Review Text
LOVE LETTERS is a major song cycle for voice, violin, and piano. The cycle contains 11 songs which are settings of excerpts from actual love letters that span a period of 2000 years from Pliny the Younger in the 1st century AD to John Steinbeck in the 20th century. The other authors include: Margaret Lawrence, Catherine the Great, Sgt. Bert Fielder, Benjamin Franklin, Ogden Nash, Mariana Alcoforado, and Gustave Flaubert. The letters were chosen to reflect the many different aspects of the universal emotion of love: from longing, exuberance, excitement, and playfulness to the heartbreak of abandonment. The work is singular in that there is no other song cycle which uses actual love letters as the texts. THE DISTANCES THEY KEEP, for two voices, flute, and piano, is a based on the poem Howard Nemerov, and it is a sensitive reflection on man's relationship to nature. In Sophokles' tragedy Oidipous Tyrannos the protagonist was separated from his parents at birth. He unwittingly fulfilled a prophesy by killing his father in a quarrel and then marrying his mother when he became king of Thebes. IN DARKNESS, for voice, alto saxophone, and piano, is a narrative of the events that took place after the incestuous marriage became known. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Roger C. Vogel studied music theory and composition at the Ohio State University and earned the Ph. D. in 1975. His major professors were Marshall Barnes, Jay Huff, Norman Phelps, and Wolf Rosenberg. A productive composer, Dr. Vogel has over 120 compositions and several journal articles to his credit. Since he joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1976, Dr. Vogel has written over 100 original works which have been published by eleven different publishing firms. Notable among his awards are prizes from the Roger Wagner Choral Composition Competition, the National Saxophone Workshop Composition Contest, the National Flute Association, and the Delius Composition Competition. He has received commissions from the Georgia Music Teachers Association, the University of Georgia, Sigma Alpha Iota Professional Women's Music Fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Professional Men's Music Fraternity, the Helios Duo, The Fellowship of Reason®, the Athens Master Chorale, the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia 'Cello Society,and the Bass Club of Georgia. His works have been performed in recitals and at conventions and festivals throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. The performers are University of Georgia Faculty. LOVE LETTERS Ellen Ritchey, soprano Gregory Braughton, tenor Levon Ambartsumian, violin Anatoly Sheludyakov, piano THE DISTANCES THEY KEEP Ellen Ritchey, soprano Stephanie Pierce, soprano Lisa Bartholow, flute Andre Lash, piano IN DARKNESS Ellen Ritchey, soprano Kenneth Fischer, alto saxophone Anatoly Sheludyakov, piano.
