"Who Has Seen The Wind" [Lita Grier]

"Who Has Seen The Wind" [Lita Grier]

First line of lyrics: Who has seen the wind?

Part of: "Five Songs for Children"

Grier, Lita; music (American, born 1937)

Rossetti, Christina Georgina; text (English, 1830-1894)

1999 [composition]; 2009 [recording]

Chicago: Cidelle Records

genre: song|song cycle

solo: soprano

instrumentation: piano

origin: United States

female composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "'Who has seen the wind?'"

Place in the larger work: The fourth song of five in a song cycle called "Five Songs for Children" which includes 1. "Afternoon on a Hill" (Edna St. Vincent Millay); 2. "The Sea Shell" (Amy Lowell); 3. "Someone" (Walter de la Mare); 4. "Who Has Seen The Wind" (Christina Rossetti); 5. "The Bluebird" (Emily Huntington Miller).

Composition history: The composition of “Five Songs for Children” straddles a 37-year period, an interval in which composer Lita Grier stepped away from male-dominated field of music composition and focused on other musical pursuits. The first three songs in the sequence were composed in 1962, and “Who Has Seen the Wind” and “The Bluebird” were composed in 1999. The set of songs was completed at the invitation of Mezzo Soprano Patricia Stiles for an Indiana University recital and CD. For this recital, the song originally third in the sequence, “Someone” by Walter de la Mare, was removed because the concert was to feature only the work of women composers and women poets. In reviewing the concert, in the Herald Times of Bloomington, the renowned music critic, Peter Jacobi commented that “In Grier’s Children’s Songs the music seemed to equal or even enhance the texts.” Composer Lita Grier herself states that “in setting any poetry the composer's task is to serve the poet/poem, and as much as possible to add expressive power to the words” (Grier).

Performance history: First performed by Mezzo Soprano Patricia Stiles at Indiana University, this recital repertoire was recorded and appears in the 2001 album "Vitality Begun." Performed by soprano, Michelle Areyzaga, accompanied by Welz Kauffman, Executive Director of Ravinia, at a concert devoted to works by Lita Grier’s at the Ravinia Festival on 7 Sept. 2008. Performed by soprano Jacqueline Piccolini at Chicago's Friday Noonday Concerts at Buchanan Chapel on 7 Sept. 2018. Performed by Chicago's Fourth Coast Ensemble's soprano Sarah Van Der Ploeg in their Salon Series.

Recordings: "Who Has Seen the Wind." Songs From Spoon River, Reflections of a Peacemaker, performance by Michelle Areyzaga, soprano and Wellz Kauffman, piano, recorded in Bennett-Gordon Hall at Ravinia, Highland Park IL, Cedille Records, 2009. Lita Grier Composer, http://www.litagrier.com/works.html?name=five_songs_for_children.
"Who Has Seen the Wind." Vitality Begun, performance by Patricia Stiles, mezzo-soprano, Graham Cox, piano, Cavalli Records, 2001.
"Who Has Seen the Wind." American Songs, performance by Patrice Michaels, soprano, Elizabeth Buccheri, piano at WFMT Chicago, Cedille Records, 2006. Cedille Records, https://www.cedillerecords.org/albums/american-songs/

Format 1: sound recording

performance time 2 minutes; complete song cycle performance time 6 minutes and 26 seconds

Reference: Ezust, Emily. The LiederNet Archive. http://www.lieder.net/lieder/index.html

Other data reference(s): "Songs from Spoon River, Reflections of a Peacemaker, and Other Vocal Works by Lita Grier." Cecille Records, http://www.cedillerecords.org/albums/songs-from-spoon-river. Accessed 19 March 2018.
"Works." Lita Grier Composer, http://www.litagrier.com/works.html. Accessed 17 Apr. 2020.
Grier, Lita. "Re: Who Has Seen the Wind.” Received by Mary Arseneau, 21 Apr. 2020.

Cataloguer: Jacob Spence and Roxanne Lafleur, University of Ottawa

Record: CRM-whohasseen-grier

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