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.

Texts

I. Nocturn

Night comes, an angel stands Measuring out the time of stars,
Still are the winds, and still the hours...

Poem by Kathleen Raine

II. A Clear Midnight

This is thy hour, O Soul.
Thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art,
The day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, Pondering the themes thou lovest
best: Night, sleep, death, and stars.

Poem by Walt Whitman

III. Peace on Earth

The Archer is wake!
The Swan is flying!
Gold against blue
An Arrow is lying.
There is hunting in heaven--
Sleep safe till tomorrow.

The Bears are abroad! The Eagle is screaming! Gold against blue
Their eyes are gleaming!
Sleep!
Sleep safe till tomorrow.

The Sisters lie
With their arms intertwining; Gold against blue
Their hair is shining!
The Serpent writhes!
Orion is listening!
His sword is glistening!
Sleep!
There is hunting in heaven--
Sleep safe till tomorrow.

Poem by William Carlos Williams

IV. Haiku

how bright the sound
     of one star humming
          among the many

Poem by Geraldine Clinton Little

V. Nocturn

...It would be peace to lie
Still in the still hours at the angel's feet,
Upon a star hung in a starry sky,
But hearts another measure beat.

Each body, wingless as it lies,
Sends out its butterfly of night
With delicate wings and jewelled eyes.

And some upon day's shores are cast,
And some in darkness lost
In waves beyond the world, where float
Somewhere the islands of the blest.

Poem by Kathleen Raine

Performers

Temple University Concert Choir
Paul Rardin, conductor
Lily Carmichael, graduate conductor
Kim Barroso, pianist

Hirono Oka, violin
Helen Gerhold, harp
Chloe Lucente, soprano

Recorded October 1, 2022 at the Temple Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BCM&D Records Founder and Executive Producer: Robert Stroker
Producer: David Pasbrig
Recording/Mix/Mastering Engineer: David Pasbrig
Assistant Engineer: Tom Pulcinella