PROPRIETY

5 Songs for Soprano and Piano
on poems by Marianne Moore

Publisher
E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Catalog Number
8586

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E. C. Schirmer Music Company
J. W. Pepper
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Presto Sheet Music
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E. C. Schirmer Music Company

Description
The title “Propriety” comes from an archaic use of that word, meaning the “peculiarity” or “essential quality” of a person or thing, and in the case of this song cycle that subject is classical music itself. From the poet’s appreciation of Renaissance choral writing, to a dream in which she imagines Bach being lured by an American university to come teach young composers (along with five harpsichords!), to a poem depicting violinist Isaac Stern working to save Carnegie Hall from demolition, this cycle offers brilliantly colorful commentary on what classical music can mean, and does so with virtuosity.

Texts
1 – Mercifully
2 – Carnegie Hall: Rescued
3 – Dream
4 – Propriety
5 – Melchior Vulpius

Year of Composition
1992

Duration
16 minutes

Dedication
Carolyn Jane Hall

First Performance
May 14, 1995

Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

Pamela Jordan Schiffer, soprano
Juliana Hall, piano

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Pamela Jordan Schiffer, soprano
Juliana Hall, piano

Mercifully