The Standard Cantatas: Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers: A HandbookUpton, George P. (George Putnam)
History
The Standard Cantatas: Their Stories, Their Music, and Their Composers: A Handbook
Upton, George P. (George Putnam)
Cantatas -- History and criticism
The third part (the Return) opens with a soprano solo of a slow and
mournful character, relating the sorrow of Yasôdhara and the visit of her
damsels, who announce the arrival of merchants with tidings of Siddârtha.
They are summoned, and tell their story in a short chorus, which is
followed by a brief soprano solo ("Uprose Yasôdhara with Joy"), an
exultant chorus ("While the Town rang with Music"), and another brief
phrase for soprano, leading to a fine choral outburst ("'Tis he!
Siddârtha, who was lost"). The next number, a bass solo describing the
King's wrath when he learns that Siddârtha has returned as a yellow-robed
hermit instead of with "shining spears and tramp of horse and foot," is
very sonorous as well as dramatic, and is followed by a tenor and bass
dialogue developing into a trio of great beauty ("Thus passed the Three
into the Way of Peace"). The final number is a masterpiece of choral work
both in the elaborateness of its construction and the majesty of its
effect, and brings the cantata to a close with the mystic words:--
"The Dew is on the Lotus! Rise, great Sun!
And lift my leaf and mix it with the wave.
The Sunrise comes! the Sunrise comes!
The Dewdrop slips into the shining sea.
Hail, High Deliverer, Hail!"
CORDER.
Frederick Corder, the English composer and conductor, was born at
Hackney, London, Jan. 26, 1852. He was a student at the Royal Academy of
Music in 1874, and in the following year gained the Mendelssohn
scholarship. From 1875 to 1878 he studied at Cologne with Hiller, and in
1879 returned to London, where he engaged for a time in literary
pursuits. His abilities as a writer are very clearly shown in the
librettos to his works. In 1880 he was appointed conductor of the
orchestra at the Brighton Aquarium, and since that time he has devoted
himself to teaching and composition. His principal works are "In the
Black Forest," an orchestral suite, and "Evening on the Seashore," idyl
for orchestra (1876); the opera "Morte d'Arthur" (1877); the one-act
opera "Philomel" (1879); cantata, "The Cyclops" (1880); "Ossian," a
concert overture for orchestra, produced by the London Philharmonic
Society (1882); the cantata "Bridal of Triermain" (1886); and the opera
"Nordisa," founded upon a Norwegian subject and brought out with great
success in January, 1887 by the Carl Rosa opera troupe. Mr. Corder is one
of the most ambitious and promising of all the younger English composers,
and his music shows in a special degree the influence of Wagner. That he
has also literary talent of a high order is evinced by his contributions
to periodical literature and the librettos of his last two works,--"The
Bridal of Triermain" and "Nordisa."
The Bridal of Triermain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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