Background
Carlisle Floyd was born in Latta, South Carolina, on June 11, 1926.
(Carlisle Ford Slow Dusk A Musical Play in One Act Vocal S...)
Carlisle Ford Slow Dusk A Musical Play in One Act Vocal Score published by Boosey & Hawkes 1957 44 pages Very good condition, a couple minor notations, light age/shelf wear Ashlyn 11
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(Excerpt from Susannah: A Musical Drama in Two Acts Scene...)
Excerpt from Susannah: A Musical Drama in Two Acts Scene One Scene: New Hope Valley in the mountains of Tennessee. It is a Monday night in mid-July, and a square dance is in progress in the yard of New Hope Church. A fiddler and caller are in the background, and downstage are the participants in the dance, the people of the community as on-lookers, the Elders and their wives. At the curtains rise, the dance is underway. Susannah, a young girl of uncommon beauty, is conspicuous in the group by virtue of a brightly-colored dress and the gravitation of men to her square. Her face is flushed with high spirits and excitement, and she is unaware of the eyes upon her. It is early evening, and oil lanterns, hanging from trees, have been lit. Mrs. Gleaton: It's a hot night for dancin', Ain't no breeze a-stirrin'. Them trees ain't moved all day. Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. McLean, Mrs. Ott: It shore be still. It shore be still. Mrs. Ott: Its just like before a cloud-burst. When it smells like rain an the air hes heavy But it ain't like that tonight. Its just dry and hot and still. Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Gleaton, Mrs. Ott: It shore is, it shore is. Mrs. Hayes: Seems like it's always this way at meetin' time. Mrs. Gleaton and Mrs. Ott: Don't it now. Mrs. McLean: Seems like the Lord is bendin' Sinners to his will. Like smokin' a fox out', his hole. The Lord sends the rain On the just an unjust, Jes' like the Good Book says. Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Gleaton, Mrs. Ott: And us as is saved has got to suffer. Mrs. McLean: Hear tell the preacher what's comin' Is one what can do just that: Can bring sinners to repentance Like none we ever had. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Of Mice and Men (A Musical Drama in Three Acts) BH Stage ...)
Of Mice and Men (A Musical Drama in Three Acts) BH Stage Works Series Composed by Carlisle Floyd. Based on the original novel and play by John Steinbeck. Performance materials available on rental from Boosey & Hawkes. Duration: ca. 2 hours.
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Carlisle Floyd was born in Latta, South Carolina, on June 11, 1926.
He received his first piano lessons from his mother at the age of ten, but divided his attentions among literature, graphic arts, sports, and music throughout his high school years. At Spartanburg College, where he began studying in 1943 on a scholarship, Floyd's writing abilities earned him first prize in a contest for one-act plays. When in 1945 his piano teacher, Ernst Bacon, accepted a post at Syracuse University, Floyd followed him there in order to continue studying with him. Floyd received his bachelor of music degree from Syracuse in 1946 and in the following year began teaching piano at Florida State University.
In 1948 he organized a course-the first of its kind anywhere-dealing with the problems of relating music and text in the composition of opera. As professor of music he taught composition at Florida State University until 1976. In that year he accepted a post at the University of Houston where, in addition to the duties of professor, he became co-director of the Houston Opera Studio. He also served as chairman of the Opera Musical Theater of the National Endowment for the Arts. Floyd was best known for his operas, most of which are in the verismo tradition. This movement has its roots in the realism of the 19th-century dramatists such as Zola, Flaubert, Ibsen, and Hauptmann, who replaced an idealistic and often fantastic subject matter with one grounded in believable events, often with a contemporary, moral message. Earlier operatic composers who allied themselves with this movement were Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and (to some extent) Puccini, and later Menotti and Moore. Floyd's first major success and, indeed, perhaps his best-known work was his third opera, Susannah, (written 1953 - 1954) and first produced at Florida State University on February 24, 1955. It combined the features of verismo with those of folk opera, and hence contained music reminiscent of hymns, folk songs, and square dances, though not actually using previously existing music. Floyd wrote his own libretto, as he did for all of his 11 operas. Here he borrowed the apocryphal story of Susannah and the Elders, but set it in the mountains of present-day Tennessee. The consequences of a conflict between narrow religious dogma and straight-forward folk honesty were depicted through the seduction of the heroine by Reverend Blitch and the avenging of Susannah's dishonor by her brother, who kills Blitch. Both the libretto and the music are direct, uncomplicated, and emotional. The text was treated in a variety of ways. Many of the arias utilize modal scales characteristic of folk music. In addition to recitative, which is always sensitive to the natural inflections of speech, Floyd employed spoken sections and, briefly, Sprechstimme (halfway between speech and song). Conventional harmonic language serves the purposes of folk description. In 1958 Floyd completed another major opera, Wuthering Heights, on a commission from the Santa Fe Opera. Floyd's libretto departed from his usual American setting in its basis on the Emily Brontë novel. He did, however, seek to have the characters speak in a manner that was essentially timeless in character rather than identifiably contemporary or Victorian. He also chose to use only the first half of the book, as he felt that both the shifting emphasis to Heathcliff and the introduction of a second generation in the second half would necessitate proportions unacceptable to opera. Several of Floyd's later operas received higher critical acclaim than either Susannah or Wuthering Heights, chiefly for the greater sophistication of their melodies, but none became more popular. Among his later operas were: The Passion of Jonathan Wade (1962), commissioned by the New York City Opera on a grant from the Ford Foundation; The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (1963), a one-act opera commissioned by the Carolina Charter Tercentenary Commission and intended for television; Markheim (1966); Of Mice and Men (1969); Bilby's Doll (1976), commissioned by the Houston Opera with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and containing instances of atonal writing unusual for Floyd; and Willie Stark (1980), commissioned jointly by the Houston Opera and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All revealed Floyd's gifts as a writer of lyrical melodies and his flair for the theater. Compositions outside the realm of opera include: Pilgrimage (1956), a cantata for voice and orchestra; a piano sonata (1957); Introduction, Aria, and Dance (1967) for orchestra; Flower and the Hawk (1972), a monodrama for soprano and orchestra; and In Celebration (1978), an overture for orchestra. Not Just Opera The non-operatic works of Floyd gained increasing attention in later years. In 1993, his orchestral song cycle Citizen of Paradise, based on the poems and letters of Emily Dickenson, premiered. A Time to Dance was commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association and in March 1994 performed by the Westminster Choir and the San Antonio Symphony at the association's biennial convention. He also was selected to be the keynote speaker at Opera America's annual conference in 1997. In addition, Floyd continued teaching at the university level, sharing his gifts with others who someday might rival or surpass his stature in the operatic world. He was associated with the University of Houston School of Music for 20 years. Upon his departure from academia, Floyd referred to his retirement as his "third act" and expressed the intention to pursue the creation of more operatic works.
(Carlisle Ford Slow Dusk A Musical Play in One Act Vocal S...)
(Excerpt from Susannah: A Musical Drama in Two Acts Scene...)
(Of Mice and Men (A Musical Drama in Three Acts) BH Stage ...)
(Boosey & Hawkes Vol. I Softcover Sheet music book. 15 pages.)
((BH Stage Works). Dramatization after the story by Robert...)
((BH Stage Works). After the Novel and Play by John Steinbeck)
Quotations:
“It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else. ”
“I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable. ”
“Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them. ”
“America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn't put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist. ”
“Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out. ”
“What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds. ”
“If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it. ”
“There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way. ”
“You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed. ”