“Surely this is a major American composer…whose oeuvre seem destined to enter the canon of important contemporary American song literature”

Journal of Singing

Gregory Berg, Sept./Oct. 2016

“All the works by Biscardi share a common ground in that they are expressive, sensitive and convincing.”

American Record Guide

1988

“Chester Biscardi is rapidly gaining stature as one of America’s most capable and versatile composers, with a musical voice that if anything is growing more distinctive and compelling over time.”

Journal of Singing

Gregory Berg, May/June 2012

A fundamental lyricism has been a defining characteristic of Chester Biscardi’s music throughout his career.”

CRI Review

2001

“It is safe to say that in the last half century, no more beautiful love song has been composed than this.”

Journal of Singing

Richard Sjoerdsma, May/June 2008

“Biscardi’s music is clear-line and remarkable in its expressivity.”

Fanfare

1988

Profiles & Articles

Click on each item to see the full profile or article.

“It is to be hoped that the recent publication of this anthology of sixteen songs will rectify this omission and make his excellent work more readily known and available to voice teachers and singers.”

Selected Songs

Journal of Singing – Sept./Oct. 2018

“Surely this is a major American composer, a remarkably talented, imaginative, and mature voice of one whose oeuvre seem destined to enter the canon of important contemporary American song literature.”

A Voice for Our Time

Journal of Singing – May/June 2008

“…beautiful melodies and heartfelt sentiments that characterize great standards. Composed in the classical technique with moderately complex contemporary harmonies and rhythms, these selections easily can be performed in art song or cabaret style.”

New Standards for Singers

Journal of Singing – Mar./Apr. 2007

“…it evokes powerful feelings. Biscardi’s dissonant musical style complements the disjunct elements of the text.”

New Songs by American Composers

Journal of Singing – Sept./Oct. 2008

“The process of working out a life, personally and artistically, is what life is all about.”

(Article by Chester Biscardi)

Keeping a Long Work Alive

Sarah Lawrence Magazine – Fall/Winter 1987-1988

Interviews

The Morning Show: Interview with Gregory Berg
WGTD-Kenosha | Kenosha, Wisconsin
June 3, 2008 | 53:52

“We meet Kenosha-born composer Chester Biscardi, who is renowned especially as a composer of art songs. Also joining us will be Carthage College Professor Emeritus of Music Richard Sjoerdsma, who is a friend of Mr. Biscardi and knows his work well.”

Classical 97 Chicago: Interview with Bruce Duffie
WNIB/WNIZ Classical 97-Chicago | Chicago, Illinois
October 11, 1998 | 44:15

50th Birthday Interview

Interview with Jane Meryll
Bronxville, NY
April 26, 1988 | 16:55

CD Reviews

Click on the CD for information about the album. Click on the review to expand.

Robert Carl, "Biscardi In Time's Unfolding"

Fanfare, January/February 2012, pp. 311-312

Robert Carl

Your Subtitle Goes Here

Chester Biscardi (b. 1948) has already had a career that many composers would envy, graduating from the Yale School of Music, winning the Rome Prize, and heading the music department at Sarah Lawrence College, outside of New York City. This recording documents a fascinating progression, one that is not uncommon among composers of Biscardi’s generation. As a student in the 1970s, he absorbed the principles of complex organization and a largely chromatic harmonic language characteristic of (by now what is viewed as) “late modernism,” which was still firmly entrenched at that time in academic institutions, especially on the East Coast. But in the course of about a decade, he took this grounding and enlarged his expressive vocabulary to encompass far more lyrical and tonal materials. The result in the most recent pieces on this disc is at times enchanting.

The three early works are Tenzone (1975), for two flutes and piano, At the Still Point (1977), for orchestra, and Mestiere, for piano. The first is the most conventional, with elegant sonic strands interweaving between the flutes with periodic interjections from the piano, which acts as more of a guide than a full-fledged participant. The orchestral work was written while Biscardi was in Rome, and shows in particular the influence of Elliott Carter. While the general harmonic rhythm of the piece is slow, the sharply outlined details of individual lines and the emphasis on particular intervals reiterated in similar contexts combine to remind one of similar moments in Carter (in my case, I thought of the slow-moving blocks of sounds in that composer’s piano concerto). In Mestiere (1979), however, something new begins to emerge. Out of the initial dramatic, dissonant opening, soon more lyrical lines and rich, quasi-tonal harmonies emerge. The whole piece seems to be a dialog between the composer Biscardi has been taught to be and the one he wants to be. In the end, it seems the latter wins the contest, and subsequent pieces confirm that verdict.

The remaining works date from the 1980s, and show the emergence of a mature voice. Traverso (1987) is an elegant work. Incitation to Desire (1984) was written for Yvar Mikhashoff’s Tango Project, though its relation to the dance is less in the rhythms than in the sense of superheated Romantics. The Gift of Life (1990-93) is a brief song cycle on texts of Dickinson, Levertov, and Wilder; it is notable not only for the music, but also for the extremely careful matching of disparate texts to form a moving whole – images of birds and mothers, ideas of aging and death, flow in a sequence that creates its own logic (Biscardi’s graduate study in Italian literature before his move to composition obviously helped here). Furthermore, the vocal writing is genuinely beautiful. The setting of Emily Dickinson’s “Mama never forgets her birds . . .,” which opens the piece, is nearly perfect in its matching of harmonic rhythm to poetic rhyme and meter. Biscardi uses a music that is evocative of Barber without sounding like a knockoff . . . the piece is genuinely affecting, and its expressive sincerity is matched by its musical substance.

Companion Piece (1989-91), however, is the work that strikes me as an unqualified success. Written as an homage to Morton Feldman, it is a trope of sorts on Feldman’s 1952 Extensions 3, also for solo piano. Something magical happens here, when the template of Feldman’s soft, spacy gestures intersects with Biscardi’s lush harmony. The Romantic gestures don’t sound forced here, there’s nothing kitsch about these beautiful chords, still more functional than Feldman would have ever made them but also less directed than American midcentury neo-Romanticism would normally allow. In short, very much of this time . . .

Biscardi is talented and blessed with real sensitivity, imagination, and a feel for the poetic. His background, education, and current direction bode for a fruitful aesthetic synthesis. Based on his development, I look forward to further pieces. And considering both the obvious feel that he has for words, and his lyric bent, it seems that this is a composer made to write opera.

—Robert Carl

William Zagorski

Your Subtitle Goes Here

. . . Th[is] collection spans over eighteen years of Biscardi’s musical career – from his 1975 Tenzone through The Gift of Life, composed between 1990 and 1993. If one be so bold as to discern a chronological pattern in this incomplete collection of evidence, it would be a progression from a philosophical examination and exploration of the fundamental elements of music (Tenzone, At the Still Point, and Mestiere) to a kind of directly communicative neo-Romanticism wherein Biscardi takes what he has learned structurally and places it at the service of conveying emotion.

Tenzone, for two flutes and piano (composed in 1975), is a response to Takemitsu’s 1959 Masque, for two flutes. Both it and At the Still Point, for orchestra and trio (1977), utilize the technique of “frozen registration.” Harmonies don’t logically flow from one moment to the next, leaving the listener not unpleasantly trapped in a never-ending present tense. Like Debussy, Biscardi uses instrumental timbre and dynamic variation as structural elements.

In what appear to by transitional pieces – Incitation to Desire (1984), Traverso, for flute and piano (1987), and Companion Piece (1991), Biscardi’s harmonies, no matter how arcane, show themselves to be never farther than the proverbial hair’s breadth for the mainstream diatonicism that has informed so much of music’s recent history. His subtle and often telling vacillation between these at once vastly separated and extremely close harmonic realms imbues these pieces with dynamism and expressiveness.

The Gift of Life, for soprano and piano (1990-93), is the crowning jewel of this release. An all too brief song cycle on texts by Emily Dickinson, Denise Levertov, and Thornton Wilder, it has the directness and accessibility of Aaron Copland’s music from the mid 30s through the 40s. Make no mistake, however; the voice is Biscardi’s – a voice that fully informs each piece on this release regardless of its technical or stylistic properties . . .

In sum, a fine compilation of the work of a significant American composer, and one that can be recommended without reservation.

—William Zagorski

CRI Comminiqué (1995)

Fanfare, Sept./Oct. 1995, vol. 19, no. 1

“Chester Biscardi is a professor of music at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. This disc presents a survey of his works for soloists, chamber ensemble, and orchestra from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s. Though his musical voice has evolved and changed through those years, each work presented here displays a moment of inspiration, a gentle and compassionate spirit, a captured moment in time — at the still point.”

—CRI Comminiqué (1995)

Gregory Berg, "The Listener's Gallery"

Journal of Singing, Sept./Oct. 2008, pp. 122-123

Judith Bettina, soprano; James Goldsworthy, piano. (CRI CD 686; 54:00)

The Gift of Life. Traverso. Companion Piece. Incitation to Desire. Mestiere. Tenzone. At the Still Point.

Readers of this column may recall an enthusiastic recent review of a compact disk titled Songs and Encores: Recital of American Song, featuring Judith Bettina and fames Goldsworthy. A colorful array of American song composers was represented in what amounted to tantalizing glimpses of their very best work in highly persuasive performances. One of the highlights of that disk was a haunting song called “Guru” by Chester Biscardi, which surely left listeners hungry to hear more, assuming that this was their initial introduction to this composer and his music.

In fact, Chester Biscardi has been an intriguing and gifted voice in contemporary music for the last several decades, and the compact disk at hand commemorates his career as he reaches the age of sixty. Born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin (a city which most Americans probably associate with auto plants and bratwurst rather than the nuanced world of the art song), Biscardi has enjoyed a career that has taken him across the globe, yielded him awards such as the Prix de Rome, and eventually brought him to the chairmanship of the music department of Sarah Lawrence College. He is probably best known not only for his art songs, but also for his superbly crafted instrumental chamber music and for piano works that seem to make the piano sing in wonderful new ways.

Biscardi has selected works for this disk that span nearly two decades and several genres. Fans of his vocal music will undoubtedly be disappointed that only one of the seven works gathered here is for voice, but that particular piece is a true masterwork. Moreoever, the rest of this disk otters a fascinating view of how Biscardi’s artistic vision has shifted and grown over the years, and the opportunity to hear his musical voice in these various genres should not be missed. Some of the music here is easily accessible (such as a tango titled “Incitation to Desire”) while other pieces like the Tenzone for Two Flutes is more daringly modern. Liner notes give helpful and interesting background information on each and every work.

The vocal work is called The Gift of Life, and in fact is a song cycle completed fifteen years ago. [See also the “Music Review” column, pp. 111-112.] The composer explains in the liner notes that he wrote this in the wake of a most satisfying collaboration with Henry Butler for a chamber opera titled Tight-Rope. The pleasure of working with characters and plot forever altered the way Biscardi would approach the task of crafting art songs and powerfully shaped the creation of the song cycle. (Biscardi related in some correspondence that after writing his opera, he found it very difficult to return to the arena of instrumental music, although he eventually did so and has gone on to craft powerful and original instrumental works.)

The song cycle was composed for Bettina and Goldsworthy, who perform it here as they did for the work’s premiere in 1993. It begins with an exquisite setting of one of Emily Dickinson’s most tender poems, which opens this way:

Mama never forgets her birds,
Though in another tree —
She looks down just as often
And just as tenderly.

Dickinson wrote this in memory of an aunt who had died and likened her departure from this world to a bird flying from one tree to another, yet still looking down on her baby birds with concern and affection. Biscardi’s sensitive treatment of this text is breath-takingly beautiful, and it draws us inexorably into the rest of this work and exploration of, in Biscardi’s words, “birth, life, memory, loss, death, and finally, love.” The middle portion of the work is based on a text from Denise Levertov’s Life in the Forest, a woman’s thoughtful reflection on her own mother who seems about to slip away from her. This text is less poetic, at least in the conventional sense of the word, which makes it all the more challenging to set to music, but Biscardi responds beautifully with music that gently breathes life into the text without obscuring it. The third and final portion of the text is from Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey and speaks powerfully and persuasively of the finality of death and of our own eventual oblivion, but also of the importance of love as the last and, in fact, only bridge between life and death. Here, as throughout the piece, Biscardi writes with a striking mix of sparseness and warmth, and the text is treated with such loving care. Judith Bettina sings beautifully and Jeff Goldsworthy offers sensitive accompaniment at every turn.

So yet again, we are left tantalized by the songs of Chester Biscardi and hungry to hear more. May our wait be brief.

– Gregory Berg, Journal of Singing (2008)

Hayes Biggs, Songs & Encores (2006)

Your Subtitle Goes Here

Chester Biscardi (b. 1948), a New York City-based composer originally from Wisconsin, is Director of the Music Program at Sarah Lawrence College. His education included studies in English and Italian literature, which partly accounts for his highly discerning taste in poetry. His literary interests have inspired not only his choices of texts for vocal setting but often have provided the impetus for his purely instrumental works. As a composer he has managed to carve out a language that is at once exacting in every detail and direct in emotional impact. An exquisitely modulated suppleness of rhythm contributes to the natural declamation of the words, and—despite the meticulous care lavished on each nuance—to an ease and freedom in the unfolding of the melodic line. His harmonies, while sophisticated, sound familiar, yet fresh and vibrant.

Baby Song of the Four Winds was composed in 1994, in celebration of the birth of Graham Everett, son of Biscardi’s friends Carole and C. J. Everett. Carl Sandburg’s poem calls forth from Biscardi music of effortless grace and myriad subtleties. This lullaby is written, somewhat unusually, from the perspective of the baby, who addresses the four winds, inviting them to be his companions. The gentleness of the winds of the South and West is supported by a gentle oscillation between two pitches, D and E, in the piano part, which serves to underline the phrase, “rock me.” The most striking departure in the poem, “North wind, shake me where I’m foolish./Shake me loose and change my ways,” is mirrored by an abrupt shift to music of a much more chromatic and skittish character. At the end, in the composer’s words, “the East wind brings comfort to this cycle of wakefulness and sleep.”

A very different view of wakefulness and sleep confronts the listener in Recovering, built on two poems of Muriel Rukeyser: two lines from “The Poem as Mask: Orpheus” and the entirety of “Recovering.” Biscardi here achieves a remarkable poignancy through economical means: the use of repeated tones in the vocal line, supported by masterful changes of harmony, serves to conjure up everything from fitful, uneasy slumber to emotional numbness to gradual emergence from the pain of grieving. An altered quotation of a Bach chorale, “Es ist das Heil uns kommen her” (“Now is to us Salvation Come”), filtered through the scrim of a dreaming state, frames the setting of the second poem. Recovering was composed for another friend of the composer’s, the tenor Thomas Young, in memory of Young’s wife, Marilyn Helinek.

Guru is a setting of Allen Ginsberg, that in a few succinct strokes—comprising slightly over ninety seconds of music—perfectly conjures up, in Biscardi’s words, “those city and interior landscapes that only Allen Ginsburg could write about in such a unique way.”

—Hayes Biggs, Songs & Encores (2006)

Peter Palmer, "Modern American Songs and Encores"

Tempo (2007)

Although two of Chester Biscardi’s contributions were composed for special occasions, they were well worth recording here. Biscardi’s fondness for chromaticism is illustrated by the second half of his version of Carl Sandburg’s “Baby Song of the Four Winds”. Dreamy and moving, “Recovery” discreetly refers to a Bach chorale. The brief soundscape of “Guru” (inspired by Allen Ginsberg) completes the group.

Gregory Berg, "And He'll be Mine: Love Songs by Gay American Composers"

Journal of Singing, Sept./Oct. 2016, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 114-115

and he’ll be mine—love songs by gay american composers. Dennis Tobenski, tenor; Mark Peloquin, piano. (Perfect Enemy Records; 53:30)

This is a deeply compelling collection of superbly crafted songs that all happen to have been written by gay composers. In this day and age, that might seem like a fairly unremarkable fact hardly worth mentioning, let alone trumpeting as the headline on the cover of a CD. Then again, there continue to be reversals in the ongoing struggle for LGBT equality, and perhaps that is more than enough reason for recordings like this to be released. At any rate, there is no question whatsoever about the excellence of these songs or about the performances which they receive. Tenor Dennis Tobenski is a skillful and sensitive singer who shapes phrases and renders text with expert care. The voice itself is quite attractive if occasionally prone to slight nasality. Pianist Marc Peloquin plays flawlessly; his superb work makes an immeasurable contribution to the beauty of these performances.

Without a doubt the finest songs in this collection are the five Modern Love Songs by Chester Biscardi, composed between 1997 and 2002 to texts by William Zinsser. Composer and writer first met during jury duty, of all things, and their conversations during their break time eventually revealed their mutual love for and interest in popular song. That was when they decided that they would collaborate, and the results were spectacularly successful as well as a bit surprising. Zinsser, who died in 2015, was a highly acclaimed journalist and writer of nonfiction who is probably best remembered as the author of On Writing Well, an indispensable guide for several generations of writers, would-be and otherwise. He may not have spent much of his public professional life writing song lyrics, but he did plenty of such work in his college days, and he wrote about music with discernment and passion. (Of the 18 nonfiction books he authored, his personal favorite was The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs, as fine a book on the topic as any ever written.) He was also an able and enthusiastic jazz pianist who only began performing in public when he was in his 60s. And his collaboration with Biscardi may have been at least part of the inspiration for his 2002 musical revue What’s the Point?, for which he crafted both lyrics and music.

Biscardi and Zinsser decided from the start that they wanted the songs they were going to write to fall somewhere between the worlds of art songs and cabaret songs, and that is precisely what they created. They fall easily upon the ear and are entirely accessible and comfortable, but there is a level of complexity and craftsmanship that elevates them beyond the realm of popular song. Biscardi makes special note of the asymmetrical construction of the lyrics and the sophisticated use of unconventional rhyme that seem to have inspired the composer to produce some of the most arresting music of his career. The opening song, “What a Coincidence,” is probably the most conventional of the five, but it’s still a masterful creation that proves the power of understatement when it’s done just right. “I Wouldn’t Know About That” explores how real-life love does not always align with the kind of love fancifully described or depicted in poetry and film. It’s a complicated text but Biscardi’s setting is breathtaking for its natural ease, and it also manages to soften the sarcastic edge of the text, ever so slightly. “Someone New” is a breathtaking depiction of how someone can find himself utterly transformed in the act of falling in love. “He chased away the other me,” says the singer, “and brought in someone new.” Beneath the languid surface of the song is a quietly churning passion generated by Biscardi’s brilliant use of harmonic tension. It’s nothing less than a masterpiece. “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” finds the singer lightheartedly trying to come to terms with emotional abandonment, but we can sense the real pain behind the brave facade. The set ends in stunning fashion with “At Any Given Moment,” in which the lyrics suggest that we discard the question “How do I love thee?” in favor of “When do I love thee?” The answer to that question is a radiant outpouring of passion and devotion: “At any given moment …of any given hour …of any given day …you are somewhere in my heart.” Those are words of breathtaking beauty even apart from Biscardi’s gorgeous musical setting of them. It is safe to say that in the last half century, no more beautiful love song has been composed than this.

The rest of this disk also offers up compelling riches. The most familiar of the remaining composers will be David Del Tredici, whose many groundbreaking works include Final Alice, that famous piece that found soprano Barbara Hendricks singing into a megaphone. “Here” is from his work Gay Life and features just the kind of bracing, impactful music we have come to expect from this maverick. Zachary Wadsworth’s exquisite Three Lullabies feature texts by Josiah Gilbert Holland, William Shakespeare, and Lord Alfred Tennyson. At a glance, they would seem to be the most “off-topic” of anything on this recording, but Tobenski’s liner notes give them proper context. Beyond the more conventional picture of a parent lulling a child to sleep, Tobenski writes that “below this simple and tender surface lies a more complicated emotional landscape, steeped in parents’ anxiety about the safety of their child in a dangerous world.” That frames these lullabies in a very different light and makes them an essential element in this collection. Darien Schulman’s Three Poems of Thomas Moore are beautiful as well, and the tenor scales their challenging melodic lines with impressive ease. It’s no surprise to read that Tobenski and Peloquin commissioned these works; they suit them perfectly. Tobenski’s own contribution to the collection is the title work, which features his setting of eight different poems by Robert Burns. He has taken texts originally conceived to be sung by a woman expressing love for a man, and in doing so has created what in his mind was and remains “a gay song cycle.” On the other hand, Tobenski says that the folk song tradition allows for all kinds of crossover between genders and he says he would welcome anybody of any gender or orientation to perform these songs. Expertly crafted, yet true to the folk tradition, they yield some of the most poignant moments in this entire collection.

—Gregory Berg

Individual Work Reviews

The following works have associated reviews. Click on each work to learn more about it and read the reviews.

At the Still Point

– 1977–

for orchestra (3 2 2 2 - 2 2 2 1; Timp, 3 Perc; 2 Pno.; Str)

Baby Song of the Four Winds

– 1994 –

for mezzo-soprano & piano (also available: for soprano & piano)

Companion Piece (for Morton Feldman)

– 1989 –

for contrabass & piano

Companion Piece (for Morton Feldman)

– 1989/1991 –

for solo piano

Companion Piece (for Morton Feldman)

– 1989 –

for viola & piano

Di Vivere

– 1981 –

for A clarinet & piano

Di Vivere

– 1981 –

for A clarinet and piano, with flute, violin, and violoncello

Eurydice

– 1978 –

for women's chorus & 17 instruments (2 Fl. (also Picc.), Alto Fl., Cl.; 2 Hn., 2 Trb.; 4 Vn., 4 Vc.; Pn.)

Footfalls (after Beckett)

– 2012 –

for flute, oboe, two guitars, tingsha, violin, & violoncello

Footfalls (after Beckett)

– 2012 –

for flute, oboe, piano, violin, & violoncello

The Gift of Life

– 1990-1993 –

for soprano & piano

Guru

– 1995 –

for voice & piano

In Time's Unfolding

– 2000 –

for solo piano

Incitation to Desire (Tango)

– 1984/1993 –

for clarinet, horn (or viola), violin, violoncello, percussion, & piano

Incitation to Desire (Tango)

– 1984/2006 –

for solo marimba

Incitation to Desire (Tango)

– 1984 –

for solo piano

Mestiere

– 1979 –

for solo piano

Modern Love Songs

– 1997-2002 –

for voice & piano

Music for Witch Dance

– 1983 –

for 2 percussionists

Nel giardinetto della villa

– 1994 –

for piano four hands

orpha

– 1974 –

for string quartet, marimba, & vibraphone

Piano Quintet

– 2004 –

for piano and violin, with violin, viola, & violoncello

Piano Sonata

1986, rev. 1987

for solo piano

Prayers of Steel

– 1998 –

for baritone & piano

Recovering

– 2000 –

for voice & piano

Resisting Stillness

– 1996 –

for 2 guitars

Sailors & Dreamers

– 2007-2010 –

10 songs for voice, flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, string quartet, and bass

Tartinii

– 1972 –

for violin & piano

Tenzone

– 1975 –

for 2 flutes & piano

Tight-Rope

– 1985 –

a chamber opera in nine uninterrupted scenes

Trasumanar

– 1980 –

for 12 percussionists & piano

Traverso

1987

for flute & piano

Trio

– 1976 –

for violin, cello, & piano

The Viola Had Suddenly Become a Voice

– 2005 –

for viola & piano