Washington Musica Viva

Washington Musica Viva’s “Brahms Lieder Project”

The “Lieder Project” is a program of German Art Song re-imagined as chamber music with saxophone, with spoken word voice-over in German and English.

Art song with piano is a form of chamber music, unlike the grander forms of oratorio or opera. The repertoire includes some of the most intimate and beautiful expressions of German Romantic classical music. Unfortunately, the art song recital, at least in the US, has accrued considerable cultural baggage. One pays attention mostly to the qualities of the voice. We have experimented with disassembling the Lied into its chamber music and poetic components, in an attempt to give both parts equal attention.

There is an American jazz tradition of rendering vocal standards on the saxophone, with excellent results, and it occurred to us to apply this to the lieder of Johannes Brahms. The alto saxophone can duplicate much of the range and expression of the mezzo or baritone voice.

All that is missing are the words - but of course, the words are of critical importance. Brahms set words by great (and not so great) poets, as well as traditional folk verses, sacred texts, and poems in dialect - all of which had intensely personal significance for his creative process. When the poetry is rendered into “singable English”, however, the results are almost invariably silly, or embarrassingly wrong. Even when translated into reasonable poetic form, the Romantic style often sounds dated to our ears. And yet, they work perfectly in German.

In an attempt to re-invigorate this art form, we have recruited six Washington area poets to create contemporary English poems. These are intended to be responsive in some way both to the music and the text. The poems have revealed themselves so far as quasi-translation, ironic, spiritually akin, or simply contemporary. They are to be recited in jazz style, as vocal semi-improvisations, interspersed phraseologically, or antiphonally. Typically, we perform a song twice, once with the original German, and again with a contemporary English poem. In addition, we have experimented with combining contemporary German poems, English translations, and music.

We have found the results to be very exciting and full of potential.

Carl Banner
Washington Musica Viva

Two performances: BannerArts, 7502 Flower Ave, Takoma Park MD.
Saturday April 22 at 3:00 pm, and Sunday April 23 at 3:00 pm

The Lieder Project, Part 1: German Art Song re-imagined as chamber music with saxophone, interacting with contemporary poetry in German and English.

Rhonda Buckley-Bishop, alto saxophone, Akiki Wong, violin, Carl Banner, piano. Margrit Wong, actor/linguist, performing poetry in German. Poets Anne Becker, Bernardine (Dine) Watson, Karren Alenier, Laura Costas, and Craig Flaherty, performing new poems created in response to the original German lyrics.

Admission $20, advance only; guests must be fully vaccinated (or recently tested). Although not required, contributions of snack food or drink are welcome. [SOLD OUT]

Program (pdf)

Program notes (pdf)

This event will be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/washingtonmusicaviva