Voices: A Cantata by Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze’s full length cantata “Voices,” recorded live at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on January 24, 1978. This, the Bay Area premiere of the work features Claudia Cummings, soprano, John Duykers, tenor, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players conducted by Jean Louis LeRoux.

According to the composer’s notes found in the concert program guide: “Except for ‘Prison Song,’ which was originally composed for Yamashta in 1971, these songs were written between January and June 1973...I had wanted to set some of the poems for many years, but it was only in 1973 that I felt the possibility of integrating them into a larger song cycle. The choice of the poems and the order in which they are arranged reflect my own personal political perspective and emotional involvement, and it is this perspective and these feelings which give the cycle its cohesion, rather than any narrative or musical structure. In some cases, I wanted to use highly developed post-serialistic structures and invest them with a meaning; that is to say: to use abstract elements and force them to be vehicles for the concrete. More direct means of expression include jazz, aleatory and elements of music-theater. In other cases I tried to extend the Weill-Eissler-Dessau tradition into my own style. The listener will also, I hope, detect echoes and influences of various folk styles, as well as the tradition of classical Lied.”