Elizabeth Croy | What Ships Set Sail? Songs of Erik Funk

Published: May 10, 2011

Montana State University voice professor Elizabeth Croy has been quite busy lately. On this outing, she teams with other Bozemanites Julie Gosswiller, her long-time accompanist, on piano, and members of the Meritage String Quartet – Carrie Krause and Stephen Cepeda, violins, Mary Carson, viola, and Peter Landeen, cello. Clarinetist Gregory Young joins the troupe as well.

Together, they celebrate the songs, set to poetry, of Montana native and MSU faculty member Eric Funk, a world-famous composer with 114 major works under his belt, whose pieces have been performed by international philharmonic orchestras and at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall.

The CD liner notes tell us Funk reads poetry almost exclusively and composes by “ … transcribing the natural rhythm and inflective properties of the spoken poem to ‘reveal’ an existing melody ... ” He says that “once these ‘jewels’ are set in 'jewelry,’ they tend to speak for themselves.”

Gosswiller gets first crack at the 24 compositions, opening with a dreamy piano solo aptly titled “The Accompanist.” She then joins soprano Croy on the next 11 numbers. All are fairly slow-tempoed, journeying through Funk’s “sung” poems. The title tune, the anonymous “What Ships Will Set Sail?,” finds Croy moving through the conversational lyric with ease while Gosswiller chords behind her.

“Lullaby,” from “Sanctuary,” has a nice pace, and four of Sara Teasdale’s poems follow, with Croy’s dips, trills, and swirls out in front of Gosswiller’s always-tasteful accompaniment.

The rest of the compositions feature the quartet. Their first song on the album uplifts the energy, building dissonantly on “Bent with Worry.” It’s the first of the songs Funk set to 10 poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, and is a marvelous five-minute, largely instrumental piece, with Croy entering around the four-minute mark. It’s reprised near the end of the recording, only Croy comes in earlier and exits earlier. Makes for great pacing and good arrangements.

Another on this list is “A Kiss on the Head,” featuring Young. His spooky clarinet also infuses a duet with Croy, “You Block Out Everything,” and the quartet and Young play a really cool instrumental line on “I Opened My Veins.” It’s circular and mesmerizing, with Croy vocally emoting over the top of it all. Woo!

Funk set the last three songs to “Villancicos,” anonymous Spanish poems from the 15th-16th centuries. Pretty unison leads appear on “Non quiero se monja, no” (“I don’t want to be a nun”), and Croy goes out with a flourish on “A los baños del amor, sola me iré (To the bathing place where lovers go, I will go alone).”

This CD was produced through a Scholarship and Creativity Grant for the Arts and Humanities from MSU-Bozeman. Visit http://www.ericfunk.com for more information.

– Mariss McTucker

Elizabeth Croy, Julie Gosswiller, and Claire Young: Partners through Song: Children’s Literature and Classical Song

Produced by Elizabeth Croy, recorded 2010 by Gil Stober at Peak Recording and Sound, Bozeman, MT

Soprano Elizabeth Croy, a professor of voice at Montana State University in Bozeman, has crafted a quirky and fun compilation of children’s songs – or, rather, as the album title states, a melding of children’s literature and classical song, in this new album. Along with talented pianist Julie Gosswiller, who accompanies her frequently, and child soprano Claire Young, Croy delves into the vast repertoire of kids’ songs featuring insects, animals, stars and moons, and nursery rhymes.

Liner notes describe Partners through Song as facilitating the connection between “language, motion, and rhythmic structures, all the while promoting language fluency” by pairing classical song with read-aloud stories. Croy refers to the pieces as “art songs.” A more fun way to learn English, you could say.

And there are lots of fun ones here. From the get-go we have “Hungry Caterpillar,” munching its way through many foods only to metamorphose into a beautiful winged creature; it’s followed by a waltz, “The Hat-Maker,” with Croy trilling playfully.

Gosswiller provides scurrying piano licks on “Mouse-Catching Rhyme,” and “The Leather-Winged Bat” is a welcome surprise. A favorite of mine, also called “Towdy Owdy,” it was a song the birds sang years ago in Disney’s movie, “Song of the South.” Croy does it great justice, singing each bird’s part with spice, till the sky-high ending. Gosswiller’s flighty, tiptoe-y piano expertly anchors the piece.

Croy sings in German (“Wiegenlied”), as well as Spanish (“Una Palomita Blanca”), and sings about toads lightly tripping in “The Hoppity Toads” … “they look warty and floppy and such.”

“Skip to My Lou” has a nice music-box opening, and great jumpy voice/piano interplay. Gosswiller can sure tickle those ivories!

There’s the traditional “Old Mister Ford,” sung as a duet with Young; the two sing the American national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” together, too. They join as well on the soothing “Rain,” which opens with rainstick sound effects. It’s reprised as the finale, sans voice. A nice touch.

There’s a lot more here, guaranteed to perk up children’s ears. Liner notes feature suggestions for incorporating the CD into classroom activities.

The album was funded by a Scholarship and Creativity Grant for the

Arts and Humanities from MSU-Bozeman. Visit Croy at elizabethcroy.weebly.com.

– Mariss McTucker