Search - Sandra McClain, Mary Howe, Robert Ward :: Love's Seasons: Songs of Mary Howe and Robert Ward

The American art song found a champion in Mary Howe (1882-1964) whose songs, though often sung by colleagues during her lifetime, were rediscovered slowly after the emergence of the women's movement of the late 1970's. Diversity of style, language, subject, and level of difficulty gives Howe's songs great appeal to a wide range of listeners and performers and allows for the versatile programming contained on this disc. Typical of Robert Ward's songs, his love of language is apparent in the evocative settings of St. Vincent Millay's sonnets. Voice and accompaniment are tightly linked, producing stirring dramatic effects. Romantic and colorful in nature, yet injected with expressive chromaticism characteristic of the twentieth century, the songs are a welcome addition to the American art song repertoire.