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The Beauty of Innuendos

Four Song Cycles by Frank Felice

Frank Felice composer

Mitzi Westra mezzo-soprano
Gregory Martin piano

Release Date: January 27, 2023
Catalog #: NV6488
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Vocal Music
Piano
Voice

Frank Felice, an eclectic composer celebrated for his postmodern mischievousness, explores his own brand of “consonant adiatonicism” in THE BEAUTY OF INNUENDOS. Throughout the album, Felice sets a variety of texts to music, ranging from the antiphons of 9th century Christian mystic Hildegard of Bingen to the modernist poetry of Wallace Stevens. Felice’s compositions explore the given text while also demonstrating the virtuosic skill of the singer and the pianist; the latter, far from a mere accompaniment, joins with the voices equally to lend even great profundity to the poetic text. Featured in these recordings is mezzo-soprano Mitzi Westra, who commissioned two of the works. Above all, THE BEAUTY OF INNUENDOS solidifies Felice’s reputation as a dauntless and innovative composer.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Four Songs of Jennifer Haines: A Wind Burnt Spot in the Dream Frank Felice; Jennifer Haines-Bennett, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:35
02 Four Songs of Jennifer Haines: Cassaundra Frank Felice; Jennifer Haines-Bennett, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 4:20
03 Four Songs of Jennifer Haines: Abstract Thought Frank Felice; Jennifer Haines-Bennett, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:34
04 Four Songs of Jennifer Haines: An Unheard of Word Frank Felice; Jennifer Haines-Bennett, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:55
05 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Prologue Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:29
06 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Among twenty snowy mountains Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:18
07 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: I was of three minds Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:06
08 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: The blackbird whirled in the autumn wind Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:32
09 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: A man and a woman are one Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 0:44
10 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: I do not know which to prefer – Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:57
11 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Icicles filled the window Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:08
12 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: O thin men of Haddam Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:28
13 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: I know noble accents Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 0:50
14 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: When the blackbird flew out of sight Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 0:18
15 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: At the sight of blackbirds Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:15
16 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: He rode over Connecticut Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 1:01
17 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: The river is moving Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:18
18 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: It was evening all afternoon Frank Felice; Wallace Stevens, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 3:12
19 Letters to Derrick: First Lines Frank Felice; Tammy Cutler Randa, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 3:19
20 Letters to Derrick: Accidentals Frank Felice; Tammy Cutler Randa, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:29
21 Letters to Derrick: No... Frank Felice; Tammy Cutler Randa, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 3:40
22 Letters to Derrick: Sporting Life Frank Felice; Tammy Cutler Randa, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:27
23 Letters to Derrick: Last Lines Frank Felice; Tammy Cutler Randa, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 3:41
24 Four Antiphons of Hildegard of Bingen: O virgo Ecclesia Frank Felice; Hildegard of Bingen, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 8:09
25 Four Antiphons of Hildegard of Bingen: Nunc gaudeant materna viscera Ecclesia Frank Felice; Hildegard of Bingen, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 3:57
26 Four Antiphons of Hildegard of Bingen: O orzchis Ecclesia Frank Felice; Hildegard of Bingen, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 2:25
27 Four Antiphons of Hildegard of Bingen: O choruscans lux stellarum Frank Felice; Hildegard of Bingen, text Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano; Gregory Martin, piano 8:07

Recorded in January 2020 and May 2022 at the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, University of Indianapolis in Indianapolis IN

Recording Session Producer Frank Felice
Recording Session Engineer Gabriel Harley
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

All works composed by Frank Felice, BMI
A Mad Italian Bros. Ink Production
This recording is brought to you by the letters “M” and “W” along with the number 29.

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Frank Felice

Composer

Frank Felice (b. 1961) is an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: each piece speaks in its own language, and his works can be by turns comedic/ironic, simple/complex, subtle/startling, or humble/reverent. Recent projects of Felice’s have taken a turn toward the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.

Learn More

Mitzi Westra

mezzo-soprano

Mitzi Westra, mezzo-soprano, received her B.A. in music and religion from Augustana College in Sioux Falls SD. Her graduate work was done at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she received her M.M. and D.M.A. in vocal performance, working with such nationally renowned artists as coach/accompanist Margo Garrett and opera directors James Robinson and Vern Sutton. She was frequently seen on stage in roles such as Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Florence Pike in Albert Herring, Amastre in Xerxes, and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.

In 1993 she portrayed Ma Moss in the touring production of The Tender Land. While in Minneapolis, she spent four years performing, touring, and recording with a professional choral group, the Dale Warland Singers, and was alto section leader for the DWS Chamber Singers. She then moved to Beaumont TX, and taught private voice, diction, and music theory at Lamar University. While there, she played the roles of Lalume in Kismet and Lady Larkin in Once Upon a Mattress, as well as performing frequently with the Symphony of Southeast Texas. Since moving to Indianapolis, she has appeared as soloist with Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, New Century String Quartet, and the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet, as well as performing regularly for the University of Indianapolis Faculty Artist Series.

Opera performances in Indiana include Katisha in The Mikado and the mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. As an avid choral musician, she has sung with several professional organizations, including the Grammy Award-winning ensemble Conspirare and Santa Fe Desert Chorale. She has also sung with Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Chamber Singers, Meridian Vocal Consort, Beecher Singers at Second Presbyterian Church, and Mon Choeur, the resident vocal chamber ensemble at University of Indianapolis. She currently teaches vocal studies at University of Indianapolis, is an alto section leader at Second Presbyterian Church, records for Aireborn Studios in Zionsville, and maintains her own private studio. She is pleased to be married to Frank Felice, composer and professor at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Gregory Martin

piano

Applauded in London by the Sunday Times for performances of “great panache,” pianist Gregory Martin has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan as both a soloist and chamber musician. His playing has been hailed as “filled with imagination, fire, and lyricism…a virtuoso performance” and praised for its “mature and subtle understanding, all the while handling formidable technical difficulties with ease and fluency.” He has premiered new works by composers such as Emile Naoumoff, Robert Saxton, and John Traill, as well as unpublished compositions by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gerald Finzi. Recent seasons have included solo performances at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall); chamber concerts with members of the New York Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, and Indianapolis, and the Dresden Staatskapelle; and various other recital, chamber, and concerto engagements, including a collaboration with the Swedish baritone Håkan Hagegård on a staged version of Dominick Argento’s song-cycle The Andrée Expedition. He has recorded for Toccata Classics and Centaur.

In addition to performing, Martin has lectured at such institutions as the University of Berlin, the Grieg Academy in Norway, and Oxford University. His presentation on the Grieg Ballade during centenary festivities (2007) at the composer’s home in Bergen was called, “some of the most important work on Grieg in years,” and led to recital engagements and lectures in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States. A major article on the work was recently published in Music and Letters. He has also published on Vaughan Williams’s opera Riders to the Sea, contributed a chapter to Music in Middle-earth (a volume on music in the work of J. R. R. Tolkien), and translated composer Emile Naoumoff’s memoirs of his studies with Nadia Boulanger. He is an active composer, his works having been called “glorious” and “inspired,” and in 2014 was named co-artistic director of the Ronen Chamber Ensemble (Indianapolis). He has been awarded a scholarship from the Finzi Trust, grants from the International Edvard Grieg Society and the University of Indianapolis, and was a 2017 recipient of a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.

A native of Buffalo NY, Martin holds D.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance from Indiana University in Bloomington and a B.M. from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (Valedictorian); additional post-graduate work was conducted at the University of Oxford (Worcester College), and focused on the intersection of language, music, and national identity in twentieth-century England. His principal teachers included Edmund Battersby, William Black, Marcella Branagan, Leonard Hokanson, and Karen Shaw, with important encouragement from Robert Saxton. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Indianapolis, and is Head of Piano Studies at Music Across the Pond (United Kingdom).

Notes

These four poems do not form a set as conceived by Jennifer—rather, I ran a line of thought through them that tied them together as a whole, based on the changing relationship of Jennifer and another student of mine named Tara. “A Wind Burnt Spot in the Dream” pretty much sets out what eastern Wyoming can be: dry, bleak winters with only icy, horizontal snow; loss of love, a dearth of hope (or an excess of it!).

During that same time, Tara and Jennifer were having a change of friendship, with Tara moving in a different direction (a lighter more carefree one) than that of Jennifer. She, feeling left out, wrote “Cassaundra” as a venting of her feelings: the first section in anger and frustration, the second as a remembrance of friendship’s love, and the last as an act of letting Tara go.  

“Abstract Thought” is set as a duet for the voice and piano, almost as if the poet or singer were sounding out her thoughts into a mirror, or speaking to another person who may or may not be in the room. Tough thoughts, eh? How many of you have been at a juncture of your life where these things crossed your mind?  

The crux of the previous problems is brought to the fore in the last song of the cycle, “An Unheard of Word.” Despair does burn, has cut, and will steal love away, but denial of that despair can be part of the fight to survive, and any hope that can be smuggled will alleviate much suffering. How much you let that cycle of pain and suffering continue is up to you—it can be broken. Will you do it?

– Frank Felice

These short poems by Wallace Stevens have always made me feel like I was in the midst of a play or a film where straightforward understanding of the plot wasn’t what the whole was trying to communicate—rather, the style, the shape of the line, the quality of light, or the feel of the fabric would be telling me all I needed to know, and often those things would be the impression I carried forward into the future. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” has always moved me in this same fashion, as if there on a wind current floats the bird in question, mysterious, sudden, marvelous, startling black, wise, ubiquitous….
The result is a tour de force for my wife (who commissioned the piece), and her accompanist—it uses the full range of both singer and pianist and does not treat the piano as an uninvolved mere supporting instrument. Rather, the combined vocal and piano parts seek to meld a world with the text, one that is constructed like poetry, built of figurative language as much as it is of pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form.

Commissioned by and composed for Mitzi Westra

– Frank Felice

Baritone Derrick Pennix commissioned me to write these songs based on a number of letters that were written to him by a young friend that he had met on a cross country bus trip. As you can tell, she expressed her opinion about a number of different things in these letters, some of which were quite fun. Tammy and Derrick have continued to correspond over the years, and for this cycle he let me read all of the letters that she sent him.

To compose this cycle, I decided to organize the texts by choosing a number of first lines from Tammy’s letters to do the first song, snippets about a variety of accidents for the next one, the all too sketchy details about the delivery of some roses for the third, the ubiquitous Chicago sports fan’s enthusiasms for the fourth, and literal last lines for the fifth song. These are all tied together by a cyclical theme which is heard at the beginning of the first piece.

Commissioned by and written for Derrick Pennix

– Frank Felice

These antiphons by mystic Hildegard of Bingen were written and set to her own incomparable music for a dedication of a new church and were later gathered together in her Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. The first of these four antiphons speak a note of mourning and fear, for which sacrifice of Christ and the marriage of the Church and the Lamb will ultimately conquer their enemy and redeem the Church. This setting sets its stage in mourning and anxiety, before moving through an embrace of that coming joy and eventual marriage. Each successive antiphon becomes more joyful, an ecstatic meditation that builds until it comes to rest in the last antiphon (which contains a look back at darker times from the first antiphon).  

Commissioned by and composed for Karen Adair and Mitzi Westra

– Frank Felice

Acknowledgements
Always, many thanks to Dean Lisa Brooks and Director David Murray for all of the support for the Music Composition Department in the School of Music at Butler University; thank you to all of my colleagues in the School for the support you also give us (students, faculty, and staff), especially my composition colleague Herr Doktor Michael Schelle. Many thanks to my composition colleagues all over the world for your care, comments, and support of this wild, crazy life of writing music; thank you to my family, spread all over the United States, especially Mom and Dad Westra (requiescat in pace tutti). Thanks to Tom Ewigleben and Rick Wagoner and all of the folks in the West Winds Big Band and the Park Ave Band; thanks also to the folks in Progressive Lenses (you make our journey so wonderful, always), the Neal Morse Band, and lastly, thank you to all of my current and former students.

(And! I just know I missed a bunch of other folks AGAIN; scusi, mea culpa – forgive me!)

Special Thanks
To my lovely wife Mitzi for her talent, love, and patience for anything I do having to do with writing music, and not just about the insane amount of musicianship she has along with a vocal instrument whose tone is so wonderful (and who possesses low notes for days).

To Greg Martin whose musicianship is outstanding in every respect – thank you for reminding me about why Grieg is such a great composer, and many, many thanks for working with us on this concert and recording project.

Texts

texts by Jennifer Bennett
Text reprinted with permission from the author

I. A Wind Burnt Spot in the Dream

Bladed snow crystals cut the air
falling in dazzles of being rare

To climb up high
And restore trust
Impossible
A wind burnt spot in the dream
to speak of bitter waters and scream

Keep in store the love,
to face the world above or below

But never waste the
the rushing glow
Is there always hope?

II. Cassaundra

Cassaundra close those eyes
when swallowing the world
and leaving the cries

I wonder…
Cassaundra why?

Sing, Cassaundra sing,
I wish to hear what I’m not involved in
Talk to me!
Your heart’s song
fills the world with beauty
Cassaundra, play it softly

for me—–

You fly through life on the wings of a dove,
Cassaundra,
above all others
in freedom and love
Cassaundra, fly
Cassaundra fly!

III. Abstract Thought

Is love worth it?
when someday it
will be gone

Listen to the echo
this emptiness
in me

Stroke the fur
softly
as it sleeps
blending the
yellow

IV. An Unheard of Word

It defies, misinterprets
unjustifies and
weakens motivation

A marshy landslide in
despair
a fight to survive in a land

Acknowledged in unseen
wisdom
two exact opposites cancel each other
out

Gone, oh gone

An unheard of word
denial imparted

No!

Smuggled
Into hardships of life

text by Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty snowy mountains
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn wind
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer–
The beauty of inflexions
Or the beauty of innuendos,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage for blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving. (flowing)
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Texts by Tammy Cutler Randa
Text reprinted with permission from the author

I. First Lines

What’s up?
I’m not sure if you got my last letter
I have written you two other letters
but I never sent them, so for
that I am sorry, sorry
sorry I have taken so long to write
How are you doing? I am fine
Nothing much is going on here, school is fine
School is almost over I can’t wait
The teachers I have been giving lots of homework
I’m out of school
I’m out of school for now

Derrick, what’s up?

II. Accidentals

My arm is all better, I got my cast off on the 27th of June
And I had a birthday on 5/13/92.

P.S.! So far I don’t have any more broken bones!

Cindy got her driver’s license on 2/8/91, she got rear-ended the car is going to have to be fixed and it will cost about two thousand dollars, she got rear-ended

I had a birthday on 5/13/92

I broke my middle finger on April fourth or sixth or sometime around there I am not sure,
I got my cast off on the fourth of May it still hurts and it is green and it still hurts and still is green and black and I was going to have to have surgery on my finger, and have a metal pin put in but they decided that I didn’t need to have to get it – I got a cast instead so on may twenty fourth it will be a year……

since I broke my wrist

So far — I don’t have any more broken bones

III No…

So to answer your question, no, I don’t like him

About that “Rose-boy,” his name is Mason — I only knew him two days before he gave me the
flowers. At first, I thought he was cute and nice, but then he got annoying and wouldn’t leave me alone.
Some boy even had a dozen roses sent to school for me
And there seems to be something new going on every day

P.S. I don’t have a boyfriend right now

IV Sporting Life

I think the Bulls will still win,
but they are starting to scare me!
Who do you think will then win in the next Super Bowl?
Who do?
Who do you think will win the whole thing in the N.B.A?

The Bears lost again but don’t worry
They will still win the Super Bowl
because they are from Chicago!
Do you think the Bulls will still win?

I guess there now is no hope,
no hope for the Bears
(So the Bears lost again!)
The Bulls are goin’ to be the champions again!

Da Bulls will be, Da Bulls will be, etc.
So “Happy Birthday Derrick!”
They are champions again!

V. Last Lines

Just in case you forgot,
Happy Birthday

I hope everything is good

I have enclosed a picture of Grandma, Cindy and me on a fairy boat

Sorry it’s taken so long to write — by the
time you get this letter it will be 1993

So “Happy New Year!”

Well —

that’s about it….

Texts by Hildegard of Bingen (translations by the Frank Felice)

I.
O virgo Ecclesia,
plangendum est,
quod sevissimus lupus
filios tuos
de latere tuo abstraxit.
O ve callido serpenti!
Sed o quam preciosus est sanguis
Salvatoris,
qui in vexillo regis
Ecclesiam ipsi desponsavit,
unde filios
illius requirit.
II.
Nunc gaudeant materna viscera
Ecclesia,
quia in superna simphonia
filii eius
in sinum suum collocati sunt.
Unde, o turpissime serpens,
confusus es,
quoniam (quos) tua estimatio
in visceribus suis habuit
nunc fulgent in sanguine Filii Dei,
et ideo laus tibi sit,
rex altissime.
Alleluia.

III.
O orzchis* Ecclesia
armis divinis precincta
et iacincto ornata,
tu es caldemia stigmatum loifolum

et urbs scientiarum.
O, o, tu es etiam crizanta
in alto sono
et es chorzta gemma.

IV.
O choruscans lux stellarum,
o splendidissima specialis forma
regalium nuptiarum,
o fulgens gemma:
tu es ornate in alta persona
que non habet maculatam rugam.
Tu es etiam socia angelorum
et ciivis sanctorum.
Fuge, fuge speluncam
antique perditoris,
et veniens veni in palatium regis.

I.
O virgin Church
we must mourn,
for that savage wolf
has taken your children
from your side.
O woe to that cunning serpent!
But oh, how precious is the blood
of the Savior,
who, with the kingly banner
espouses you
and therefore seeks
your children.

II.
Now let the heart of Mother
Church rejoice
in heavenly song
because her children
are gathered into her bosom.
So you, oh infamous snake,
are confounded,
since those you jealously held
in your maw
now shine in the blood of God’s Son,
and so praise be to the
king most high
Alleluia

III.
O (zealous) Church,
girded with divine armor
and adorned with hyacinth,
you are the fragrance of the stigmata of
(the people)
and a city of knowledge (science).
O, o, you are also (anointed)
in high sound
and are a (sparkling) gem.

IV.
O glistening starlight,
o very brightest color of the
royal wedding.
o radiant jewel:
you are an elegantly arrayed high person
without stain or wrinkle.
You are also a companion of angels
and a holy citizen.
Flee, flee the cave of the
ancient destroyer
And come, come into the palace of
the King.

*Lingua Ignota – Hildegarde’s own mystical language – given in italics, with translations in parentheses.

Scores

Four Songs of Jennifer Haines (Excerpt)

Frank Felice

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Excerpt)

Frank Felice

Letters to Derrick (Excerpt)

Frank Felice

Four Antiphons of Hildegard of Binge (Excerpt)

Frank Felice