So Lit Song Lit

Elinor Remick Warren (1900-1991) was already commissioned by G. Schirmer to compose art songs before she graduated high school. She was also a concert pianist and collaborative pianist who played for such singers as Lawrence Tibbett, and Kirsten Flagstad performed her songs. Her musical language is very accessible, with hints of French expanded harmonies and some very fun Straussian piano moments!

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

All of these songs can be found in Centennial Album: 16 Songs (high voice) (low voice)

• Piano
• Melody out of my heart
• Love’s Riddle
• My parting gift

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

As Season 4 ends, so does the So Lit Song Lit podcast. With some new gigs for both of us this summer, there just isn't enough time for us to continue. We hope you have all enjoyed the past 4 seasons as much as we enjoyed putting them together, and hope that we have inspired you to go digging for more repertoire!

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was a Polish composer of Lithuanian heritage. Her father taught all of his children to play violin and piano, as well as a little music theory, and she went on to become the concertmaster of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. After a serious car accident, she could no longer perform and then concentrated on composing. Another Nadia Boulanger student, her musical language is unique, very modern with a great deal of dissonance that comes out sounding incredibly beautiful!

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

• 1st Groteski (from 3 Grosteski)

In her Collected Songs

• Róże (Rose)
• Nad wodą wielką i czystą
• Boli mnie głowa

We also mentioned the resource Singing in Polish. And don't forget to check out our previous episodes on Szymanowski and Wertheim for more Polish repertoire!

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Margarete Schweikert (1887-1957) was the daughter of amateur musicians who went on to become a music critic, pianist, and violinist in her own right, as well as a composer. Her music is all collected at the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe, Germany, including 160 Lieder!

We also mentioned the composer Clemens von und zu Franckenstein--he has some incredibly beautiful Lieder, but since he was composing around the time of Strauss, his name has been mostly lost. His opera Li Tai Pe was recently performed in Germany, and Eastman Library has collected some of his Lieder.

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, Troy Cook, baritone, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Op 3

• Rosen
• Elfenliedchen

Op 5

• Seliger Eingang (in Book 2)

Op 11-Vier Gedichte von Goethe

• Es war einmal ein König

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

You can find out more about Troy Cook on his website, https://www.troycookbaritone.com/

Poldowski (née Régine Wieniawski) (1879-1932) was born in Brussels to an exceptionally musical family. Her father was Polish and her mother British, and eventually she moved to London for the remainder of her life. The Verlaine settings have a great deal of French influence; she also has a set of songs of William Blake poems.

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Songs to Texts by Paul Verlaine:

• Spleen
• Mandoline
• L'heure exquise
• Fantoches

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

For your "Twix-bar of an episode", today we are talking about Jane Vieu (1871-1955) and Mel Bonis (1858-1937). Jane Vieu started composing at age 11 and studied composition with Massenet. Mel Bonis had rather Wagnerian-opera life story, due to her parents' attempts to control her--she became a musician despite their machinations.

For anyone who has never heard Anna Russell, check out the YouTube clip of her with Canto dolciamente pipo (her Italian is intentionally not perfect!).

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Vieu (found in Anthology of Songs, the score is available from many libraries and through ILL):

• Belle au bois dormant
• Chanson fleurie

Bonis:

• Le chat sur le toit

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

Exactly Counter: Ellen 1, Toni 1

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946) was the most successful song composer of the late 19th-early 20th centuries, combing Parlor Songs with traditional art song and creating her own publishing company to support herself as a single mother. She had songs that sold over 25 million copies--in the 1910s! She also self-published her own autobiography, The Roads of Melody.

11 Small Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose

• Where Youth's Eternal

7 Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose

• I Love You Truly

11 Small Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose

• Tis Summer In Thine Eyes

Half-Minute Songs

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

Exactly Counter--Ellen 0!!!, Toni 0

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) studied music privately with teachers from the Paris Conservatory and began her professional career as a chamber music pianist. Her compositions include 135 songs for voice and piano and 200 piano pieces. She toured Europe as a concert pianist, playing mostly her own works, which made her so popular that even in the US there were salons dedicated to her music!

Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

• Écrin
• L'été
• Viens, mon bien-aimé!
• L'amour captif

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

Exactly Counter--Ellen 3, Toni 2
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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Norwegian composer Agathe Backer-Gröndahl (1847-1907) studied piano with Franz Liszt and became a concert pianist well-known for performing Chopin and Beethoven. She took some time off performing when she married, but when her husband supported her return to performing, she started playing her own music!

In case you want to try the Tongue Twister we mentioned: Im dichten Fichtendickicht nicken dicke Fichten tüchtig

Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Op 14 Deutsche Lieder

• No 1 Ein Fichtenbaum
• No 5 Unruhe

Op 60 Deutsche Liebeslieder

• No 3 Namenloses Weh
• No 5 Es muss was Wunderbares sein

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

Exactly Counter--Ellen 1, Toni 0

***
So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931) was the youngest child of a British opera composer (John Barnett), who studied music at the conservatory in Leipzig, Germany. She became a prima donna opera singer in Italy under the pseudonym Clara Doria before settling in the US in Boston, MA. She went on to join the music faculty at the New England Conservatory of music and she wrote a book on English Diction!

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Op 27 Browning Songs, First Series

• Apparitions
• Ah, Love, but a Day
• The Year's at the Spring

Op 32 Browning Songs, Second Series

• My Star

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

Exactly Counter--Ellen 2, Toni 0

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So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree

Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929) was a leader in the equal rights movement in Sweden--she fought to change the law that kept women from church jobs, and was one of the first women to be appointed as organist of a church in Sweden. Her sister became an opera singer and Elfrida made a career as a conductor as well as organist and composer.

We mentioned the Swedish Musical Heritage website, where they are cataloguing and uploading scores of Swedish composers. Look for the little crown emblem for songs that are available for download.

If you want to study up on your Swedish diction, check out Anna Hersey's Scandinavian Song, a diction book that covers Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish.

Much of the information this season comes from Karin Pendle's Women and Music: A History.

Musical clips performed by Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, and Ellen Rissinger, piano:

Opus 8 (Three songs with piano) (the score download is available at the bottom of the page)

• En vacker höstdag
• Vi ses igen
• Visa en vårmorgon

Recorded at Morningstar Studios in Norristown, PA.

"Exactly" counter--Ellen 1, Toni 0

***
So Lit Song Lit is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about its network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

You can follow Ellen and The Diction Police on Facebook and at www.dictionpolice.com.

You can follow Toni Marie on Facebook at Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano and Instagram @ToniMariePalmertree