The Voices of the City
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for medium voice and piano
Introduction
I. Pleasure seekers, silken clad
II. We are the vendors of beauty
III. We are the toilers in the realm of night
Chorus and Conclusion
Text by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Duration: 13 minutes
Premiere: August 7, 2017, Source Song Festival, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Maria Jette, soprano; Mary Jo Gothmann, piano
Introduction
I. Pleasure seekers, silken clad
II. We are the vendors of beauty
III. We are the toilers in the realm of night
Chorus and Conclusion
Text by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Duration: 13 minutes
Premiere: August 7, 2017, Source Song Festival, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Maria Jette, soprano; Mary Jo Gothmann, piano
Program Notes
The Voices of the City is a setting of a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919), who grew up in Wisconsin before marrying and moving to Connecticut, where she and her husband hosted several artists and literary friends that shared their interest in mystic philosophies and spiritualism. Though her words evoke her own experience in a rapidly industrializing America, they remain a burning testimony to our contemporary American culture. Her poem, "The Voices of the City" (1910) is through-composed in several parts, the first conjuring up the "voices" of the city, whose "broken strains" form the remaining sections of the cycle. These privileged, beautiful people appear innocent, but their lifestyle is unsustainable -- bringing the churning circle of fifths (representing time) to an abrupt crash. The second part explores the voices of the less fortunate: the "vendors of beauty" who sell their bodies and the "race victims" who are mistreated by those whose "Purpose of Being" has "gone wrong" and turned the torch of progress into a firebrand of destruction. The third section is a long, almost funereal, procession of the "toilers in the realm of night," who work to keep society inching forward, but whose labor never seems to bring the dawn. The cycle ends with a chorus, in which all of the various "voices" are added to the harmonic tapestry of the city. Some are joyful, some are wholesome, some are hopeful, and after all have joined, the "medley" of "broken strains" fades away, "in changing time and ever-changing keys." Though written over one hundred years ago, our society still faces many of these same abuses, which like Wilcox, we pray will someday find justice. Until that day: "God pity us; God pity the world."
The Voices of the City was composed in June 2017 for Source Song Festival's Maria Jette Premiere Composition.
Lyrics
(see score)
Full Score
The Voices of the City is a setting of a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919), who grew up in Wisconsin before marrying and moving to Connecticut, where she and her husband hosted several artists and literary friends that shared their interest in mystic philosophies and spiritualism. Though her words evoke her own experience in a rapidly industrializing America, they remain a burning testimony to our contemporary American culture. Her poem, "The Voices of the City" (1910) is through-composed in several parts, the first conjuring up the "voices" of the city, whose "broken strains" form the remaining sections of the cycle. These privileged, beautiful people appear innocent, but their lifestyle is unsustainable -- bringing the churning circle of fifths (representing time) to an abrupt crash. The second part explores the voices of the less fortunate: the "vendors of beauty" who sell their bodies and the "race victims" who are mistreated by those whose "Purpose of Being" has "gone wrong" and turned the torch of progress into a firebrand of destruction. The third section is a long, almost funereal, procession of the "toilers in the realm of night," who work to keep society inching forward, but whose labor never seems to bring the dawn. The cycle ends with a chorus, in which all of the various "voices" are added to the harmonic tapestry of the city. Some are joyful, some are wholesome, some are hopeful, and after all have joined, the "medley" of "broken strains" fades away, "in changing time and ever-changing keys." Though written over one hundred years ago, our society still faces many of these same abuses, which like Wilcox, we pray will someday find justice. Until that day: "God pity us; God pity the world."
The Voices of the City was composed in June 2017 for Source Song Festival's Maria Jette Premiere Composition.
Lyrics
(see score)
Full Score