StarSongs
by Jan Krzywicki
- Nocturn
- A Clear Midnight
- Peace on Earth
- Haiku
- Nocturn
Temple University Concert Choir
Hirono Oka, violin
Helen Gerhold, harp
Chloe Lucente, soprano
Paul Rardin, conductor
StarSongs is available to stream and download from all major distributors.
Composer Jan Krzywicki summarizes this five-movement work:
StarSongs is a meditation on night and stars, in the form of five choral songs. The first song, which sets the initial stanza of a poem by Kathleen Raine as a kind of prelude, depicts the fall of night and the emergence of stars. The second song contemplates night's spirituality, while the third, a kind of scherzo, portrays the activity of the heavenly constellations at night. The fourth, a vocalise, offers an interpretation of the text without employing the words themselves. The final song completes the text of the initial poem, a consideration of man's irrepressible need to dream.
Krzywicki achieves a musical texture that is always evocative, often in slow tempi and quiet dynamics. Choral humming, violin harmonics (ghostly-sounding high pitches), and harp bisbigliando (“murmurring”) passages are found in all movements except the third. In this piece Krzywicki favors melodies involving whole tones (think the sound of the celeste evoking a dream sequence); harmonies built on perfect fourths (often creating chords we associate with jazz); and a fluid mixing of rhythmic textures between homophonic (all voices singing at the same time) and polyphonic (all voices singing at different times). Dissonant harmonies lead to surprising, climactic triads -- musical meteor showers of sorts, putting on a display after more subdued, twinkling stars. The third movement performs the same function as a scherzo in a classical symphony; a fast, playful palate-cleanser following slower, more contemplative music. The piece concludes quietly, with harp and chorus settling into a welcoming D major while the violin, in its upper register, gently questions this harmony with a dissonant F natural, as if inviting us to stargaze again tomorrow night to learn how it all ends.