But two SIUC associate professors of music are endeavoring to change that. Soprano Jeanine Wagner and pianist Margaret Simmons have been compiling art songs by African-American composers for an eventual teaching anthology. Last February, as one of the preliminary stages of their work, they presented a campus recital showcasing more than a dozen of these artists. The art song, an equal marriage of music and poetry, blossomed in the 19th century in the hands of German composers such as Schubert and Brahms. Their songs, or lieder, are still the most widely known, but some 20th-century composers have continued the genre.
Art songs involve simply a singer and a pianist, on stage alone without orchestral support or props.
A concert of art songs can be riskier and more grueling than an opera, says Wagner, who speaks from much experience with both types of performance. Because art songs are typically written as musical settings for pre-existing poems which serve as the lyrics, they often tend to be not conventionally melodic or conventionally rhythmic. Contemporary art songs, which can be quite dissonant or even atonal, are especially challenging. These are not hummable Puccini arias or Andrew Lloyd Webber theatrical tunes. As these concert series died out, opera productions dominated in the big cities.