Ruth Schönthal

Early Songs

Art Songs by American Woman Composers Vol.11.

With this series, Southern Music Company initiates the first published collection of art songs set to music exclusively by American women. The songs span the whole of the twentieth century, and the majority of them are by living composers, with the notable exceptions of Amy Beach, Mary Howe, and Florence Price. All of the songs have been selected on the basis of poetic choice, strength in text-setting, and accessibility in performance. These eight songs by German (though forced to flee during the Hitler regime) composer Ruth Schonthal, through lyricism, matches the flow of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry, and demonstrate the composer's early mastery of vocal and pianistic writing in the German Lieder tradition.

Songs: I. Meine fruhverliehnen Lieder, II. Arme Hellige, III. Ihr Madchen seid wie die Kahne, IV. Erste Rosen erwachen, V. LIEBES-LIED, VI. Weisse Seelen, VII. Noch ahsnt du nichts, VIII. Ich will ein Garten sein.