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VOCES INTIMAE: The Art of Song
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  • HOME
  • 2022-2023 SEASON
    • 10/8/22 - Duo Atesorado
    • 11/5/22 - Hank Hammett Masterclass/Recital
    • 12/3/22 - Complete Art Songs of Puccini
    • 2/26/23 - Songs of Travel
    • 3/26/23 - Roundup of Texas Art Song Composers
    • 4/23/23 - Flying South and Heading East
  • ABOUT
    • Board of Directors
    • Join our mailing list
    • Get Involved
  • PAST SEASONS
    • 2021-2022 SEASON >
      • 10/14/21 Caliente! A Latin Affair
      • 11/13/21 Gala with Angela Turner Wilson and Buddy Bray
      • 1/30/22 Student Liederabend
      • 2/27/22 Soul Songs
      • 5/15/22 A Gem of a Song
      • 6/12/22 Adult Liederabend
      • Fall 2022 The Juliet Letters - Neo Camerata and Sergio Cepeda
    • 2020-2021 SEASON >
      • Adult Liederabend June 2021
      • Duo Floreciente Livestream Recital
      • Perspective - Virtual Recital by Christian Bester and Lyndon Meyer
      • Adult Liederabend - October 2020
    • 2019-2020 SEASON >
      • "Musings" Performed by Kay George
      • The Juliet Letters - Neo Camerata
      • Blake Davidson: An American Art Song
      • Student Liederabend 2019
      • Amy Canchola: Distiguished Lives
    • 2018-2019 SEASON >
      • Student Liederabend 2018
      • Italienisches Liederbuch
      • Popurrí Musical: Raíces Hispanoamericanas
      • Round Up of Texas Art Song Composers 2019
      • Adult Liederabend 2019
    • 2017-2018 SEASON >
      • Adult Liederabend 2018
      • Simon Sargon Birthday >
        • About Simon Sargon
      • Gala: Baby Its Cold Outside
      • Student Liederabend 2017
    • 2016-2017 Season >
      • THE TEXAS ROUND UP 2016
    • The Pulse of Poetry 2015
  • SUPPORT
    • DONATE
    • ADVERTISE
    • SILENT AUCTION
    • Sponsors
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT

Roundup of Texas Art Song Composers

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Mark Landson, composer
Selections from the song cycle “Nothing Gold Can Stay” - Text by Robert Frost
Performed by: Keron Jackson, bass, Brian Bentley, piano
1. Fire and Ice
2. Acquainted with the Night
3. Nothing Gold Can Stay

Notes from the composer, Mark Landson:

I first came to the poetry of the great American poet Robert Frost in the ninth grade, as we studied his poem “Mending Wall”, which has held a special place in my heart since then. When I began to compose art songs, Frost was foremost in my mind to tackle when I felt ready. When that time came, I spent about two years working out the cycle “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, which finally came into being. The full cycle of 20 minutes comprises seven of his most famous poems, of which three are presented today. It was premiered in its soprano version in August 2021. This is the first performance of a male voice performing part of the cycle, and Keron Jackson’s instrument and artistry brings an especially profound quality to the songs here.

“Fire and Ice” shows Frost’s dark wit, and was written after Frost heard of a scientific debate involving the end of the universe, and whether the universe would expand indefinitely, or contract back upon itself, producing another “Big Bang” explosion.

“Acquainted with the Night” is a personal confession of his struggles with depression. Its rhyme scheme of ABA BCB CDC DED AA shows his genius in creating an intense emotional flow while following a strict formal structure.

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” tells of the ephemeral quality of beauty, and how the most beautiful and special things are also the most fleeting. I wanted to parallel that idea in the creation of a song which was similarly ephemeral and fleeting, yet transcendently beautiful.

- Mark Landson

1. Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

2. Acquainted with the Night
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

3. Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Picture
Mark Landson
Mark Landson is a violinist, violist, composer, the founder and Director of Open Classical, and the founder and violist of contemporary music group Neo Camerata. He has been featured by the Dallas Observer in their “Top 100 Creatives in Dallas” series, by DFW arts website TheaterJones in their “Forward Thinkers” series, and through numerous other broadcast interviews and press articles as a prolific contributor to the creative culture of North Texas. Mr. Landson has performed throughout the United States and Europe as a member of various orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Rochester Philharmonic, the New American Chamber Orchestra, and La Orquesta de Granada (the Orchestra of Granada, Spain).

<< Back to the Program

Contact Voces Intimae: The art of Song

Voces Intimae: The art of Song is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization and promotion of the art of the song recital in the North Texas region. 

214.478.7847
vocesintimae.artsong@gmail.com
18951 Westwood Place
​Dallas, TX 75287

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