Songs of the Pandemic:
Songs of the Pandemic: A Song Cycle for Medium High Voice and Piano
The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the world by killing many people, causing millions to fall ill, creating economic crises by closing businesses and restricting travel, stifling education by shuttering schools and encouraging psychological dilemmas through social isolation. Just as cities and states appeared to make progress against the strong headwinds of the virus, the disease reared its ugly head to resume its relentless scourge. These events resulted in a deep fear that is reinforced daily upon the observing of masked people everywhere folks venture. We are spinning in a great circle of disease that no prophet could have predicted or handled properly.
The nature of the pandemic resulted in my composition of "Songs of the Pandemic". The song cycle is a setting of nine poems by Seattle poet Brian William Taylor, each of which provides insight into human experiences related to the plague.
The set begins prayerfully with "The Agnus Dei Walks the Streets" by presenting a functioning, normal world. The first symptoms often experienced upon contracting the virus is the loss of smell and taste. The human response to this loss is explored in "It Takes One's Breath Away".
Overwhelming grief washed over entire nations, communities and families who were "In Despair" over the difficulties of maintaining their balance in the topsy-turvy world of the illness.
The song cycle then engages the dynamic of so-called "social distancing". People, ill or not, attempted not only to stay away from one another but also to avoid touching each other altogether. The resulting emptiness is explored in the song "So Much Is Missing Now".
Of course, humanity has many self-centered people who refuse to tame natural inclinations. The fictional character Don Juan is such a person. The song "Imagine a Don Juan" presents the question of what a Don Juan might do if, during the six-feet-apart mandate, he were to be presented with the possibility of making sexual conquests of unsuspecting women.
Back to reality. A slow sunrise opens yet another day of suffering with the plague. "Have I Any Right to Marvel at the Sun?" poses the questions of whether or not a poet ought to continue to live up to the obligation to shed light on the darkness by observing both the beautiful and the not-so-beautiful.
The song,"That's Not What My Heart Meant," deals directly with the shadow created not by a tree or a passing cloud but by the pandemic itself. How does one handle many months of dreary circumstances when no one can predict with certainty whom the virus will attack next, who may recover, who may not, and whether or not vaccines may lead the nation and the world eventually to "herd immunity". The plague provided us with the opportunity to look inwardly as people and as a community to reassess priorities. "Music Beyond All Sound" suggests that the pandemic took us back to the simple priorities of how best to live time.
The final song, "Until We Convene Again," concludes that what people wanted most of all in the midst of the pandemic was to get back to normal, to go shopping without wearing masks, for schools to unlock their doors to in-class education, to hold family dinners and to live without daily fear of infection, illness and potential death.
Where to get the book
songbook: arias and ensemble selections from the Opera Ruth
Where to Order
Songbook is available for purchase at amazon.com. Click on the button below to proceed.
Song Titles
1. Grace (SSA Trio)
2. We Must Help Them (Soprano/Mezzo Soprano Duet)
3. My Dearest Alfred (Soprano Aria)
4) My Little Music Box (Soprano Aria)
5) Promise (SSA Trio)
6) Coffee House (SATB Quartet)
7) Ave Maria (Soprano Aria)
8) Snowflake (Tenor Aria)
9) I Longed for the Day (Tenor Aria)
10) I Come Back to This (Tenor Aria)
11) Alfred's Lament (Tenor (Aria)
12) Forgiveness (Soprano/Tenor Duet)
13) Sylvele, My Child (Soprano/Mezzo Soprano Duet)
14) Schlummerlied (Chorus)
The Story
The opera "Ruth" from which the excerpts are drawn presents the saga of a young mother, her two children and two sisters just before the end of WWII. The Allies are converging from the West and the Russians are approaching from the East. The German army is in between. Neisse, Silesia – Ruth's town – is caught in the middle. Ruth and her family are forced to join the hundreds of thousands of refugees moving away from the inevitable battle that, in its wake, will leave a path of death and destruction. The family eventually arrives in Dresden on the very night of the infamous "Firebombing". The miraculously escape on the last train out of the station before the conflagration and find a new place of residence near Munich. Weeks later, Ruth and her sister, Big Inge, stop off in Prague on their way back to Neisse to retrieve family photos and jewelry. They meet two men, Andi and Tibor, at a coffee house and dance the night away. During all of this time, Alfred, Ruth's husband, has been fighting on the Russian front. As the war wanes, he leaves his unit and walks from Russia to Ruth's new location. Shocked and broken-hearted to learn that Ruth is pregnant, Alfred eventually forgives her for her transgression and accepts the child as his own.
Composer
The music and libretto were composed by Dr. Gary Funk,
Poetry Excerpt
My Little Music Box
My little music box that shines like gold,
a gift from my Mama when she was old.
You sing so sweetly
and you give yourself so completely,
my music box that shines like gold.
My little music box of hope and light.
Your song lights a candle in the dark of night.
You kiss my sorrow
and you show me tomorrow,
my music box of hope and light.
You've sparkled even when my heart was sad. You've graced my days with serenity.
You've glistened even when the world was mad and traced my face with tranquility.
You are my treasure. You are my happiness that shines like gold.
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Oscar, the Flying Boy Songbook
Song Titles
1. Birth
2. Frustration
3. Guilt
4. Why Was I Speechless Born?
5. How Can We Speak with Him Who Cannot speak?
6. The Argument
7. What We Will Do
8. Oscar, the Flying Boy
9. If They Only Knew
10. All the Help I CAn
11. All Alone We Stand Together
12. Nightmare at the Carnival
13. Make Me Envy No Longer the Songs of Birds
14. Communication
Oscar's Story
Oscar, the Flying Boy is about a nonverbal, autistic child – his struggles and triumphs and those of his parents.
Composer/Lyricist
The music was composed and orchestrated by Dr. Gary Funk. The song lyrics were written by Seattle poet, Brian William Taylor.
Poetry Excerpt from "Oscar, the Flying Boy"
Why Was I Speechless Born
OSCAR
Why was I speechless born,
Abandoned and oh so alone
On an island that’s made of stone?
Oh, why was I speechless born?
Oh, I want like you to speak
And I need to be understood,
But only primitive wails I make.
I want like you to speak
And I beg you, I beg you
Don’t talk down to me!
I wouldn’t to you if could speak.
Talk to the age you know me to be.
That is the dignity I seek.
My spirit in silence roars,
But my feelings the same as yours
Are sealed behind closed doors.
My spirit in silence roars.
Oh, I beg you, I beg you
Don’t talk down to me!
I wouldn’t to you if I could speak.
Please talk to the age
You know me to be.
That is the dignity I seek.
I beg you, I beg you.
That is the dignity I seek!
More information
Go to: www.oscartheflyingboy.org
Eleven Poems of Brian William Taylor: Med. High Voice
To Order
Eleven Poems of Brian William Taylor Medium High Voice and Medium Low Voice are available for purchase at amazon.com for $19.95 each.
Song Titles
1. Dostoevsky, When Hearing Passersby
2. I Hope I Never Live to Long for Longing
3. Speak to me, Softly, in the Coming NIght
4. The Highland's Golden Eagle
5. We Dined in that Italian Restaurant
6. We Lie Abed in Brittany, in a Half-timbered house
7. We Live Together in a Cave on a Red Cliff
8. When You Say What You Feel, What Do You Feel?
9. That You Should Love Flamenco Fascinates
10. Will You Die First or I?
11. You Went to Ireland
The Project
Eleven Poems by Brian William Taylor is a collection of song settings composed by Dr. Gary Funk. The songs interpret the poetry through memorable melodies, lovely harmonies and compelling rhythm. Taylor's exquisite poetry combines with Funk's sensitive musical interpretations to create a third "thing" – something more compelling than either poetry or music alone. These beautiful songs will please those who perform them and move those who listen to them. They satisfy because their truth challenges both musically and philosophically.
More Information
enlightening and exhilarating. Gary Funk's music thoughtfully paints provocative aural scenes that provide powerful dimension to Taylor's words.
For more information about the music, contact Dr. Gary Funk: drgaryfunk@drgaryfunk.com
For more information about the poetry, contact Brian William Taylor: cantolib@hotmail.com
Eleven Poems of Brian William Taylor (Med. Low Voice)
Where to Order
Eleven Poems of Brian William Taylor Medium High Voice and Medium Low Voice are available for purchase at amazon.com for $19.95 each.
Song Titles
1. Dostoevsky, When Hearing Passersby
2. I Hope I Never Live to Long for Longing
3. Speak to me, Softly, in the Coming NIght
4. The Highland's Golden Eagle
5. We Dined in that Italian Restaurant
6. We Lie Abed in Brittany, in a Half-timbered house
7. We Live Together in a Cave on a Red Cliff
8. When You Say What You Feel, What Do You Feel?
9. That You Should Love Flamenco Fascinates
10. Will You Die First or I?
11. You Went to Ireland
The Project
Eleven Poems by Brian William Taylor is a collection of song settings composed by Dr. Gary Funk. The songs interpret the poetry through memorable melodies, lovely harmonies and compelling rhythm. Taylor's exquisite poetry combines with Funk's sensitive musical interpretations to create a third "thing" – something more compelling than either poetry or music alone. These beautiful songs will please those who perform them and move those who listen to them. They satisfy because their truth challenges both musically and philosophically.
More information
Eleven Poems of Brian William Taylor is a collection of song settings suitable for vocal recital performance. The poems are at once challenging, enlightening and exhilarating. Gary Funk's music thoughtfully paints provocative aural scenes that provide powerful dimension to Taylor's words.
For more information about the music, contact Dr. Gary Funk: drgaryfunk@drgaryfunk.com
For more information about the poetry, contact Brian William Taylor: cantolib@hotmail.com
No Greater Love: Volume I: Script
Where to Order
No Greater Love Volume I: Music & No Greater Love Volume II: Script are both available for purchase at amazon.com for $19.95/each.
No Greater Love
No Greater Love presents the tragic and triumphant story of the 1917 Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine fire in Butte, Montana, which took the lives of some 168 miners. This piece celebrates the city, the miners and their families, including heroes such as Manus Duggan, the Irishman who sacrificed his life while leading 28 others to safety. In this retelling, theater, music and dance recreate the bustling town of colorful characters, as well as the chaos and terror of a fire in the copper mines nearly a mile underground.
In 1917, Butte was a study in contrasts: a crowded city full of immigrants, with dozens of copper mines working around the clock. Saloons and bawdy houses were juxtaposed with wealthy citizens, religious fervor and ornate architecture. The impact of the fire was immeasurable. Suddenly, both rich and poor were faced with a catastrophe. They responded with a collective strength, courage and commitment to one another and, through the heat of the fire, Butte forged a remarkable character, a kind of social compact with itself: "When we work together, we can recover and endure."
No Greater Love is a rough-hewn retelling of the tale through rich and powerful music, moments of courage, romance, levity and local color. Butte's resiliency gleams through it all. And like burnished copper that bears a stamp, it's an imprint of that fateful week in June 1917.
The Authors' Perspectives
In 2016, Dr. Gary Funk had the inspiration for No Greater Love and he and Sylvia Funk began the script's first draft. It was born of their love and admiration for Butte and its history and thoughts of the approaching 100th Anniversary of the Granite Mountain-Speculator mine fire.
Playwright, Edward Morgan joining the process as the production's stage director after most of the music had been composed and performances scheduled. But being a playwright and a student of folklore and, given free rein to rewrite and edit, he made significant changes to the script. It was this collaboration that realized the powerful production in Butte's historic Mother Lode Theater in June 2017.
More Information
Those interested in future productions of No Greater Love are invited to contact Dr. Gary Funk: drgaryfunk@drgaryfunk.com
No Greater Love Volume II: Music
Where to Order
No Greater Love Volume II: Music & No Greater Love Volume II: Script are both available for purchase at amazon.com for $19.95/each.
Contents
VOLUME I: SCRIPT
Act I, Scenes 1 - 10
Act II: Scenes 1 - 16
VOLUME II: MUSIC
1. Overture
2. Nickname Song
3. The Mucker's Wake
4. The Ladies of the Line
5. A Mountain Town in Springtime
6. I Like My Pasty
7, Silent Prayer
8. Away Sweet Death
9. I Love Him With All of Me
10. Will This Be the Night I Die?
11. Last Letters
12. Who Do you Blame?
13. I Try Not to Cry
14. Break that Bulkhead Down
15. Epitaph
No Greater Love
No Greater Love presents the tragic and triumphant story of the 1917 Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine fire in Butte, Montana, which took the lives of some 168 miners. This piece celebrates the city, the miners and their families, including heroes such as Manus Duggan, the Irishman who sacrificed his life while leading 28 others to safety. In this retelling, theater, music and dance recreate the bustling town of colorful characters, as well as the chaos and terror of a fire in the copper mines nearly a mile underground.
In 1917, Butte was a study in contrasts: a crowded city full of immigrants, with dozens of copper mines working around the clock. Saloons and bawdy houses were juxtaposed with wealthy citizens, religious fervor and ornate architecture. The impact of the fire was immeasurable. Suddenly, both rich and poor were faced with a catastrophe. They responded with a collective strength, courage and commitment to one another and, through the heat of the fire, Butte forged a remarkable character, a kind of social compact with itself: "When we work together, we can recover and endure."
No Greater Love is a rough-hewn retelling of the tale through rich and powerful music, moments of courage, romance, levity and local color. Butte's resiliency gleams through it all. And like burnished copper that bears a stamp, it's an imprint of that fateful week in June 1917.
The Authors' Perspective
In 2016, Dr. Gary Funk had the inspiration for No Greater Love and he and Sylvia Funk began the script's first draft. It was born of their love and admiration for Butte and its history and thoughts of the approaching 100th Anniversary of the Granite Mountain-Speculator mine fire.
Playwright, Edward Morgan joining the process as the production's stage director after most of the music had been composed and performances scheduled. But being a playwright and a student of folklore and, given free rein to rewrite and edit, he made significant changes to the script. It was this collaboration that realized the powerful production in Butte's historic Mother Lode Theater in June 2017.
More information
Those interested in future productions of No Greater Love are invited to contact Dr. Gary Funk: drgaryfunk@drgaryfunk.com
Nine Songs
Song Titles
1. He'll Walk Right Out of My Life
2. Every Song
3. You Promised Me!
4. If You Don't Answer
5. Down in Jamaica Plain
6. I Try Not To Cry Anymore
7. The Long Black Wall
8. Simple Questions
9. Ukrainian Rain
About the Songbook
Nine Songs is a collection of original compositions of the "lighter fare" score for voice and piano by composer Dr. Gary Funk. The songs include interpretive melodies, beautiful, unpredictable harmonies, surprising shifts of tempo and "feel," jazzy chord changes, the incessant power and push of rock n' roll, an emotional folk story, and a gentle country waltz.
Song Topics
The song lyrics range from social commentary to lost love, from ethical questions to the tragedy of war. The song "What is right?" strolls along side the family that searches "forever" to find the name of their loved one on the Viet Nam War Memorial. Angry protestations are sung by jilted lovers and mature grief is addressed in the touchingly arching melodies of "i Try Not to Cry Anymore". "Ukraiinian Rain" falls on a man motorcycling in the Tatra Mountains of Czechoslovakia. He was not drenched in water but unrelentingly pelted and silently coated with invisible radioactivity that drifted west from the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant explosion of 1986.
More information
Those wishing to know more of the detail of Nine Songs may contact Dr. Gary Funk: drgaryfunk@drgaryfunk.com.