Some of the Music Matthew Hinsley Performs
At this time Matthew Hinsley exclusively performs as a
singer-guitarist. Here you will
find brief biographical information about some of the composers represented in
Matthew’s current concert programs as well English translations of the song
texts. In concert, Matthew
performs all songs in their original languages.
John
Dowland
(1563-1626) is primarily known in the guitar world for his extensive
contribution of lute songs. An
Englishman, Dowland was employed in many courts both in England and on the
continent and was extremely famous during his lifetime.
His songs, often melancholy or on the favorite subject of unrequited
love, are intensely expressive and intricately conceived.
The poetry has complex rhyming and is often full of playful double
meanings and imagery. The music is
often complex, in most cases the voice being just another polyphonic line in a
tightly woven texture, and is always expressive of the poetic intent.
Mauro
Giuliani
(1781-1829) is one of the most important
figures in the history of classical guitar.
A virtuoso performer and a prolific composer, Giuliani lived in Vienna
between 1808 and 1819 before moving back to Italy. Giuliani is perhaps best known for his solo guitar music both
pedagogical and for the concert stage, but he also wrote many fine works for
solo instruments with guitar and, of course, guitar as an accompaniment to
voice. Giuliani’s Sei Ariette, Opus 95 is a set of six ariettas composed by Giuliani
on texts by the great 18th century librettist Pietro
Metastasio. In
each case Giuliani’s vocal melodies and expressive harmonizations in the
guitar part match the flavor of the poems, be they sly, charming, brooding,
deceitful or lighthearted.
Jonathan
Kulp (b. 1970)
began his musical studies at age eight, taking up the classical guitar in high
school and going on to earn a degree in guitar performance from the University
of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Kulp
also holds a Master's degree in music theory and a Ph.D. in musicology from the
University of Texas at Austin. He
is currently on the music faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In the field of composition, Dr. Kulp has distinguished
himself especially as a composer of songs.
He was the youngest of eight winners selected in G. Schirmer's 1995 Young
Americans Art Song Competition, and his winning song "Canción tonta"
was subsequently published in G. Schirmer's songbook The Art Song Collection. "Canción
tonta" and the songs presented here by Matthew Hinsley are part of the
collection Canciones para niños
("Songs for Children"), a cycle of eight songs written from 1994-1996
on poems by Federico García Lorca.
The ninth song, "Nana," was added in 2000.
Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco
(1895-1968) was an Italian composer of
Jewish descent who fled anti-semitism in Italy with his family in 1939, arriving
that same year in New York City. Having
met Andres Segovia in Venice in 1932 Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote many fine works
for classical guitar in his lifetime including works for guitar with orchestra
and guitar with string quartet. The
song cycle on this recording, Vogelweide, Opus 186 is an extraordinary work containing music on poetry by the medieval
German minnesinger Walther von der Vogelweide. The poems are generally
some combination of subjects concerning politics, philosophy, society, religion
or love. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s
music brilliantly characterizes and embellishes each poem, changing mood as the
text changes mood or highlighting individual words of special importance.
At the time of this writing, I know of no available recording of this
monumental work, and very few guitarists seem to be familiar with it. It
is a great pleasure to present this work in its entirety in my concerts.
New Song Cycle
Composed by Jonathan Kulp for Matthew Hinsley!
Five Poems of
Emily Dickinson
the composer writes:
The song cycle Five Poems of Emily Dickinson was written in the summer
of 2002 on a commission from tenor/guitarist Matthew Hinsley of Austin,
Texas. Hinsley had already performed and recorded several of my
Canciones para niños, and having seen his amazing performances (singing
and accompanying himself at once), I wanted to write a cycle
specifically for him that would show his abilities to best advantage. I
asked him to choose some texts, and my only concern was that the texts
be in the public domain so as to eliminate copyright hassles. He sent
me copy of Emily Dickinson's Selected Poems with dozens of poems marked
as potential song texts, and after reading all of them I decided to use
five poems that he hadn't marked at all. The cycle is constructed in a
sort of arch form, with tempos of slow-fast-slow-fast-slow. The texts
exhibit Dickinson's characteristic charm, wit, and pathos, and I have
tried to support them with similar musical sentiments. Knowing
Hinsley's considerable abilities as a guitarist/singer, I felt free to
write fairly challenging parts for both guitar and voice with full
confidence that he could pull it off, and he does so with an ease that
takes one's breath away.
-
Jonathan Kulp, June 2003