# Favorite bass/baritone solo piece?



## VanCrusty (Jun 17, 2016)

I am looking for quality solo pieces performed by bass/baritones in English. :tiphat:


----------



## lindia (Nov 10, 2016)

Hey VanCrusty,

for what kind of solo pieces are you looking? I recently went to a performance by the Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti (www.luciaronchetti.com/) and she did compose some amazing vocal music. You should check out her website if this is interesting for you!


----------



## rojaba (Nov 12, 2016)

Mendelssohn's Elijah has some pretty good arias in it for Bass/Baritone


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

rojaba said:


> Mendelssohn's Elijah has some pretty good arias in it for Bass/Baritone


Good suggestion. Also, check out the bass arias in Handel's Messiah. "Thus Saith the Lord" is one of my favorite bass arias from the Messiah. It has this great line "I will shake the earth" where the notes actually seem to shake!


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Does it have to be English, as in no other language allowed? ?


----------



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Ralph Vaughan Williams has a ton of wonderful stuff in English for bass/baritones:

The House of Life song cycle
Songs of Travel song cycle
Dona Nobis Pacem for baritone and soprano (with a couple of juicy baritone solos; maybe high for a bass)
Five Mystical Songs

Try to find the Horace Tabor aria "Warm as the autumn light" from The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore. There is also a nice duet or two with Baby Doe (soprano).

There are a ton of bass/baritone arias from operas by Benjamin Britten. BTW, the way you pose the question is confusing: Are you looking for arias for bass or baritone, or for an intermediate bass-baritone type of voice.

Good luck searching!

:tiphat:

Kind regards,

George


----------



## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

VanCrusty said:


> I am looking for quality solo pieces performed by bass/baritones in English. :tiphat:


Endless beauty awaits, VanCrusty! I have been exploring baritone pieces, too. It just happens to be the case that German and some Italian are the languages. Translations are very easy to find. (I have to log off for several hours but I just wanted to post a few before I go.)

Matthias Goerne (the man has a voice that could melt concrete and an intensity that could raise the dead)--I'm starting with videos that I have in my YouTube playlists--quicker to post...will post others later:

Bach, Cantata 82,_ Ich habe genug_






Shubert, _Liederen_






Schubert, _Die schöne Müllerin

_




Wagner, _O du mein holder_ (This CD is an *ABSOLUTE MUST PURCHASE*! I just bought mine two weeks ago.)






I'm very glad to meet another relative newbie to some of this music--I'd love to have someone else join me in my explorations!!!


----------



## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Benjamin Luxon. Bass/Baritone. Did sing great deal in English. (Just a quick thought via my phone)


----------



## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Charles IVES: "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" (1914)
:: Gramm & Cumming [ST/AND; Vox]

This schizophrenic/phantasmagorical little song is the "Bohemian Rhapsody" of early 20th-century art song and represents Ives in a nutshell. It sets a 1912 poem by Vachel Lindsay that memorializes the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, who had gone blind and then died that same year. The poem has the blind Booth leading a grotesque army of lepers, cripples, drunkards, drug addicts, criminals, prostitutes, Talk Classical members, etc., in a march to Heaven. As he's parading them in a procession just outside the Pearly Gates (the "court-house doors"), Jesus comes out and "in an instant" cures them of their maladies and welcomes them into Heaven. Ives must have felt like a pig in slop while setting this poem, as it couldn't be any more suited to his nature and talents as a composer of songs, and he of course pulls out all the stops to exploit the veritable cornucopia of vivid imagery and potential material to quote (the Salvation Army hymn "Fountain," for example). Not only is the vocal part eyebrow-raisingly bold and varied, but so too is the piano part. Gramm & Cumming give by far my favorite performance of any Ives song on record-it simply reeks of Ives (as both his champions and his detractors will attest).

https://play.spotify.com/album/7lJLPApQfxSiLtyfBAGjMh (CD 1, track 11)


----------



## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Dirge said:


> Charles IVES: "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" (1914)
> :: Gramm & Cumming [ST/AND; Vox]
> 
> This schizophrenic/phantasmagorical little song is the "Bohemian Rhapsody" of early 20th-century art song and represents Ives in a nutshell. It sets a 1912 poem by Vachel Lindsay that memorializes the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, who had gone blind and then died that same year. The poem has the blind Booth leading a grotesque army of lepers, cripples, drunkards, drug addicts, criminals, prostitutes, Talk Classical members, etc., in a march to Heaven. As he's parading them in a procession just outside the Pearly Gates (the "court-house doors"), Jesus comes out and "in an instant" cures them of their maladies and welcomes them into Heaven. Ives must have felt like a pig in slop while setting this poem, as it couldn't be any more suited to his nature and talents as a composer of songs, and he of course pulls out all the stops to exploit the veritable cornucopia of vivid imagery and potential material to quote (the Salvation Army hymn "Fountain," for example). Not only is the vocal part eyebrow-raisingly bold and varied, but so too is the piano part. Gramm & Cumming give by far my favorite performance of any Ives song on record-it simply reeks of Ives (as both his champions and his detractors will attest).
> ...


I am glad that I decided to listen to this before midnight.  'always suspected that actuaries have very INTERESTING private
lives.


----------



## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

JosefinaHW said:


> Benjamin Luxon. Bass/Baritone. Did sing great deal in English. (Just a quick thought via my phone)


Yes, apart from arias, you could check the repertoire of the English language basses and baritones. Just a few to get you started:

Bryn Terfel - http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bryn-terfel-silent-noon. This recording has ideas.

Thomas Hampson has recorded a number of American songs (you can google them)

Britten made arrangements of lots of British folksongs for low voice - easily viewed on Youtube

Gerald Finley (Canadian baritone) has recorded English language songs that can be googled.

And here's a favourite of mine:


----------



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Yes, the Finzi sung by Finley above is exquisite. Gerald Finzi wrote dozens of songs for low voice and Boosey and Hawkes has collected 54 of them in "8 cycles or sets," a great collection distributed by Hal Leonard Corp. ISBN 978-1-4234-5677-3. Very good suggestions jenspen, many of the songs mentioned in this thread are quite gratifying to sing yet can be challenging to interpret.

:tiphat:

George


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)




----------

