Name: Love Songs for Soprano and Oboe
SKU: 408
Availability: InStock

Description

Love Songs for Soprano and Oboe

The texts for Love Songs are drawn from translated and interpreted stories and songs by Native Americans, weaving together a narrative of a Native American woman—one she might share with her child as she rocks them to sleep.

The story begins with a lullaby, partially inspired by a Chippewa melody, sung tenderly to a child before the woman begins to recount her own journey. In “Song of Basket-Weaving” she asks the Cedar tree (mother) to prepare her for love, womanhood and motherhood. In “Song of the Blue-Corn Dance” she joins other women to harvest the corn. As she falls in love, she sings the lighthearted “Oh I Am Thinking” which gradually deepens into the steadfast devotion of “Love Song from the Andes.” Her lover eventually comes to her but soon departs for Sault Ste. Marie in “My Love has Departed,” never to return and lost to her forever, whether in battle, on a hunt, or another journey. Left to carry on, she sings to their child, sharing the story of their love, continuing her lullaby as life moves forward without her beloved.

These texts, poems, and narratives—originally recorded by ethnologists, musicologists, and anthropologists—reflect an effort to preserve indigenous traditions during a time of profound cultural upheaval in America. It is acknowledged that these texts merely capture the essence of the Native American experience seen through historical interpretation. This work aims to honor the resilience of women – their ability to endure, nurture their children, and sustain their communities against all odds. This is a love song not just in the romantic sense, but in its celebration of love for a child and love for the land.

This work was commissioned and premiered by Aryn Day Sweeney, oboist and Assistant Professor of Music Performance at Ball State University with funding provided by the Indiana Arts Commission in 2014.

The work may be performed as a whole, or individual movements may be chosen for a shorter performance.

Recordings of Love Songs

Playlist From the Album FROM EARTH & SKY: MUSIC OF JENNI BRANDON recorded by Lindabeth Binkley, oboe and LaToya Lain-Jackson, soprano on the Blue Griffin Recording label, 2020. 7 Movements

Below is a recording of the premiere of Love Songs for soprano and oboe with Aryn and Yoko

Read the text for Love Songs:

Lullaby

Lullaby for children sung by the White Earth Chippewa and the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa as they rocked their children to sleep.
Ed. by Frances Densmore

Song of Basket-Weaving

Kulasgh*, Kulasgh, my mother,
I sit at thy knee
Weaving my basket of grasses,
Weaving for my harvest of berries when the Ripe Days come.
Thy fingers gently touch my hair with fragrance,
Thy mouth drips a song, for the wind has kissed it –
(Love sings in thy mouth!)

The soil listens and answers;
I feel a stirring beneath me and hear buds opening,
The river chants thy song and the clouds dance to it.
Tonight the stars will float upon thy singing breath,
Gleaming like slanting flocks above the sea.
All the earth sings; and its voices are one song!

I alone am silent: I alone, a maid waiting him, the Fate,
The Stirring One, the Planter of the Harvets,
The Basket-Filler.

Kulasgh, Kulasgh, Mother!
See how beautiful, how liberal, is my basket,
How tightly woven for the waters of Love,
How soft for the treading of children’s feet,
How strong to bear them up!

Kulasgh, Kulasgh, Mother, remember me –
Ere the Sunset and the Dropping Leaf!

Interpretation by Constance Lindsay Skinner. *Kulasgh, or Cedar Tree, considered the source of life by the British Columbian Coast Tribes, as it supplies all their necessities, even food in fish famine. From The Path on the Rainbow”, edited by George W. Cronyn, 1918

III. Song of the Blue-Corn Dance (Zuni)

Beautiful, lo, the summer clouds,
Beautiful, lo, the summer clouds!
Blossoming clouds in the sky,
Like unto shimmering flowers,
Blossoming clouds in the sky,
Onward, lo, they come,
Hither, hither bound!

(This was apparently a work song sung by the women as they harvested the corn). Translated by Natalie Curtis Burlin. From The Path on the Rainbow”, edited by George W. Cronyn, 1918