Children Playing - F. Hodgkins

Sometimes, the value of a song lies, above all, in its simplicity. In a simple vocal line and a delicate accompaniment. And, of course, in a composer with class. This is the case of this week's song, Two little flowers by Charles Ives.

In 1908, Ives married Harmony Twitchell. Harmony (what a suitable name in that family!) was a nurse and occasional poet; her verses often inspired her husband's songs (she also made the English version of poems such as Über alle Gipfeln ist Ruh or Die Lotosblume). In 1915, the couple adopted a daughter, Edith.

A few years later, when the child was seven years old, she was playing one day in the garden with her friend Susanna, the daughter of a family in the neighbourhood. It's easy to picture the scene. A spring day, the voices of the little girls, their laughter, and their parents sitting, relaxed, perhaps with a fresh lemonade jar on the table, looking at them and enjoying. Harmony Twitchell and Charles Ives wrote a short poem about this scene, which appears to be intended so that the children could easily memorize it: There are many beautiful and rare flowers everywhere, but the most beautiful and rare are Edith and Susanna.

The poem became a song, Two little flowers (and dedicated to them), and Ives included it in the extensive compilation he published the following year, in 1922, 114 Songs; it is no. 104. And, as I told you at the beginning, it's delightful in its simplicity (apparently, at least)

The recording I have selected to share is that of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Michael Porti. On the one hand, as a reminder of the immense repertoire that the baritone had. On the other hand, I like the fast tempo he chose, which makes me think of girls moving up and down in their own world. Other performances that have a slower tempo remind me of parents trying to relax their children. Since the tempo in the score is allegretto, I guess Fischer-Dieskau was on the right track.

This is also the version that I chose to share on Tuesday 18 at the talk at the Institute of North American Studies in Barcelona. While I was preparing, I remembered that years ago I had written down this song in my notebook; I suppose I lost it when I changed from one notebook to a new season. It's time to listen to it. I hope you like it.

 

Two little flowers

On sunny days in our backyard,
two little flowers are seen,
One dressed, at times, in brightest pink
and one in green.
The marigold is radiant,
the rose passing fair;
The violet is ever dear,
the orchid, ever rare;
There’s lov’liness in wild flow’rs
of field or wide savannah,
But fairest, rarest of them all
are Edith and Susanna.

 

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