Longy’s performance are free and open to the public, but please register in advance.
This recital will feature narrative and programmatic works that tell stories on multiple levels. Schubert’s Moments Musicaux (Musical Moments) distill a narrative framework into a single poetic moment and are haunted by his sense of his own imminent mortality. Clara Schuman’s 3 Romances Op 21 were begun after visiting her husband Robert in a mental institution and reflect both her anguish and her agency within her own life’s story. Lili Boulanger’s 3 Morceaux, programmatic pieces written in her unique style of musical impressionism, embody her sense of the fleeting passage of time. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s settings of African American spirituals, such as Deep River played in this program, bring to life the implied narrative contained in the lyrics of the spiritual. And Margaret Bond’s setting of another spiritual, Wade in the Water, dramatizes the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and the identification of enslaved people with the hope for freedom gained through their own action.
