Richard Faith
Encyclopedia
American composer,Richard Faith (b. 1926) has been known primarily in university music circles as a concert pianist, professor of piano, and a published composer of piano pedagogy literature, orchestral and chamber works, opera and most prolifically, song. A neo-romantic, Faith has always been first and foremost a melodist.
) with poetry by William Wordsworth
.
Before his natural bent toward composing could take root and grow, Faith embarked on a career as a concert pianist. In 1940 at age fourteen, he appeared with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra
, and after a few years of study he entered Chicago Musical College
, where he received both undergraduate and master's degrees in piano performance. At age nineteen he placed in a collegiate contest and was given the opportunity to perform in Chicago's Orchestra Hall. The work was Chopin's Concerto in F Minor (Op.21). This was followed in 1947 by his professional debut at Kimball Hall (Chicago) and, in 1948, by a return to Orchestra Hall for a solo recital and an engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
. During the early fifties Faith concertized as a recital accompanist for both singers and instrumentalists in programs that included his own compositions.
Faith's first instructor in composition was Max Wald, with whom he worked from 1947-49. In the Fall of 1954 he began doctoral work in composition at Indiana University in Bloomington with Bernhard Heiden
. Two years later Faith received his first full-time teaching appointment at Morningside College
in Sioux City, Iowa. Although he was devoted to teaching piano, his great love for composition continued to flourish. In 1960 he went to Rome as a Fulbright Scholar, studying both piano and composition with Guido Agosti
at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
. He chose Italy because of his interest in Italian history and its early Renaissance art. He also was seeking the "clarity of Italian musical expression."
Faith spent the greatest part of his life at the University of Arizona
in Tucson, where he assumed the position of Assistant Professor of Music (Piano) in 1961. He remained at the school until 1988, with an interim year at Morningside College in 1968. Many of his most popular compositions are the fruits of his tenure at Arizona: songs, choral works, piano concertos, orchestral and chamber works and opera.
Faith's first published work was the "Legend for Piano," printed by Summy-Birchard in 1967. Shawnee Press
began publishing his compositions in 1968, followed by G.Schirmer Inc. in 1971 and Belwin Mills in 1974. In the late 1970s Faith's music achieved significant recognition with performances in London, Washington, D.C., and Tucson, and commercial recordings were released. From 1982-1988 he received annual awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Since his retirement from teaching in 1988, Richard Faith relocated from Tucson a number of times: to Washington, D.C., California, back to his home town of Evansville, to Denver and now he makes his home again in Tucson. During the last 20 years performances, publications, dissertations and recordings of his works have flourished. To date he has written over 57 chamber works, 21 choral arrangements, 4 operas, 16 orchestral pieces, 61 keyboard works and over 121 songs.
, the Victorian whose songs displayed a trait known as "decorous Romanticism." Faith's English flavor is even further highlighted by the composer's choice of poetry, much of which comes from British authors.
Faith's song output spans the years 1944 to the present--his entire life as a composer. The over 120 settings run the stylistic gamut from sophisticated concert pieces to simple miniatures, duets, vocalises and selections with obbligato instruments, including flute, cello, viola and harp. His settings are generally for medium voice. Some have been written for specific singers to whom he has dedicated the music. Many of the songs are grouped according to subject matter, but are not necessarily musically connected. They may be sung as sets or separately, and may be transposed to suit the singer. Faith's tempo indications use traditional Italian terminology and the metronome markings are only suggestions. He is a gracious composer who allows individuals to develop their own interpretations of his music.
Because Faith himself is an award-winning pianist, many of the songs have sophisticated accompaniments. Sometimes the piano doubles the voice, though hardly ever through an entire piece. At other times the piano will play a countermelody to the voice to form a kind of obbligato. Like Debussy, Faith has a fondness for triplets, because of the movement and flow they add to a song. Thomas Nashe
's "Spring, the Sweet Spring" (1950) is an exercise in perpetual motion for the accompanist, with only brief repose at the end of each stanza. This inventive, florid accompaniment, along with Faith's strict use of ABA form, thin texture, and a definite key signature (G) lend a neo-baroque character to this Elizabethan poem. The harmony, however, remains contemporary, with Faith's use of incidental chromatics and added-note chords.
Like many composers who rely on modality rather than tonality, Faith rarely uses key signatures. His harmonic idiom displays a changing palette of colors marked by simultaneous cross-relations, the Lydian sharped fourth, and combinations of this sharped fourth and Mixolydian flatted seventh. Faith has denied any desire to pursue more avant-garde idioms. Earlier experiments in progressive styles met with little success, and if anything beyond the romantic exists in Faith's music, it may be the influence of Hindemith which was furthered by his studies at Indiana University with Bernhard Heiden
, himself a Hindemith pupil. Traces of this influence can be discerned in the appearance of quartal/quintal harmony in many of the songs. This is seen in "The Blackbird" by the Victorian author William Ernest Henley
composed in 1955. The accompaniment begins with broken ninth and tenth intervals supported by mildly dissonant chords; it is then followed by a hocket-like passage. This underlying texture continues through the first half of the song, contrasting with legato vocal melody.
Faith's use of arch form or "coming full circle" reflects the influence of Brahms, whose many songs fall into this structural category. He may end with a literal repeat, a transposed portion, or only a fragment of A, and may repeat text, music, or both in the process. Arch form is also reflected in the use of dynamics. Many songs begin quietly, reach a climax in an interior section, and then end as they began.
The composer's selection of poetry brings to the foreground some of literature's most famous writers in works that in this day in age have been unjustly neglected by the general public: Conrad Aiken
, Edward Lear
, Charles Cotton
, and Christina Rossetti
, to name a few. That Faith is well read is apparent not only in his choice of fine poetry to set to music, but also in his allusions to literature in many of his instrumental works. In addition, he often selects longer poems than would be considered usual for a song and writes few miniatures. The success of setting a lengthy piece of verse seems to depend upon Faith's ability to delay the listener's climactic expectations by moving through harmonic ambiguity until reaching an emotionally charged section that merits a cadence--usually on open sonorities without the thirds. This event may repeat itself many times with a greater or lesser dynamic level, thereby expanding his music resources.
Faith's songs adhere strictly to the rhythm dictated by the text of the poem. In fact, he simultaneously composes both melody and accompaniment by singing the text and playing the keyboard and immediately writing it down. Faith's adherence to the text rhythm results in shifting meters to accommodate phrases of varying length and text-derived rhythmic figures often provide the basis for his accompaniments
For subject matter Faith prefers nature imagery over love poetry and until 1994 with his Mother Goose
Rhymes, there had been only one comical song--Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat
," written in 1960. Many of Faith's settings reflect the nationality of the poet and the time period in which the poem was written. For example, Four Love Songs on Elizabethan lyrics (1982) display thin textures, balanced forms, and traditional harmonic progressions, while the Jean de La Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont songs have a French character that reveals Faith's debt to Ravel and Debussy. More recently, Faith's songs on Moorish poetry evoke an exotic, middle eastern quality. In the beautiful setting of Ben Jonson
's "To Celia" (commonly known as "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
"), Faith, by stressing the poem's inherent passion, brings a fresh outlook to a lyric which had become too familiar in arrangements of the old English setting. He achieves this through an operatically conceived vocal line: high and sustained, and encompassing a range of an octave and a fifth.
Two works that do not necessarily fall into specific stylistic categories, but deserve mention nonetheless, are Percy Bysshe Shelley
's "Music When Soft Voices Die" and the miniature "Remember Me" by the Victorian Christina Rossetti
. The spontaneous quality of the Shelley song reveals the poem's great effect on Faith, who, after nearly two years without song writing (1957), produced one of his most frequently performed pieces. The introduction's angular, twisting melody, taken later by the vocal line, lends a troubled, unsettling quality to the lyric. "Remember Me" was written in 1954 and is unusual for its brevity. The poet, Christina Rossetti, was an Englishwoman of Italian descent and is best known for her words to the hymns "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" and "Love Came Down at Christmas." Faith set three more of her poems which are included in the first published volume of songs by Leyerle Publications.
Many of Faith's songs have themes related to the sea, and there are a number of others in which the sea figures as an integral element in the poem. This stems from the composer"s extreme fascination with water, having been raised near the high banks of the wide Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. "Sea Fever" (John Masefield
), one of Faith's few biographically-influenced songs, displays such a depth of emotion rare for a nineteen-year-old. It is an important early song because it established many compositional techniques to which the composer returned throughout his lyrical output. Another "sea" example is "Ships" an English translation of "Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés" by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, the French World War I poet killed in action in 1914. This poem was also set by Fauré in that composer's final song cycle L'horizon chimérique
. Faith's song is scored for cello obbligato, piano, and female voice.
Faith skillfully translates into music the emotions behind the words of the world's greatest authors. Although many of his songs display common characteristics, each reveals an approach that allows the poem's individuality to shine through. Performers of art song, both singers and pianists, will appreciate Faith's output, considering the variety of poems he set to music and the gracious way he treats the voice and piano in his neo-romantic/impressionistic manner. Somewhat reticent of theoretical discussions, however, Faith considers himself only to be a composer of the heart, who relies on his musical gifts to bring joy to others.
Air for Saxophone and Piano
Andante and Allegro for Bassoon and Piano 2011*
Chant and Movement for Viola and Piano 2002*
Concerto for Clarinet and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion
Doric Dances for English Horn (or Alto Saxophone) and Piano 2000
Elegy for Clarinet and Piano 1950*
Elegy for Clarinet Choir
Essays for Oboe and Piano 1964
Evocation for Trombone and Piano arr. from "Music I Heard With You" 1987*
Evocations for Trumpet (Bb or C) and Piano 2006
Fables for Viola and Piano 1974*
Fantasy for Violin and Piano
Fantasy Trio No. 1 for Violin, Clarinet or Oboe and Piano 1982
Fantasy Trio No. 2 for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1988
Four Duets for Violin and Cello
Harvest Song for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Highland Skecthes for Baritone Saxophone and Piano 2011*
Incantations for Soprano, Viola and Piano 1994
Miniatures for Oboe and Piano 1988; Belwin Mills
Moorish Dances for Violin, Percussion and Piano 2002
Movements for Horn and Piano 1966; Shawnee Press
Oboe Concerto 1982
Pastorale for English Horn (or Alto Saxophone) and Piano 2000
Phantasies for Saxophone and Piano 1985
Poems for Cello and Piano (based on four Faith songs) 1984
Quintet for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Harp 1956
Rhapsody for Cello and Piano 1960*
Rhapsody for Flute and Piano 2007
Rhapsody for Violin and Piano in Four Movements 1954-55*
Romance for Violin and Piano 1952*
Second Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1995
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano 2001
The Solitary Reaper for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Sonata for Cello and Piano 1985
Sonata for Flute and Piano 1957
Sonata for Trumpet and Piano 1957
Sonata No. 2 for Trumpet and Piano 1985
Sonata for Viola and Piano
Sonata for Violin and Piano 1948*
String Quartet 1955*
Suite for Bassoon and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Suite for Clarinet and Piano 2007
Three Duets for Violin and Viola
Three Nocturnes for Violin and Piano 1970*
Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano
Trio for Flute, Cello and Harp 1984
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano 2003
Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano 1965
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano
Two Pieces for Brass
Two Poems for Voice, Violin, Cello and Piano (Mirmont), arr 2010
Two Romances for Violin and Piano
Two Songs for Violin and Piano 2000*
Two Sea Pieces for Clarinet and Piano 1966
Various Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (Air, Eventide, Harlequin, Serenade) 1987*
Woodwind Quintet
) 1966
The Blackbird for SATB and Piano (William Ernest Henley
) 1965
Creation, A Cantata for Soloists and SSATBB 1993
Daffodils for SSA and Piano (William Wordsworth
) 1970
God Be in my Head for SATB and Piano 1990
Hymn of Praise for SATB and Piano or Organ 1989
Indian Summer for SATB and Piano (Wilfred Campbell) 1964
Kyrie for SATB and String Orchestra (Organ version) 1990
Mass (Missa Hominum) for SATB, Soloists and Piano 1986
Music I Heard With You for SATB and Piano (Conrad Aiken
) 1968; G. Schirmer
O Spirit of the Summertime for SATB and Piano or String Quartet (William Allingham
)1970
On the Isle of Skye for TTBB (Richard Faith) 1986
Remember Me in various vocal arrangements (Christina Rossetti
) 2003, 2006
Sea Fever for TBB and Piano (John Masefield
) 1965; for SATB and Piano 1980
Sleep Child from The Little Match Girl for SATB and Piano (Michael Ard)1994
Sonnet 54 for TTBB (William Shakespeare) 1986
Spring, the Sweet Spring for TTBB (Thomas Nashe) 1986
Though I Speak for SATB and Piano (St. Paul) 1991
The Waters of Babylon, A Cantata in 4 Movements for Baritone Solo, SATB Chorus and Piano (Jeremiah, Isaiah) 1976
The Wayfarer for SATB and Violin, Viola, Cello, Horn and Piano (Rainer Maria Rilke
) 1996
What Sweeter Music for SATB and Piano (Robert Herrick
) 1993
Beauty and the Beast in Three Acts for Piano, Orchestra or Small Chamber Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1992
The Little Match Girl an Opera in One Act for Piano or Chamber Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1979; orchestration 1990-91
Sleeping Beauty, an Opera in Two Acts for Piano or Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1970
The Wydah's Gold in Five Scenes for Piano or Chamber Orchestra (Robert Weller) 1997
Concert Overture 1988
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Concerto #1 for Piano and Orchestra 1969; kermitpeters.net
Concerto #2 for Piano and Orchestra 1975; Chamber arrangement 1998
Concerto #3 for Piano and Orchestra 1982
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra in Three Movements 1987
Elegy 1966; kermitpeters.net
Festivals in three movements 1980; originally Concerto for Two Pianos 1972; kermitpeters.net
Idylls in Three Movements for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra 1982
Lydian Overture 1984
Odyssey 1965
A Pastoral Overture 1964
Phantasie for Piano and Orchestra 1977
Processional for String Orchestra 1994
Sonata No. 1 for Piano in three movements; orchestrated 1995
Andante and Allegro for Two Pianos 1998*
Arabesques 2000*
Carousels 1991; Belwin Mills
Carousels for Two Pianos 1972*
Concerto for Two Pianos 1973-74; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Dance Suite for 4 Hands 1990
Dances 1977; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Diferencias 1969*
Elegy for Organ (arr. of "Elegy for Orchestra") 1991*
Etude - "Stratification" 1984
Family Portraits 2006
Fantasy No. 1 1968*
Fantasy No. 2 1987; Shawnee Press
Finger Paintings 1966; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Five Preludes and a Nocturne 1967; Shawnee Press
Floating
Four Cameos 1971; Shawnee Press
Four Timbres 2009
Gaelic Suite 1993*
Gallantries 2009
The Highwayman
Islands 1970,1985; Shawnee Press
Le Mont Saint Michel 2008*
Legend 1967; Summy Birchard
Little Preludes 1966*
Masquerades 1988; Belwin Mills
Moments in a Child's World 1968; Shawnee Press
Night Piece
Nocturne 1975
Pastoral Suite 1989, revised 2009; Shawnee Press
Piano Concerto #1 1969
Piano Concerto #2 1975
Piano Concerto #3 1982
Performance Practices in Late 20th Century Piano; Alfred Publishing Co.
Piano Transcriptions of Songs 2005-10*
Pipes 1987; Belwin Mills
Recollections, Nine Short Pieces 1969, 1974; Shawnee Press
Rhapsody 1980*
Russian Folk Tales 1990; Belwin Mills
Service Sonata for Organ 1970*
Six Preludes and a Nocturne
Skandian Suite 2008
Sketches 1987; Belwin Mills
Sonata No. 1 1962, revised 2010
Sonata No. 2 1957
Sonata No. 3 1958
Sonatina 1987
Sonatina 1987; Belwin Mills
Souvenir from 12 by 11 1979; Alfred Publishing Co.
Suite "Trouveres" for Harpsichord 2002*
Tableaus, four hands 1987; Belwin Mills
Three Etudes 1978, revised 2009
Three for Two for Two Pianos 1998*
Three Night Songs 1964, 1980, 2010
Three Sonatinas
Toccata- "The Dark Riders" 1969; Shawnee Press
Travels 1970; Shawnee
Two Nocturnes 1976
Voyages 2001*
Woodland Adventures 1988*
Noon (Robinson Jeffers
) 1944-45; revised 2004*
Sea Fever (John Masefield
) 1945
Music I Heard With You (Conrad Aiken
) 1946-47
Granite (Lew Sarett) 1948*
She Weeps Over Rahoon (James Joyce
) 1950*
Dark Hills (Edward Arlington Robinson) 1950
Spring, the Sweet Spring (Thomas Nashe
) 1950-51
Tulmutuous Moment (Lew Sarett) 1951*
Desire in Spring (Francis Ledwidge
) 1952
Evening (Rupert Brooke
) 1952*
To Helen (Edgar Allan Poe
) 1953
Remember Me (Christina Rossetti
) 1954
The Blackbird (William Ernest Henley
) 1955
Music When Soft Voices Die (Percy Bysshe Shelley
) 1957
Dry Spell (Lizzi Morrison) 1957*
River Roses (D.H. Lawrence) 1958*
Dover Beach
(Matthew Arnold
) 1958
In the Evening of Inhabiting Mists (Linda Joy) 1959*
Spring (Jack Wertz) 1960*
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (Edward Lear
) 1960
Bobby Shafto (Mother Goose
) 1961
Laura Sleeping (Charles Cotton
) 1962
Hymn of Praise (The Jewish Union Prayerbook) 1962
The Sun has Set (Emily Brontë
) 1964-65
The Solitary Reaper
with flute and piano (William Wordsworth
) 1966
Harvest Song with flute and piano (Joseph Campbell (poet)
)1967*
Caterpillar (Lillian Vaneda) 1967; Revised in 1992 as Firefly (June Presswood)
Night Piece (Joseph Campbell (poet)
) 1970*
The River (Patrick MacDonogh
) 1971, revised 2009*
On the Isle of Skye
(Richard Faith) 1973
I have Embarked for voice, cello (and violin) and piano;(Jean de la Ville Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont; trans. by Martha Belen) 1975
Chant with cello and piano (vocalise) 1976
It is a Beauteous Evening (William Wordsworth
) 1978
The Lake Isle of Innisfree (William Butler Yeats
) 1980
The Wild Swans at Coole
(William Butler Yeats) 1981
The Wind Blows Out of the Gates of the Day (William Butler Yeats) 1981
To Celia (Drink to me only with thine eyes
, Ben Jonson
after Philostratus
) 1982
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty (William Butler Yeats
) 1982; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
O, the Month of May (Thomas Dekker (writer)) 1982
Sonnet 54
(O, how much more does beauty beauteous seem, William Shakespeare
) 1982
In the Land of Sleeping Seeds for two high voices (Mary Stigers) 1982*
It was a Lover and his Lass (William Shakespeare
) 1982
The Song of Wandering Aengus (William Butler Yeats
) 1982
I Hear the Shadowy Horses (William Butler Yeats
) 1982
If I Were (poet unknown) 1982
Ships for voice, cello (and violin) and piano (Jean de la Ville Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont; trans. by Martha Belen) 1983
Stanzas Written in Dejection near Naples (Percy Bysshe Shelley
) 1984*
Flight (James Wood) 1984*
Why Must I Go (James Wood) 1984*
Perhaps (James Wood) 1984*
Though I Speak (Corinthians I, 13, St. Paul) 1985*
Annabel Lee
(Edgar Allan Poe
) 1985
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
(Christopher Marlowe
) 1985
Serenade (anon. medieval Latin; trans. by Helen Waddell
) 1985
Sonnet 116
(Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare
) 1986*
The City in the Sea
(Edgar Allan Poe
) 1989
To Jane or The Keen Stars were Twinkling (Percy Bysshe Shelley
) 1989
Echo (Christina Rossetti
) 1991
Spring Quiet (Christina Rossetti) 1991
No Music in the Wind (Lou Anna Thomas) 1991*
My Heart is like a Singing Bird (Christina Rossetti) 1992
Scenes from Macbeth for Soprano, Baritone and Piano (William Shakespeare) 1992*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano (Richard Faith) 1992*
Return of Spring (Ssü-K-ung T'u; trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 1992
Absence (Abū Bakr al-Turushi; trans. by Cola Franzen
) 1993*
Serene Evening (Muhammad ibn Ghālib al-Rusāfi; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Split my Heart (Ibn Hazm
; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Leavetaking (Ibn Jakh; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Oh, Fateful Night (Ibn Safr al-Marīnī; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Winter Journey (William Lavonis) 1993
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters (James Joyce
) 1993*
To Chloris (Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet) 1993*
Where are you going to, my pretty maid? (Mother Goose
) 1994
Jenny Wren (Mother Goose) 1994
I saw three ships (Mother Goose) 1994
The Queen of Hearts (Mother Goose) 1994
God Be in My Head (Sarum Primer) 1994
What Sweeter Music (Robert Herrick
) 1994
So all day long the noise of battle rolled (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) 1994*
Crossing the Bar
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson) 1994
Wisdom is Sweeter than Honey (Makeda, Queen of Sheba) 1994*
Come, my Beloved (Song of Songs
: The Shulammite) 1994*
I Bind you by Oath (A Roman Spell) 1994*
I Cannot Dance, O Lord (Mechtild of Magdeburg) 1994*
So, we'll go no more a roving
, duet for tenor and baritone (Lord Byron)1995; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Isles of Greece (Lord Byron) 1995
A Sailor's Song (Audrey Weinreis) 1995
The Isle of Pines (Po Chü-i trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 1995
Time does not bring relief (Edna St. Vincent Millay
) 1995*
To a Waterfowl (William Cullen Bryant
) 1996
The Death of a Conquerer (Jared Freedeen) 1996*
Though the Way be Dark (Carl A. Dallinger) 1996
Autumn Memories (Carl A. Dallinger) 1996
A Moment in Time (Carl A. Dallinger) 1997
Old Mother Goose (Mother Goose
) 1997
My Mother Said (Mother Goose) 1997
Sing a Song of Sixpence (Mother Goose) 1997
Old Woman, Old Woman (Mother Goose) 1997
Love is not all (Edna St. Vincent Millay
) 1998*
And you as well must die, beloved dust (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 1998*
Low Moon Land (Francis Ledwidge
) 1998*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano (Richard Faith) 2000*
Water (Michael Ard) 2000; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints http://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Stolen Child
(William Butler Yeats
) 2001; Classical Vocal Reprints
Prelude (John Millington Synge
) 2001*
Vocalise 2001*
Fire (Michael Ard) 2001; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Air (Michale Ard) 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Earth (Michael Ard) 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Dead Poet, duet for tenor and baritone (Lord Alfred Douglas
) 2002*
O Spirit of the Summertime for High Voice, Cello and Piano (William Allingham
) 2003*
At the Mid Hour of Night (Thomas Moore
) 2005*
Sudden Light (Dante Gabriel Rossetti
) 2005*
The Fiddler of Dooney (William Butler Yeats) 2007; Classical Vocal Reprints
Verses from Lamentations (Jeremiah
) 2007*
Sonnet 104
(William Shakespeare) 2007*
Drifting (Li Po (Li Bai
) trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 2009*
The Rose of Tralee
(William Pembroke Mulchinock) 2009*
Echoes: Two Songs in One (John Todhunter
, Thomas Moore) 2010*
Poems from the Voices of Gaia (Michael Ard) 2010; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Ancient Wind (Po chü-i trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 2010*
Sonnet 116
, new setting (William Shakespeare) 2011*
There Will Be Rest (Sara Teasdale
); for Karen Krueger 2011*
Music I heard With You — David Jimerson Sings Songs of Richard Faith http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=92989
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Lesley Manning, soprano; Julie Simson, mezzo-soprano; William Lavonis, tenor; Kurt Ollmann, baritone; Elizabeth Rodgers, piano; Richard Faith, piano. eDream Studios, Milwaukee, WI.http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-Songs-Richard-Faith/dp/B0002JFRQQ
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Brenda Baker, soprano; Richard Faith, piano. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7150311
Rhapsody-Chamber Music of Richard Faith http://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Chamber-Music-Richard-Faith/dp/B0031HOXQQ
Songs of Love and Longing, Valerie Errante, soprano http://www.albanyrecords.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY1035
The Songs of Richard Faith. Joseph Hopkins, baritone; Richard Faith, piano. Hopkins Recording Company
Incantations and Rhymes. Trio Ariana
The Ensemble da Camera of Washington. Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
New Works for Bassoon. Suite for Bassoon and Piano
The Catalina Chamber Orchestra. Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Anderson, Ruth. Contemporary American Composers, a Biographical Dictionary. 2nd ed. Boston: G.K. Hall & C0., 1982
Faith, Richard. Interview by William Lavonis. January 3-4, 1991, Reston, Va. Tape recording.
Faith, Richard. The Songs of Richard Faith. Volumes I, II, III. Geneseo, NY: Leyerle Publications, 1993, 1997, 2001.
Kimball, Carol. Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature. Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006.
Lavonis, William. "The Songs of Richard Faith." DMA Thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1992.
Lavonis, William. "The Songs of Richard Faith." The NATS Journal, Sept/Oct, 1994.
Chamber Music of Richard Faith-Music http://www.kermitpeters.net/iWeb/KermitPeters/Richard_Faith_KermitPeters%20.html
Leyerle Publications: The Songs of Richard Faith-Music http://www.leyerlepublications.com/?v=song_anths_d
The Official Site of Richard Faith http://lorilovelllaux.com/richardfaith/
Remember Me-Songs by Richard Faith-CD http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-Songs-Richard-Faith/dp/B0002JFRQQ
Rhapsody-Chamber Music Of Richard Faith-CD http://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Chamber-Music-Richard-Faith/dp/B0031HOXQQ
The Songs of Richard Faith: 1990-1995-Thesis http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9815912/
Biography
Richard Bruce Faith was born on March 20, 1926, in Evansville, Indiana. His mother was a homemaker active in community affairs, and his father, a dentist. Both parents were very supportive of his choice to become a musician as they too came from musical backgrounds. Faith's mother studied piano before her five children were born; his father picked up musical skills without a teacher and played violin and sang in the church choir. Around age eight, Richard began to study piano with his fifteen-year-old cousin and he soon began improvising melodies on the keyboard. Between the ages of eleven and twelve he began writing down his piano compositions, one of which later became a work for women's chorus entitled "Daffodils" (I Wandered Lonely as a CloudI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a poem by William Wordsworth.It was inspired by an April 15, 1802 event in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a "long belt" of daffodils...
) with poetry by William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
.
Before his natural bent toward composing could take root and grow, Faith embarked on a career as a concert pianist. In 1940 at age fourteen, he appeared with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra
Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra
The Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra in Evansville, Indiana. Founded in 1934, the orchestra consists of approximately 80 musicians led by conductor Alfred Savia...
, and after a few years of study he entered Chicago Musical College
Chicago Musical College
Chicago Musical College is a division of Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt UniversityIt was founded in 1867, less than four decades after the city of Chicago was incorporated...
, where he received both undergraduate and master's degrees in piano performance. At age nineteen he placed in a collegiate contest and was given the opportunity to perform in Chicago's Orchestra Hall. The work was Chopin's Concerto in F Minor (Op.21). This was followed in 1947 by his professional debut at Kimball Hall (Chicago) and, in 1948, by a return to Orchestra Hall for a solo recital and an engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
. During the early fifties Faith concertized as a recital accompanist for both singers and instrumentalists in programs that included his own compositions.
Faith's first instructor in composition was Max Wald, with whom he worked from 1947-49. In the Fall of 1954 he began doctoral work in composition at Indiana University in Bloomington with Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden was a German and American composer and music teacher, who studied under and was heavily influenced by Paul Hindemith...
. Two years later Faith received his first full-time teaching appointment at Morningside College
Morningside College
Morningside College is a private, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside College is a private, four-year, co-educational liberal arts institution. Morningside has 21 buildings on a ...
in Sioux City, Iowa. Although he was devoted to teaching piano, his great love for composition continued to flourish. In 1960 he went to Rome as a Fulbright Scholar, studying both piano and composition with Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti was an Italian pianist and piano teacher.Agosti was born in Forlì in 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldi, earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his...
at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
. He chose Italy because of his interest in Italian history and its early Renaissance art. He also was seeking the "clarity of Italian musical expression."
Faith spent the greatest part of his life at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
in Tucson, where he assumed the position of Assistant Professor of Music (Piano) in 1961. He remained at the school until 1988, with an interim year at Morningside College in 1968. Many of his most popular compositions are the fruits of his tenure at Arizona: songs, choral works, piano concertos, orchestral and chamber works and opera.
Faith's first published work was the "Legend for Piano," printed by Summy-Birchard in 1967. Shawnee Press
Shawnee Press
Shawnee Press, Inc., is a music publisher and one of the largest publishers of printed music and recordings in the world. The Company publishes several music types including choral, vocal and instrumental in a variety of styles....
began publishing his compositions in 1968, followed by G.Schirmer Inc. in 1971 and Belwin Mills in 1974. In the late 1970s Faith's music achieved significant recognition with performances in London, Washington, D.C., and Tucson, and commercial recordings were released. From 1982-1988 he received annual awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Since his retirement from teaching in 1988, Richard Faith relocated from Tucson a number of times: to Washington, D.C., California, back to his home town of Evansville, to Denver and now he makes his home again in Tucson. During the last 20 years performances, publications, dissertations and recordings of his works have flourished. To date he has written over 57 chamber works, 21 choral arrangements, 4 operas, 16 orchestral pieces, 61 keyboard works and over 121 songs.
Musical Style and Songs
Faith's music displays a freely modulating harmonic language within the boundaries of tonality that combines neo-romantic and impressionistic qualities. With Debussy, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff as important influences on his music, and Brahms as a model with respect to form, Faith also shares musical traits with Vaughan Williams, particularly in the areas of modality and harmonic color and with Roger QuilterRoger Quilter
Roger Quilter was an English composer, known particularly for his songs.-Biography:Born in Hove, Sussex, Quilter was a younger son of Sir William Quilter, 1st Baronet, who was a noted art collector...
, the Victorian whose songs displayed a trait known as "decorous Romanticism." Faith's English flavor is even further highlighted by the composer's choice of poetry, much of which comes from British authors.
Faith's song output spans the years 1944 to the present--his entire life as a composer. The over 120 settings run the stylistic gamut from sophisticated concert pieces to simple miniatures, duets, vocalises and selections with obbligato instruments, including flute, cello, viola and harp. His settings are generally for medium voice. Some have been written for specific singers to whom he has dedicated the music. Many of the songs are grouped according to subject matter, but are not necessarily musically connected. They may be sung as sets or separately, and may be transposed to suit the singer. Faith's tempo indications use traditional Italian terminology and the metronome markings are only suggestions. He is a gracious composer who allows individuals to develop their own interpretations of his music.
Because Faith himself is an award-winning pianist, many of the songs have sophisticated accompaniments. Sometimes the piano doubles the voice, though hardly ever through an entire piece. At other times the piano will play a countermelody to the voice to form a kind of obbligato. Like Debussy, Faith has a fondness for triplets, because of the movement and flow they add to a song. Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
's "Spring, the Sweet Spring" (1950) is an exercise in perpetual motion for the accompanist, with only brief repose at the end of each stanza. This inventive, florid accompaniment, along with Faith's strict use of ABA form, thin texture, and a definite key signature (G) lend a neo-baroque character to this Elizabethan poem. The harmony, however, remains contemporary, with Faith's use of incidental chromatics and added-note chords.
Like many composers who rely on modality rather than tonality, Faith rarely uses key signatures. His harmonic idiom displays a changing palette of colors marked by simultaneous cross-relations, the Lydian sharped fourth, and combinations of this sharped fourth and Mixolydian flatted seventh. Faith has denied any desire to pursue more avant-garde idioms. Earlier experiments in progressive styles met with little success, and if anything beyond the romantic exists in Faith's music, it may be the influence of Hindemith which was furthered by his studies at Indiana University with Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden
Bernhard Heiden was a German and American composer and music teacher, who studied under and was heavily influenced by Paul Hindemith...
, himself a Hindemith pupil. Traces of this influence can be discerned in the appearance of quartal/quintal harmony in many of the songs. This is seen in "The Blackbird" by the Victorian author William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
composed in 1955. The accompaniment begins with broken ninth and tenth intervals supported by mildly dissonant chords; it is then followed by a hocket-like passage. This underlying texture continues through the first half of the song, contrasting with legato vocal melody.
Faith's use of arch form or "coming full circle" reflects the influence of Brahms, whose many songs fall into this structural category. He may end with a literal repeat, a transposed portion, or only a fragment of A, and may repeat text, music, or both in the process. Arch form is also reflected in the use of dynamics. Many songs begin quietly, reach a climax in an interior section, and then end as they began.
The composer's selection of poetry brings to the foreground some of literature's most famous writers in works that in this day in age have been unjustly neglected by the general public: Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
, Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
, Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the highly influential The Compleat Gamester which has been attributed to him.-Early life:He was born at Beresford Hall...
, and Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
, to name a few. That Faith is well read is apparent not only in his choice of fine poetry to set to music, but also in his allusions to literature in many of his instrumental works. In addition, he often selects longer poems than would be considered usual for a song and writes few miniatures. The success of setting a lengthy piece of verse seems to depend upon Faith's ability to delay the listener's climactic expectations by moving through harmonic ambiguity until reaching an emotionally charged section that merits a cadence--usually on open sonorities without the thirds. This event may repeat itself many times with a greater or lesser dynamic level, thereby expanding his music resources.
Faith's songs adhere strictly to the rhythm dictated by the text of the poem. In fact, he simultaneously composes both melody and accompaniment by singing the text and playing the keyboard and immediately writing it down. Faith's adherence to the text rhythm results in shifting meters to accommodate phrases of varying length and text-derived rhythmic figures often provide the basis for his accompaniments
For subject matter Faith prefers nature imagery over love poetry and until 1994 with his Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
Rhymes, there had been only one comical song--Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat
The Owl and the Pussycat
"The Owl and the Pussycat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871.- Background :Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds...
," written in 1960. Many of Faith's settings reflect the nationality of the poet and the time period in which the poem was written. For example, Four Love Songs on Elizabethan lyrics (1982) display thin textures, balanced forms, and traditional harmonic progressions, while the Jean de La Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont songs have a French character that reveals Faith's debt to Ravel and Debussy. More recently, Faith's songs on Moorish poetry evoke an exotic, middle eastern quality. In the beautiful setting of Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
's "To Celia" (commonly known as "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
"Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" is a popular English song, set to the lyrics of Ben Jonson's 1616 poem "Song. To Celia." John Addington Symonds demonstrated in The Academy 16 that almost every line has its counterpart in the Epistles of Philostratus, notably Epistle xxx...
"), Faith, by stressing the poem's inherent passion, brings a fresh outlook to a lyric which had become too familiar in arrangements of the old English setting. He achieves this through an operatically conceived vocal line: high and sustained, and encompassing a range of an octave and a fifth.
Two works that do not necessarily fall into specific stylistic categories, but deserve mention nonetheless, are Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
's "Music When Soft Voices Die" and the miniature "Remember Me" by the Victorian Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
. The spontaneous quality of the Shelley song reveals the poem's great effect on Faith, who, after nearly two years without song writing (1957), produced one of his most frequently performed pieces. The introduction's angular, twisting melody, taken later by the vocal line, lends a troubled, unsettling quality to the lyric. "Remember Me" was written in 1954 and is unusual for its brevity. The poet, Christina Rossetti, was an Englishwoman of Italian descent and is best known for her words to the hymns "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" and "Love Came Down at Christmas." Faith set three more of her poems which are included in the first published volume of songs by Leyerle Publications.
Many of Faith's songs have themes related to the sea, and there are a number of others in which the sea figures as an integral element in the poem. This stems from the composer"s extreme fascination with water, having been raised near the high banks of the wide Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. "Sea Fever" (John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
), one of Faith's few biographically-influenced songs, displays such a depth of emotion rare for a nineteen-year-old. It is an important early song because it established many compositional techniques to which the composer returned throughout his lyrical output. Another "sea" example is "Ships" an English translation of "Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés" by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, the French World War I poet killed in action in 1914. This poem was also set by Fauré in that composer's final song cycle L'horizon chimérique
L'horizon chimérique
L'horizon chimérique, Op. 118, is a song cycle by Gabriel Fauré, of four mélodies for voice and piano. Composed in 1921, the cycle is based on four of the poems from the collection of the same name by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont.-Composition:...
. Faith's song is scored for cello obbligato, piano, and female voice.
Faith skillfully translates into music the emotions behind the words of the world's greatest authors. Although many of his songs display common characteristics, each reveals an approach that allows the poem's individuality to shine through. Performers of art song, both singers and pianists, will appreciate Faith's output, considering the variety of poems he set to music and the gracious way he treats the voice and piano in his neo-romantic/impressionistic manner. Somewhat reticent of theoretical discussions, however, Faith considers himself only to be a composer of the heart, who relies on his musical gifts to bring joy to others.
Chamber and Instrumental Music
(available from kermitpeters.net unless otherwise indicated)Air for Saxophone and Piano
Andante and Allegro for Bassoon and Piano 2011*
Chant and Movement for Viola and Piano 2002*
Concerto for Clarinet and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion
Doric Dances for English Horn (or Alto Saxophone) and Piano 2000
Elegy for Clarinet and Piano 1950*
Elegy for Clarinet Choir
Essays for Oboe and Piano 1964
Evocation for Trombone and Piano arr. from "Music I Heard With You" 1987*
Evocations for Trumpet (Bb or C) and Piano 2006
Fables for Viola and Piano 1974*
Fantasy for Violin and Piano
Fantasy Trio No. 1 for Violin, Clarinet or Oboe and Piano 1982
Fantasy Trio No. 2 for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1988
Four Duets for Violin and Cello
Harvest Song for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Highland Skecthes for Baritone Saxophone and Piano 2011*
Incantations for Soprano, Viola and Piano 1994
Miniatures for Oboe and Piano 1988; Belwin Mills
Moorish Dances for Violin, Percussion and Piano 2002
Movements for Horn and Piano 1966; Shawnee Press
Oboe Concerto 1982
Pastorale for English Horn (or Alto Saxophone) and Piano 2000
Phantasies for Saxophone and Piano 1985
Poems for Cello and Piano (based on four Faith songs) 1984
Quintet for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Harp 1956
Rhapsody for Cello and Piano 1960*
Rhapsody for Flute and Piano 2007
Rhapsody for Violin and Piano in Four Movements 1954-55*
Romance for Violin and Piano 1952*
Second Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1995
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano 2001
The Solitary Reaper for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Sonata for Cello and Piano 1985
Sonata for Flute and Piano 1957
Sonata for Trumpet and Piano 1957
Sonata No. 2 for Trumpet and Piano 1985
Sonata for Viola and Piano
Sonata for Violin and Piano 1948*
String Quartet 1955*
Suite for Bassoon and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Suite for Clarinet and Piano 2007
Three Duets for Violin and Viola
Three Nocturnes for Violin and Piano 1970*
Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano
Trio for Flute, Cello and Harp 1984
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano 2003
Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano 1965
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano
Two Pieces for Brass
Two Poems for Voice, Violin, Cello and Piano (Mirmont), arr 2010
Two Romances for Violin and Piano
Two Songs for Violin and Piano 2000*
Two Sea Pieces for Clarinet and Piano 1966
Various Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (Air, Eventide, Harlequin, Serenade) 1987*
Woodwind Quintet
Choral
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters for SSA and Piano (James JoyceJames Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
) 1966
The Blackbird for SATB and Piano (William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
) 1965
Creation, A Cantata for Soloists and SSATBB 1993
Daffodils for SSA and Piano (William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
) 1970
God Be in my Head for SATB and Piano 1990
Hymn of Praise for SATB and Piano or Organ 1989
Indian Summer for SATB and Piano (Wilfred Campbell) 1964
Kyrie for SATB and String Orchestra (Organ version) 1990
Mass (Missa Hominum) for SATB, Soloists and Piano 1986
Music I Heard With You for SATB and Piano (Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
) 1968; G. Schirmer
O Spirit of the Summertime for SATB and Piano or String Quartet (William Allingham
William Allingham
William Allingham was an Irish man of letters and a poet.-Biography:He was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland and was the son of the manager of a local bank who was of English descent...
)1970
On the Isle of Skye for TTBB (Richard Faith) 1986
Remember Me in various vocal arrangements (Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
) 2003, 2006
Sea Fever for TBB and Piano (John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
) 1965; for SATB and Piano 1980
Sleep Child from The Little Match Girl for SATB and Piano (Michael Ard)1994
Sonnet 54 for TTBB (William Shakespeare) 1986
Spring, the Sweet Spring for TTBB (Thomas Nashe) 1986
Though I Speak for SATB and Piano (St. Paul) 1991
The Waters of Babylon, A Cantata in 4 Movements for Baritone Solo, SATB Chorus and Piano (Jeremiah, Isaiah) 1976
The Wayfarer for SATB and Violin, Viola, Cello, Horn and Piano (Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
) 1996
What Sweeter Music for SATB and Piano (Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick may refer to:* Robert Herrick , American novelist* Robert Herrick , English poet...
) 1993
Opera
(available from kermitpeters.nethttp://web.mac.com/kermitpeters/iWeb/KermitPeters/Richard_Faith_KermitPeters%20.html)Beauty and the Beast in Three Acts for Piano, Orchestra or Small Chamber Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1992
The Little Match Girl an Opera in One Act for Piano or Chamber Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1979; orchestration 1990-91
Sleeping Beauty, an Opera in Two Acts for Piano or Orchestra (Michael Ard) 1970
The Wydah's Gold in Five Scenes for Piano or Chamber Orchestra (Robert Weller) 1997
Orchestra
Aureole 1981Concert Overture 1988
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Concerto #1 for Piano and Orchestra 1969; kermitpeters.net
Concerto #2 for Piano and Orchestra 1975; Chamber arrangement 1998
Concerto #3 for Piano and Orchestra 1982
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra in Three Movements 1987
Elegy 1966; kermitpeters.net
Festivals in three movements 1980; originally Concerto for Two Pianos 1972; kermitpeters.net
Idylls in Three Movements for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra 1982
Lydian Overture 1984
Odyssey 1965
A Pastoral Overture 1964
Phantasie for Piano and Orchestra 1977
Processional for String Orchestra 1994
Sonata No. 1 for Piano in three movements; orchestrated 1995
Piano and Keyboard
Allegheny Serenade for Two Pianos 1998*Andante and Allegro for Two Pianos 1998*
Arabesques 2000*
Carousels 1991; Belwin Mills
Carousels for Two Pianos 1972*
Concerto for Two Pianos 1973-74; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Dance Suite for 4 Hands 1990
Dances 1977; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Diferencias 1969*
Elegy for Organ (arr. of "Elegy for Orchestra") 1991*
Etude - "Stratification" 1984
Family Portraits 2006
Fantasy No. 1 1968*
Fantasy No. 2 1987; Shawnee Press
Finger Paintings 1966; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Five Preludes and a Nocturne 1967; Shawnee Press
Floating
Four Cameos 1971; Shawnee Press
Four Timbres 2009
Gaelic Suite 1993*
Gallantries 2009
The Highwayman
Islands 1970,1985; Shawnee Press
Le Mont Saint Michel 2008*
Legend 1967; Summy Birchard
Little Preludes 1966*
Masquerades 1988; Belwin Mills
Moments in a Child's World 1968; Shawnee Press
Night Piece
Nocturne 1975
Pastoral Suite 1989, revised 2009; Shawnee Press
Piano Concerto #1 1969
Piano Concerto #2 1975
Piano Concerto #3 1982
Performance Practices in Late 20th Century Piano; Alfred Publishing Co.
Piano Transcriptions of Songs 2005-10*
Pipes 1987; Belwin Mills
Recollections, Nine Short Pieces 1969, 1974; Shawnee Press
Rhapsody 1980*
Russian Folk Tales 1990; Belwin Mills
Service Sonata for Organ 1970*
Six Preludes and a Nocturne
Skandian Suite 2008
Sketches 1987; Belwin Mills
Sonata No. 1 1962, revised 2010
Sonata No. 2 1957
Sonata No. 3 1958
Sonatina 1987
Sonatina 1987; Belwin Mills
Souvenir from 12 by 11 1979; Alfred Publishing Co.
Suite "Trouveres" for Harpsichord 2002*
Tableaus, four hands 1987; Belwin Mills
Three Etudes 1978, revised 2009
Three for Two for Two Pianos 1998*
Three Night Songs 1964, 1980, 2010
Three Sonatinas
Toccata- "The Dark Riders" 1969; Shawnee Press
Travels 1970; Shawnee
Two Nocturnes 1976
Voyages 2001*
Woodland Adventures 1988*
Songs
(published by Leyerle Publicationshttp://www.leyerlepublications.com/?v=song_anths_d unless otherwise indicated)Noon (Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.-Life:Jeffers was born in...
) 1944-45; revised 2004*
Sea Fever (John Masefield
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
) 1945
Music I Heard With You (Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
) 1946-47
Granite (Lew Sarett) 1948*
She Weeps Over Rahoon (James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
) 1950*
Dark Hills (Edward Arlington Robinson) 1950
Spring, the Sweet Spring (Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
) 1950-51
Tulmutuous Moment (Lew Sarett) 1951*
Desire in Spring (Francis Ledwidge
Francis Ledwidge
Francis Edward Ledwidge was an Irish war poet from County Meath. Sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.-Early life:...
) 1952
Evening (Rupert Brooke
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
) 1952*
To Helen (Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
) 1953
Remember Me (Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
) 1954
The Blackbird (William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
) 1955
Music When Soft Voices Die (Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
) 1957
Dry Spell (Lizzi Morrison) 1957*
River Roses (D.H. Lawrence) 1958*
Dover Beach
Dover Beach
"Dover Beach" is a short lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection New Poems, but surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849...
(Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
) 1958
In the Evening of Inhabiting Mists (Linda Joy) 1959*
Spring (Jack Wertz) 1960*
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
) 1960
Bobby Shafto (Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
) 1961
Laura Sleeping (Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton
Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the highly influential The Compleat Gamester which has been attributed to him.-Early life:He was born at Beresford Hall...
) 1962
Hymn of Praise (The Jewish Union Prayerbook) 1962
The Sun has Set (Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
) 1964-65
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
"The Solitary Reaper" is a ballad by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and one of his best-known works in English literature.'"The Solitary Reaper" is one of Wordsworth's most famous post-Lyrical Ballads lyrics...
with flute and piano (William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
) 1966
Harvest Song with flute and piano (Joseph Campbell (poet)
Joseph Campbell (poet)
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet and lyricist. He wrote under the Gaelicised version of his name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil...
)1967*
Caterpillar (Lillian Vaneda) 1967; Revised in 1992 as Firefly (June Presswood)
Night Piece (Joseph Campbell (poet)
Joseph Campbell (poet)
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet and lyricist. He wrote under the Gaelicised version of his name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil...
) 1970*
The River (Patrick MacDonogh
Patrick MacDonogh
Patrick MacDonogh was an Irish poet. He was born in Dublin and educated at Avoca School and Trinity College, Dublin. MacDonogh worked as a teacher and commercial artist before joining the staff of Arthur Guinness Son & Co., where he later held a senior executive post.He published five books of...
) 1971, revised 2009*
On the Isle of Skye
Skye
Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...
(Richard Faith) 1973
I have Embarked for voice, cello (and violin) and piano;(Jean de la Ville Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont; trans. by Martha Belen) 1975
Chant with cello and piano (vocalise) 1976
It is a Beauteous Evening (William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
) 1978
The Lake Isle of Innisfree (William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) 1980
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Wild Swans at Coole is a collection of poems by William Butler Yeats, first published in 1917. It is also the name of a poem in that collection...
(William Butler Yeats) 1981
The Wind Blows Out of the Gates of the Day (William Butler Yeats) 1981
To Celia (Drink to me only with thine eyes
Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes
"Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" is a popular English song, set to the lyrics of Ben Jonson's 1616 poem "Song. To Celia." John Addington Symonds demonstrated in The Academy 16 that almost every line has its counterpart in the Epistles of Philostratus, notably Epistle xxx...
, Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
after Philostratus
Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus , , called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probably around 172, and is said by the Suda to have been living in the reign of emperor Philip the Arab . His death...
) 1982
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty (William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) 1982; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
O, the Month of May (Thomas Dekker (writer)) 1982
Sonnet 54
Sonnet 54
Shakespeare's Sonnet 54 uses an extended metaphor to develop the theme of the beauty of the beloved and the preservative power of verse.-Introduction:...
(O, how much more does beauty beauteous seem, William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
) 1982
In the Land of Sleeping Seeds for two high voices (Mary Stigers) 1982*
It was a Lover and his Lass (William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
) 1982
The Song of Wandering Aengus (William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) 1982
I Hear the Shadowy Horses (William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) 1982
If I Were (poet unknown) 1982
Ships for voice, cello (and violin) and piano (Jean de la Ville Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont; trans. by Martha Belen) 1983
Stanzas Written in Dejection near Naples (Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
) 1984*
Flight (James Wood) 1984*
Why Must I Go (James Wood) 1984*
Perhaps (James Wood) 1984*
Though I Speak (Corinthians I, 13, St. Paul) 1985*
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He...
(Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
) 1985
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a poem written by the English poet Christopher Marlowe and published in 1599 . In addition to being one of the most well-known love poems in the English language, it is considered one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the...
(Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
) 1985
Serenade (anon. medieval Latin; trans. by Helen Waddell
Helen Waddell
Helen Jane Waddell was an Irish poet, translator and playwright.-Biography:She was born in Tokyo, the tenth and youngest child of Hugh Waddell, a Presbyterian minister and missionary who was lecturing in the Imperial University. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her...
) 1985
Sonnet 116
Sonnet 116
Shakespeare's sonnet 116 was first published in 1609. It is about eternal and unchanging love and has been cherished in the past four hundred years for its hopeful and promising note. Its structure and form are a typical example of the Shakespearean sonnet....
(Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
) 1986*
The City in the Sea
The City in the Sea
"The City in the Sea" is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. The final version was published in 1845, but an earlier version was published as "The Doomed City" in 1831 and, later, as "The City of Sin". The poem tells the story of a city ruled by Death using common elements from Gothic fiction...
(Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
) 1989
To Jane or The Keen Stars were Twinkling (Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
) 1989
Echo (Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
) 1991
Spring Quiet (Christina Rossetti) 1991
No Music in the Wind (Lou Anna Thomas) 1991*
My Heart is like a Singing Bird (Christina Rossetti) 1992
Scenes from Macbeth for Soprano, Baritone and Piano (William Shakespeare) 1992*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano (Richard Faith) 1992*
Return of Spring (Ssü-K-ung T'u; trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 1992
Absence (Abū Bakr al-Turushi; trans. by Cola Franzen
Cola Franzen
-Life:She has published fifteen books of translations, by notable Spanish and Latin American authors.She is a member of ALTA and vice-president of Language Research, Inc., founded by I.A. Richards, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.She supported James N. Yamazaki's story publication...
) 1993*
Serene Evening (Muhammad ibn Ghālib al-Rusāfi; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Split my Heart (Ibn Hazm
Ibn Hazm
Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ) was an Andalusian philosopher, litterateur, psychologist, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present-day Spain...
; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Leavetaking (Ibn Jakh; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Oh, Fateful Night (Ibn Safr al-Marīnī; trans. by Cola Franzen) 1993*
Winter Journey (William Lavonis) 1993
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters (James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
) 1993*
To Chloris (Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet) 1993*
Where are you going to, my pretty maid? (Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
) 1994
Jenny Wren (Mother Goose) 1994
I saw three ships (Mother Goose) 1994
The Queen of Hearts (Mother Goose) 1994
God Be in My Head (Sarum Primer) 1994
What Sweeter Music (Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick may refer to:* Robert Herrick , American novelist* Robert Herrick , English poet...
) 1994
So all day long the noise of battle rolled (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) 1994*
Crossing the Bar
Crossing the Bar
"Crossing the Bar" is an 1889 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that is traditionally the last poem in collections of his work. It is thought that Tennyson wrote it as his own elegy, as the poem has a tone of finality about it...
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson) 1994
Wisdom is Sweeter than Honey (Makeda, Queen of Sheba) 1994*
Come, my Beloved (Song of Songs
Song of songs
Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:* Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants* A generic term for medleysPlays...
: The Shulammite) 1994*
I Bind you by Oath (A Roman Spell) 1994*
I Cannot Dance, O Lord (Mechtild of Magdeburg) 1994*
So, we'll go no more a roving
So, we'll go no more a roving
"So, we'll go no more a roving" is a poem, written by Lord Byron , and included in a letter to Thomas Moore on 28 February 1817. Moore published the poem in 1830 as part of Letters and Journals of Lord Byron....
, duet for tenor and baritone (Lord Byron)1995; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Isles of Greece (Lord Byron) 1995
A Sailor's Song (Audrey Weinreis) 1995
The Isle of Pines (Po Chü-i trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 1995
Time does not bring relief (Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
) 1995*
To a Waterfowl (William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
) 1996
The Death of a Conquerer (Jared Freedeen) 1996*
Though the Way be Dark (Carl A. Dallinger) 1996
Autumn Memories (Carl A. Dallinger) 1996
A Moment in Time (Carl A. Dallinger) 1997
Old Mother Goose (Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
) 1997
My Mother Said (Mother Goose) 1997
Sing a Song of Sixpence (Mother Goose) 1997
Old Woman, Old Woman (Mother Goose) 1997
Love is not all (Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
) 1998*
And you as well must die, beloved dust (Edna St. Vincent Millay) 1998*
Low Moon Land (Francis Ledwidge
Francis Ledwidge
Francis Edward Ledwidge was an Irish war poet from County Meath. Sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.-Early life:...
) 1998*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano (Richard Faith) 2000*
Water (Michael Ard) 2000; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints http://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Stolen Child
The Stolen Child
"The Stolen Child" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, published in 1889 in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.-Overview:The poem was written in 1886 and is considered to be one of Yeats's more notable early poems. The poem is based on Irish legend and concerns faeries beguiling a child to come...
(William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
) 2001; Classical Vocal Reprints
Prelude (John Millington Synge
John Millington Synge
Edmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre...
) 2001*
Vocalise 2001*
Fire (Michael Ard) 2001; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Air (Michale Ard) 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Earth (Michael Ard) 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Dead Poet, duet for tenor and baritone (Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas , nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde...
) 2002*
O Spirit of the Summertime for High Voice, Cello and Piano (William Allingham
William Allingham
William Allingham was an Irish man of letters and a poet.-Biography:He was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland and was the son of the manager of a local bank who was of English descent...
) 2003*
At the Mid Hour of Night (Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
) 2005*
Sudden Light (Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
) 2005*
The Fiddler of Dooney (William Butler Yeats) 2007; Classical Vocal Reprints
Verses from Lamentations (Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
) 2007*
Sonnet 104
Sonnet 104
Sonnet 104 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.-Synopsis:...
(William Shakespeare) 2007*
Drifting (Li Po (Li Bai
Li Bai
Li Bai , also known in the West by various other transliterations, especially Li Po, was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing...
) trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 2009*
The Rose of Tralee
The Rose of Tralee
The Rose of Tralee festival is an international competition which is celebrated among Irish communities all over the world. The festival takes its inspiration from a nineteenth century ballad of the same name about a woman called Mary, who because of her beauty was called The Rose of Tralee. The...
(William Pembroke Mulchinock) 2009*
Echoes: Two Songs in One (John Todhunter
John Todhunter
John Todhunter was an Irish poet and playwright who wrote seven volumes of poetry, and several plays.- Life :...
, Thomas Moore) 2010*
Poems from the Voices of Gaia (Michael Ard) 2010; Classical Vocal Reprintshttp://www.classicalvocalrep.com/
The Ancient Wind (Po chü-i trans. by L. Cranmer Byng) 2010*
Sonnet 116
Sonnet 116
Shakespeare's sonnet 116 was first published in 1609. It is about eternal and unchanging love and has been cherished in the past four hundred years for its hopeful and promising note. Its structure and form are a typical example of the Shakespearean sonnet....
, new setting (William Shakespeare) 2011*
There Will Be Rest (Sara Teasdale
Sara Teasdale
Sara Teasdale , was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sara Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and after her marriage in 1914 she went by the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger.-Biography:...
); for Karen Krueger 2011*
Discography
Incantations & Rhymes: Music for Soprano, Viola, and Piano. Karen Peeler, soprano; Henrietta Neeley, viola; Robin Guy, piano. Superdups, Tewksbury, MA.Music I heard With You — David Jimerson Sings Songs of Richard Faith http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=92989
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Lesley Manning, soprano; Julie Simson, mezzo-soprano; William Lavonis, tenor; Kurt Ollmann, baritone; Elizabeth Rodgers, piano; Richard Faith, piano. eDream Studios, Milwaukee, WI.http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-Songs-Richard-Faith/dp/B0002JFRQQ
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Brenda Baker, soprano; Richard Faith, piano. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7150311
Rhapsody-Chamber Music of Richard Faith http://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Chamber-Music-Richard-Faith/dp/B0031HOXQQ
Songs of Love and Longing, Valerie Errante, soprano http://www.albanyrecords.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY1035
The Songs of Richard Faith. Joseph Hopkins, baritone; Richard Faith, piano. Hopkins Recording Company
Incantations and Rhymes. Trio Ariana
The Ensemble da Camera of Washington. Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
New Works for Bassoon. Suite for Bassoon and Piano
The Catalina Chamber Orchestra. Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Further Reading
ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. 4th ed. New York: Jaques Cattell Press, 1980.Anderson, Ruth. Contemporary American Composers, a Biographical Dictionary. 2nd ed. Boston: G.K. Hall & C0., 1982
Faith, Richard. Interview by William Lavonis. January 3-4, 1991, Reston, Va. Tape recording.
Faith, Richard. The Songs of Richard Faith. Volumes I, II, III. Geneseo, NY: Leyerle Publications, 1993, 1997, 2001.
Kimball, Carol. Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature. Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006.
Lavonis, William. "The Songs of Richard Faith." DMA Thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1992.
Lavonis, William. "The Songs of Richard Faith." The NATS Journal, Sept/Oct, 1994.
External links
Brenda Baker-Remember Me-Songs of Richard Faith-CD http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7150311Chamber Music of Richard Faith-Music http://www.kermitpeters.net/iWeb/KermitPeters/Richard_Faith_KermitPeters%20.html
Leyerle Publications: The Songs of Richard Faith-Music http://www.leyerlepublications.com/?v=song_anths_d
The Official Site of Richard Faith http://lorilovelllaux.com/richardfaith/
Remember Me-Songs by Richard Faith-CD http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-Songs-Richard-Faith/dp/B0002JFRQQ
Rhapsody-Chamber Music Of Richard Faith-CD http://www.amazon.com/Rhapsody-Chamber-Music-Richard-Faith/dp/B0031HOXQQ
The Songs of Richard Faith: 1990-1995-Thesis http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9815912/