Reverberance

Nonsense and Sense - A Tribute to Gertrude Stein Written by Denis Daly Performed by Bev Stevens Introduction read by Bob Gonzalez Music: Excerpts from Three pieces for solo clarinet by Igor Stravinsky Performed by William McColl. Among authors, Gertrude Stein is one of the most celebrated - some would even say notorious - iconoclasts.  After starting out as a novelistic story-teller  she explored the notion that words have sufficient power in themselves to create context, and hence the historical structures represented by the novel and narrative poem became inessential, although still useful.    A writer like Gertrude Stein is an obvious target for parody.  However, no parody can be effective without an attempt to consider the integrity of the original author, obnoxious or maladroit though that person may be.  In devising the following piece, the following elements of Stein’s method and personality were evoked: 1) the repetitive and idiosyncratic use of verbiage; 2) the juxtaposition of images usually considered to be unrelated; 3) the persistent and often specious style of argumentation; 4) an obscure but persistent preoccupation with self-justification; 5) a wish to keep the reader at a respectful distance. Like many parodies, this piece is also a tribute.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to compile a substantial satire about an author for whom one has no respect. A joke usually seeks to diminish the dignity and worth of its subject: a parody rather strives to highlight the flaws in something which is greater than itself. Whether one wishes to admit it or not,  Gertrude Stein was a seminal figure in Twentieth Century Literature, and one whose contribution will be the source of study and discussion for generations to come.

Last Poems (1922) by A.E. Housman Performed by Alan Weyman Last Poems (1922) is the second and last of the two volumes of poems A. E. Housman published during his lifetime - the first, and better-known, being A Shropshire Lad (1896). Housman was an emotionally withdrawn man whose closest friend Moses Jackson had been his roommate when he was at Oxford in 1877-1882. In the 1920s, when Jackson was dying in Canada, Housman selected forty-one previously unpublished poems into a volume entitled Last Poems, for him to read. The introduction to the volume explains his rationale: I publish these poems, few though they are, because it is not likely that I shall ever be impelled to write much more. I can no longer expect to be revisited by the continuous excitement under which in the early months of 1895 I wrote the greater part of my first book, nor indeed could I well sustain it if it came; and it is best that what I have written should be printed while I am here to see it through the press and control its spelling and punctuation. About a quarter of this matter belongs to the April of the present year, but most of it to dates between 1895 and 1910. September 1922. Introduction I. THE WEST II (As I gird on for fighting) III (Her strong enchantments failing) IV. ILLIC JACET V. GRENADIER VI. LANCER VII (In valleys green and still) VIII (Soldier from the wars returning) IX (The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers) X (Could man be drunk for ever) XI (Yonder see the morning blink) XII ( The laws of God, the laws of man) XIII. THE DESERTER XIV. THE CULPRIT XV. EIGHT O’CLOCK XVI. SPRING MORNING XVII. ASTRONOMY XVIII (The rain, it streams on stone and hillock) XIX (In midnights of November) XX (The night is freezing fast) XXI (The fairies break their dances) XXII (The sloe was lost in flower) XXIII (In the morning, in the morning) XXIV. EPITHALAMIUM XXV. THE ORACLES XXVI (The half-moon westers low, my love) XXVII (The sigh that heaves the grasses) XXVIII (Now dreary dawns the eastern light) XXIX (Wake not for the world-heard thunder) XXX. SINNER’S RUE XXXI. HELL’S GATE XXXII (When I would muse in boyhood) XXXIII (When the eye of day is shut) XXXIV. THE FIRST OF MAY XXXV (When first my way to fair I took) XXXVI. REVOLUTION XXXVII. EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES XXXVIII (Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough) XXXIX (When summer’s end is nighing) XL (Tell me not here, it needs not saying) XLI. FANCY’S KNELL

A translation by George Roe Presented by Rhapsodize Audio Omar Khayyam, a true polymath and one of the most celebrated icons of Persian culture, lived, according to the best scholastic estimate, from 1048 to 1131 of the Western Era. His many avocations included the composition of poetry, and about 1200 rubai or quatrains have been attributed to him. Of these about 500 are considered definitely to be the work of the master. The rubai of Omar Khayyam became popular in the West largely through the efforts of Edward Fitzgerald, who published his first collection of quatrains translated into English, 75 in number, in 1859.  There have been many other English translations of great merit, but few have followed Fitzgerald’s example in building a narrative stream into the translation. An interesting exception is the translation by the American George Roe, which was published in New York in 1910. In this presentation the body of the poem has been divided, somewhat arbitrarily, into eleven sections, suggestive of the stages through which a spiritual aspirant might pass. As Roe’s version ends rather abruptly with his presentation of the conversation among the pots, which is also magically described by Fitzgerald, the last six quatrains from Fitzgerald’s Fifth Edition have been appended in a closing section to round off the narrative. The readers are: Denis Daly, Cate Barratt, Rhonda Federman , Bob Gonzalez, Jason Mills, Jannie Meisberger, Winston Tharp, Carol Box and Alan Weyman.

Songs of Experience By William Blake Performed by Jannie Meisberger Music by Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons - Largo from Winter Performed by John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players  https://archive.org/details/The_Four_Seasons_Vivaldi-10361 Introduction Earth’s Answer The Clod and the Pebble Holy Thursday The Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Found The Chimney-Sweeper Nurse’s Song The Sick Rose The Fly The Angel The Tiger My Pretty Rose Tree Ah, Sunflower The Lily The Garden of Love The Little Vagabond London The Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Tree A Little Boy Lost A Little Girl Lost A Divine Image A Cradle Song The Schoolboy To Tirzah The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Songs of Innocence By William Blake Performed by Jannie Meisberger Music by Tomaso Albinoni Oboe Concerto, Opus  9 No 2 https://musopen.org/music/825/tomaso-albinoni/oboe-concerto-in-d-minor-op9-no2 00 - Introduction   01 - The Shepherd   02 - The Echoing Green 03 - The Lamb   04 - The Little Black Boy 05 - The Blossom 06 - The Chimney Sweeper 07 - The Little Boy Lost   08 - The Little Boy Found 09 - Laughing Song 10 - A Cradle Song 11 - The Divine Image 12 - Holy Thursday 13 - Night   14 - Spring   15 - Nurse’s Song 16 - Infant Joy   17 - A Dream 18 - On Another’s Sorrow

The Waste Land By T.S.Eliot This cross-cultural poetic epic was first published on 1922, and, with its phantasmagoric reconstruction of language and imagery, still remains one of the most controversial poems ever written. Performed by Caprisha Page,  Denis Daly, Alan Weyman.  Winston Tharp,  Jannie Meisberger,  Bob Gonzalez,  Carol Box and Jason Mills. Music: The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, Performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra,  conducted by the composer. https://archive.org/details/StravinskyLeSacreDuPrintemps1940

Feminine Perspectives - A Rhapsody Prepared and presented by  Caprisha Page

Doreen A verse novel by C .J .Dennis  Presented by Denis Daly Music  When My Dreams Come True From Australian Cinema Recording - 1929 https://archive.org/details/AustralianCinemaRecording-WhenMyDreamsComeTrue1929

A Child’s Garden of Verses By Robert Louis Stevenson Performed by Carol Box Musical arrangements by Alan Weyman Part 5 EnvoysI To Willie and HenriettaII To My MotherIII To AuntieIV To MinnieV To My Name-ChildVI To Any Reader

A Child’s Garden of Verses By Robert Louis Stevenson Performed by Carol Box Musical arrangements by Alan Weyman Part 4Garden DaysI Night and DayII Nest EggsIII The FlowersIV Summer SunV The Dumb SoldierVI Autumn FiresVII The GardenerVIII Historical Associations

A Child’s Garden of Verses By Robert Louis Stevenson Performed by Carol Box Musical arrangements by Alan Weyman Part 3The Child AloneI The Unseen PlaymateII My Ship and IIII My KingdomIV Picture-Books in WinterV My TreasuresVI Block CityVII The Land of Story-BooksVIII Armies in the FireIX The Little Land

A Child’s Garden of Verses By Robert Louis Stevenson Performed by Carol Box Musical arrangements by Alan Weyman Part 2 XLI North-West Passage 1. Good-Night 2. Shadow March 3. In Port

A Child’s Garden of Verses By Robert Louis Stevenson Performed by Carol Box Musical arrangements by Alan Weyman Music by Robert Schumann Excerpts from Kinderszenen, Opus 15 https://archive.org/details/KinderszenenOp.15  Excerpts from Album for the Young, Opus 68  Performed by Marco Tezza  https://archive.org/details/onclassical-OC2R  To Alison Cunningham For the long nights you lay awake And watched for my unworthy sake: For your most comfortable hand That led me through the uneven land: For all the story-books you read: For all the pains you comforted: For all you pitied, all you bore, In sad and happy days of yore:— My second Mother, my first Wife, The angel of my infant life— From the sick child, now well and old, Take, nurse, the little book you hold! And grant it, Heaven, that all who read May find as dear a nurse at need, And every child who lists my rhyme, In the bright, fireside, nursery clime, May hear it in as kind a voice As made my childish days rejoice! R. L. S. Part 1 I Bed in Summer II A Thought III At the Sea-Side IV Young Night-Thought V Whole Duty of Children VI Rain VII Pirate Story VIII Foreign Lands IX Windy Nights X Travel XI Singing XII Looking Forward XIII A Good Play XIV Where Go the Boats? XV Auntie’s Skirts XVI The Land of Counterpane XVII The Land of Nod XVIII My Shadow XIX System XX A Good Boy XXI Escape at Bedtime XXII Marching Song XXIII The Cow XXIV The Happy Thought XXV The Wind XXVI Keepsake Mill XXVII Good and Bad Children XXVIII Foreign Children XXIX The Sun Travels XXX The Lamplighter XXXI My Bed is a Boat XXXII The Moon XXXIII The Swing XXXIV Time to Rise XXXV Looking-Glass River XXXVI Fairy Bread XXXVII From a Railway Carriage XXXVIII Winter-Time XXXIX The Hayloft XL Farewell to the Farm

The “Damned Morbid Poetry” of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Selected, arranged, and performed by Winston Tharp. The “Damned Morbid Poetry” of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. The poetry from Act IV of the play, in the order in which it appears. Poetry by Ernest Dowson, Charles Baudelaire (translated by Arthur Symons), Rudyard Kipling, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Oscar Wilde. 1.   Introduction by Winston Tharp 2.   Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam by Ernest Dowson (1867-1900) 3 .  Be Drunken by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) Translated by Arthur Symons (1865-1945) 4.   Epilogue by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) Translated by Arthur Symons (1865- 1945) 5.   Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson (1867- 1900) 6.   Ford O’ Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) 7.   The Harlot’s House by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) 8.   Sestina of the Tramp Royal by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) 9.   Mother O’ Mine by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) 10. A Superscription by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) 11. A Leave-Taking by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)