No. 5 — here at the end of the world / art song of Pablo Ortiz

Artists

Repertoire

here at the end of the world  —  art song of Pablo Ortiz (b. 1956)

Earth (Katie Peterson) [4:15]

From This House That House (Katie Peterson) [4:18]

Speech on a Summer Night (Katie Peterson) [4:10]

Elegía (Rosario Castellanos) [2:22]

Nocturno (Rosario Castellanos) [2:23]

McClure’s Beach (Sidney Hall Jr.) [3:41]

Neutral Tones (Thomas Hardy) [2:54]

chorus musicus (María Negroni) [3:37]

los cementerios de Paris (María Negroni) [2:14]

From This House That House (reprise) [4:08]

When a long silver hair (Yehuda Halevi) [1:13]

total time – 35:21

Notes on the album

During the last decade, I composed mostly for the voice: choral music, a chamber opera, and several song cycles. I always enjoy setting poetry to music, and I particularly love to write for voice and piano. It has been an enormous privilege to work with Lucy and Ryan and their interpretations of my songs are exquisite. I also have to thank Katie Peterson and Maria Negroni for their generosity in allowing me to set their poems, and for their friendship. I haven’t met Sydney Hall Jr. in person: his poem came to me through Chris Reynolds’ family, and I wrote the song for his retirement concert at UC Davis. Russ Irwin, another great friend, suggested the poems by Rosario Castellanos. And I wrote the Yehuda Halevi song as a birthday present for my friend Mark Ludwig. Every poem in this collection speaks to me. 

– Pablo Ortiz, April, 2025

Recorded January 4-5, 2024, in Olin Recital Hall, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Tracks 1-7 & 11, NY Steinway D, #364100 (Michael Lynam, piano technician); tracks 8-10, Roland RD2000 and Modartt PianoTeq 8, “I. Pleyel” (Kremsegg collection 2)

Audio engineered, edited, mixed, and mastered by Ryan M. McCullough