Love Songs by Black Composers and Poets
Henry Pleas, tenor
Phoebe Wu, piano
"Love’s Memory" -- H. Leslie Adams, music; Paul Laurence Dunbar, text
"Love’s Response" -- H. Leslie Adams, music; Paul Laurence Dunbar, text
"Sence you went away" -- H. Leslie Adams, music; James Weldon Johnson, text
Passionale -- H.T. Burleigh, music; James Weldon Johnson, text
- Her Eyes Twin Pools
- Your Lips Are Wine
- Your Eyes So Deep
- The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face
Pause
Piano solo
Four Romantic Love Songs -- Adolphus Hailstork, music; Paul Laurence Dunbar, text
- 1. My Heart to Thy Heart
- 2. Invitation to Love
- 3. Longing
- 4. Goodnight
Winter Moon -- Margaret Bonds, music; Langston Hughes, text
Young Love in Spring -- Margaret Bonds, music; Langston Hughes, text
Georgia -- Margaret Bonds, music; Andy Razaf, text
I love the Lord -- Richard Smallwood, music; Issac Watts, text
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Passionale: Love Songs of Black Composers and Poets
Program Notes
Passionale: Love Songs of Black Composers and Poets is presented in celebration of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day, honoring love as one of the most enduring and transformative forces in human experience. Through art song, piano music, and sacred song, this program explores love in its many dimensions—romantic, remembered, longing, joyful, and divine—through the voices of Black American composers and poets whose creative legacies continue to shape classical and sacred music traditions. This evening’s performance is presented by Henry Pleas, tenor, and Phoebe Wu, piano, within the reflective and resonant space of the First Congregational Church of Evanston.
The program opens with songs by H. Leslie Adams, one of the most distinguished living composers of American art song. Adams is celebrated for his lyrical vocal writing, refined harmonic language, and deep sensitivity to text. His settings of poetry by Paul Laurence Dunbar—“Love’s Memory” and “Love’s Response”—form a matched pair, offering two perspectives on love: first as something tenderly recalled, then as something warmly returned. These songs exemplify Adams’s ability to illuminate emotional nuance while allowing the natural beauty of the poetry to shine. “Since You Went Away” set to a text by James Weldon Johnson, turns inward, giving voice to absence and longing with quiet intensity and dignified restraint.
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry serves as a central literary thread throughout the program, appearing in the works of two contemporary composers, H. Leslie Adams and Adolphus Hailstork. Dunbar’s words—at once intimate, musical, and emotionally direct—have proven timeless, continuing to inspire composers across generations. His presence in this concert also anchors the program historically. Dunbar and H. T. Burleigh were both attendees at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a pivotal cultural moment that brought African American artistic achievement to national and international attention at the turn of the twentieth century.
Burleigh’s song cycle Passionale, giving this concert its title, stands as one of the foundational works of Black American art song. A composer, arranger, and cultural bridge-builder, Burleigh played a crucial role in elevating African American musical expression within classical traditions. His Passionale, set to poetry by James Weldon Johnson, unfolds as a four-song meditation: Her Eyes Twin Pools, Your Lips Are Wine, Your Eyes So Deep, and The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face, revealing the contours of this amorous love. The cycle moves fluidly between rapture and reverence, presenting love as something both sensual and exalted, deeply personal yet almost spiritual in its intensity. This representation of sentiments from the author of the "Black National Anthem: Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", is a pleasant surprise to us.
Following a pause, the program turns toward reflection with a piano solo by Florence Price. The program's second half continues with Adolphus Hailstork’s Four Romantic Love Songs, again drawing on the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Hailstork’s settings—My Heart to Thy Heart, Invitation to Love, Longing, and Goodnight—explore tenderness, desire, yearning, and rest with expressive clarity and dramatic pacing. Together, the songs form an emotional arc that mirrors the natural rhythms of love itself, from invitation to fulfillment to peaceful closure. Through these works, Dunbar’s voice continues to speak across time, refracted through a contemporary musical lens.
Toward the end, the program highlights the music of Margaret Bonds, the single female composer represented on today's program. Her life and legacy hold special significance in this setting. Born in Chicago, Bonds earned her Master’s degree in Music Composition at Northwestern University in Evanston—just steps from the church where this concert takes place. Her songs reflect a deep commitment to artistic excellence and cultural expression, shaped by her close collaborations with leading Black poets. Winter Moon and Young Love in Spring, set to texts by Langston Hughes, contrast mature reflection with youthful exuberance, while Georgia, with lyrics by Andy Razaf, evokes love of place, memory, and identity. Bonds’s music blends lyric beauty with rhythmic vitality, offering love as both personal experience and collective remembrance with hints of jazz and musical theater style.
The concert concludes with “I Love the Lord” by Richard Smallwood, set to a text by Isaac Watts (the 18th Century English Congregational minister). In this final offering, the program’s many expressions of love converge in an affirmation of faith. Romantic longing gives way to spiritual devotion, and personal emotion expands into communal praise. As a tribute to Smallwood’s legacy, to mentorship, and to enduring belief, this closing work affirms love as a sustaining force—capable of carrying individuals, communities, and traditions across generations, beyond race and culture.
Together, the works on this program trace a lineage of Black artistic expression that spans centuries, cities, and musical styles. Rooted in history, enriched by place, and animated by poetry, Passionale offers love not only as an emotion, but as a living tradition—remembered, renewed, and shared.