"Ferry Me across the Water" [Hagen, Daron]

"Ferry Me across the Water" [Hagen, Daron]

Part of: "Three Silent Things"|"Letting Go"

Hagen, Daron; music (American, born 1961)

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

1983 [composition]; 1984 [composition of "Three Silent Things"]; 2002 [composition of "Letting Go"] [copyright]

Burning Sled Music ("Three Silent Things..."); New York: Carl Fischer ("Letting Go...")

genre: song|song cycle

solo: soprano

instrumentation: violin|viola|cello|piano

initial time signature: 3/4

other version 1 - solo: voice

other version 1 - instrumentation: piano

origin: United States

male composer

English

Rossetti poem(s): "'Ferry me across the water'"

Place in the larger work: The third song of twelve in the song cycle called "Three Silent Things," which includes 1. "I Depart as Air" (Walt Whitman); 2. "Despite and Still" (Robert Graves); 3. "Ferry Me Across the Water" (Christina Rossetti); 4. "Do I Love You?" (Jack Larson); 5. "Pitiless God" (Robinson Jeffers); 6. "Three Silent Things" (Adelaide Crapsey); 7. "Song Without Words (Instrumental); 8. "Just Now (Adelaide Crapsey); 9. "Specimen Case" (Walt Whitman); 10. "Rain in Spring" (Paul Goodman); 11. "Now That I Love You (Robert Graves); 12. "A Clear Day and No Memories" (Wallace Stevens). The second song of seven in the song cycle called "Letting Go," which includes 1. "A Suite of Appearances" (Mark Strand); 2. "Ferry Me across the Water"; 3. (Christina Rossetti); "Ghost Letter" (Richard McCann); 4. "'I'll sing a song to my love'" (Gwen Hagen); 5. "Prayer to Sparrow in Two Seasons" (Jeffrey Skinner); 6. "The Second Law" (Stephen Sandy); 7. "Psalm 150."

Composition history: "Three Silent Things is perhaps Hagen's most personal, introspective song cycle. From the start, the composer conceived of the cycle as a summation of, and a farewell to, his years in Philadelphia. Appropriately, he reached out to his closest friends at the time and composed a work that he could perform with them. [...] Hagen included Ferry Me Across the Water [to cycle "Three Silent Things"] because it was the first song that he had composed for Karen Hale, the singer in the ensemble, with whom he had performed it many times. (Hagen revised the song, years later, and included it in the song cycle Letting Go.)" ("Three Little Things...") "Letting Go was assembled from songs composed over the course of nearly two decades and completed as a cycle during the winter of 2002 in New York City. It consists of seven songs, all of which deal with love and death. [...] Ferry Me Across the Water was finished a decade earlier on 25 October 1983 in Philadelphia." ("Letting Go...")

Tempo markings: quarter note = 76 ("Letting Go") (Carman 1208b)

Performance instructions: "Flexible and Blue" ("Letting Go") (Carman 1208b)

Performance history: "['Three Silent Things'] Premiere: 13 April 1984 / Curtis Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / Karen Hale, soprano / Michaela Paetsch, violin / Lisa Ponton, viola / Robert LaRue, cello / Daron Hagen, piano" ("Three Silent Things...") "['Letting Go'] Premiere: 11 December 2002 / Auditório do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte da Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal / Claire Vangelisti, soprano / Alfredo Carerra, piano" ("Letting Go...")

Dedication: "for Karen, Michaela, Lisa, and Robert" ("Three Silent Things..."). "To Gilda Marie Lyons" [complete cycle] ("Letting Go...")

Notes: Review: "Daron Hagen, I know, won't set a song if he hasn't memorized the lyrics.... [This] cycle is heartbreaking [...] The harmonies in 'Ferry Me Across the Water' wander in a way that reminds me of Schoenberg and shift subtly into a conventional tonality at the end; Hagen does this enviably well. — Stephen Estep, American Record Guide, January-February, 2009" ("Letting Go...")

Format 1: musical score

2 pages ("Letting Go") (Carman 1208b); complete "Letting Go" cycle performance time 18 minutes ("Letting Go..."); complete "Three Silent Things" cycle performance time 25 minutes ("Three Silent Things...")

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

Other data reference(s): "Letting Go." Daron Hagen, https://www.daronhagen.com/songs-and-cycles/letting-go. Accessed 5 Jul 2021.
"Three Silent Things." Daron Hagen, https://www.daronhagen.com/songs-and-cycles/three-silent-things. Accessed 5 Jul 2021.
Carman, Judith E., et al. Art Song in the United States, 1759-2011. Fourth edition, Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2013, 1208b.

Cataloguer: Roxanne Lafleur, University of Ottawa

Record: CRM-ferrymeacross-hagen

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