Jonathan Leshnoff composed Monica Songs in spring and summer 2012, completing it in August, and publishing the score in December. It was commissioned by Sandra Hyslop, the Friends of Monica, and the Carnegie Hall Corporation, in celebration of the life of Monica Langhammer (1965-2003).

Monica Songs opens and closes (Songs One and Six) with quotations from the Old Testament Book of Ruth. In the tale of Ruth and her daughter-in-law Naomi, Mr. Leshnoff has discerned the age-old truth that loyalty and love, the ne plus ultra of human experience, can triumph over deprivation and loss. Indeed, because of Naomi’s steadfastness and humility in the face of pain, she survives, significantly, to become the matriarch of the lineage of King David, that most famous of the ancient world’s poet-musicians.

Song One, “For where thou go I will go…” declares the love and loyalty that dominate the entire cycle. Songs Two and Three form a contrast in mood and texture. Emily Dickinson’s poem “We Cover Thee—Sweet Face—Not that We tire of Thee—but that Thyself fatigue of Us—…” is a somber reminder of the frustration and grief that the living feel in losing their grip on the dying. Mr. Leshoff follows that meditation on death with a brilliant declaration of new life, and spring, e. e. cummings’s “i thank you G-d for most this amazing day.” Songs Four and Five, drawn from a private collection of letters between a mother and a daughter, present a panorama of human emotions: the daughter’s wit and humor, as well as her existential doubts, and the mother’s love and affirmation. Song Six, “There is a son born to Naomi…” closes the cycle with the assurance that ultimately, out of great pain (Ruth and Naomi’s suffering) was born David—and his Psalms. The music of Monica Songs confirms the poetic contrasts in moods and gives shape to the six pieces as one coherent, finely sculpted arch. Thus, Mr. Leshnoff has created a musical balance of consonance and dissonance; open, spare harmonies in contrast with thick, lush chord structures; and soaring arioso passages set alternately with more chromatic melodic materials. He has respected the wide-ranging internal demands of the texts for appropriate rhythmic treatment in both the voice and the piano.

Mr. Leshnoff’s interweaving of the vocal and piano parts insures the integrity of the cycle. In its six movements he describes a musical journey from the pain of life and the mystery of death into the sparkling vitality of new spring, through the juke-box world of truck stops and absurd humor, past moments of worry and doubt, and ending finally in the affirmation of the creative spirit. The result is a complex cycle of songs that seem as natural as breathing.

—Notes by Sandra Hyslop

Xavier Turull (1922-2000)

Poetry by Rosa Leveroni

Xavier Turull was a Spanish Catalonian violinist and composer. He worked and studied with many of the great string players of the 20th century to include Yehudi Menuhin, and Pablo Casals. He taught for many years in Colombia as the Director of Chamber Music and Violin at the University of Cauca, but returned to Barcelona in the mid-1950s where he taught at the Barcelona Conservatory of Music, later serving as its Director. Originally written for soprano and string quartet, L’amor incert (Unquiet Love) is a setting of poetry by Rosa Leveroni. Ms. Leveroni was a poet and writer in Barcelona who was very active in the movement to revitalize the Cataln language and culture in the post-WWII years.

—Translated from the Encyclopedia of Catalonia, https://www.enciclopedia.cat/ec-gec-0068013.xml

Jesús Guridi (1886-1961)

Born on September 25, Jesús Guridi was a composer and organist from the Basque region of Spain. He came from an extensive family of musicians: his great-grandfather and grandfather were organists and composers, his grandmother a composer and piano teacher, his father a violinist, and his mother a pianist. After studying abroad in Paris and Cologne, he was appointed organist of SS Juanes and then of the Basílica del Señor Santiago in Bilbao where he remained for 20 years, establishing a reputation as a skilled improviser and choral conductor. Guridi was known for his polychoral works, orchestral works, operas, and zarthuelas; many of which incorporated themes and folk melodies from the Basque region.

—Aleyxandre, A. Menéndez, and Antoni Pizà. "Guridi (Bidaola), Jesús." Grove Music Online. . Oxford University Press. Date of access 22 Sep. 2021, <https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.ezproxy.spu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000012040>