Mary HOWE (1882-1964)
Songs and Duets
Courtney Maina (soprano), Christopher A. Leach (tenor)
Mary Dibbern (piano)
rec. 16-17 June 2021, St. Mathew’s Episcopal Cathedral, Dallas, USA
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0634 [69:24]
The title of Mary Dibbern’s notes says it all: Mary Howe – Fine but Forgotten American Composer. Howe was a fixture of the music scene in Washington, D.C. Her songs were widely sung, her orchestral works played by major orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 1950s, CRI recorded several of the orchestral works, later re-released on New World, and there was a 78 rpm record of Stars conducted by Howe’s friend Hans Kindler. But after she died, her work was little heard, except for some of the songs. This is the first CD devoted entirely to her music.
Mary Howe, born Mary Carlisle in 1882 in Richmond, Va., was the daughter of a socially prominent family. She spent most of her life in Washington. She received an excellent education and made numerous trips to Europe with her family, where she became fluent in French, German and Spanish. She also took piano lessons with Liszt’s pupil Richard Burmeister in Dresden. In spite of her elevated social standing, she was allowed to perform in public in certain settings, and several times played at the White House during the Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft administrations. In 1912, she married Walter Howe, who became a prominent Washington attorney, and she continued performing, but she had long been interested in composition. In 1920 began formal studies, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. She dated her formal composing career to 1924, and in the next forty years wrote over 200 works, more than half of them songs.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of Howe’s music is that her style varies to suit the individual work. While she was strongly influenced by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss, each of her pieces is self-contained stylistically, a feature especially well-illustrated by the eighteen songs and three duets on this disc (mostly arranged chronologically).
There is a lot of stylistic distance between the two earliest pieces on the disc. The song Berceuse cosaque is rather derivative of Howe’s friend Amy Beach. The duet Music When Soft Voices Die shows real mastery in its use of the voices and a distinct melodic sense. The later Chanson souvenir is one of Howe’s best-known songs, an Impressionistic evocation of Paris but with a pathos all Howe’s own.
Howe began the 1930s, a rich compositional decade for her, with three songs to Rilke’s texts, written when the poet was serving as secretary to August Rodin. These songs, plus the later Herbstag (Autumn Day), are quite striking when compared to the songs from the 1920s. All four are much more modern in tone and almost reminiscent in their intensity of the music of Korngold or Schreker. But most important is the skill with which Howe’s music amplifies the texts. This places her among the major American songwriters. An equally fine setting, although with a very different text, is The Ragpicker of 1935. In a more wistful vein is the duet Chanson de Coulenne, inspired by a chateau belonging to a childhood friend of Howe’s. She spent many happy times there later in life, writing several works inspired by her stays there.
The songs from the war years betray an anxiety that might be expected but surprisingly the songs are mostly on German texts. Perhaps Howe was trying to see the good side of German culture. They are among Howe’s most technically accomplished, and the accompaniments beg for orchestration. The gloom in Am Flusse is brought-out especially well, as is the sense of the macabre in the duet The Horseman. Here the word painting is splendid, and so is the contrapuntal use of the two voices.
The Lullaby for a Forester’s Child belies its innocent title. It is one of Howe’s most evocative songs, and one of most modern. Equally striking is Reve, with a distinct sense of despair underlying the basic melody. Mary Dibbern points out that the text of the song Spring Come Not Again seems to derive from post-war angst but that Howe’s music contradicts the text with its forward-looking qualities – still, the dissonances at the end made me wonder.
Courtney Maina’s voice is just right for Howe songs. Her readings are beautiful and perceptive, a quality shared by Christopher R. Leach, who uses his resonant voice especially well in the Rilke songs. Mary Dibbern’s comprehensive notes and analysis could well be the beginning of a full-length biography. Her accompaniments here are very skilled, especially so in those songs where the piano is as important as the voice. Let us hope that more of Howe’s music will be forthcoming, especially more songs and some of the orchestral music, and that greater familiarity with her music will obviate the need for the word “forgotten”.
William Kreindler
Contents
1) The Horseman (1940)** [1:25]
2) Berceuse cosaque (1922)* [3:52]
3) Chanson souvenir (1925) [2:41]
4) Reach (1925)* [3:02]
Vier Gedichte by Rilke
5) No. 1 Der Einsame (1931)* [2:48]
6) No. 2 Liebeslied (1931) [3:50]
7) No. 3 Schlaflied (1931)* [3:10]
8) No. 4 Herbsttag (1934)* [3:29]
9) The Ragpicker (1932)** [1:18]
10) Chanson de Coulennes (1933)* [6:14]
11) Now Goes the Light (1935)* [3:39]
Two Goethe Settings (1940)*
12) No. 1 Am Flusse [2:47]
13) No. 2 Die Götter [2:56]
14) L’Amant des roses (1942)* [4:27]
Two Mirza Schaffy Settings (1942)
15) No. 1 Nicht mit Engeln* [4:22]
16) No. 2 Mein Herz** [3:12]
17) Lullaby for a Forester’s Child (1945)** [3:46]
18) Ręve (1945)* [5:37]
19) Spring Come Not Too Soon (1947)* [2:08]
20) Horses (1951)* [1:26]
21) Little Fiddler’s Green (1952)* [1:20]
22) Music When Soft Voices Die (1921)** [1:53]
*First Recording
**First Modern Recording
Courtney Maina: tracks 1-2, 4, 10-13, 15-16, 19-20, 22
Christopher A. Leach: tracks 1, 3, 5-10, 14, 17-18, 21-22
