Richard Faith


American composer Richard Faith has been known primarily in university music circles as a concert pianist, professor of piano, and a published composer of piano pedagogy literature, orchestral and chamber works, opera and most prolifically, song. A neo-romantic, Faith has always been first and foremost a melodist.

Biography

Richard Bruce Faith was born on March 20, 1926, in Evansville, Indiana. His mother was a homemaker active in community affairs, and his father, a dentist. Both parents were very supportive of his choice to become a musician as they too came from musical backgrounds. Faith's mother studied piano before her five children were born; his father picked up musical skills without a teacher and played piano, violin and sang in the church choir. Around age eight, Richard began to study piano with his fifteen-year-old cousin and he soon began improvising melodies on the keyboard. Between the ages of eleven and twelve he began writing down his piano compositions, one of which later became a work for women's chorus entitled "Daffodils" with poetry by William Wordsworth.
Before his natural bent toward composing could take root and grow, Faith embarked on a career as a concert pianist. In 1940 at age fourteen, he appeared with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, and after a few years of study he entered Chicago Musical College, where he received both undergraduate and master's degrees in piano performance. At age nineteen he placed in a collegiate contest and was given the opportunity to perform in Chicago's Orchestra Hall. The work was Chopin's Concerto in F Minor. This was followed in 1947 by his professional debut at Kimball Hall and, in 1948, by a return to Orchestra Hall for a solo recital and an engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the early fifties Faith concertized as a recital accompanist for both singers and instrumentalists in programs that included his own compositions.
Faith's first instructor in composition was Max Wald, with whom he worked from 1947 to 1949. In the Fall of 1954 he began doctoral work in composition at Indiana University in Bloomington with Bernhard Heiden. Two years later Faith received his first full-time teaching appointment at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. Although he was devoted to teaching piano, his great love for composition continued to flourish. In 1960 he went to Rome as a Fulbright Scholar, studying both piano and composition with Guido Agosti at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He chose Italy because of his interest in Italian history and its early Renaissance art. He also was seeking the "clarity of Italian musical expression."
Faith spent the greatest part of his life at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he assumed the position of Assistant Professor of Music in 1961. He remained at the school until 1988, with an interim year at Morningside College in 1968. Many of his most popular compositions are the fruits of his tenure at Arizona: songs, choral works, piano concertos, orchestral and chamber works and opera.
Faith's first published work was the "Legend for Piano," printed by Summy-Birchard in 1967. Shawnee Press began publishing his compositions in 1968, followed by G.Schirmer Inc. in 1971 and Belwin Mills in 1974. In the late 1970s Faith's music achieved significant recognition with performances in London, Washington, D.C., and Tucson, and commercial recordings were released. From 1982 to 1988 he received annual awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Since his retirement from teaching in 1988, Richard Faith relocated from Tucson a number of times: to Washington, D.C., California, back to his home town of Evansville, to Denver and now he makes his home again in Tucson. In November 2015 Faith, again, relocated to Savoy, Illinois. During the last 20 years performances, publications, dissertations and recordings of his works have flourished. To date he has written over 57 chamber works, 21 choral arrangements, 4 operas, 16 orchestral pieces, 61 keyboard works and over 121 songs, including an unofficial contribution to the AIDS Quilt Songbook with his "Winter Journey," with poetry by William Lavonis.

Musical Style and Songs

Faith's music displays a freely modulating harmonic language within the boundaries of tonality that combines neo-romantic and impressionistic qualities. With Debussy, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff as important influences on his music, and Brahms as a model with respect to form, Faith also shares musical traits with Vaughan Williams, particularly in the areas of modality and harmonic color and with Roger Quilter, the Victorian whose songs displayed a trait known as "decorous Romanticism." Faith's English flavor is even further highlighted by the composer's choice of poetry, much of which comes from British authors.
Faith's song output spans the years 1944 to the present—his entire life as a composer. The over 120 settings run the stylistic gamut from sophisticated concert pieces to simple miniatures, duets, vocalises and selections with obbligato instruments, including flute, cello, viola and harp. His settings are generally for medium voice. Some have been written for specific singers to whom he has dedicated the music. Many of the songs are grouped according to subject matter, but are not necessarily musically connected. They may be sung as sets or separately, and may be transposed to suit the singer. Faith's tempo indications use traditional Italian terminology and the metronome markings are only suggestions. He is a gracious composer who allows individuals to develop their own interpretations of his music.
Because Faith himself is an award-winning pianist, many of the songs have sophisticated accompaniments. Sometimes the piano doubles the voice, though hardly ever through an entire piece. At other times the piano will play a countermelody to the voice to form a kind of obbligato. Like Debussy, Faith has a fondness for triplets, because of the movement and flow they add to a song. Thomas Nashe's "Spring, the Sweet Spring" is an exercise in perpetual motion for the accompanist, with only brief repose at the end of each stanza. This inventive, florid accompaniment, along with Faith's strict use of ABA form, thin texture, and a definite key signature lend a neo-baroque character to this Elizabethan poem. The harmony, however, remains contemporary, with Faith's use of incidental chromatics and added-note chords.
Like many composers who rely on modality rather than tonality, Faith rarely uses key signatures. His harmonic idiom displays a changing palette of colors marked by simultaneous cross-relations, the Lydian sharped fourth, and combinations of this sharped fourth and Mixolydian flatted seventh. Faith has denied any desire to pursue more avant-garde idioms. Earlier experiments in progressive styles met with little success, and if anything beyond the romantic exists in Faith's music, it may be the influence of Hindemith which was furthered by his studies at Indiana University with Bernhard Heiden, himself a Hindemith pupil. Traces of this influence can be discerned in the appearance of quartal/quintal harmony in many of the songs. This is seen in "The Blackbird" by the Victorian author William Ernest Henley composed in 1955. The accompaniment begins with broken ninth and tenth intervals supported by mildly dissonant chords; it is then followed by a hocket-like passage. This underlying texture continues through the first half of the song, contrasting with legato vocal melody.
Faith's use of arch form or "coming full circle" reflects the influence of Brahms, whose many songs fall into this structural category. He may end with a literal repeat, a transposed portion, or only a fragment of A, and may repeat text, music, or both in the process. Arch form is also reflected in the use of dynamics. Many songs begin quietly, reach a climax in an interior section, and then end as they began.
The composer's selection of poetry brings to the foreground some of literature's most famous writers in works that in this day and age have been unjustly neglected by the general public: Conrad Aiken, Edward Lear, Charles Cotton, and Christina Rossetti, to name a few. That Faith is well read is apparent not only in his choice of fine poetry to set to music, but also in his allusions to literature in many of his instrumental works. In addition, he often selects longer poems than would be considered usual for a song and writes few miniatures. The success of setting a lengthy piece of verse seems to depend upon Faith's ability to delay the listener's climactic expectations by moving through harmonic ambiguity until reaching an emotionally charged section that merits a cadence—usually on open sonorities without the thirds. This event may repeat itself many times with a greater or lesser dynamic level, thereby expanding his music resources.
Faith's songs adhere strictly to the rhythm dictated by the text of the poem. In fact, he simultaneously composes both melody and accompaniment by singing the text and playing the keyboard and immediately writing it down. Faith's adherence to the text rhythm results in shifting meters to accommodate phrases of varying length and text-derived rhythmic figures often provide the basis for his accompaniments
For subject matter Faith prefers nature imagery over love poetry and until 1994 with his Mother Goose Rhymes, there had been only one comical song—Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat," written in 1960. Many of Faith's settings reflect the nationality of the poet and the time period in which the poem was written. For example, Four Love Songs on Elizabethan lyrics display thin textures, balanced forms, and traditional harmonic progressions, while the Jean de La Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont songs have a French character that reveals Faith's debt to Ravel and Debussy. More recently, Faith's songs on Moorish poetry evoke an exotic, middle eastern quality. In the beautiful setting of Ben Jonson's "To Celia", Faith, by stressing the poem's inherent passion, brings a fresh outlook to a lyric which had become too familiar in arrangements of the old English setting. He achieves this through an operatically conceived vocal line: high and sustained, and encompassing a range of an octave and a fifth.
Two works that do not necessarily fall into specific stylistic categories, but deserve mention nonetheless, are Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Music When Soft Voices Die" and the miniature "Remember Me" by the Victorian Christina Rossetti. The spontaneous quality of the Shelley song reveals the poem's great effect on Faith, who, after nearly two years without song writing, produced one of his most frequently performed pieces. The introduction's angular, twisting melody, taken later by the vocal line, lends a troubled, unsettling quality to the lyric. "Remember Me" was written in 1954 and is unusual for its brevity. The poet, Christina Rossetti, was an Englishwoman of Italian descent and is best known for her words to the hymns "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" and "Love Came Down at Christmas." Faith set three more of her poems which are included in the first published volume of songs by Leyerle Publications.
Many of Faith's songs have themes related to the sea, and there are a number of others in which the sea figures as an integral element in the poem. This stems from the composer"s extreme fascination with water, having been raised near the high banks of the wide Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. "Sea Fever", one of Faith's few biographically-influenced songs, displays such a depth of emotion rare for a nineteen-year-old. It is an important early song because it established many compositional techniques to which the composer returned throughout his lyrical output. Another "sea" example is "Ships" an English translation of "Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés" by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont :fr:Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, the French World War I poet killed in action in 1914. This poem was also set by Fauré in that composer's final song cycle L'horizon chimérique. Faith's song is scored for cello obbligato, piano, and female voice.
Faith skillfully translates into music the emotions behind the words of the world's greatest authors. Although many of his songs display common characteristics, each reveals an approach that allows the poem's individuality to shine through. Performers of art song, both singers and pianists, will appreciate Faith's output, considering the variety of poems he set to music and the gracious way he treats the voice and piano in his neo-romantic/impressionistic manner. Somewhat reticent of theoretical discussions, however, Faith considers himself only to be a composer of the heart, who relies on his musical gifts to bring joy to others.

Selected works

Chamber and Instrumental Music

Air for Saxophone and Piano
Andante and Allegro for Bassoon and Piano 2011*
Chant and Movement for Viola and Piano 2002*
Concerto for Clarinet and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion
Doric Dances for English Horn and Piano 2000
Elegy for Clarinet and Piano 1950*
Elegy for Clarinet Choir
Essays for Oboe and Piano 1964
Evocation for Trombone and Piano arr. from "Music I Heard With You" 1987*
Evocations for Trumpet and Piano 2006
Fables for Viola and Piano 1974*
Fantasy for Violin and Piano
Fantasy Trio No. 1 for Violin, Clarinet or Oboe and Piano 1982
Fantasy Trio No. 2 for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1988
Four Duets for Violin and Cello
Harvest Song for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Highland Skecthes for Baritone Saxophone and Piano 2011*
Incantations for Soprano, Viola and Piano 1994
Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano 1992; Belwin Mills
Miniatures for Oboe and Piano 1988; Belwin Mills
Moorish Dances for Violin, Percussion and Piano 2002
Movements for Horn and Piano 1966; Shawnee Press
Oboe Concerto 1982
Pastorale for English Horn and Piano 2000
Phantasies for Saxophone and Piano 1985
Poems for Cello and Piano 1984
Quintet for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Harp 1956
Rhapsody for Cello and Piano 1960*
Rhapsody for Flute and Piano 2007
Rhapsody for Violin and Piano in Four Movements 1954-55*
Romance for Violin and Piano 1952*
Second Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano 1995
Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano 2001
The Solitary Reaper for Baritone and Woodwind Quintet
Sonata for Cello and Piano 1985
Sonata for Flute and Piano 1957
Sonata for Trumpet and Piano 1957
Sonata No. 2 for Trumpet and Piano 1985
Sonata for Viola and Piano
Sonata for Violin and Piano 1948*
String Quartet 1955*
Suite for Bassoon and Piano 1989; Southern Music Co.
Suite for Clarinet and Piano 2007
Three Duets for Violin and Viola
Three Nocturnes for Violin and Piano 1970*
Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano
Trio for Flute, Cello and Harp 1984
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano 2003
Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano 1965
Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano
Two Pieces for Brass
Two Poems for Voice, Violin, Cello and Piano, arr 2010
Two Romances for Violin and Piano
Two Songs for Violin and Piano 2000*
Two Sea Pieces for Clarinet and Piano 1966
Various Pieces for Clarinet and Piano 1987*
Woodwind Quintet
* unpublished

Choral

All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters for SSA and Piano 1966
The Blackbird for SATB and Piano 1965
Creation, A Cantata for Soloists and SSATBB 1993
Daffodils for SSA and Piano 1970
God Be in my Head for SATB and Piano 1990
Hymn of Praise for SATB and Piano or Organ 1989
Indian Summer for SATB and Piano 1964
Kyrie for SATB and String Orchestra 1990
Mass for SATB, Soloists and Piano 1986
Music I Heard With You for SATB and Piano 1968; G. Schirmer
O Spirit of the Summertime for SATB and Piano or String Quartet 1970
On the Isle of Skye for TTBB 1986
Remember Me in various vocal arrangements 2003, 2006
Sea Fever for TBB and Piano 1965; for SATB and Piano 1980
Sleep Child from The Little Match Girl for SATB and Piano 1994
Sonnet 54 for TTBB 1986
Spring, the Sweet Spring for TTBB 1986
Though I Speak for SATB and Piano 1991
The Waters of Babylon, A Cantata in 4 Movements for Baritone Solo, SATB Chorus and Piano 1976
The Wayfarer for SATB and Violin, Viola, Cello, Horn and Piano 1996
What Sweeter Music for SATB and Piano 1993

Opera

Beauty and the Beast in Three Acts for Piano, Orchestra or Small Chamber Orchestra 1992
The Little Match Girl an Opera in One Act for Piano or Chamber Orchestra 1979; orchestration 1990-91
Sleeping Beauty, an Opera in Two Acts for Piano or Orchestra 1970
The Wydah's Gold in Five Scenes for Piano or Chamber Orchestra 1997

Orchestra

Aureole 1981
Concert Overture 1988
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Concerto #1 for Piano and Orchestra 1969; kermitpeters.net
Concerto #2 for Piano and Orchestra 1975; Chamber arrangement 1998
Concerto #3 for Piano and Orchestra 1982
Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra in Three Movements 1987
Elegy 1966;
Festivals in three movements 1980; originally Concerto for Two Pianos 1972;
Idylls in Three Movements for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra 1982
Lydian Overture 1984
Odyssey 1965
A Pastoral Overture 1964
Phantasie for Piano and Orchestra 1977
Processional for String Orchestra 1994
Sonata No. 1 for Piano in three movements; orchestrated 1995

Piano and Keyboard

Allegheny Serenade for Two Pianos 1998*
Andante and Allegro for Two Pianos 1998*
Arabesques 2000*
Carousels 1991; Belwin Mills
Celebration
Carousels for Two Pianos 1972*
Concerto for Two Pianos 1973-74; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Dance Suite for 4 Hands 1990
Dances 1977; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Differencias 1969*
Elegy for Organ 1991*
Etude - "Stratification" 1984
Family Portraits 2006
Fantasy No. 1 1968*
Fantasy No. 2 1987; Shawnee Press
Finger Paintings 1966; Shawnee Press, Hal Leonard
Five Preludes and a Nocturne 1967; Shawnee Press
Floating
Four Cameos 1971; Shawnee Press
Four Timbres 2009
Gaelic Suite 1993*
Gallantries 2009
The Highwayman
Islands 1970,1985; Shawnee Press
Le Mont Saint Michel 2008*
Legend 1967; Summy Birchard
Little Preludes 1966*
Masquerades 1988; Belwin Mills
Moments in a Child's World 1968; Shawnee Press
Night Piece
Nocturne 1975
Pastoral Suite 1989, revised 2009; Shawnee Press
Piano Concerto #1 1969
Piano Concerto #2 1975
Piano Concerto #3 1982
Performance Practices in Late 20th Century Piano; Alfred Publishing Co.
Piano Transcriptions of Songs 2005-10*
Pipes 1987; Belwin Mills
Recollections, Nine Short Pieces 1969, 1974; Shawnee Press
Rhapsody 1980*
Russian Folk Tales 1990; Belwin Mills
Service Sonata for Organ 1970*
Six Preludes and a Nocturne
Skandian Suite 2008
Sketches 1987; Belwin Mills
Sonata No. 1 1962, revised 2010
Sonata No. 2 1957
Sonata No. 3 1958
Sonatina 1987
Sonatina 1987; Belwin Mills
Souvenir from 12 by 11 1979; Alfred Publishing Co.
Suite "Trouveres" for Harpsichord 2002*
Tableaus, four hands 1987; Belwin Mills
Three Etudes 1978, revised 2009
Three for Two for Two Pianos 1998*
Three Night Songs 1964, 1980, 2010
Three Sonatinas
Toccata- "The Dark Riders" 1969; Shawnee Press
Travels 1970; Shawnee
Two Nocturnes 1976
Voyages 2001*
Woodland Adventures 1988*
* unpublished

Songs

Noon 1944-45; revised 2004*
Sea Fever 1945
Music I Heard With You 1946-47
Granite 1948*
She Weeps Over Rahoon 1950*
Dark Hills 1950
Spring, the Sweet Spring 1950-51
Tulmutuous Moment 1951*
Desire in Spring 1952
Evening 1952*
To Helen 1953
Remember Me 1954
The Blackbird 1955
Music When Soft Voices Die 1957
Dry Spell 1957*
River Roses 1958*
Dover Beach 1958
In the Evening of Inhabiting Mists 1959*
Spring 1960*
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat 1960
Bobby Shafto 1961
Laura Sleeping 1962
Hymn of Praise 1962
The Sun has Set 1964-65
The Solitary Reaper with flute and piano 1966
Harvest Song with flute and piano 1967*
Caterpillar 1967; Revised in 1992 as Firefly
Night Piece 1970*
The River 1971, revised 2009*
On the Isle of Skye 1973
I have Embarked for voice, cello and piano; 1975
Chant with cello and piano 1976
It is a Beauteous Evening 1978
The Lake Isle of Innisfree 1980
The Wild Swans at Coole 1981
The Wind Blows Out of the Gates of the Day 1981
To Celia 1982
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty 1982; Classical Vocal Reprints
O, the Month of May 1982
Sonnet 54 1982
In the Land of Sleeping Seeds for two high voices 1982*
It was a Lover and his Lass 1982
The Song of Wandering Aengus 1982
I Hear the Shadowy Horses 1982
If I Were 1982
Ships for voice, cello and piano 1983
Stanzas Written in Dejection near Naples 1984*
Flight 1984*
Why Must I Go 1984*
Perhaps 1984*
Though I Speak 1985*
Annabel Lee 1985
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love 1985
Serenade 1985
Sonnet 116 1986*
The City in the Sea 1989
To Jane or The Keen Stars were Twinkling 1989
Echo 1991
Spring Quiet 1991
No Music in the Wind 1991*
My Heart is like a Singing Bird 1992
Scenes from Macbeth for Soprano, Baritone and Piano 1992*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano 1992*
Return of Spring 1992
Absence 1993*
Serene Evening 1993*
Split my Heart 1993*
Leavetaking 1993*
Oh, Fateful Night 1993*
Winter Journey 1993
All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters 1993*
To Chloris 1993*
Where are you going to, my pretty maid? 1994
Jenny Wren 1994
I saw three ships 1994
The Queen of Hearts 1994
God Be in My Head 1994
What Sweeter Music 1994
So all day long the noise of battle rolled 1994*
Crossing the Bar 1994
Wisdom is Sweeter than Honey 1994*
Come, my Beloved 1994*
I Bind you by Oath 1994*
I Cannot Dance, O Lord 1994*
So, we'll go no more a roving, duet for tenor and baritone 1995; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Isles of Greece 1995
A Sailor's Song 1995
The Isle of Pines 1995
Time does not bring relief 1995*
To a Waterfowl 1996
The Death of a Conqueror 1996*
Though the Way be Dark 1996
Autumn Memories 1996
A Moment in Time 1997
Old Mother Goose 1997
My Mother Said 1997
Sing a Song of Sixpence 1997
Old Woman, Old Woman 1997
Love is not all 1998*
And you as well must die, beloved dust 1998*
Low Moon Land 1998*
Apollo and Daphne for Mezzo, Baritone and Piano 2000*
Water 2000; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Stolen Child 2001; Classical Vocal Reprints
Prelude 2001*
Vocalise 2001*
Fire 2001; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Air 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
Earth 2002; revised 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Dead Poet, duet for tenor and baritone 2002*
O Spirit of the Summertime for High Voice, Cello and Piano 2003*
At the Mid Hour of Night 2005*
Sudden Light 2005*
The Fiddler of Dooney 2007; Classical Vocal Reprints
Verses from Lamentations 2007*
Sonnet 104 2007*
Drifting 2009*
The Rose of Tralee 2009*
Echoes: Two Songs in One 2010*
Poems from the Voices of Gaia 2010; Classical Vocal Reprints
The Ancient Wind 2010*
Sonnet 116, new setting 2011*
There Will Be Rest ; for Karen Krueger 2011*
* unpublished

Discography

Incantations & Rhymes: Music for Soprano, Viola, and Piano. Karen Peeler, soprano; Henrietta Neeley, viola; Robin Guy, piano. Superdups, Tewksbury, MA.
Music I heard With You — David Jimerson Sings Songs of Richard Faith
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Lesley Manning, soprano; Julie Simson, mezzo-soprano; William Lavonis, tenor; Kurt Ollmann, baritone; Elizabeth Rodgers, piano; Richard Faith, piano. eDream Studios, Milwaukee, WI.
Remember Me: Songs by Richard Faith. Brenda Baker, soprano; Richard Faith, piano.
Rhapsody-Chamber Music of Richard Faith
Songs of Love and Longing, Valerie Errante, soprano
The Songs of Richard Faith. Joseph Hopkins, baritone; Richard Faith, piano. Hopkins Recording Company
Incantations and Rhymes. Trio Ariana
The Ensemble da Camera of Washington. Fantasy Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
New Works for Bassoon. Suite for Bassoon and Piano
The Catalina Chamber Orchestra. Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra