Premiered September 15, 2024 by Shannon Voogt
Lexington, Kentucky
Shannon Voogt, soprano
Jacob Coleman, piano
Bill Meyer, cello
Effie Waller Smith was born in Pike County, Kentucky, in 1879. She was the first female black poet published in Kentucky. As the Effie Waller Smith Society noted, her work holds a significant place in history. "[a]ll mountaineers, if they are optimistic enough, can see something of Effie in themselves. Her love of her home is something to which we can all relate. She found a way to describe the beauty of this region, which has left generations of people at a loss for words."
Her poetry seemed too perfect for this concert: The themes of the changing leaves in September, paw paws, apples, corn, and pumpkins of a Kentucky harvest. I found very little composed with Ms. Smith's poetry previously and feel honored to have been able to first set some of her poetry to music for this special concert here in her home state of Kentucky.
Autumn Winds - 00:00
O autumn winds, with voices far away,
I hear you singing on the leafless hills,
And all my heart with jubilation thrills!
You bring to me no message of dismay,
No tender sorrow for the year's decay;
Rather you sing of giant trees that cast
Their leaves aside to grapple with the blast,
Strong and exultant for the stormy fray!
Hearing your music, glad and wild and pure,
Sounding through night's cool, starlit spaces wide,
I grow aweary of earth's paltry lure!
Oh, like the trees, I too would cast aside
The fading leaves of pleasure and of pride,
And stand forth free to struggle and endure!
Fallen Leaves - 04:51
Beneath the frost-stripped forest boughs, the drifted leaves are spread,
Vanished all summer's green delight, all autumn's glory fled.
Yet, gathering strength from that dead host, the tree in some far spring
Shall toward the skies a denser growth, a darker foliage fling.
Ah, if some power from us, long dead, should strengthen life to be,
We need not grieve to lie forgot, like sere leaves 'neath the tree!
September - 06:44
Summer days an-ending,
Autumn coming on;
Trees with fruit a-bending
In orchard and in lawn.
Apples, soft and mellow,
In the sun to dry,
Pumpkins, striped and yellow,
Rip'ning in cornfield lie.
The bushy hawthorn's haws
Shine crimson in the wood;
Plentiful are paw-paws,
Luscious, sweet and good.
The shiny milk-weeds now
Unfold their silken hair,
Which flutters white as snow
In the balmy air.
The tall iron-weeds
In their purple glory nod;
On hill-side and in meadow
Blooms the golden-rod.
Vacation days are o'er,
With all their fun and noise;
Back at school for useful lore
Are the boys and girls.
Cloudless ever in the sky;
Hazy day and dewy night;
So September passes by,
A month of sweet delight.