Yeats Songs (Piano/Vocal Score)
by David Conte
Cello - Sheet Music

High voice and string quartet or piano - Intermediate

SKU: EC.8500

Composed by David Conte. Secular, 20th Century. Score. Duration 3 minutes, 13 seconds. E.C. Schirmer Publishing #8500. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.8500).

ISBN 600313485008. UPC: 600313485008. English.

Tenor Brian Thorsett premiered these songs in a recital at Calvary Presbyterian Church in January, 2011. David Conte has set these William Butler Yeats texts for high voice and string quartet or piano.

 

The first and last poems deal with Yeats’ unrequited love for the beautiful and ardent Irish Nationalist, Maud Gonne. The Sorrow of Love was written in 1891, only two years after Yeats met and fell in love with her. Duration: 3:35

 

The Lake Isle of Innisfree was published in 1888, and is Yeats’ description of a utopia, a longing for the peace and tranquility of the country while residing in an urban setting. The poem is filled with the rhythms of nature: bees and growing plants, and the lapping of lake water. This setting is in a lively compound meter, suggesting the speaker’s excitement and joy in returning to a beloved place. Duration: 3:55

 

When You Are Old returns to the themes of nostalgia and regret of the first poem, though perhaps less tortured and more accepting. The music is generally more sober, less overtly passionate than the first song, though it also rises to its climax at the end of the middle stanza on the words “And loved the sorrow of your changing face,” with the quartet playing intensely expressive music. Duration: 3:13

Contents:
I. The Sorrow of Love
II. The Lake Isle of Innisfree
III. When You Are Old.