Letters from the Garden-Contemporary Songs by Female Composers

Letters from the GardenContemporary Songs by Female Composers. Leanne Freeman, soprano; Michelle Havlik-Jergens, piano. (Drake University; 76:04)Gwyneth Walker: "Thy fingers make early flowers" (though love be a daft "Circling the Sun," "Waterbird" (Circling the Sun); "Mornings Innocent," "In Autumn," "1 Will Be Earth." Jocelyn Hagen: "Call of the Open," "Silent Noon," "The Flower of the Field," "Lullaby" (Songs of Fields and Prairied). Madeleine Dring: Love and Time-. "Sister, awake," "Ah, how sweet it is to love!" "I feed a flame within," "The Reconcilement (Come, let us now resolve at last)." Abbie Betinis: "All Things Live," "The Prayer Wind," "The Clan of the Lichens" (The Clan of the LichenS).We live in an age when there is nothing especially exotic or even noteworthy about a woman being a composer, particularly in the realm of solo vocal music. One could not possibly compile a worthwhile list of our most important contemporary song composers without including the likes of Libby Larsen, Lori Laitman, and any number of other gifted and skilled women. They are an essential part of our musical fabric, and one cannot imagine it any other way. In light of that, one might question whether or not it makes sense to continue to produce recordings dedicated solely to the songs of women composers, as though they were a distinct type of composer and still in need of special validation. Aren't women composers most meaningfully honored by us when we refer to them and authentically regard them simply as "composers"?The answer to that question is rather complicated when one considers more than our somewhat egalitarian status quo. What about the long history of exclusion and neglect with which women composers had to contend for generations, to say nothing of all the other ways in which women have been and, in some places, continue to be treated as second-class citizens? In light of that disconcerting reality, perhaps it is still appropriate and even necessary for the songs of women composers to be celebrated in a concerted way. The dedication of the recording at hand would seem to speak to that. "All we claim to know about the feminine spirit," says Leanne Freeman-Miller, "has its roots in the legends of Eden. May these songs give testimony to she [sic] who is forever denied her version of that story."The soprano is an Associate Professor of Music at Drake University, where she has fostered a passion for new vocal literature, both on her own behalf and on behalf of her own students. "I have always been passionate about new works," she writes, "having dug through many bins of music at NATS and MTNA conventions in the past, as well as meeting young composers at those events and purchasing their music." Letters from the Garden amounts to a celebration of the joys that come from searching out and embracing unfamiliar and/or new music in just that way. "I am committed," she writes, "to enlightening and inspiring [my students] to explore the wonderful new compositions that are being composed by both contemporary male and female composers."Her voice is brilliantly hued and gains luminosity as it ascends into its upper register. Occasional moments take her a little beyond her comfort zone, when a touch of stridency seeps into the edges of the sound and the vibrato grows labored. For the most part, though, her singing demonstrates rock solid technical prowess and potent expressive gifts. Beyond that, she sings every one of these songs with a rapturous joy that's utterly irresistible. Pianist Michelle Havlik-Jergens, a longtime Drake colleague, plays attentively and sensitively throughout this demanding program, and deserves a major portion of the credit for this recording's impressive beauty.The disk both opens and closes with songs by Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947), a former member of the music faculty at Oberlin who now composes in the idyllic setting of her farm in Vermont. Her songs reverberate with the shimmering beauty of the countryside, and one can sense how Freeman-Miller identifies deeply with these songs. …