Musical Analysis Of Honey And Rue

On Sunday, April 8, 2018, the Department of Humanities at Prince George’s Community College presented an on-campus Faculty Voice Recital in the Student Art Gallery located in Marlboro Hall. In the voice recital, sopranist Nakia Verner and PGCC professor and pianist Hyeeun Hahm performed several pieces, including “Ah! Perfido” by Beethoven, “Tres Arias” by Joaquín Turina, and “Honey and Rue” by André Previn. One of the most prevalent and moving pieces performed was the song cycle, “Honey and Rue.” The instruments, musical style and characteristics, historical and cultural context, musical elements and components, and the beautiful live performance of “Honey and Rue” made it unique to the other compositions.

“Honey and Rue” is a classical song

cycle composed by Oscar and Grammy award winner André Previn. It’s original composition includes a soprano singer and a small orchestra. However, the performance by Verner and Hahm exclusively included an operatic sopranist and a solo piano. The poems in “Honey and Rue” were written by Toni Morrison (Furman 2014). It includes six art songs titled, “First I’ll Try Love,” “Whose House Is This?,” “The Town Is Lit,” “Do You Know Him?,” “I Am Not Seaworthy,” and “Take My Mother Home.” Though it was composed in 1995, “Honey and Rue” reflects the musical style of the classical period; it gradually and suddenly fluctuates in mood, has a flexibility of rhythms, including unexpected pauses and a combination of long notes and shorter notes, is mainly homophonic, and has dynamics played on the piano that allow the performer to express several shades of emotion.
“Honey and Rue” was composed by Andre Previn who was mostly known for being a conductor. This piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall after Kathleen Battle, a famous african american sopranist in the 1990s, read Toni Morrison’s book, “The Bluest Eye,” which is a novel set in 1941 about an African American girl during the Great Depression. It covers issues such as racism, child molestation, incest, shame, and religion (Furman 2014). After being “moved by [the book],” Battle asked Morrison to the write the poetry for the set of songs in “Honey and Rue” (Gillespie 2007). Some of the songs, if one does not know African American poetry, may seem confusing, but listeners can hear everything from how African American women love, fear, and make lasting sacrifices throughout the centuries.
The elements of music are sound, including pitch, dynamics, and timbre, and rhythm, including beat, meter, accent and syncopation, and tempo.

The elements of music used in “Honey and Rue” strongly emulated the elements that stem from classical style. Classical style introduced flexibility, contrast, surprise, and variety to music and the instruments. For example, in “First I’ll Try Love,” the sopranist and the pianist frequently exchanged between crescendo and decrescendo while singing about the emotion of love. Sometimes, Verner would raise the loudness of her voice, quicken the tempo, and increase her pitch to sing quotes like, “First, I tried love.” Other times, Verner’s pitch would be quiet, soft, and lower in pitch to express phrases such as, “Although I’ve never heard the word referred to, even whispered to me.” Also, Hahm would increase the tempo of the piano and change the dynamics from loud and dramatic to soft and tender. There was frequent use of accents of syncopations, especially in the song “The Town Is Lit.” For example, in the line, “Trees in the park dance after dark to music in all the cafes,” Verner and Hahm simultaneously stress the high pitched and long-held note sung/played during the word “music,” which caused the audience to look quickly as this syncopation caught them by surprise. Instances like this intermittently occurred, especially during the ends of songs where the last word/note is accented. The different rhythms in the cycle were also heavily

influenced by jazz, blues, and African American spirituals. The beats were difficult to measure by ear for most of the songs because the tempo was repeatedly adjusted within each song. However, in the last song “Take My Mother Home,” the average bpm produced a grave tempo. Like classical composers, Verner and Hahm emphasized individual tone colors between the vocalist and pianist. Verner would never duplicate the melody that Hahm was playing, and Hahm would never duplicate Verner’s melody. Often, a theme would begin with the piano, then shift to the vocalist, and then back to the piano.
Classical melodies are known to be the most toneful and easiest to remember, but Verner and Hahm’s rendition of “Honey and Rue” lacked symmetry and balance.

However, in the last song of the cycle, “Take My Mother Home,” balance was evident and the tune of the melody was catchy and easy to remember. Like other classical pieces, this song had phrases of the same length. Initially, the second phrase seem to imitate the first, but it end slightly differs. For example, the first, “Take my baby home,” starts like the main melody of the song. However, the second version of the phrase, “Take my baby home,” ends with a note change and higher pitch on the words “baby” and “home.” This note change enhances the message of the song by illustrating how African American women would always think highly of their loved ones and put their loved ones before themselves. The harmonic aspects of this piece included both consonance and dissonance, which varied as the lyrics conveyed different emotions the poem. Triads were frequently played by the pianist. As previously mentioned, “Honey and Rue” is predominantly homophonic, but the piano periodically increases in interest and tries to capture the audience’s attention. Therefore, it is fair to say that this song cycle is between both homophonic texture and polyphonic

texture.
Often times, a composition is only as good as the performance. The principles of live performance profoundly impact the audience’s perception of the composition. Performers must display artistic mastery, exhibit their presence of musicianship, and engage in communication with the audience. Verner and Hahm’s music skills were remarkable. They were elegant, yet powerful, and captivated the audience with their beautiful sounds. Verner and Hahm made it evident that they were highly trained musicians. Verner is a world-renowned singer who studied at Winthrop University, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the Peabody Conservatory, and she graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. Hahm has been a staff pianist at universities all over the United States and has been a fellow pianist for several musical productions. The performers appeared prepared, confident and their presentation of musical expression was terrific, especially during the piece “Take My Mother Home.” Moreover, the performers did a phenomenal job when communicating with the audience. Verner provided background information and explained the significant meaning of “Honey and Rue” to ensure that the audience was engaged and able to appreciate the powerful meaning behind it. Additionally, Verner informed the audience when it was appropriate to clap in order to let the emotions stream uninterrupted.
“Honey and Rue” by André Previn is a song cycle that imitates musical style from composers in the classical period. The classical period extends from 1750-1820. This musical period highlighted contrast of mood, flexibility of rhythm, homophonic texture, balanced and symmetrical melodies, and gradual dynamic changes using the piano. Unlike previous periods, the classical period switched from the harpsichord to the piano. Additionally, the classical period marked the end of basso continuo as more amateurs began performing music. Unlike the future periods, the classical period had less range of tone color, dynamics, pitch, and overall variety within a piece. Later periods, like the Romantic period and the 20th Century, had a combination of dissonance and consonance within individual songs. The songs were less symmetrical and balanced. However, all of these elements were inspired by the classical period, when musicians started to embrace variety in sound.
Though popular, contemporary, and modern music certainly carries a few traits from the classical period, such as contrast of mood, rhythm, tone color, and dynamics, popular contemporary music emphasizes unpredictable and abnormal musical elements. It embraces what was historically perceived as the unconventional way to compose music. The lines within pitch organization and the tonal system were blurred and nearly erased, artists utilize noiselike and percussive sounds, and instrumental music is becoming less mainstream (Kamien 2018).
In conclusion, André Previn’s “Honey and Rue” was exquisitely composed its performance by Verner and Hahm was superb, from their choice of instrument to their communication with audience members. The use of the piano, expression of historical context, manipulation of musical elements, and the power in the sopranist conjointly embellished the performance and Morrison’s poems. I chose “Honey and Rue” because, as an African American young lady, the sacrifices my ancestors made are the reasons I am who I am today. Words cannot begin to express my gratitude to my ancestors, but as Hans Christian Andersen once said, “Where words fail, music speaks.”
References
Furman, J. (2014). Toni Morrison’s fiction(Revised and expanded ed.). Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press.
Gillespie, C. (2008). Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to Her Life And Work(1st ed., Vol. 1, Ser. 1). New York: Facts On File.
Kamien, R. (2018). Music: An Appreciation (Brief)(9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.