Jennifer Margaret Barker
A Lassie's Love CD
Digital Releases:
iTunes - search under "Jennifer Margaret Barker" or "Vocali3e"
Performances of A Lassie's Love:
Scotland Tour 2015 - Vocali3e
May 2015 - 2 pre-tour concerts in Scotland
May 24th 2015 - Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Ayrshire, Scotland
May 30th 2015 - Drum Castle, Inverness-shire, Scotland
June 21st 2015 - Pollock House, Glasgow, Scotland
USA Tour 2015 - Vocali3e
September 4th 2015 - pre-tour concert in Stuckenduff, Scotland
October 10th 2015 - Helensburgh Parish Church, Helensburgh, Scotland
October 11th 2015 - St. Leonards-in-the-Fields Church, Perth, Scotland
October 19th 2015 - Radford University, Virginia
October 20th 2015 - Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania
October 21st 2015 - University of Delaware, Delaware
October 22nd 2015 - The Royal Oaks Foundation, New York City, New York
October 23rd 2015 - The Royal Oaks Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Malta Performance - Caraid Trì
July 9th 2016 - Victoria International Arts Festival, Gozo, Malta
Scotland Performances - Vocali3e
February 19th 2017 - St. John's Kirk, Perth, Scotland
February 26th 2017 - Beith Arts Guild, Beith, Scotland
September 16th 2017 - Enterprise Music Scotland National Chamber Music Day, Dollar Park, Falkirk, Scotland
September 16th 2017 - Enterprise Music Scotland National Chamber Music Day, Linlithgow Canal Centre, Scotland
USA Performances
September 7th 2017 - Sharon Harms, Paul Nagem & Steven Beck - Colorado College, Colorado
March 24th 2018 - Noel Archambeault, Eileen Grycky & Jennifer Margaret Barker - SCI Region III Conference, Virginia
April 15th 2018 - Women in Music-Columbus - Capital University, Ohio
June 23rd 2018 - Luna Nova Music - Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, Memphis, Tennessee
October 19th 2018 - Nicole Boysen, Andrea Shabazian & Oksana Glouchko - University of Delaware
April 16th 2019 - Noel Archambeault, Eileen Grycky & Oksana Glouchko - Tiger Lily Music, University of Delaware
The commissioning and recording of A Lassie’s Love was supported in part by the National Lottery via Creative Scotland, Made in Scotland Onward Touring Fund, The Jean Armour Burns Trust, and NCL and Co. Chartered Accountants. The National Trust for Scotland provided invaluable support in authenticating A Lassie's Love by inviting Vocali3e to present the world premiere at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum on May 24th 2015, and an additional two performances at Drum Castle and Pollok House.
The recording session for A Lassie’s Love was also supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, USA. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.
Programme Note
A Lassie’s Love is a setting of four poems by Robert Burns. Although unrelated in their original form, the four poems take the listener on a journey of love, from a coquettish and sometimes cheeky girl, to a young maiden deeply in love, to a woman bathed in the warmth and strength of a steadfast love, and finally to the worn-out wife of an extremely tiring and annoying old man.
I’m o’er young to marry yet
The Gallant Weaver
The Seventh of November
What can a young lassie do wi’ an auld man
Due to the beautiful lilt in Burns’ poetry, I made the decision to compose melodic lines for the voice that were in keeping with traditional Scottish music and to then compliment or contrast these melodies with the flute and piano. The more I worked with each poem, the more I discovered a myriad of emotions and feelings contained within. I therefore strove to address these elements through word-painting as well as musical colors and textures, while maintaining a singular and cohesive atmosphere or aesthetic for each song, and for the cycle as a whole. - Barker
Biographies
Vocali3e (www.vocali3e.com)
Flautist Louise Burnet, soprano Emma Versteeg, and pianist Robin Versteeg have developed a reputation for stylish and innovative recitals incorporating repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary. Having studied at, respectively, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Royal Academy of Music, they formed Vocali3e in 2009, with the purpose of exploring the repertoire of trio music for flute, soprano, and piano. They have performed throughout the UK and in 2013 were included in the prestigious Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where they performed the UK premiere of Lori Laitman’s Fathers. With assistance from Creative Scotland, the Jean Armour Burns Trust, and the National Trust for Scotland they subsequently commissioned the Scottish-American composer Jennifer Margaret Barker to write A Lassie’s Love, giving its world premiere at the Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway in May 2015, before performing the work on a North American tour including concerts in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Philadelphia.
Jennifer Margaret Barker
Described as “a composer of profound sensibility”, Scottish-American Jennifer Margaret Barker has received performances of her compositions on six continents. Hailed by critics as “soul-stirring”, “at once gripping and timeless”, “blazingly alive, with lovely, aching melodies”, her compositions have been performed and commissioned by symphony orchestras such as the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony; chamber ensembles such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra String Quartet, Orchestra 2001, Relâche, Network for New Music, The Society for New Music, Mélomanie, 6ixwire and Vocali3e; and an extensive list of international concert artists including British pianist, Martin Jones. Her compositions have been featured on documentaries and promotional videos; exhibited as music-video art in galleries; utilized as underscoring to theatrical productions and fashion collection launch videos; published internationally in print, audio and video formats; and broadcast on American public radio, Hong Kong radio, Swedish radio and the BBC. Barker is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Delaware.
Poems
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
I’m o’er young to marry yet
I’m o’er young to marry yet
I'm o'er young, I'm o'er young,
I'm o'er young to marry yet!
I'm o'er young, 'twad be a sin
To tak me frae my mammie yet.
I am my mammny's ae bairn,
Wi' unco folk I weary, Sir,
And lying in a man's bed,
I'm fley'd it make me eerie, Sir.
Hallowmass is come and gane,
The nights are lang in winter, Sir,
And you an' I in ae bed -
In trowth, I dare na venture, Sir!
Fu' loud and shrill the frosty wind
Blaws thro' the leafless timmer, Sir,
But if ye come this gate again,
I'll aulder be gin simmer, Sir.
The Seventh of November
The day returns, my bosom burns,
The blissful day we twa did meet!
Tho' winter wild in tempest toil'd,
Ne'er summer sun was half sae sweet.
Than a' the pride that loads the tide,
And crosses o'er the sultry line,
Than kingly robes, than crowns and globes,
Heav'n gave me more - it made thee mine!
While day and night can bring delight,
Or Nature aught of pleasure give,
While joys above my mind can move,
For thee and thee alone, I live!
When the grim foe of Life below
Comes in between to make us part,
The iron hand that breaks our band,
It breaks my bliss, it breaks my heart!
Thank you!
The Gallant Weaver
Where Cart rins rowin to the sea
By monie a flower and spreading tree,
There lives a lad, the lad for me -
He is a gallant weaver!
O, I had wooers aught or nine,
They gied me rings and ribbons fine,
And I was fear'd my heart wad tine,
And I gied it to the weaver.
My daddie sign'd my tocher-band
To gie the lad that has the land;
But to my heart I'll add my hand,
And give it to the weaver.
While birds rejoice in leafy bowers,
While bees delight in opening flowers
While corn grows green in summer showers,
I love my gallant weaver.
What can a young lassie do wi’ an auld man
What can a young lassie,
What shall a young lassie,
What can a young lassie,
Do wi' an auld man?
Bad luck on the penny
That tempted my minnie
To sell her puir Jenny
For siller an' lan'!
He's always compleenin
Frae mornin to eennin;
He hoasts and he hirples
The weary day lang;
He's doylt and he's dozin;
His blude it is frozen --
O, dreary's the night
Wi' a crazy auld man!
He hums and he hankers,
He frets and he cankers,
I never can please him
Do a' that I can.
He's peevish an' jealous
Of a' the young fellows --
O, dool on the day
I met wi' an auld man!
My old auntie Katie
Upon me tak pity,
I'll do my endeavour
To follow her plan:
I'll cross him an' wrack him
Until I heartbreak him,
And then his auld brass
Will buy me a new pan.
Recording Session Photos
Vocali3e
Emma Versteeg, soprano Louise Burnet, flute
Robin Versteeg, piano
Reviews of A Lassie's Love (Performances):
"This is indeed a very beautiful song cycle, alternating from the light-hearted and flirtatious nature of a young girl to the more introspective and mature musings of an older woman. There was a touch of cheekiness, too, when [the pianist]…, acted the part of the old man in the last song, beautifully bringing out the meaning of the text."
- Caraid Trì, 2016 Victoria International Arts Festival, Gozo, Malta
Radio Broadcasts:
Singing and other Sins, Hawaii Public Radio, HPR2 - hosted by Gary Hickling, March 24th 2018, 5pm
http://lottelehmannleague.org/singing-sins-archive/
Music of our Mothers, hosted by Ellen Grolman, February 14th 2018, 1pm
NPR-affiliate WFWM, 91.9 FM in Frostburg, MD; WFCF, Flagler College radio, 88.5 FM in St. Augustine, FL; iheartradio.com
Feminine Fusion, WCNY-FM - hosted by Diane Jones, April 13th -19th 2019, 10am weekdays/1pm weekends
http://www.wcny.org/radio/shows/femininefusion/
Reviews of A Lassie's Love (CD Recording):
"Composer Jennifer Margaret Barker and trio Vocali3e have set four Robert Burns love poems to music, using unusual compositional effects to take us on a haunting journey through a woman's experience of life and love."
- The Musician, Winter 2017 issue, United Kingdom
"I didn’t know quite what to expect when I opened this new (2017) recording, but I did know that I liked the works of Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, and that the music of Jennifer Margaret Barker is always engaging. The words are sensitively set here and sounds of Barker’s native Scotland often come through. The music is fresh and “modern,” but grounded in traditional sounds; it seems to fit and reinforce the various moods of the poetry very well. You will enjoy the purity of the soprano’s voice as well as the sweetness of the flute’s tone. The pianist joins them as a sensitive partner. I highly recommend this new recording, especially if you’re not yet familiar with Barker’s music. And a bargain at less than $1 per song!"
- Amazon Customer, November 2017
