“Music and Message”
Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University
1531 Hewitt Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
Date:
May 12, 2012, 7:30 PM
Tickets:
$18 adult
$12 senior/student
$5 children
($16/$10 reserved in advance.)
Music always carries a message. This concert is dedicated particularly to works composed with a message in mind — music composed to commemorate an event, a person, or an idea. Beethoven’s Egmont Overture was written in response to the political oppression of literature, the press, and theatre in Vienna following Napoleon’s invasion in 1809; Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was written to celebrate the birth of his son. David Evan Thomas wrote By Singing Light in reference to the poem by Dylan Thomas (below). The subject of the poem is the dedication of art for the sake of its self; which is certainly a strong message for any who have struggled to make a solid living from that art. The sharing of a message, of whatever nature, through music is a powerful way to express the complexity of your message when words don’t suffice; and that idea is what this concert aims to communicate.
By Singing Light
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.
| Composer | Work |
|---|---|
| Ludwig van Beethoven | Egmont Overture |
| Richard Wagner | Siegfried Idyll |
| David Evan Thomas | By Singing Light |
| Jean Sibelius | Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 |
