Prelude

1. Amy Beach’s “Mirage”, Op. 100 no. 1: American art song from the Boston School Six’s Amy Beach, describing a new mysterious land and a move westward.

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Miller Suite

2. Milner’s Treren: yiddish traditional song which speaks of the departing jewish diaspora and a old jewish miller left alone wondering what will become of his community when he is gone.

3. Schubert’s "Danksagung an den Bach,” Die Schöne Müllerin: Schubert song of a young man speaking to the babbling brook of his hope of a new love.

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Yiddish theatre/Bernstein Suite

4. Grine Bletter: yiddish traditional song (a klezmer doina) with the words by the yiddish poet Itzik Manger. Speaks of love of singing, burgeoning nature, and new romance.

5. Bernstein’s "Something’s Coming" from West Side Story: The famous tune from Bernstein’s musical which inexplicably seems to share the klezmer rhythms and melodies of Grine Bletter.

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Mozart/Confrey Suite

6. Mozart’s “Ah, Grazie si rendono” from La Clemenza di Tito: This chorus from Mozart’s opera our family used to sing often together during their evenings together after dinner.

7. Zez Confrey’s Dizzy Fingers: A favorite tune that Great Uncle Leo used to play at home and in the speak-easies of New York when stride piano was incredibly popular.

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Political Suite

8. Weill/Brecht’s “Bilbao Song” from Happy Ending: Song lamenting the gentrification of a beloved local establishment and the nostalgia for better times when the bar maintained its gritty dive bar character.

9. Blitzstein’s Stay in My Arms: Song by Marc Blitzstein written for his late wife who had died from anorexia. The song asks her to stay in his arms a while and forget the ills of a world gone insane.

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Tin Pan Alley Suite

10. Just Friends (Klenner)/Can’t We Be Friends (Swift): medely of two excellent tin pan alley tunes by John Klenner and Kay Swift, both lamenting the end of a relationship and the sad fate of the friend zone.

11. Gerswhin’s Nice Work If You Can Get It: classic tune by George/Ira Gershwin later repurposed for the film American in Paris, talking about the joys of love and marriage.

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Musical Theatre Suite

12. Weill/Langston Hughes’ "Lonely House" from Street Scene: Opera that takes place inside a new york tenament, the protagonist as how is it possible to feel so isolated someplace where people live on top of eachother.

13. Mitch Leigh’s "To Each his Dulcinea" from Man of La Mancha: My family had the opportunity to see the original cast on broadway of this musical by Mitch Leigh, and this had a lasting impact on my father.

14. Matthew Wilder’s "The Wanting" from Stiletto: Musical based on 18th century Italy and the castratti written by my father. The musical features operatic castratic, and most notably a Commedia dell’Arte troupe, a precursor to the travelling yiddish theatre troupes that ended up heavily influencing American comedy of today.

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Nostalgia Suite

15. Schubert’s Des Fischersliebesglück: Return to Schubert and the family’s love of lieder and German art music. We are aiming to transform this into a more modern ballad as an exercise to show Schubert’s influence on the songform.

16. Sammy Cahn/Chaplin’s I want my share of Love: Sammy Cahn, legendary lyricist along with his songwriting partner Chaplin wrote this song towards the beginning of their career.

19. Sammy Cahn/Matthew Wilder’s How Fast Forever Goes: One of Sammy Cahn’s last songs written with my father Matthew Wilder. A love song that laments the finiteness of time.

20. Eisler/Brecht’s "An den Kleinen Radio Apparat" from Hollywood Liederbuch: Songcycle written by Eisler as a record of his exile in Hollywood during WWII. The Brecht text speaks of travelling with his only posession, the radio, which allows his enemies in Germany to speak to him, but it is his also his most prized posession.