Songs
Vanessa McClintock
As Gracious As // Farewell
My Lover, Still // Song Cycle
If I Only Had Time // VISIONS // One in a Million
Overture for a Runner // Our Heritage the Sea
Hawaiian Love // The Hollow Men // The Lord's Prayer
Sketches
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Many years ago, I made a surprise visit to the church congregation to which my then future fiancé belonged. We had first met in a choral rehearsal setting, so I knew she was a vocalist, but I had no idea what a beautiful voice she had until she sang a solo in that church meeting.
She sang with a pure tone and with grace, and part of the lyrics were "I know my Father lives." Those words became the steppingstone into this song.
The music of that day I have forgotten, but those words and the spirit with which she rendered them struck a chord very deep within me and inspired this song for soprano and piano.
I composed this for her a few months before we were married in 1980.
2015—just a decade and a half into our new century—was a year of transition for me in many ways and fronts. This song came rather spontaneously, and I went with it, not knowing for sure what the full text was or would be, other than a sense of parting. The only words I had were "Farewell, my love.
Stylistically, the music falls into quasi-popular and classical art song categories. As the music progressed, I began hearing the voice of popular artist Josh Groban. He has the ability to sing clearly in English and with the range and technique to sing in a quasi-classical mode.
Farewell is tonal, albeit wearing a bit of my more advanced harmonies.
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This very short song, My Lover, Still, came about as a response to an extra credit assignment at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) in Dr. Lorna Adams' Music History class, circa 1984-1985. I had earned a minor in music a little more than a decade earlier and had returned to simultaneously work on my Bachelor of Music (Theory/Composition) and my Master of Arts (Theory/Composition).
The class topic at that point in the semester was art songs, with an emphasis on German lieder. She had challenged the class with an extra-credit assignment to set to music a poem of her creation and in the mood or feeling or genre of classical art songs, and then she would sing them in class. I was the only member of the large class to respond, though with my altered lyrics. Regrettably, she was not able to perform for a reason or reasons I cannot now remember, but she was highly pleased with the work, giving me a grade of “A, Excellent!”
Dr. Adams was a wonderful vocalist. She had performed at the Metropolitan Opera as a cast member and was a frequent soloist in the Sacramento area.
Part of the assignment was to list the composers and works that inspired the music. By this time, I had already established the foundations of my own style, but listed the following as part of the requirement:
Johannes Brahms — Die Mainacht
Frederic Chopin — "Prelude in e minor, Op. 28, No. 4"
Robert Schumann — Er, der Herrlichste von Allen from Frauenliebe und Leben
Franz Schubert — An Sylvia
Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 9, Choral Movement
In hindsight, Franz Liszt's Oh! quand je dors ("Oh! When I Sleep") and Richard Strauss's songs (especially his "Four Last Songs") would have been sources, as well.
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Song Cycle is a setting of five poems by two American poets delving in the realm of nature. The last four poems are by one of my mentors, Bill Hotchkiss, whom I first met in my freshman year at Sierra College, just north of Sacramento, California. We were "good" friends, though not "close" friends, but we kept in touch through several decades.
When I sought material for this collective work, I dug through many of his self-published works, and other, until I found these four that, to me, held to a connective thread, that of nature in sundry views. For my musical purpose, however, the poems were too lengthy, so I carefully edited them down to their present form. When I first presented the cycle to Bill, he was upset that I had truncated them, but also because I did so without his foreknowledge; I plead my case citing ignorance and asked for his forgiveness and acceptance.
Fortunately, Bill acknowledged that they were earlier works and even said he had liked what I had done and gave me permission to use them as they were in my musical settings.
Within these five songs that date back to 1975 you will find some bi-tonality, hints at tri-tonality, chords built on fourths and fifths rather than thirds, cluster chords, and use of my musical scales, among other things.
The work has never been performed, but twice they were on two different mezzo-soprano's concert programs. In both instances the vocalists cancelled their concerts because of voice problems and came to the conclusion that they were actually sopranos.
An "almost performance" came with a wonderful mezzo and person with the San Francisco Opera. Donna Petersen was a resident of the opera company and sang roles such as "Mary" in The Flying Dutchman. I do not remember the details, but I had sent her a copy and she invited me to meet her in her dressing room after a performance of The Flying Dutchman. When I entered I saw my score on her piano—what a thrill. She said the music fit her voice perfectly (she was a true mezzo), and that she would love to sing it. Unfortunately, for some reason the concert plan fell through, but at least I received confirmation from a venerable opera singer to the worth of Song Cycle.
These five songs represent a cycle both musically and poetically: musical motifs from each song appear in others; the poems begin "At dusk" and flow through the night, the day, and return to the night. The performers are encouraged to lend their own interpretation to the music, ba non troppo. I believe the poems and the music speak for themselves but do lend access to considerate stylization. However, the singer should strive not to sing in "opera-ese," but with diction more in the realm of popular or Broadway musical style—ba non troppo.
As to the origin of the collective title: in German the title would be Liederkreis. This is simply a translation of what sounds rather romantic in another language. I wonder if the German's will think the same of my title.
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In its original form, from sometime in the mid to early 1970s, If I Only Had Time was in four-part harmony, though the bass notes were too low for most choral ensembles.
In 2023, I adapted it for soprano solo and four-part accompaniment for string quartet, and greatly revised it.
It originally was a laboured and troubled work--think molasses on a wintry day--matching the concern and lament of waning and wasted time. However, with the many revisions of a few notes and there, the harmonies evolved and became less dense, a flow developed, and a dark cloud lifted.
Were one to "classify" this piece, perhaps "Post-Romantic/Expressionist" might fit.
From a brooding sense of despair, to hope: this is what it has become.
Online versions include all of the options in the score and for audio, those of soprano and tenor solo vocalists, string quartet, and piano. Then all (of most) combinations are posted, including all, soprano and strings, soprano and piano, tenor and strings, tenor and piano, strings accompaniment only, and piano accompaniment only, making seven in all.
Visions shares characteristics and origins related to the “runner” story—Overture for a Runner and One in a Million, and is from the same time period, that of the early 1980s.
Overture to a Runner stemmed from a proposed concept about an unfocused high school boy who was just wandering through life until someone noticed his natural ability to run and encouraged him to pursue running in athletic competition. See the "Notes" for Overture to a Runner for more details.
The music is not "pop" nor "jazz" nor "classical." It does hint at the "art song" category as it flirts with the other genres. This is not atypical for my forays into quasi-pop music, to which I sometimes refer as "artzy-popzy." Visions is even more on the “popzy” side, and more introspective in the lyrical message.
The piece is just under three minutes in length.
The essence of the original is intact though the harmonies, rhythmic pulses, and melody have been enhanced, as I have done with many other works from this time period.
The original version of One in a Million was composed in 1982. It possibly was an idea for a documentary, though that does also apply to Overture for a Runner from 1981. Perhaps this was a supplement to the original concept?
As far as I can remember, this has yet to be performed, but in the original photocopy of the original score, bars 13 and 46 have musician's "glasses" icon for "pay attention”, indicating that it was. It might have been for a private recording.
Overture to a Runner stemmed from a proposed concept about an unfocused high school boy who was just wandering through life until someone noticed his natural ability to run and encouraged him to pursue running in athletic competition. See the "Notes" for Overture to a Runner for more details.
The music is not "pop" nor "jazz" nor "classical." It does hint at the "art song" category as it flirts with the other genres. This is not atypical for my forays into quasi-pop music, to which I sometimes refer as "artzy-popzy."
The piece is just under three minutes in length.
The essence of the original is intact though the harmonies, rhythmic pulses, and melody have been enhanced, as I have done with many other works from this time period.
Overture for a Runner is based on a premise presented to me in 1981.
It is about a high school boy with no or few friends—none close. He is a loner, a misfit, a young pre-adult without a sense of purpose or belonging, and who has not learned the skills necessary to adapt himself into societies of any age.
He feels lost and abandoned.
Someone—perhaps a coach, a parent, an adult, or a classmate observed that the young man had a natural gift for running and encouraged him to try out for the track team. The coach immediately recognized his niche to be in the 400- and 800-meter range, or possibly greater.
With consistent and positive prodding from a good coach, the young man developed into a championship runner and, during the process, developed self-confidence for the first time in his life.
As often happens with champions, classmates and others now sought after him for friendship, and then he had the new challenge of what to do with and how to handle his new friends.
This version, as with other works from my past, is essentially the same as the original, but with enhancements and improvements to make it fresh and vibrant.
As with the original, this is for solo voice (male) and female chorus, with accompaniment.
Also see the “notes” for One in a Million and Visions.
This song has an interesting history. Sometime around 1970 I had an idea for a tune. After setting the basic melody and harmony, I thought it had a "sea chanty" quality to it and left it alone, almost forgotten.
About one year later, I happened to stumble upon a poem by Allan Cunningham, "Our Heritage the Sea," (also known by its first line, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea"). This was long before our ubiquitous access to near infinite knowledge via the World Wide Web, and I cannot remember how I found it. Possibly it was on one of my forays through the library at California State University, Sacramento (still a state college back then).
Just about that time, Dr. Daniel Kingman (composer and bassoonist) gave our theory class an assignment to come up with a short song. I felt this was a match made to order. This was somewhere in the 1971 region.
The tune, harmony, and poem all were a potential fit, but not quite fully executed. Here are the closing notes Dr. Kingman wrote on my score, along with a grade of B+ :
"Has a nice feel to it. Some details, especially your quick modulations, are a bit gauche, and may seem to you in another year or so. It takes a good ear, experience, to bring these off--that's why Prokofiev or Shostakovich can do it. Sonorities marked ** seem needlessly thick & muddy, (especially for a sea piece!)"
At other spots on the score, he was concerned about "prosody." Visionally, the poem seems to emphasize what normally would be a pick-up note (anacrusis). For example:
A WET sheet…
A wind…
And fills…
And bends…
Typically, the spoken poet and the composer would place "Wet… wind… fills… bends…" etc on the downbeat for emphasis. In this case, however, I targeted the articles and conjunctions to the downbeats—contrary to how one normally would read it aloud; but musically, what I did was create a quirky, asynchronous, off-kilter effect, especially with the "And…" Again, not the norm, but I think it adds interest to one who only hears the performance without seeing the poem, and perhaps renders the listener with a sense of having a bit unstable set of "sea legs." Also of note: the melody dwells in the modal tonalities commonly associated with folk music, sea chanties, and dramatic ballads, such as some form of minor keys. However, the accompaniment is quite capricious and free; try listening to the accompaniment alone for a pleasant surprise.
Now, just over 50 years later, I found the original assignment in a box with other student works. I guess I had seen the potential for another day, when I had developed a better ear, feel, and experience, as suggested by Dr. Kingman. The version of the poem I had found fifty years ago had only two verses. Now, in this digital world, I found the complete version with the "missing" second verse, to which I created music.
As with many other of my early works, I have modified, enhanced, expanded, and generally reworked the song while keeping most of it intact. The song now has a full middle section and absent of much unnecessary fluff. Some online sources still omit the second section.
On a side note, this is a "sea-song," as opposed to a "sea-shanty" (or "chanty"). The latter are work songs, meant to be sung whilst doing physical labor set to a rhythm to synchronize the laborers, in contrast to songs about the sea or about the labor.
Allan Cunningham was a Scottish poet and author living from December 07, 1784, to October 30, 1842.
Hawaiian Love was inspired by a story told me in the early 1960s, by a fellow high-school student. It was about girls vacationing in Hawaii for the first time and falling in love—often also for the first time—only to have to return home to their urban and urbane existence.
A few years later, in 1969, I heard a similar story. This time it was about a now college student trekking the same course but falling mutually in love and ultimately marrying her "Hawaiian love" interest.
In the mid-1960s Hawaiian pop singer Don Ho was extremely popular in the United States. In 1969 he appeared in the largest musical venue in Sacramento, California at the time, the "Memorial Auditorium." The theater accommodates an audience of approximately 5,000, and the place was completely sold out. Although Don Ho was broadly popular, those in attendance that night was very predominantly female.
After the performance Mr. Ho graciously remained on stage to greet people and give autographs. The line was broad and long. As I moved closer to Mr. Ho I moved further back in the line as I had wanted to be the last and to present him with my song.
As I came closer, I could tell that he and his security had noticed my retrograde movement and were concerned. When I approached him, I apologized for my actions; he acknowledged that they were aware of me and asked what I wanted.
I told him, rather brazenly, that I had composed his next hit song.
This, much to my surprise, piqued his interest, and he asked if I had the song with me.
Back then, I was in my infancy in my musical education and had poorly written down the melody, chords, and lyrics, but that was no matter: for some careless reason, I did not have the music with me. He thanked me and I was moved along.
The opportunity was there. I was brave enough to seize the moment but, alas, I was not prepared. This was one of many incidents when I lost the opportunity and the moment.
This version has the same melody and lyrics. The harmonies have been enriched slightly, and the piano accompaniment expanded.
Evolution of the work.
This set of five poems is one of the works that propelled and cemented author T.S. Eliot into a position of great notoriety in the 20th century.It has been the focus of great scrutiny and academic examination regarding its meaning and place in literature of the world.
In 1985 I selected this set of five poems for one of my compositions for my undergraduate music recital. I cannot now remember why.Not aware of the copyright laws at the time, I set the entire set of poems to music before I and my music advisor thought to question possible copyright infringement. So (in the pre-World Wide Web era), I somehow managed to track down the estate of Mr. Eliot to inform them of my graduate project and ask for permission to have my work performed.
After a few weeks I received a reply. I was told first that I should have contacted the estate as it is very particular and guarded about the use of any of Mr. Eliot's works used in any medium or setting that might impinge upon the integrity of his art. However, because my project was set in an academic atmosphere, I was granted permission for the one-time performance.
The late Dr. Robert Kuzminsky (baritone), to whom the work is dedicated, sang the only performance of my music setting.
Noted music critic Alfred Kay reviewed my entire graduate recital for the Sacramento Bee—not a common event for a student concert. Of this work he wrote, "It is a mysterious, brooding, introspective piece of literature, and the composer captured some of these ingredients… with the talented piano accompaniment of Marian Philip, [it] emerged as an interesting if not astonishing interlude and one reasonably evocative if not deeply touching."
As with many of my earlier handwritten works that I recently have painstakingly entered into the digital realm of computer software, I have revised, tweaked, expanded, and enhanced each of the poems.
Because of the marvels of computer software and sample sounds, I can now hear all of my works, especially those that did not garner performances. Before this era, I could only hear my work in my head. I am very pleased to discover that what I had imagined and heard in my head decades ago was accurate. Now, however, after audibly hearing my music in real time, and with real sounds of real instruments and voices, I can edit and improve as did composers in the past when contemporary music was commonly and regularly performed.
So, although this version is very similar to the original, I have made several slight changes, alterations, enhancements, expansions, and trimming.The Hollow Men was copyrighted in 1925 but is now (2023) in the public domain. Therefore, I can legally share my endeavors with the world. I have remained faithful to the original poems my Mr. Eliot but have embraced some minor repetitions of text for compositional purposes.
[First conceived in the fall of 2023, and to be included with “Mary's Lullaby” and “Mary, at the Tomb” as part of an ongoing and growing set of themes with and about the Saviour. For mezzo soprano, tenor, and piano.]
The Woman at the Well is based on the scripture found in the Book of John, Chapter 4, of the Holy Bible. It is the account of the Saviour, Jesus the Christ, declaring his divinity to a woman in the land known as Samaria; she is distantly related to, but is not, a Jew.
In this account, Jesus and some of his disciples have been traveling from Judea to Galilee and are passing through Samaria. The parable of “The Good Samaritan” rings here, as he also is not Jewish.
Jesus is alone—his companions having left to find food—sitting by the village well. It is later in the afternoon, apparently the only time this woman is allowed to draw water, as she has been living a life contrary to the code and morals of her people.
It was not common, nor acceptable, for Jews to speak or have dealings with Samaritans, yet the Saviour not only converses with this woman in Samaria but chooses her—and her people—to declare that He is the Messiah for whom they all have been waiting.
The part of The Woman is given to a mezzo-soprano, as that voice seems more fitting for a woman in her lifestyle and situation. Jesus is a tenor, possibly because musically speaking that voice is more associated with the “lead” actor. It this case, it provides a contrast to the earthliness of the Samaritans. The piano is an integral part of the storytelling. In this series, the part of Jesus always is given to the tenor. This has become part of an ongoing series about the Saviour, beginning with Mary’s Lullaby—the mother and child; and Mary, at the Tomb—Mary Magdalene, two angels, and the resurrected Jesus.
The text used is adapted from the King James Version and the Holman Christian Standard bible.
Composed in the latter half of November 2024, this came to me as a surprise almost immediately after finishing "Naomi and Ruth," which had been an ordeal for much of its composition.
This came quickly and fluently, with only minor changes to structure—albeit all my works required some goodly degree of tweaking after the initial flow of inspiration.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in composing this piece was in trying to “avoid” the notes so famously penned by Albert Hay Malotte in 1935—the gold standard of musical settings of scripture that has become known as The Lord’s Prayer.
Were one to ask another if they were familiar with the musical setting—set in song—of The Lord’s Prayer, in all likelihood they would hear in their mind Malotte’s version—if they had heard it at all, and none by other composers.
In this instance, I drew upon the very first word: “OUR” to establish the direction.
When Jesus taught His disciples the manner of prayer, He did not speak in the first person; He did not begin with “MY Father,” but “OUR Father.”
From this I decided to write for vocal quartet: soprano, alto (mezzo), tenor, and bass (baritone), with the tenor representing the Saviour. Jesus allowed women to be involved with His life and His mission in great part. It was to not only a woman, but to a non-Jewish woman in Samaria that He declared his divinity. Mary Magdalene was very close to Him, and it was she to whom the angels appeared at the tomb of resurrection.
Thus, women are included in this setting of joint prayer.
Unlike the Malotte version, this is not a straightforward setting of the scripture. It repeats with variations, with imitation, and development.
Sketches--for Mezzo-Soprano with String Quartet
Imagine a 19th century artist with her sketchbook, sauntering in a meadow and the forest fringe beginning at daybreak, sketching her delightful experience in harmony with nature, and concluding as the sun sets.
This work enlists the imagination of the listener, as suggested by “word painting” and references to nature in the lyrics.
The genesis of the music began with a solitary high harmonic “A” by the first violin. Then came the others in succession before the voice.
That was all. Just a gaggle of “A” notes… but then occurred a slight alteration, then some additive harmony. The voice announces and greets the morning sun, and the music begins to take form and direction not unlike the sculptor of clay adding a clump here and thither, molding and adjusting during the process, searching for the concept and bringing it into consciousness.
The message of the work came through a veil of vagueness, though the feeling was clear. As the melody evolved, so did the harmony, and vice versa. It was akin to a binary star system, each revolving around another, spinning out more of the message, and then the beginning of the text.
The music was very nearly completed before the text even began to come to me, and then it was a matter of clearing the haze and seeing the message in word form.
The work is very tonal throughout, but incorporates harmonies built upon fourths and fifths, rather than the traditional thirds. There is some bi-tonality, and some parts are very modal.
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