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Ascoli​-​Shelley Cycle (2023)

by Thomas Oboe Lee

supported by
Sarah
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Sarah This music is a pure delight. Thanks to all who did it
Colline de sucre
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Colline de sucre On est emporté par la beauté de la voix, la courbe des mélodies.
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This is a hidden gem... beautiful arrangements soulfully and artfully performed, really wonderful to discover such high quality new classical music here. The asking price is way too low!
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1.
I. Canto Piange il suo dolce amore un augel vedovo su’l ramoscello gelido; il freddo vento in alto in alto fluttua, in basso il fiume tremola. Nel bosco ignudo non v’ha fior, non foglia; niun palpito è nell’aura; sol della ruota del mulino il murmure rompe la solitudine. A widow bird sate mourning for her Love
 Upon a wintry bough; 
The frozen wind crept on above,
 The freezing stream below.

 There was no leaf upon the forest bare,
 No flower upon the ground,
 And little motion in the air
 Except the mill-wheel's sound.
2.
II. Versi Lungi da me, o alcioni della Memoria, via; cercate nidi più tranquilli e buoni che questa abbandonata anima mia. Non giungano all’inverno del mio cuor nuove di vostra primavera effimera! Oh! in vano in vano voi tornate ancor! Avvoltoi, avvoltoi che i nidi costruite dell’Avvenire su le torri, a voi le speranze deluse e rinverdite, le gioie che la morte perseguì, e le morenti daran preda un dì. Far, far away, O ye 
 Halcyons of Memory, 
 Seek some far calmer nest 
Than this abandoned breast! 
 No news of your false spring 
 To my heart’s winter bring, 
 Once having gone, in vain 
Ye come again. 

 Vultures, who build your bowers 
 High in the Future’s towers, 
 Withered hopes on hopes are spread! 
 Dying joys, choked by the dead, 
 Will serve your beaks for prey 
 Many a day.
3.
III. Canto Funebre Rude vento, che diffondi in suon di pianto un dolore troppo triste per un canto; fiero vento che, se il ciel di nubi è fosco, fai suonar di notte a morto le campane; Uragano, le cui lagrime son vane; e tu, cupo dalle nude rame o bosco; o spelonche funerarie, o mar profondo, Voi piangete, voi piangete il mal del mondo. Rough wind that moanest loud Grief too sad for song; Wild wind, when sullen cloud Knells all [the]1 night long; Sad storm whose tears are vain, Bare woods, whose branches strain, Deep caves and dreary main, -- Wail, for the world's wrong!
4.
IV. Su Una Violetta Morta È vanito l’odor di questo fiore, che, come il bacio tuo, tenero ardente respirava su me. Anche di questo fior fuggi il colore, che raggiava di te soavemente, di te solo di te. Forma languida, vana, senza vita ella è caduta sul mio stanco petto, sovra il mio stanco cuor; silenziosa, fredda, scolorita ella l’anima irride con diletto, l’anima calda ancor. In vano, in vano io piango a lei d’accanto; e sospirando in van su lei mi chino: oh! tutto in lei finì! Il suo destino è muto, senza pianto. Il suo destino è muto. Oh! il mio destino dovrebbe esser così. The odour from the flower is gone Which like thy kisses breathed on me; The colour from the flower is flown Which glowed of thee and only thee! A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form, It lies on my abandoned breast, And mocks the heart which yet is warm, With cold and silent rest. I weep,--my tears revive it not! I sigh,--it breathes no more on me; Its mute and uncomplaining lot Is such as mine should be.
5.
V. Filosofia Dell’Amore I fonti ai rivi mesconsi; mesconsi i rivi al mare; i venti in ciel si uniscono con dolce palpitare. L’una con l’altra fondonsi tutte le cose, che nell’universo vivono; perchè non io con te? Vedi: i monti il ciel baciano; tra lor s’abbraccian le onde; e ciascun fiore l’anima in altro fiore effonde. Del sol la terra allietasi; bacia la luna il mar. Questi baci che valgono, se non mi vuoi baciar? The fountains mingle with the river    And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix for ever    With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single;    All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle.    Why not I with thine?— See the mountains kiss high heaven    And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven    If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth    And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth    If thou kiss not me?
6.
VI. A ………. La musica, se muoiano i dolci accordi tenui, vibra nella memoria; gli odori, se appassiscano le violette, vivono entro il senso che movono; per letto dell’Amata s’adunan delle morte rose le foglie. Sorte ugual ti toccherà: su i tuoi pensieri, quando sarai partita, il trepido Amor s’adagerà. Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory— Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the belovèd's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
7.
VII. A Jane Tra le stelle, che trepide scintillavano, o amor, la luna fulgida nella notte fiori; tra i suoni, che effondevansi dalla chitarra senza pure un fremito, la tua voce salì. Qual della luna il morbido splendor sul lume delle stelle languido e freddo si posò; tale più carezzevole la tua voce alle corde, prive d’anima l’anima sua prestò. Or le stelle si destano (tardi la luna questa notte levasi; dorme un’ora di più). Non una sola foglia s’agiterà, se il dilettoso rorido canto diffonda tu. Sebbene il suon su l’anima gravi, tu canta! Le tue note traggono i nostri cuori a vol a un mondo, ove la musica, il lume della luna e il senso vibrano in un palpito sol. The keen stars were twinkling, And the fair moon was rising among them, Dear Jane! The guitar was tinkling, But the notes were not sweet till you sung them Again. As the moon's soft splendour O'er the faint cold starlight of Heaven Is thrown, So your voice most tender To the strings without soul had then given Its own. The stars will awaken, Though the moon sleep a full hour later, To-night; No leaf will be shaken Whilst the dews of your melody scatter Delight. Though the sound overpowers, Sing again, with your dear voice revealing A tone Of some world far from ours, Where music and moonlight and feeling Are one.
8.
VIII. Frammento Io son come uno spirito che visse entro il suo cuor dei cuori; i sentimenti tutti di lui sentii, tutti i pensieri di lui pensai. Dell’anima il segreto conobbi conversar, ritmo, che solo nel silenzio del sangue si discerne, quando tutti i suoi battiti del vivo tremolio dan l’immagine che oscilla sui mar d’estate nella calma. Apersi, qual per magica chiave, dal profondo del suo spirito le auree melodie; le sparsi intorno ed entrovi me stesso immersi e ritemprai. Così, frammezzo alla nebbia del turbine, riveste l’aquila l’ali di fulgor superbo. I am as a spirit who has dwelt
 Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt 
His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known 
The inmost converse of his soul, the tone 
Unheard but in the silence of his blood, 
 When all the pulses in their multitude 
Image the trembling calm of summer seas.
 I have unlocked the golden melodies 
Of his deep soul, as with a master-key, 
And loosened them and bathed myself therein— 
Even as an eagle in a thunder-mist 
Clothing his wings with lightning.

about

I first came upon Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem translated into Italian by Roberto Ascoli in a chamber work by Ottorino Respighi entitled "Il Tramonto." I was so taken by this work for mezzo-soprano and string quartet that I did my own version of the Shelley-Ascoli text for soprano and piano, also called "Il Tramonto."

In the meanwhile, I found at an antique bookstore online a first edition copy of "Poesie di P. B. Shelley" (Milano Fratelli Treves, Editori, 1905) with more translations into Italian by Roberto Ascoli. The Italian versions are so much more beautiful than the English that I was compelled to create another song cycle of some of these poems in Italian for soprano and piano.

I. Canto
II. Versi
III. Canto Funebre
IV. Su Una Violetta Morta
V. Filosofia Dell'Amore
VI. A ....
VII. A Jane
VIII. Frammento

credits

released October 3, 2023

Sarah Yanovitch, soprano
Tae Kim, piano

Recorded in Fraser studio @ WGBH
September, 28, 2023
Antonio Oliart, audio engineer and editor

Music by Thomas Oboe Lee
Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), P.D.
Translation by Roberto Ascoli (1891 - 1930), P.D.

© Departed Feathers Music, Inc. - BMI - 2023

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
"Percy Bysshe Shelley" by Alfred Clint (1807-1883)

YouTube link: youtu.be/tsh4ygGJF7s

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Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

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