Sonata for an Old Woman
PROGRAM NOTES
Sonata for an Old Woman (1971)
Phillip Magnuson
Soprano, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano
Rhapsody
Folksong
Lament
Fugue
Song cycle based on Mother Goose rhymes, third in a larger song cycle:
Rhapsody
There was an old woman toss'd in a blanket,
Seventeen times as high as the moon;
But where she was going no mortal could tell,
For under her arm she carried a broom.
Old woman, old woman, old woman, said I!
Whither, ah whither, ah whither so high?
To sweep the cobwebs from the sky,
And I'll be with you by and by.
Folksong
There was an old woman
And nothing she had,
And so this old woman
Was said to be mad.
She'd nothing to eat,
She'd nothing to wear,
She'd nothing to lose,
She's nothing to fear,
She'd nothing to ask,
And nothing to give,
And when she did die
She'd nothing to leave.
Lament
There was an old woman
Liv'd under a hill,
And if she isn't gone,
She lives there still.
Baked apples she sold
And cranberry pies,
And she's the old woman
That never told lies.
Fugue
There was an old woman, she sold cranberry pies;
She's nothing to eat, and nothing she had,
And so this old woman that never told lies
Was said to be mad. Ah whiter, old woman, said I?
But no mortal could tell, and when she did die
She'd nothing to lose, she'd nothing to fear
But sweep the cobwebs from the sky,
And I'll be with you by and by.