Listen to the Singles:

Echoes of Nature: I. Un bimbo cammina in un meleto 7/19/2024

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Nine Shakespeare Songs: I. Titania’s Lullaby 8/2/2024

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Echoes of Nature: V. Une ribambelle d’oiseaux 8/16/2024

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Nine Shakespeare Songs: III. Double, Double Toil and Trouble 8/30/20

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Nine Shakespeare Songs: IX. Ariel’s Song

Echoes of nature: Live From shakespeare’s church

Echoes of Nature features two world premiere symphonic song cycles composed by Lucía Caruso and Pedro H. da Silva — Nine Shakespeare Songs and Echoes of Nature (poetry by Ahae). Recorded live at Shakespeare’s church in Stratford-upon-Avon, the music draws on classical techniques, improvisation, and elements from various cultures and eras. Echoes from the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic opera, and Impressionism pervade the two song cycles, as well as new sonorities, and the magical combination of celesta and Portuguese guitar with choir and orchestra.

The album features the great French soprano Laetitia Grimaldi and the composers Lucía Caruso on piano and celesta, and Pedro H. da Silva on Portuguese guitar, joined by the Royal Shakespeare Company music director Bruce O’Neil conducting the Orchestra & Choir of the Swan.

echoes of nature by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva, on poems by ahae

1. Un bimbo cammina in un meleto (“A small child walks through an apple orchard”)
2. Lune d’argent (“silvery moon”)
3. Aube d’automne (“An autumn dawn”)
4. Un cielo vuoto (“an empty sky”)
5. Une ribambelle d’oiseaux (“all manner of birds”)

Echoes of Nature is a cycle of five songs for soprano, Portuguese guitar, piano, celesta, orchestra, and choir. It is part of a larger multidisciplinary project called “Through My Window.” Visionary artist, photographer, and poet Ahae took 3.3 million photographs over five years from a single window in the South Korean countryside and wrote twenty volumes of poetry in Korean. He commissioned us over two hours of orchestral and chamber music, including this symphonic song cycle, based on his poetry and photographs. We carefully selected five poems translated into French and Italian that best represent the project as a whole and the artist himself. Ahae preferred to have the poems used in these songs translated from Korean to other languages to represent the universality of the themes represented herein.

“Un bimbo cammina in un meleto” (“A Small Child Walks Through an Apple Orchard”) is about a child discovering the world for the first time: everything is beautiful and magical, and the music reflects child-like wonderment with an orchestration that goes from the impressionistic to the luminous.

“Lune d’argent” (“Silvery Moon”)is perhaps the most important song for it caps the five-year musical and artistic project. At its climax, every work written for this project is quoted and their melodic themes are superimposed in a complex and powerful counterpoint. The final words sung softly by the soprano soloist are: “Through my window.”

The words that begin “Aube d’automne” (“An Autumn Dawn”) set the mood for the composition: “Autumn at dawn, so melancholy.” One could say that this work is ‘neo-Baroque,’ but with the extensive use of the harp and the Dorian mode, it sounds like something else.

Grief pervades in “Un cielo vuoto” (“An Empty Sky”), with its symbolism of the Sun setting in the west, which is often associated with death in the world’s literature.

“Une ribambelle d’oiseaux” (“All Manner of Birds”) is the only song in the cycle that overtly refers to the Eternal—God—but from the point of view of myriads of birds singing. The translation of those bird songs, as heard by the poet, is: “Let everything that has breath praise the Eternal!” It is the recurring line heard in different keys and orchestrations throughout the work, culminating in a majestic Hallelujah sung by the soprano and choir and played by the orchestra in full force.

Nine Shakespeare Songs by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva

6- Titania’s Lullaby (Midsummer Night’s Dream II, 2)
7- When Daffodils Begin to Peer (The Winter’s Tale IV, 3)
8- Double, Double Toil and Trouble (Macbeth IV, 1)
9- Willow Song (Othello IV, 3)
10- Sigh no More (Much Ado About Nothing II, 3)
11- Ophelia’s Madness (Hamlet IV, 5)
12- Pardon Goddess of the Night (Much Ado About Nothing V, 3)
13- O Mistress Mine Where are You Roaming? (Twelfth Night II, 3)
14- Ariel’s Song (The Tempest I, 2)

This live recording of the two symphonic song cycles “Nine Shakespeare Songs” and “Echoes of Nature” is the culmination of our collaboration as artists and composers-in-residence with Orchestra of the Swan. It is a great honor for two composers from Argentina and Portugal to be selected to write Shakespeare songs for his city’s orchestra and to perform and record them at the church where he was baptized and buried—the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. The two song cycles are conducted by Bruce O’Neil, who is nothing less than the music director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

Shakespeare has been an enormous part of our lives. We were married on his day, read Sonnet 23 at our wedding ceremony, and acted in the Shakespeare workshop at New York’s International House in six productions of his plays. We wrote three of these songs for those productions.

We have selected nine songs from varied plays—dramas, comedies, and fantasies—including some of his most emblematic works. Some songs have a distinct “older flavor” with clear allusions to the music of Shakespeare’s time, but performed with a modern chamber orchestra and with instruments that did not exist in his time, such as celesta and Portuguese guitar. This is an example of Transclassical Music™, a term Lucía Caruso coined to describe a style based on classical music techniques, improvisation, and elements from different cultures and eras in a variety of genres, integrating classical and world instruments. As an example of this, several Indian scales are used in “Double, Double Toil and Trouble,” although an Indian musician may not recognize them in this form.

“Titania’s Lullaby” (from Midsummer Night’s Dream II, 2) - by Lucía Caruso

This is the first of these songs, and it was written in 2007. Lucía wrote it entirely in the Dorian mode, the most common mode of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Instead of focusing on every scary little creature, the music is surprisingly melodic, with a sweeping refrain to lull the queen of the fairies to sleep. It premiered in this version with orchestra and choir at the Shakespeare 400 Memorial in 2016, with Orchestra & Choir of the Swan, in Shakespeare’s church.

“When Daffodils Begin to Peer” (from The Winter’s Tale IV, 3) - by Pedro H. da Silva

This is a light, happy song that Pedro thought was appropriate for the roguish character of Autolycus. Mostly written in a happy pentatonic mode, it emphasizes the beautiful sonorities that are possible on the Portuguese guitar.

“Double, Double Toil & Trouble” (from Macbeth IV, 1) - by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva

Shakespeare famously used iambic pentameter in his plays, however, this famous scene of the witches brewing their magic potion is in trochaic tetrameter—in other words, each line has seven poetic feet. Perhaps the more modern sounding of this collection of songs, we used a lot of modulation and drastic meter changes. Since the text references several prime numbers—three, seven, thirty-one—which are considered to have magical properties by numerologists, we used prime numbers exclusively in the rhythm and in the microscopic and macroscopic structure of the piece. This is the most esoteric and fantastical of the works in this cycle, creating a foreboding otherworldly atmosphere appropriately representing the black magic of the three witches’ ungodly brew.

“Willow Song” (from Othello IV, 3) - by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva

Originally conceived by Lucía as a very simple song, Pedro decided to add ethereal harmonies in the choir to represent the impending death of Desdemona. This song is unique because it lacks the orchestra's support and relies only on a few measures of organ, another few of solo cello, and a chord repeated three times on the Portuguese guitar at the very end.

“Sigh no More” (from Much Ado About Nothing II, 3) - by Lucía Caruso

Most composers write a happy song when setting these words, but Lucía decided on a more melancholy interpretation, thus emphasizing the “men were deceivers ever” line.

“Ophelia’s Madness” (from Hamlet IV, 5) - by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva

We chose the title “Ophelia’s Madness” to group all the little songs that she sings in a row that represent her descent into madness. For this reason, there are a lot of wild contrasts and mood changes throughout. This is the only song in this collection that does not include choir but is instead for solo soprano and orchestra, like an opera aria.

“Pardon Goddess of the Night” (from Much Ado About Nothing V, 3) - by Lucía Caruso

Claudio sings this song after he believes Hero to have died, as a mourning song of repentance. Lucía chose the Lydian mode instead of a more expected minor mode because Lydian is the most luminous of all the modes, and symbolizes Hero’s purity and innocence.

“O Mistress Mine Where are You Roaming?” (from Twelfth Night II, 3) - by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva

While the mode and rhythms used are typical of Renaissance music, this piece has a more Baroque feel to it, especially at the very end. Since this comes from one of the Bard’s famous comedies, we kept the energy light and happy.

“Ariel’s Song” (from The Tempest I, 2) - by Pedro H. da Silva

The most mysterious of these songs, Pedro represented the supernatural character of Ariel with some otherworldly scales and harmonies that don’t always seem to have a tonal center. Often done as two separate songs, “Come Unto These Yellow Sands” and “Full Fathom Five,” he chose to not only combine them but also have the second part of the song be a perfect chromatic inversion of the first half. The song ends excitedly with the “ding dongs” that Ariel exuberantly proclaims.

—Pedro H. da Silva & Lucía Caruso

CREDITS

Laetitia Grimaldi - soprano
Lucía Caruso - piano and celesta
Pedro H. da Silva - Portuguese guitar
Bruce O’Neil - conductor
Orchestra & Choir of the Swan

Debbie Jagla - Orchestra of the Swan Managing Director
Yulia Musayelyan - recorder on track 3
James Donegan, David Root, & Nathan Wiley - additional tenors on track 13

Producer, editing and mixing engineer: Pedro H. da Silva
Mixing and mastering engineer: Mike Tierney
Recording engineer: Terry Carter
Assistant recording engineer: Phil Hardman

Ahae poems translation: Annita Brindani & Sabine Citron
Design and animation: Ger Quiroga

Recorded at Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, June 24th and 25th 2019.

This recording was made possible thanks to the generous funding of the Sorel Organization, and the tireless help of their leadership: Judy Cope, Wende Persons, & Dmitri Shelest.
“Echoes of Nature” was commissioned by Ahae Press, and “Nine Shakespeare Songs” was commissioned by Sue and Allan Rogers.
Special thanks to Rosemary Corbett for her support.
This recording is dedicated to the memory of Judy Cope.