Charles E. Burchfield and The Coming of Spring
The Coming of Spring is a one-act monodrama for tenor accompanied by flute (piccolo), oboe (English Horn), clarinet (bass clarinet), bassoon, horn, and piano, based on the life, paintings, and writings of visionary American watercolorist Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967).
The monodrama follows Burchfield’s artistic and personal journey from 1917 to 1943, tracing the development of the titular painting — which conveys the transition from winter to spring in a single image — from inception to completion.
The idea for this painting comes to Burchfield shortly after he graduates from art school. However, it takes decades for him to develop the understanding of nature, the painterly technique, and the personal clarity he needs to express his vision: from days spent collecting butterflies during his rural Midwestern childhood, to the years in which he supports his large family by producing popular images of industrial and suburban scenery in Buffalo, NY.
In 1943, Burchfield has an artistic revelation leading to the long-awaited completion of The Coming of Spring. In this moment, he fully realizes the aesthetic of nature and fantasy that will fuel his work to the end of his life.
You can learn more about Burchfield's life and paintings on Nell Shaw Cohen's multimedia educational guide, Beyond the Notes: Music Inspired by Art, and on the website of the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
Music Inspired by Art
The works of composer and librettist Nell Shaw Cohen frequently explore the intersections between music, nature, and visual art.
Her wind quintet Watercolors, also inspired by Burchfield’s paintings, was performed to standing room-only audiences at the grand opening of the new Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, NY. "Nell’s extraordinary interdisciplinary vision…was an ideal program to introduce the public to the museum’s collection with music and images," commented Andrea Grover, Curator of Special Programs at the Parrish.
Nancy Weekly, Burchfield scholar and Head of Collections and Curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, has written: "Nell Shaw Cohen deserves superlative praise for her compositions inspired by art, particularly her understanding of Charles E. Burchfield’s rapport with nature."
Learn more and listen to Nell's music at nellshawcohen.com. Contact her at nell@nellshawcohen.com
Charles E. Burchfield, The Coming of Spring, 1917-1943
Composer, librettist, and multimedia artist-producer Nell Shaw Cohen writes lyrically expressive, visually evocative music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, solo voice, choir, wind ensemble, and rock band. The JACK Quartet, WordSong, and members of The Chelsea Symphony and A Far Cry, among others, have performed her music in museums, concert halls, theaters, and salons. She was named 2013-14 Composer-in-Residence for the NYU Symphony, which commissioned and premiered her tone poem Point Reyes from Chimney Rock at the Skirball Center.
Herschel Garfein is a GRAMMY® award winning composer, writer and stage director. He is the composer/librettist of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, a new opera based on the play by Tom Stoppard. He wrote and directed the theater piece My Coma Dreams, a collaboration with jazz composer-pianist Fred Hersch (“serious, profoundly moving, and sometimes disturbing, a work of dream art as elegant as Stravinsky’s ‘Petit Concert’ and as memorable as ‘Yesterday’” – The New Republic). My Coma Dreams has been seen in New York, Berlin and San Francisco.
David Rosenmeyer is the Music Director of the Fairfield County Chorale and Associate Conductor of the Oratorio Society of New York. He has led the OSNY on tour in Budapest, Rome and São Paolo and in Carnegie Hall performances of Copland and Ives songs and the chamber orchestra in performances of Britten, Fauré, and Stravinsky. Rosenmeyer has also worked with the Bellas Opera Company of Mexico City. Recent engagements include concerts with the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the São Carlos Philharmonic of Brazil. He has conducted several orchestras in South America and is actively involved in education as coach and conductor with the International Vocal Arts Institute, and with Carnegie Hall’s WMI programs; last year he was the music coordinator of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión.
Tyler Samuel Lee is a second year master's student in the NYU Steinhardt Vocal Performance program, studying classical voice in the studio of Michael Ricciardone. At age 6, Tyler wrote and voiced the 50th episode of Cartoon Network’s “Dexter’s Laboratory,” and guest starred on the Tonight Show. At age 8, he co-starred on Disney’s “Out of the Box.” At the Peabody Conservatory he played Rinnuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Mr. Owen in Dominic Argento’s “Postcard from Morocco.” Tyler was the Tenor Soloist in Richard Einhorn’s “Voices of Light” with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Maestra Marin Alsop. Tyler played Mr. Erlanson in the Pittsburgh Opera Theater’s A Little Night Music.
The Chelsea Quintet, comprised of Alison Crossley, flute, Marilyn Cole, oboe, Angela Shankar, clarinet, Melissa Kritzer, bassoon, and Emily Wong, horn, is a non-profit, self-governing group of gifted musicians dedicated to producing performances of the highest quality and collaborating with fellow members of their affiliated parent organization, The Chelsea Symphony. The quintet is thrilled to work with Nell Shaw Cohen again after collaborating with her in 2012.
Originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, pianist Alice Hargrove is a master's student at NYU Steinhardt, where she is also an adjunct piano
instructor. Alice concentrates primarily on the study of instrumental
chamber works, and has performed chamber music at NYU's Blackbox
Theater, Provincetown Playhouse, and at Bellevue Hospital as part of
the "Music with a Vue" outreach program. She has given solo
performances at the Blackbox Theater and has also participated in
NYU's Interstudio Showcase at the Loewe Theater. She completed her
Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance at NYU, where she studied with
Eduardus Halim. Alice studies with both Eduardus Halim and Dr. Grant Wenaus.