Sunday, March 29, 2026 | 3:00 p.m.
Perkinson Recital Hall
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)
A Prayer to St. Catherine
If Thou a Reason Dost Desire to Know
At the Spring
John Cage (1912-1992)
A Flower
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Dream Portraits
Minstrel Man
Dream Variation
I, Too
Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972)
Excerpts from Dr. Einstein’s Address About Peace in the Atomic Era
INTERMISSION (10 minutes)
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
A Widow’s Lament in Springtime
Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
Once a Lady Was Here
Ned Rorem (1923-2022)
My Papa’s Waltz
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
My Father
Cathy Berberian (1925-1983)
Stripsody
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
from Old American Songs
The Dodger
Long Time Ago
Ching-a-Ring Chaw
A handful of songs by Sondheim, Lehrer, Blitzstein, and Bernstein will be announced from the stage
A Prayer to St. Catherine
If I am to be preserved from heartache and shyness
By Saint Catherine of Sienna,
I am praying to her that she will hear my prayer
And treat me in every way with kindness.
I went to Sienna to Saint Catherine’s own church
(It is impossible to deny this)
To pray to her to cure me of my heartache and shyness.
Which she can do, because she is a great saint.
Other saints would regard my prayer as foolish.
Saint Nicholas, for example, he would chuckle,
“God helps those who help themselves,
Rouse yourself! Get out there and do something about it!”
Or Saint Joanna.
She would say, “It is not shyness
That bothers you. It is sin. Pray to Catherine of Sienna.”
But that is what I have done. And that is why I have come here
to cure my heartache.
Saint Catherine of Sienna, if this song pleases you,
then be good enough to answer the prayer it contains.
Make the person that sings this song less shy than that person is,
And give that person some joy in that person’s heart.
--Kenneth Koch (1925-2002)
If Thou a Reason Dost Desire to Know
If thou a reason dost desire to know,
My dearest Cynthia, why I love thee so,
As when I do enjoy all thy love’s store,
I am not yet content, but seek for more;
When we do kiss so often as the tale
Of kisses doth out-vie the winters hail:
When I do print them on more close and sweet
Than shells of scallops, cockles when they meet,
Yet am not satisfied: When I do close
Thee nearer to me than the ivy grows
Unto the oak: when those white arms of thine
Clip me more close than doth the elm the vine:
When naked both, thou seemest not to be
Contiguous, but continuous parts of me:
And we in bodies are together brought
So near, our souls may know each other’s thoughts
Without a whisper: yet I do aspire
To come more close to thee, and to be nigher:
Know, ‘twas well said, that spirits are too high
For bodies, when they meet, to satisfy.
-- Sir Francis Kynaston (1587-1642)
At the Spring
At the spring, birds do sing,
Now with high then low cry:
Flat, acute; and salute
The sun, born ev’ry morn.
He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry Spring.
Flora queen all in green
Doth delight to paint white,
And to spread cruel red
With a blue color true.
He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry Spring.
Faithful loves, turtle doves,
Sit and bill on the hill,
Country swains on the plains
Run and leap, turn and skip.
He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry Spring.
Pan doth play care away,
Fairies small, two foot tall,
With caps red on their head,
Dance around on the ground,
He’s no bard that cannot sing
The praises of the flow’ry Spring.
--Jasper Fisher (1591- ?)
Three Dream Portraits
Minstrel Man
Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?
Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?
Dream Variation
To fling my arms wide
In some place in the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently
Dark like me—
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
--Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
Excerpts from Dr. Einstein’s Address on Peace in the Atomic Era
The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present stage of military technique, a disastrous illusion. On the part of the United States this illusion has been particularly fostered by the fact that this country succeeded first in producing an atomic bomb.
The armament race between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., originally supposed to be a preventive measure assumes hysterical character. The H-bomb appears on the public horizon as a probably attainable goal.
If successful, radioactive poisoning of the atmosphere and hence annihilation of any life has been brought within the range of technical possibilities. Every step appears as the unavoidable consequence of the preceding one. In the end, there beckons more and more clearly general annihilation.
Is there any way out of this impasse created by man himself?
It is impossible to create peace as long as every action is taken with a possible future conflict in view.
The first problem is to do away with mutual fear and distrust. Solemn renunciation of violence, not only in respect to mass destruction, is undoubtedly necessary.
In the last analysis, every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust, and only secondly on institutions such as courts of justice and police. This holds for nations as well as for individuals. And the basis of trust is loyal give and take.
--Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
The Widow’s Lament in Springtime
Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames as it has flamed
often before, but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year.
Thirty-five years
I lived with my husband.
The plum tree is white today
With masses of flowers.
Masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red,
but the grief in my heart
is stronger than they,
for though they were my joy
formerly, today I notice them
and turn away forgetting.
Today my son told me
that in the meadows,
at the edge of the heavy woods
in the distance, he saw
trees of white flowers.
I feel that I would like
to go there
and fall into those flowers
and sink into the marsh near them.
--William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Once a Lady Was Here
Once a lady was here.
A lady sat in this garden,
And she thought of love.
The sun shone the same,
The breeze bent the grasses slowly
As it’s doing now.
So nothing has changed.
Her garden still looks the same,
But it’s a different year.
Soon the evening comes down,
And paths where she used to wander
Whiten in the moonlight,
And silence is here.
No sound of her footsteps passing
Through the garden gate.
No, nothing has changed.
Her garden still looks the same,
But yesterday is not today.
--Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf:
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
--Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
My Father
My father,
I’ve inhabited your husk too long.
The seashell and the cast-off skin I kept,
But you were not within.
And now my task must find the living orchard where you sing,
My father.
--Irene Orgel
Virgil Thomson (1896–1989)
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Thomson studied at Harvard University and later in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, where he was influenced by the avant-garde community and composers like Erik Satie. He is best known for his operas, Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All, created in collaboration with Gertrude Stein. As a critic for the New York Herald Tribune, he shaped American music criticism with his sharp wit and insightful commentary. As a song composer, Thomson was a true servant to the poet, using every note to illuminate the text with clarity, simplicity, and sincerity.
"Music should be as simple as a friendly conversation."—Virgil Thomson
John Cage (1912–1992)
Born in Los Angeles, California, Cage studied under Arnold Schoenberg. However, Cage's work diverged significantly from traditional Western music, embracing randomness and unconventional sound sources. Influenced by Zen Buddhism and Eastern philosophies, Cage encouraged audiences to listen to the world in new ways. His song A Flower has no text and was composed to accompany a dance by Louise Lippold.
"I have nothing to say, and I am saying it. And that is poetry." – John Cage
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Born in Chicago, Bonds was the first Black person to play as a concerto soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her father was a civil rights activist and physician, and her mother was a piano teacher. A child prodigy, she studied with Florence Price and at age 16 went on to attend Northwestern University, where she was not allowed to use university facilities, and many restaurants refused to serve her. In 1936, she began a lifelong friendship with the poet Langston Hughes, setting many of his texts, including Three Dream Portraits. In addition to her achievements as a composer, pianist, and teacher, she was a champion for racial equality and tirelessly promoted the works of her fellow Black artists.
"My music is jazzy and bluesy, and spiritual, and Tchaikovsky all rolled up into one."
-- Margaret Bonds
Stefan Wolpe (1902–1972) was a German-born American composer known for his eclectic and avant-garde style. Escaping Nazi persecution, Wolpe emigrated to the United States in 1938. His music blends elements of jazz, atonality, and serialism and was greatly influenced by the abstract expressionist movement in painting.
In January of 1950, President Harry Truman announced that the US would build the hydrogen bomb. On February 12, Albert Einstein spoke out against the H-bomb on a television program hosted by Eleanor Roosevelt. A month later, Stefan Wolpe channeled his outrage by turning Excerpts from Dr. Einstein’s Address About Peace in the Atomic Era into a song for baritone and piano.
"One should mix surprise and enigma, magic and shock, intelligence and abandon, form and antiform." -- Stefan Wolpe
Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) was a pioneer in applying mathematical concepts to music composition. He taught composition at Princeton and Juilliard and had many private students, including Stephen Sondheim. He also did top secret mathematical work for the military during World War II. Despite his reputation for writing music that is "intensely intellectual and impenetrably abstruse" (from his NY Times obituary), this setting of William Carlos Williams’ A Widow’s Lament in Springtime shows the lyrical and profoundly emotional qualities of Babbitt's music.
Paul Bowles (1910–1999) was a writer, composer, and translator. Born in New York City, Bowles initially pursued a career in music, studying under Aaron Copland and composing various pieces, including operas and ballets. His compositions were well-received, but it was his literary work, including the novel The Sheltering Sky, that garnered him enduring fame. Virgil Thomson was a great admirer of Bowles’ songs, writing, “The texts fit their tunes like a peach its skin.” In the song Once a Lady Was Here, Bowles’ enigmatic poem doesn’t provide many details about the title character, but the music helps us fill in the emotional blanks.
Ned Rorem (1923-2022) was a composer known for his vast output of beautiful songs, his perceptive essays on music, as well as for the candid and gossipy diaries he published throughout his life. Born in Richmond, Indiana, he attended Juilliard and Curtis. His musical mentors included Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Margaret Bonds. In My Papa’s Waltz, he captures the terror and exhilaration of a child’s rough dance with his drunk father.
“In music, the present is extended.” – Ned Rorem
Irving Fine (1914-1962) was born in Boston and was associated with a mid-century group of composers known as the “Boston School”, which included Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Copland praised Fine’s music for its “elegance, style, finish and a convincing continuity.” During his short life, he taught theory and music history at Harvard and Brandeis. He spent the summer of 1952 at the MacDowell Colony, where he met the young English poet Irene Orgel and set several of her poems to music, including this bittersweet poem of remembrance, My Father.
Cathy Berberian (1925-1983) was a mezzo-soprano known for her unique vocal abilities and range, incorporating a variety of unconventional sounds and techniques. She collaborated with many composers, including her husband, Luciano Berio, as well as John Cage and Igor Stravinsky. She also released an album, Beatles Arias, in which she performed Beatles songs in an operatic style. Her composition Stripsody is written in the form of a comic strip rather than traditional notation, inviting the performer to respond the images as they see fit.
Although Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was born in Brooklyn and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, he is best known for music that captures the vast landscapes and pioneering spirit of America, like Appalachian Spring and Rodeo. His Old American Songs are arrangements of traditional American folksongs in which he preserves the original melody while re-imagining the accompaniment.
Electronic Devices
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Hearing Assistance Available
Modlin offers complimentary Assistive Listening Devices for use by patrons at any seat. Receivers may be obtained from any house management staff.
