This document provides the program for a senior recital featuring baritone Brandon Manson. The recital will include art songs by Maurice Ravel, Robert Schumann, Henri Duparc, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Brief background information is given on each composer. The recital will take place on April 24, 2012 at Central United Methodist Church at 8pm, with Roger Pan and ChiaYing Huang accompanying Manson on piano.

1. Brandon Manson
Baritone
Ravel
Schumann
Duparc
Vaughan Williams
Mozart
in a Senior Recital

2. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
presents
Brandon Manson, Baritone
In a Senior Recital
assisted by:
Roger Pan and ChiaYing Huang, piano
In partial fulfillment of the requirement
for the Bachelor of Music degree in Voice
Don Quichotte a Dulcinée Maurice Ravel
Chanson Romanesque (1875-1937)
Chanson Épique
Chanson a Boire
Die beiden Grenadiere Robert Schumann
In der Fremde (1810-1856)
Chanson triste Henri Duparc
La vague et la cloche (1848-1933)
La vie antérieure
Non piú andrai, farfallone amoroso from Le Nozze di Figaro W.A. Mozart
(1756-1791)
Intermission
The Songs of Travel Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Vagabond (1872-1958)
Let Beauty Awake
The Roadside Fire
Youth and Love
In Dreams
The Infinite Shining Heavens
Whither must I wander?
Bright is the ring of words
I have trod the upward and the downward slope
Central United Methodist Church, at 8 P.M. Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

3.
Maurice Ravel Even though Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is more widely thought of as an orchestral
composer, his small number of mélodies are often performed. This set, Don Quichotte
a Dulcinée, is his last. He wrote and orchestrated these songs in competition with
Ibert for use in a film of Don Quixote to be sung by the great Chaliapine. Ravel’s set
was not chosen, and the composer stopped composing shortly thereafter due to his
physical incapacity to do so.
The songs are set to three traditional dances: the first is the guijara, the second the
zorzica and the third the jota. The meter of these dances drives the text and the story
of Don Quichotte.
Chanson Romanesque
Were you to tell me that the earth
offended you with so much turning,
speedily would I dispatch Panza:
you should see it motionless and silent.
Were you to tell me that you are weary
of the sky too much adorned with stars,
destroying the divine order,
with one blow I would sweep them from the night.
Were you to tell me that space
thus made empty does not please you,
god‐like Knight, lance in hand,
I would stud the passing wind with stars.
But were you to tell me that my blood
belongs more to myself than you, my Lady,
I would pale beneath the reproach
and I would die, blessing you.
Chanson Épique
Good Saint Michael who gives me liberty
to see my Lady and to hear her,
good Saint Michael who deigns to elect me
to please her and to defend her,
good Saint Michael, I pray you descend
with Saint George upon the altar
of the Madonna of the blue mantle.
With a beam from heaven bless my sword
and its equal in purity
and its equal in piety
as in modesty and chastity: my Lady

4.
(O great Saint George and Saint Michael)
the angel who watches over my vigil,
my gentle Lady so much resembling
Maurice Ravel
you, Madonna of the blue mantle!
Amen.
Chanson a Boire
A fig for the bastard, illustrious Lady,
why to shame me in your sweet eyes,
says that love and old wine
will bring misery to my heart, my soul!
I drink to joy!
Joy is the one aim
to which I go straight…
when I am drunk!
A fig for the jealous fool,
dark‐haired mistress,
who whines, who weeps and vows
ever to be this pallid lover
who waters the wine of his intoxication!
I drink to joy!
Joy is the one aim
to which I go straight…
when I am drunk!
Translations by Pierre Bernac

5.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) is an enormous figure in German lied and is
Robert Schumann considered by many to be the most romantic of the romantic composers. He was a
major force in the progression of formal and harmonic structure in Germany and his
output was tremendous. His works for voice include two Liederkreis cycles that are
very frequently performed. His piano works include many concertos and sonatas, one
of the most famous and recognizable being his Carnaval.
These piano works were composed for the love of his life: Clara Wieck. She would
eventually become Clara Schumann after a long court battle with her father. This is one
of the most famous love stories in musical history and had a great impact on the
literature.
Die beiden Grenadiere
1840­ poem by Heinrich Heine
Toward France moved two grenadiers,
who were captured in Russia.
And when they came into the German quarter,
they let their heads hang.
There they both heard the sad tidings that France was lost,
the valiant army
had been defeated and routed,
and the Emperor – the Emperor! – captured.
The grenadiers wept together at the pitiful news.
One of them said:
“What pain I am feeling! How my old wound is burning!”
The other one said:
“The song is over,
I too would like to die with you,
but I have a wife and child at home,
who without me will perish.”
“What do I care for wife or child,
I want something far greater;
let them beg when they’re hungry –
my Emperor, my Emperor captured!
Grant me this request, brother:
when I die now,
take my body to France and bury me in the French soil.
Place over my heart the cross of honor with the red ribbon;
put my musket in my hand and gird my sword about me.
So I will lie and listen quietly, like a sentry, in the grave,
until someday I hear the roar of cannon and the hoof‐beats of neighing horses.
Then my Emperor will no doubt ride over my grave,
many swords will be clanking and flashing;
then I shall rise up armed forth from the grave
to defend the Emperor, my Emperor!”

6.
In der Fremde
From Liederkreis (Op.39, No.1) 1840, Poem by Freiherr von Eichendorff
The clouds come this way from my homeland, behind the red flashes of lightning;
but Father and Mother are long since dead;
no one there knows me anymore.
How soon, ah how soon the quiet time will come when I too shall rest;
and above me the forest will rustle in its beautiful solitude;
and no one here will know me anymore either.
Translations by Beaumont Glass
Duparc (1848-1933) is an enigmatic composer in the French literature. He studied
Henri Duparc
with César Franck and his songs reflect very much the Wagnerian influence of the
time. Unfortunately, Duparc also suffered from an intense nervous disorder, which
eventually led to him destroying all but sixteen of his songs. Of his circle of
composers, all of whom revered Wagner, his music most reflects that of Wagner’s.
His extensive orchestral colors set him apart from his peers, and the poetry he set
was chosen in a discerning fashion. This set is constructed to give a brief overview of
his work in chronological order.
Chanson triste
Poem by Jean Lahor
In your heart the moonlight sleeps,
gentle summer moonlight,
and to escape from the stress of life
I will drown myself in your radiance
I will forget past sorrows,
my love, when you cradle
my sad heart and my thoughts
in the loving peacefulness of your arms
You will take my aching head
Oh! Sometime upon your knee,
and will relate a ballad
that seems to speak of ourselves.
And in your eyes full of sorrows,
in your eyes then I will drink
so deeply of kisses and of tenderness
that, perhaps, I shall be healed…

7.
La vague et la cloche
Henri Duparc
Poem by François Coppée
Once, laid low by a potent drink
I dreamed that amid the waves and the roar of the sea,
I rowed without a ship’s lantern in the night,
Mournful oarsman, with no more
hope of reaching the shore.
The ocean spat its foam on my brow,
and the wind froze me to the entrails with horror.
The waves crashed down like walls
with that slow rhythm punctuated
with silence.
Then all changed. The sea and its
dark conflict sank down.
Under my feet the bottom of the boat gave way.
And I was alone in an old belfry,
riding furiously on a ringing bell.
I stubbornly gripped the clangorous thing,
violently and closing my eyes with the effort,
the booming made the old stones tremble,
so unceasingly did I activate the heavy swinging.
Why did you not say, O dream,
where God is leading us?
Why did you not say if there is to be no end
to the useless toil and the eternal strife
of which, alas, human life is made!
La vie antérieure
Poem by Charles Baudelaire
For a long time I dwelt beneath vast porticoes
colored by the marine suns with a thousand fires,
whose great columns, straight and majestic,
resembled, at evening, basaltic grottoes.
The surging waves, rolling the mirrored skies,
mingled in a solemn and mystical way
the mighty harmonies of their sonorous music
with the colors of the sunset reflected in my eyes.

8.
It is there that I lived in the calm delight of the senses,
Surrounded by azure skies, the waves, the splendors,
and the naked slaves, imbued with fragrant essences,
who cooled my brow with waving palms,
and whose sole care was to deepen
the sorrowful secret that made me languish.
Translations by Pierre Bernac
The life of Mozart (1756-1791) does not need to be discussed at length. His
W.A. Mozart
greatness is undisputed and rivaled by few composers. Le Nozze di Figaro has
been in the standard operatic literature for over a century and will maintain its
stature far into the future. Figaro is one of the great characters. He is witty, clever
and always gets the girl. In this scene, Figaro and his beloved Susannah pick on
Cherubino, the page. Cherubino has been drafted into military service and Figaro
has some advice to impart…
No more you'll wander,
my amorous little butterfly,
Flitting about by day and night
Disturbing the rest of all those pretty women
My little Narcissus, young Adonis of love
No more you'll have these pretty little feathers,
This smart and jaunty cap,
Those curls and that lively air
Those rosy, girlish cheeks.
Among soldiers, by Bacchus!
Great moustaches, well‐guarded knapsack
A gun at your shoulder, a sabre at your
side,
Head held high, bold of face
A great helmet, or a big turban,
Plenty of honor, but not much money,
And instead of the fandango
A march through the mud!
Over mountains, through the valleys
In the snow and burning sun
To the music of trumpets,
shells and cannon‐balls
Whistling past
Making your ear sing!
Cherubino, to victory
And military glory!

9.
Vaughan Williams was born on the 12th October, 1872 in the Cotswold village
Ralph Vaughan Williams
of Down Ampney. He was educated at Charterhouse School, then Trinity
College, Cambridge. Later he was a pupil of Stanford and Parry at the Royal
College of Music, after which he studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice
Ravel in Paris.
At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the
countryside to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for
future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he
composed several hymns that are now world-wide favorites (For all the Saints,
Come down O love Divine). Later he also helped to edit The Oxford Book of
Carols, with similar success. Before the war he had met and then sustained a
long and deep friendship with the composer Gustav Holst. Vaughan Williams
volunteered to serve in the Field Ambulance Service in Flanders for the 1914-
1918 war, during which he was deeply affected by the carnage and the loss of
close friends such as the composer George Butterworth.
For many years Vaughan Williams conducted and led the Leith Hill Music
Festival, conducting Bach's St Matthew Passion on a regular basis. He also
became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London. In
his lifetime, Vaughan Williams eschewed all honors with the exception of the
Order of Merit which was conferred upon him in 1938.
He died on the 26th August 1958, his ashes are interred in Westminster
Abbey, near Purcell. In a long and productive life, music flowed from his
creative pen in profusion. Hardly a musical genre was untouched or failed to be
enriched by his work, which included nine symphonies, five operas, film music,
ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music and works for
chorus and orchestra.
­From the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
The Songs of Travel
1905 – Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Completed in 1905, Vaughan Williams’ song cycle has become one of the
most beloved song cycles in the English song literature. The 9 poems included
are exerted from R.L. Stevenson’s Songs of Travel. “I have trod the upward
and the downward slope” was added posthumously in 1960 by his wife.
The lush harmonies and rich orchestral colors enhance the text, which
Vaughan Williams sets in a subtle but rhythmic way. The poetry itself is
nostalgic in nature, made apparent in “Youth and Love”. Vaughan Williams
effectively colors the vocal line to reflect this nostalgia and brilliantly paints
the text throughout the piece. The Songs of Travel will forever be one of
Vaughan Williams’ most revered and beloved works.

10.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
The Vagabond Let Beauty Awake
Give to me the life I love, Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,
Let the lave go by me, Beauty awake from rest!
Give the jolly heaven above, Let Beauty awake
And the byway nigh me. For Beauty's sake
Bed in the bush with stars to In the hour when the birds awake in the brake
see, And the stars are bright in the west!
Bread I dip in the river ‐
There's the life for a man like Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,
me, Awake in the crimson eve!
There's the life for ever. In the day's dusk end
When the shades ascend,
Let the blow fall soon or late, Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend,
Let what will be o'er me; To render again and receive!
Give the face of earth around,
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor
love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above, The Roadside Fire
And the road below me.
I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Or let autumn fall on me Of bird‐song at morning and star‐shine at night,
Where afield I linger, I will make a palace fit for you and me
Silencing the bird on tree, Of green days in forests, and blue days at sea.
Biting the blue finger.
White as meal the frosty field ‐ I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Warm the fireside haven ‐ Where white flows the river and bright blows the
Not to autumn will I yield, broom;
Not to winter even! And you shall wash your linen and keep your body
white
Let the blow fall soon or late, In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.
Let what will be o'er me;
Give the face of earth around, And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
And the road before me. The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, That only I remember, that only you admire,
Nor a friend to know me; Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

11.
Ralph Vaughan Williams Youth and Love
To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside.
Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand,
Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide,
Nestle in orchard bloom, and far on the level land
Call him with lighted lamp in the eventide.
Thick as stars at night when the moon is down,
Pleasures assail him. He to his nobler fate
Fares; and but waves a hand as he passes on,
Cries but a wayside word to her at the garden gate,
Sings but a boyish stave and his face is gone.
In Dreams
In dreams unhappy, I behold you stand
As heretofore:
The unremember'd tokens in your hand
Avail no more.
No more the morning glow, no more the grace,
Enshrines, endears.
Cold beats the light of time upon your face
And shows your tears.
He came and went. Perchance you wept awhile
And then forgot.
Ah me! but he that left you with a smile
Forgets you not.
The Infinite Shining Heavens
The infinite shining heavens
Rose, and I saw in the night
Uncountable angel stars
Showering sorrow and light.
I saw them distant as heaven,
Dumb and shining and dead,
And the idle stars of the night
Were dearer to me than bread.
Night after night in my sorrow
The stars [stood]1 over the sea,
Till lo! I looked in the dusk
And a star had come down to me.

12.
Whither must I wander?
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Home no more home to me, whither must I wander?
Hunger my driver, I go where I must.
Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather:
Thick drives the rain and my roof is in the dust.
Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof‐tree,
The true word of welcome was spoken in the door ‐
Dear days of old with the faces in the firelight,
Kind folks of old, you come again no more.
Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,
Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.
Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;
Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.
Now when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,
Lone stands the house, and the chimney‐stone is cold.
Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,
The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.
Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moorfowl,
Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and flowers;
Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,
Soft flow the stream through the even‐flowing hours.
Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood ‐
Fair shine the day on the house with open door;
Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney ‐
But I go for ever and come again no more.
Bright is the ring of words I have trod the upward and the
downward slope
Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them, I have trod the upward and the downward
Fair the fall of songs slope;
When the singer sings them, I have endured and done in days before;
Still [they are]1 carolled and said ‐ I have longed for all, and bid farewell to hope;
On wings they are carried ‐ And I have lived and loved, and closed the door.
After the singer is dead
And the maker buried.
Low as the singer lies
In the field of heather,
Songs of his fashion bring
The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.

13.
Richard Fracker
Special Thanks
Roger Pan
ChiaYing Huang
Melanie Helton
Caryn Welter, Central United Methodist Church
Natalie Venuto, graphic designer
Mom and Dad
Mark Nestor
Tony Huff
Stay Connected!
mansonbrandon@gmail.com
www.brandonmanson.com
517.881.0789