Скачать или смотреть S. Barber - Solitary Hotel

Solitary Hotel is the 4th song in cycle 'Despite and Still, op. 41 written in 1968 by Samuel Barber.

It is based on a passage from James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. Barber sets a “love-at-first-sight” encounter by juxtaposing a punctuated melodic line against the passionate tango-like accompaniment.

Text by James Joyce:

'Solitary hotel in a mountain pass.
Autumn. Twilight. Fire lit.
In dark corner young man seated.
Young woman enters.
Restless. Solitary. She sits.
She goes to window. She stands.
She sits. Twilight. She thinks.
On solitary hotel paper she writes.
She thinks. She writes. She sighs.
Wheels and hoofs. She hurries out.
He comes from his dark corner.
He seizes solitary paper.
He holds it towards fire. Twilight.
He reads. Solitary. What?
In sloping, upright and backhands:
Queen’s hotel, Queen’s hotel, Queen’s ho . . .'


Recorded at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a part of 'Keyboard Sessions' Concert.

Voice: Rebecca Davies
Piano: Edyta Mydlowska