Elgar was pre-eminently the composer of large forms. Complex lengthy development of musical ideas was for him a measure of genius. His songs with the exception of the orchestral cycle Sea Pictures were not often the vehicles for his most striking ideas. Paradoxically he was also bedevilled by a fine literally taste. He once told a friend that he felt it better to set the best second-rate poetry to music for the most immortal verse is music already. Some of his songs are therefore settings of poets now all but forgotten such as Arthur Salmon and Gilbert Parker: to their verse his music might make a vital addition. Elgar's songs offer authentic Edwardianreflections which we can value now in their own terms. These songs are full of echoes of a master's thoughts - and especially in the songs written for the stage - flashes of his genius.

Medium Voice and Piano-Medium Voice and Piano. This collection of 5 art songs comes from Ancient Greek poetry. The music was written by William Bolcom and the poems were translated into English by Arnold Weinstein. Songs: On a Statue of a Runner · Unlucky Eutichus · An Encaustic Painting · Timomarchus's Picture of Medea in Rome · Praxiteles' Aphrodite.

Medium Voice and Piano-From The Diary Of Sally Hemings 18 songs with texts by Sandra Seaton. The singer performs from the perspective of Sally Hemings a slave of Thomas Jefferson with whom he had an intimate relationship.Includes vocal texts.