Graduate recital in voice

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats,38:44 in length.Selecting music for Graduate recital can be as difficult as learning the music once it is chosen. My first thoughts about choice of literature were that no typical or standard procedure (e.g., works from each period, encompassing all languages) need necessarily be adhered to for the master recital. I felt that a master recital could be more esoteric than, say, a senior recital and need not display fluency in all styles and language (since style and language diction are, or should be, prerequisites for graduate study in voice). Thus, I began to let my mind run the gamut of possibilities. My initial choice was a recital of songs by composers who were primarily noted for their operas. But after careful consideration, I decided to postpone that project for a few months and to select other, more standard literature. The program that was finally decided upon came to be chosen for many and varied reasons. First, two of the works (the Bach cantata #82 and the ravel set) are both tours de force for the baritone of today. The Handel aria allows the singer to display legato, coloratura, fioratura, trills, and yet requires full, mature sound; of course, ornamentation is employed in the da capo portion of the aria, as was customary in Handel???s day. Having chosen already the Bach, Handel, and Ravel, it was felt that a contrasting group of songs was needed. The result was schubert???s vigorous, lively ???Der Schiffer,??? followed by a similarly energetic lied, ???Der Alpenjager.??? Last of the Schubert is ???Der Atlas,??? also in the restless vein. Contrasting with the Schubert lieder, the first two brahms selections, ???Sapphische ode??? and ???Wie Melodien Zieht es mir,??? are quiet, reposeful. To end the group, I chose the exhilarating ???Botschaft.??? One of Brahms??? most celebrated lieder. Finally, I felt a need for a more contemporary group (even though the Ravel was written as late as 1923) and group in English. The Ives songs fit those needs most adequately (although two of the six songs are in german). The first two, ???Two little flowers (and dedicated to them)??? and ???The children???s Hour,??? are about children; the last two are children speaking in the first person; and the center two (in German) provide fresh, interesting settings of two poems already set to music by schumann and Brahms,??? Ich grolle nicht??? and ???feldinsamkeit.??? The program was arranged in chronological order (with the possible exception that a few of the Ives songs may have been composed before the Ravel set), and the recital divided itself into two equal groups, the Bach and Handel comprising the first half (approximately thirty minutes) and the Schubert, Brahms, Ravel, and Ives the second (approximately thirty minutes)