Let's start at the very beginning! #yearofplay

For those of you who are not in the field of music or voice, let me fill you in on the "inside baseball" of Art Songs.

When a freshman voice student arrives at a music school, fresh-faced and 18 years old, in most cases, they are not ready to tackle the challenges of opera roles and arias.  Typically, they don't have the stamina or vocal strength and they arrive at school ready to sing.

Most voice teachers supply voice majors with a steady stream of art songs to help build their vocal technique and stamina and prepare them for the rigors of opera to come.  Art songs teach a young singer the process of learning music.  A good voice teacher can use art songs to create a checklist for singers to use so that they can approach any singing project:

1. Translate the words and study the poetry
2. Learn the history of the song, including about the poet and the reason the pome was written
3. Think about what the poem means to you as an artist
4. Learn the notes and rhythms (wait... that's step 4?)
5. Collaborate with a pianist again and again until you can perform the song well

I would not ask you, the casual listener, to go through these steps.  Hopefully by seeing this approach, you can get a sense of why art song is so important to young singers artistic growth.

I have had a great deal of fun returning to my art song roots over the past couple of months to create my new Denver Art Song Project collaboration.  Please do check it out and remember, there will be more to come on June 15, 2015.

Happy Listening,

Eapen

What is an Art Song? (Continued) #yearofplay

Yesterday, I wrote a bit about why we are called the "Denver Art Song Project" and why I chose Art Songs (yes, still pretentious) as my genre of choice to work with during my #yearofplay.

Today, let's dive into a way to experience an art song.  Sure, I could give you a lot of "homework" to prepare to experience this little song.  Instead of throwing work at you, let's do a little experiment:

Read the instructions first... then do the steps... then, if you want, comment below and let me know what you thought, experienced, felt or how you were inspired.

1.) Hit play on my song "O del mio amato ben".

2.) Now listen as you look at this picture:

Learn more about this picture here

3.) Was there anything about the picture that you noticed as you listened to the song?  In your opinion, how did the picture and the music match?  Feel free to comment below!

Score some bonus points... Cruise through the amazing MET online collection.  Is there a picture that captures the spirit of the song to you more than this one?  If so, why?  Post a link to the pic in the comments below!

Hope you enjoy this little game!
Eapen

Why art songs? #Yearofplay

With the launch of the Denver Art Song Project, a number of people have sent messages to find out "What is an art song?" and "Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

Great questions and thanks to all of you who asked and thanks to all who have already pre-purchased the album.

Let's start with the second question first.

"Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

I love opera.  I've been singing opera for years now and it has been the largest part of my career.  I chose art songs for my #yearofplay because making a high-quality opera aria album would be a larger project than I could have managed.  Operas are presented with an orchestra, I would have wanted to do the same for my album as well.  It would mean pulling together a lot of talent and the logistics of recording might have overwhelmed me.  I've always said, that I should keep my goals modest at first and focus on achieving a final product, not get stuck half-way because my ambitions outstrip my organizational skills.

"What is an art song?"

Art songs are poems set to music.  Generally, they are meant for voice and piano and are meant to be shared in a small setting with friends.  There are many exceptions to this rule, but let's keep it to this simple definition for now.

Since an art song is a poem set to music, this makes life easier for you as an audience member.  Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
- You don't have to learn the whole long story of an opera.  These are little bite-sized musical experiences!
- You don't have to learn the translation of an entire opera.  (bite-sized!)
- You don't have to keep track of characters in an opera.
- Art songs are shorter than opera (3 minutes vs. 3 hours).
- As with most poetry, you get to do your own interpretation.  Take a look at this poem:

One's-Self I Sing

  One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,
  Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

  Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
  Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say
      the Form complete is worthier far,
  The Female equally with the Male I sing.

  Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
  Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,
  The Modern Man I sing.

(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Text from Project Gutenberg)

Your interpretation could likely differ quite differently from mine based on your own personal experiences.  This could conflict with your values or support them.  With an opera, you have more to learn about the story and that could slow or cause you to misunderstand the song.

Cons:
- Art Songs.  What a pretentious name.
- They are short and we always want more.  (We do, don't we?)
- Sometimes we have to learn a bit about why the poem was written or sometimes about the poet themselves. (I'll look to provide that context in my liner notes and blog posts!)

Over the next few days, I will be posting some more thoughts about Art Songs and why we chose this genre for our recordings.

Newly announced: Denver Art Song Project #yearofplay

By now you have probably seen the stories posted on this site.  These stories all link to the song text of art songs by Stefano Donaudy.

So what do we know so far for my #yearofplay?  I've been exploring art songs in a new way outside of learning the notes and rhythms and collaborating with a pianist.  I am focusing on three songs by Stefano Donaudy.  I am focusing on playing with social media to announce and drive a personal artistic endeavor.  And you may have seen some weird pics pop up on Instagram

All of that leads up to this announcement:

Introducing the "Denver Art Song Project".

This musical cooperative is dedicated to exploring and sharing art song repertoire and giving voice to new, high-quality recordings from Denver area artists.

The first collaboration of the DASP is a micro-album of three Donaudy songs sung by Eapen and accompanied by Mallory Bernstein.  Michael Bevers is our engineer.

You can listen for free at the site and, if you'd like, pre-order all three songs for $4.  We will release the full set of songs on June 15, 2015.

You can follow Denver Art Song Project on Facebook and at the newly redesigned and mobile-friendly www.eapenleubner.com.

Year of Play Update #yearofplay

I have been soliciting feedback about my projects for "Year of Play" and one of my test subjects said, "How many points have you scored for yourself lately?"

Tweets- 3 (3 points)

Pictures- 3 (6 points)

Blog Posts- 4 (8 points)

Podcast- 0 (0 points)

So, all in, that is 17 points in advance of the big announcement.

As you may recall, the idea was to do more in social media and make some art.  These postings had to do directly with my big musical project.  The rules were that the posts had to relate directly to the final product that is going to be released soon.

I think I achieved my goal of creating a semi-major musical project and challenging myself to change my approach to learning music.  My goal was to go way outside of my comfort zone and I definitely achieved that with "Song Fiction".

I had hoped to create some podcasts, but it took more time than expected and they may end up being released later.

I will be making a big announcement about results of "Year of Play" on June 1, 2015, so stay tuned!

Song Fiction No. 3

It's quiet out here.  So very quiet.  When people say that it is silent in space, they can not understand how immensity of silence.  It is the silence of eternity and the tiny noises I make disperse into that endless silence to be forgotten by all.  Looking down on the earth, I can see the clouds hanging over earth and ocean and I can hear my breath going in and out.  It's so still that I can hear the sweat coming out of my pores.

4 hours ago
The door clanged shut behind me and I felt the usual slight adjustments to my vestibular system as I loose the frame of reference of the station behind me.  I love that instant.  It is the instant that you know that you truly outside the bounds of our world.  After 24 hours in an airlock waiting be slowly depressurized, it would be like taking a breath of air after surfacing.

The view always takes my breath away and I pulled myself out of the airlock and positioned myself to slowly shut the hatch door.

Now
I can hear a lot of radio chatter, my emergency thrusters on my suit are drained though.  I'm looking down at the Earth and wondering, what now?  I take a small sip of water and cough slightly.  The voices in the radio go silent.

"We can try to maneuver towards you..."  "There is an option of programming a..."
The voices sound very far away, even with the headset in my ear.

Sometimes you can't explain a series of small accidents and mistakes and you can't recover.  You can only live with the experience and reset your expectations.  In my case, resetting my expectations was turning to face Earth.

She is down there somewhere.  It is probably 2 p.m. and she is picking up our children from school. She doesn't know that our goodbye is happening right now without her.  She is thinking about feeding the kids and maybe letting them play outside since it is the first warm day of spring.  She told me that it would be nice today.  I don't have any doubts about the moments I spent with her anymore.  I don't have any regrets either. She gave me everything I could want.

I cannot do the math to figure if the air will go before the heat arrives.  At some point the suit is going to make me feel so trapped that I will loosen the clasps holding a glove in place.  And then I will be silent.

I stop those thoughts now and I think about the beauty below me and her smile.

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Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

Song Fiction No. 2

Paris, 1883

The two friends looked up the grand staircase and watched as Vergine descended.  As she walked down the stairs, the room was hushed.  The hostess certainly new how to make an entrance.  Vergine's eyes swept to the right and then the left, searching for her husband.

Meanwhile the two men, captivated, observed her in two very different ways.  Pierre's eyes captured the mathematics of her profile.  He saw the angle of her face as it was positioned away from shoulder.  He thought the proportions of her features absolutely perfect in every way.  If the crowd of tuxedos and ball-gowns around him could read his mind, they might think his love for her a sterile, scientific thing.  His love for her was measured and quantified in every way.

For John, time stopped.  He saw the light shining on her pale skin and the way her hand clutched her dress.  The image seared into his mind and he took a small step back.  There was only raw frenzy of the folds of her black dress as she raised it slightly to descend the staircase.  For him, he saw no numbers or measurements, he only felt the vertiginous feeling of her descent and the almost haughty look over the crowd.  As Vergine reached out her hand, he wanted to reach out to take it.

Instead, he raised his hand and grabbed a glass of champagne off of a silver tray that was passing by.  He watched Pierre's white gloved hand take his wife away to circulate amongst the guests.

Paris, 1916

The old man hobbled into the John's studio.  It had been years since the frenzy of the 1884 Exhibition.  Pierre had stood by his wife stoically, knowing that nothing untoward had happened.  He had been amused by the portrait had taken the supposed disgrace in stride.

Vergine had been broken hearted when her friends had shunned her for her supposed indiscretions.  She removed herself from the receptions and galas for what seemed like years.  She swore that she would never again pose for another one of those "god-damned" painters.  She changed her mind.  The flattery of the artists was too much to resist and Vergine had the curious American ability to forgive and forget.  It was that virtue that had attracted Pierre in the first place.  Holding a grudge seemed so boring and, heaven knows, he had needed her forgiveness on several occasions.

Now old, Pierre looked at the door to the studio and rapped his cane against the door.  There had never truly been any bad blood between the two men and when they had embraced outside of the studio, the felt the connection of two soldiers who had weathered a particularly bad battle together.

As Pierre's near-sighted eyes focused in on the painting, he became acutely aware of the sound of his cane on the wood floor.  He felt a pain in his chest as he saw the painting.  As he slowed down his pace to take it in, he inhaled sharply.

The strap was gone.  The table was missing.  It was not his Vergine as he had remembered her.  The clarity of the portrait was gone and the rougher hews of line and texture of the study added an almost imperceptible undercurrent of lust that had been absent in the portrait that he had seen in 1884.  Pierre still knew every angle and curve of his wife and he held his breath for a moment.  His free hand searched for a chair and he sat down.

"Pierre, old friend," said John, "We must talk."



"Study of Mme Gautreau by John Singer Sargent c1884" by John Singer Sargent - [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".