativity. The latter wasperhaps conceived by Hughes as a deliberate counterpart to Gian Carlo Menotti’sown Christmas classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors. From popular forms to the more demanding jazz and classicalrepertoires, Langston Hughes found inspiration in the work of musicians. Hesought to learn from them and to work with them whenever he could. He himselfknew little about the technical aspect of music. He could not read music,played no instrument, and could not sing in any attractive way. Nevertheless,he adored music and took pride in the fascination that his poems and playsinspired in composers and performers. Dr. Arnold Rampersad Composers Robert Lee Owens is a native of Denison Texas, where he wasborn in 1925. After a public school education in Berkeley, California, he wentto Paris, working for four years as a piano student of Alfred Cortot. Althoughhe has had several academic positions in the United States, he has beenparticularly active throughout Europe, and moved to Munich in 1962. Heart is the first of five songs within Heart on the Wall,written by 1968. The style is totally tonal, with triads coloured by seventhsand sixths. Published in Munich, the text is offered in both English andGerman. John Musto was born in Brooklyn in 1954. He attended theManhattan School of Music where he was a piano student of Seymour Lipkin,working subsequently with Paul Jacobs. In addition to his major career as apianist, he has secured many prestigious awards as a composer of vocal music,an area in which he is self-taught. Shadow of the Blues, a cycle of four songs, is representedhere by the second and third of the set. The first, Silhouette, relates to alynching, the second, Litany, to love for those rejected, and the last, for amissed opportunity with love. Island is metrically complex, with aperpetual-motion figure in the pianist’s right hand, to be played “fast andfleeting.” William Grant Still (1895-1978) is one of the most esteemedof all African American composers. One of his cultural heroes was SamuelColeridge-Taylor, the brilliant Afro-British composer whose three visits to theUnited States helped lay the foundation for the Harlem Renaissance. A youngStill wished to imitate Coleridge-Taylor, even attempting to train his hair togrow in a similar fashion. His mother’s hopes for her son’s professional careerlost out in his college days to his ardent love of music. He had a variety ofexperiences by 1930, including editorial work for W. C. Handy, arranging forjazz ensembles, and performance as a pit musician. This was the year that headdressed the goals of the Harlem Renaissance by the idealisation of thefolkloric with his first symphony. Hale Smith was born in Cleveland in 1925. Before his move toNew York in 1958, he supplemented his education at the Cleveland Institute ofMusic with rich experiences that provided the background for his work in NewYork as a music editor. His greatest mark has been as a totally professionalcomposer, capable of working with serial techniques, writing his own texts,arranging jazz tunes, or composing jingles. Beyond the rim of day is a cycle of three songs, set toHughes texts in 1950. The work is dedicated to Gladys Tiff, who gave the setits première at Cleveland’s Karamu Theater, with which Smith had been active inearlier days. The first of the three is March Moon, readily designed for anaccomplished singer, posing challenges of meter and range. Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) secured her musicaleducation in her native Chicago and at the Juilliard School, counting among herteachers Roy Harris, William Dawson, and Florence Price. In turn, she was oneof Ned Rorem’s first teachers. Her career was launched quickly in bothcomposition and performance. She received a Wanamaker award before she wastwenty and was soon after engaged in solo piano recitals, as part of a duopiano team, as vocal accompanist, and as a concerto soloist. Throughout her life, she was engaged in composition, butseveral of her most frequently performed works come quite early in her life.Minstrel Man is the first song of Three Dream Portraits and was written whenshe was only nineteen. The Negro Speaks of Rivers was composed only three yearslater. Hughes was also only nineteen when he wrote the latter poem. The ironyof the former is suggested initially by a carefree, though melancholy melodyand rhythm that are transformed into sadness as the text reveals its truth. Ricky Ian Gordon’s love of theatre, music, and dance waslargely nurtured at New York’s Lincoln Center, where he became a frequentvisitor starting at the age of eight in 1964. This interest has been manifestedby his output of compositions, a large number of which are vocal, and of these,more than two dozen employ texts by Langston Hughes. A series of these werestaged by a vocal quartet, two dancers, and orchestra in 2001 as Only Heaven, amemorial tribute to Gordon’s companion. Florence Price (1888-1953) came from Little Rock. Shestudied at the New England Conservatory and in Chicago where she spent much ofher adult life. Several historic events took place as she neared mid-career. In1932, her first symphony won the Wanamaker award and the next year, FrederickStock conducted this work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (as part of theWorld’s Fair events). Her songs entered into the repertoires of such artists asRoland Hayes, Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson, and Hilda Harris. Less than a month before the death of William Grant Still,music lost Howard Swanson. He had been born in Atlanta in 1907, but moved withhis parents in 1916 to Cleveland. He saved enough money to enroll at theCleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Ward Lewis and HerbertElwell. A grant made it possible for him to continue his studies with NadiaBoulanger in France, but this was terminated by the Nazi invasion. Swanson leftParis by foot, leaving his music behind, one day before the city fell to theNazis. It took him over a year of travels through Spain and Portugal to makehis way back to the United States. Swanson was virtually unknown until Marian Anderson includedhis setting of The Negro Speaks of Rivers at Carnegie Hall in 1949, and thenthe New York Critic’s Circle decided American composers were now well enoughadvanced that they could bestow their annual award on a local composer. Swansonwas selected, and his Short Symphony was acclaimed the best new work performedin New York during the 1950-51 season. It was during this period that Joy wascomposed, soon becoming known by the recordings of Helen Thigpen, and ofPhalese Tassie, and often performed by baritone Ben Holt. Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was branded as an entartete(degenerate) composer the same year the Nazis came to power, and he was alsoJewish. He moved quickly to Paris, then London, and in 1935 to the UnitedStates. He continued to write operatic social commentaries, with the flavors ofjazz and popular songs, using the techniques of the times, including atonalityand polytonality. He secured great success with Lost in the Stars (1949, afterCry the Beloved Country), Lady in the Dark (with Moss Hart), and DieDreigroschenoper (1928, known as The Threepenny Opera with Marc Blitzstein’sEnglish text). Street Scene dates from 1946, and employs a text by Hughesand Elmer Rice. Lonely House is a lament of solitude. A riff that appears inthe piano, before the monotonous line that starts the vocal part, unifies thepiece. The reiterated figure that drones through the opening returns in thelast moments of the song. Harriette Davison (1923-1978) was trained as a violinist atthe Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and ColumbiaUniversity. She was a member of the Harlem Symphony and the Symphony of the NewWorld, in both instances joining her husband, Julius Burton Watkins, a hornplayer who had extensive work in jazz on horn and trumpet. From Hughes’ Fields of Wonder (1947) comes In Time of SilverRain, set here in harmonies often based on a fourth. Jean Berger, born in Germany in 1909, came to the UnitedStates in 1941, following work in his native country, France, and Brazil asopera and choral conductor. Whileon the faculty of the University of Colorado (1961-1968), he established hisown John Sheppard Music Press, although other firms have also published hiscompositions. Four Songs, using Hughes texts, come from 1951. CarolinaCabin is the third of these and follows Berger’s determination only to writetonal music. In a quasi-strophic setting, the opening piano figure migrates tothe bass and returns to introduce the brief second verse. From Hughes’ The Dream Keeper comes Lovely Dark and LonelyOne, set by Harry Burleigh in 1934. The composer had been a voice student atthe National Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Christian Fritsch.His association with Antonín Dvorˇák provided the stimulus for a majorcareer as vocal composer, both of totally original works and of settings of thespirituals. As music editor subsequently, he secured publication of theseessays, which he featured in his own performances. At the same time, heprovided repertoire for recitals by others, such as Marian Anderson, PaulRobeson, and Roland Hayes in the Harlem Renaissaance, and even for Ezio Pinza,Nelson Eddy, and Herbert Witherspoon. For 52 years, Burleigh was baritonesoloist at New York’s St George’s Church and for almost half that time, sang onSaturdays at Temple Emanu-El (often performing his setting of Deep River inHebrew). Erik Santos and Darryl Taylor met while they were bothengaged in graduate studies at the University of Michigan. When Darryl Taylorfirst heard one of his works, he was resolved that, in time, he wouldcommission a work for his performance. That resulted in the cycle, Dreamer, thecomposer’s initial essay for voice. It received its first performance at NewYork City’s Merkin Concert Hall in January 2001, with the pair joined byharpist Patricia Terry Ross. The first of the five songs in Dreamer cautions that theSandman “abroad each night, has a dream in his sack to fit each child justright”, while the undulating bass of the piano plays against figures in theharp that reflect either the piano or voice lines. Bound No’th Blues is adeploration of a weary and lonely traveler whose complaints appear oversyncopated obstinate patterns, with the harp joining in the middle section(“slow, sultry swing”), and offering after-beats for the restatement of theinitial idea. The third song, To Artina, is a passionate declaration ofconsuming love, expressed with great intensity. Down where I am is marked“dark, tough blues, really drag the beat” and obligates percussive activityfrom the pianist, with the final measures to be improvised by the singer inblues style. The cycle ends with The Dream Keeper. Interspersed among the fivesongs are two additional poems, Birth and Bouquet, spoken by the singer. Dr. Dominique-René DeLerma
  • • 作品列表
    • • 
        作品编号：35845  我的人民/My People

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：我的人民/My People

      • 
        作品编号：39263  《墙上的心》中的“心”/Heart on the Wall: Heart

      • 罗伯特·李·欧文斯：《墙上的心》中的“心”/Heart on the Wall: Heart

      • 
        作品编号：39264  《布鲁斯的阴影》中的“岛屿”/Shadow of the Blues: Island

      • 约翰·穆斯托：《布鲁斯的阴影》中的“岛屿”/Shadow of the Blues: Island

      • 
        作品编号：39265  沉闷乏味的布鲁斯乐曲/The Weary Blues

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：沉闷乏味的布鲁斯乐曲/The Weary Blues

      • 
        作品编号：39266  《布鲁斯的阴影》中的“连祷歌”/Shadow of the Blues: Litany

      • 约翰·穆斯托：《布鲁斯的阴影》中的“连祷歌”/Shadow of the Blues: Litany

      • 
        作品编号：39267  离别之歌》中的“黑人男丑角”/Songs of Separation: A Black Pierrot

      • 威廉·格兰特·斯蒂尔：《离别之歌》中的“黑人男丑角”/Songs of Separation: A Black Pierrot

      • 
        作品编号：39268  《远在日光边缘》中的“三月的月亮”/Beyond the Rim of Day: March Moon

      • 黑尔·史密斯：《远在日光边缘》中的“三月的月亮”/Beyond the Rim of Day: March Moon

      • 
        作品编号：39269  黑人/Negro

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：黑人/Negro

      • 
        作品编号：39270  黑人讲述河流的故事/The Negro Speaks of Rivers

      • 玛格丽特·埃利松·邦兹：黑人讲述河流的故事/The Negro Speaks of Rivers

      • 
        作品编号：39271  《天才儿童》中的“我的人民”/Genius Child: My People

      • 利基·伊安·戈登：《天才儿童》中的“我的人民”/Genius Child: My People

      • 
        作品编号：39272  黑人圣母之歌/Song to the Dark Virgin

      • 佛罗伦斯·普莱斯：黑人圣母之歌/Song to the Dark Virgin

      • 
        作品编号：39273  邪恶/Evil

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：邪恶/Evil

      • 
        作品编号：39274  喜悦/Joy

      • 霍华德·斯宛森：喜悦/Joy

      • 
        作品编号：39275  街景：孤寂的房屋/Street Scene: Lonely House

      • 库尔特·魏尔：街景：孤寂的房屋/Street Scene: Lonely House

      • 
        作品编号：39276  三幅梦景中的画像：游吟歌手/Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man

      • 玛格丽特·邦兹：三幅梦景中的画像：游吟歌手/Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man

      • 
        作品编号：39277  星期日早晨的预言/Sunday Morning Prophecy

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：星期日早晨的预言/Sunday Morning Prophecy

      • 
        作品编号：39278  《神奇的原野》中的“银色的雨季”/Fields of Wonder: In Time of Silver Rain

      • 哈里耶特·戴维森：《神奇的原野》中的“银色的雨季”/Fields of Wonder: In Time of Silver Rian

      • 
        作品编号：39279  四首兰斯顿·休斯的歌曲：卡罗来纳小木屋/Four Songs of Langston Hughes: Carolina Cabin

      • 简·贝尔格：四首兰斯顿·休斯的歌曲：卡罗来纳小木屋/Four Songs of Langston Hughes: Carolina Cabin

      • 
        作品编号：39280  女士和人口调查员/Madam and the Census Taker

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：女士和人口调查员/Madam and the Census Taker

      • 
        作品编号：39281  可爱、沉闷和孤独的人/Lovely, Dark and Lonely One

      • 亨利·查克尔·伯莱：可爱、沉闷和孤独的人/Lovely, Dark and Lonely One

      • 
        作品编号：39282  西尔维斯特临终卧榻/Sylvesters Dying Bed

      • 兰斯顿·休斯：西尔维斯特临终卧榻/Sylvesters Dying Bed

      • 
        作品编号：39283  空想家——睡魔／出生/Dreamer

      • 埃利克·桑托斯：空想家——睡魔／出生/Sandman / Birth

      • 
        作品编号：39283  空想家——睡魔／出生/Dreamer

      • ——去北方布鲁斯/Bound Noth Blues

      • 
        作品编号：39283  空想家——睡魔／出生/Dreamer

      • ——至阿蒂娜/To Artina

      • 
        作品编号：39283  空想家——睡魔／出生/Dreamer

      • ——我闷闷不乐/Down where I am

      • 
        作品编号：39283  空想家——睡魔／出生/Dreamer

      • ——编织梦幻的人／花束/The Dream Weaver / Bouquet

      • 
        作品编号：39284  仍在这儿/Still Here

      • 仍在这儿/Still Here