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Into The Still Hollow

John Rommereim composer

Release Date: March 7, 2025
Catalog #: NV6710
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Guitar
Organ
Strings
Voice
Woodwind

It is no secret that John Rommereim harbors an immense love for vocal music. Known for his choral compositions as well as his conducting of choirs, it would be easy to pigeonhole the man — were it not for the existence of his instrumental works. INTO THE STILL HOLLOW juxtaposes both talents, and offers a glimpse at Rommereim’s multifarious accomplishments.

The variety is astounding. There are intimate lieder, accompanied by piano or an evocative string quartet; a three-part suite for solo guitar; and unconventional duos, one for organ and saxophone, the other for organ and oboe. Stylistically, the pieces walk the fine line between Western tradition and its ritual annihilation. Cerebral, yes, but also impassioned.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Merwin Songs: I. Into the Still Hollow John Rommereim W. S. Merwin, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 11:47
02 Merwin Songs: II. Elegy for a Walnut Tree John Rommereim W. S. Merwin, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 5:29
03 Merwin Songs: III. For the Anniversary of My Death John Rommereim W. S. Merwin, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 4:28
04 Time and Wind John Rommereim James Joyce, lyrics; Charlotte Mundy, soprano; Sirius String Quartet | Fung Chern Hwei, violin; Gregor Huebner, violin; Ron Lawrence, viola; Jeremy Harman, cello 6:08
05 The Gift John Rommereim Louise Glück, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 2:55
06 Rings of Birchbark John Rommereim A. R. Ammons, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 2:37
07 It Nests Within Each Cell John Rommereim Mae Swenson, lyrics; Thomas Meglioranza, baritone; Reiko Uchida, piano 2:31
08 Upon the Blue Guitar: I. Things as They Are John Rommereim David William Ross, guitar 3:48
09 Upon the Blue Guitar: II. A Tune Beyond Us John Rommereim David William Ross, guitar 3:35
10 Upon the Blue Guitar: III. The Day Was Green John Rommereim David William Ross, guitar 4:25
11 Prelude on “Lauda Anima” John Rommereim Karel Martinek, organ; Pavel Zlámal, saxophone 3:23
12 Gesangvoll: Variations on a Theme by Beethoven John Rommereim Karel Martinek, organ; Jan Kučera, oboe 9:00

Upon the Blue Guitar
Recorded April 10, 2021 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport MA
Session Producer Brad Michel
Session Engineer Tom Stephenson
Recording Sessions Director Levi Brown

Gesangvoll, Prelude On Lauda Anima
Recorded May 13, 2022 at Concert Hall in Uničov, Czech Republic
Session Producer Jan Košulič
Session Engineer Pavel Kunčar
Production Director Levi Brown

Merwin Songs, Rings of Birchbark, It Nests Within Each Cell, The Gift
Recorded July 6 & 8, 2022 at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon NY
Session Producer Ryan Streber
Session Engineer Edwin Huet
Production Director Levi Brown
Production Manager Jean Noël Attard

Time and Wind
Recorded August 25, 2024 at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon NY
Session Producer Brad Michel
Session Engineer Ryan Streber
Production Director Martina Watzková

Editing & Mixing Brad Michel (Tracks 4, 8-10), Melanie Montgomery (Tracks 11-12), Lucas Paquette (Tracks 1-3, 5-7)
Mastering Brad Michel

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Production Assistants Martina Watzková, Adam Lysák (Track 4)

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

John Rommereim

Composer

John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. His vocal music is distinguished by the way in which it uncovers the emotional core of each chosen text. This successful fusion of poetry and music might be exemplified best in the title song for this album, Into the Still Hollow, which has been praised by the New York Times for its "richly expressive" character. This album offers a selection of his vocal and chamber music performed by an array of celebrated artists.

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Sirius Quartet

Ensemble

Sirius Quartet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequaled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and raw energy, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach. Since their debut concert at the original Knitting Factory in New York City, Sirius has played some of the most important venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Beijing Music Festival, the Cologne Music Triennale, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Stuttgart Jazz, Musique Actuelle in Canada, the Taichung Jazz Fest — Taiwan’s biggest jazz event — and many others.

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David William Ross

David William Ross

Guitarist

David William Ross is a New England–based guitarist with roots in both classical and jazz. His recordings and performances have been lauded for their sensitivity, virtuosity, and depth of all-around musicality. Ross frequently works with composers and is active in cultivating new repertoire for the guitar. He has premiered works by Frank Wallace, Georges Raillard, Ferdinando DeSena, Peter Dayton, Pierre Schroeder, among many others. Ross’ work as a session player has led to an extensive working knowledge of the recording studio. He has developed an approach to engineering and recording that not only serves as a means to capture and present music but also as an artistic tool in its own right.

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Jan Kučera

Conductor

The conductor, composer, and pianist Jan Kučera is one of the most versatile Czech artists. At the National Theatre in Prague, he has conducted the productions of Lukáš Hurník’s opera The Angels, Shostakovich’s Antiformalist Rayok / Orango, Rossini´s La Cenerentola, and of his own comic opera Red Mary.

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Thomas Meglioranza

baritone

American baritone Thomas Meglioranza was a winner of the Walter W. Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, Franz Schubert/Music of Modernity, and Joy In Singing competitions.

Highlights from recent seasons include an all-Hugo Wolf recital at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as role of Rufus Griswold in Dominick Argento’s The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe with Odyssey Opera, and Saint John in Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre with the Center for Contemporary Opera.

He also sang Handel’s Messiah at Saint Thomas Church in New York City, and debuted with Ars Lyrica Houston singing J.C.F. Bach’s solo cantata, Pygmalion. Last season, he sang the role of Wreck in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with the Seattle Symphony, Bach’s solo bass cantatas with Lyra Baroque in Minneapolis, and performances of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Reiko Uchida and Winterreise with fortepianist David Breitman.

Described in The New Yorker as an “immaculate and inventive recitalist,” his Songs from the WWI Era program was named one of the “Top Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year” in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has appeared many times on the Cabaret at Café Sabarsky series as well as at Wigmore Hall. His discography includes the Schubert cycles and assorted lieder, and French mélodies with pianist Reiko Uchida, songs of Virgil Thomson with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Bach cantatas with the Taverner Consort.

He has been an oratorio and pops soloist with many of America’s leading orchestras and has also sung Copland’s Old American Songs with the National Symphony, Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, John Harbison’s Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony, Milton Babbitt’s Two Sonnets with the MET Chamber Ensemble, Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina with the Houston Symphony, and Bach cantatas with Les Violons du Roy and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared with many period instrument ensembles, including the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, and the Waverly Consort.

His operatic roles include Fritz in Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva, as well as Chou Enlai in Nixon in China, Prior Walter in Eötvös Peter’s Angels in America, and Oedipus in Ruth Schönthal’s Jocasta. He also regularly performs with the Mark Morris Dance Group, including the role of Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas.

A native New Yorker of Thai, Italian, and Polish heritage, Meglioranza graduated from Grinnell College and the Eastman School of Music. His non-musical interests include cooking and fungi.

meglioranza.com

Reiko Uchida

piano

Reiko Uchida is a pianist of rare poetic quality. While she commands a formidable technique, it is always her spiritual connection to the music that projects. Uchida has performed extensively as recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, in venues including Suntory Hall, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center, and the White House. First prize winner of the Joanna Hodges Piano Competition and Zinetti International Competition, she has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, and the Princeton Symphony, among others.

A passionate chamber musician, Uchida is a member of Camera Lucida and the ARK trio. She is a past member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two and has toured with musicians from Marlboro, as well as with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. She has collaborated with many of the leading artists of today including Jaime Laredo, Hilary Hahn, Pinchas Zukerman, Osmo Vänskä, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet. She has performed as guest artist with the American Chamber Players, and the Borromeo, Talich, Formosa, Daedalus, and St. Lawrence String Quartets. She has partnered in recitals with Jennifer Koh, Jessica Lee, Thomas Meglioranza, Anne Akiko Meyers, Anthony McGill, David Shifrin, and Sharon Robinson. String Poetic, her recording with Jennifer Koh, was nominated for a GRAMMY® award.

A native of California, Uchida made her solo debut with the Los Angeles Repertory Orchestra at age 9 and appeared twice on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as on the EMMY® Awards. Uchida holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, a Master’s degree from the Mannes College of Music, and an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School. She studied with Claude Frank, Leon Fleisher, Edward Aldwell, Sophia Rosoff, and Margo Garrett. She has taught at the Brevard Music Center, and is currently a Music Associate at Columbia University.

reikouchida.com

Notes

W. S. Merwin’s poem A Dance of Death is linked to the tradition of the danse macabre or the Totentanz. In this medieval form, a series of individuals from a variety of social ranks parade before the viewer, each offering a terse summary of their life. As quickly as they appear, they withdraw into death, and each concludes their brief narrative with the Latin phrase, “Quod, ecce, nunc in pulvere dormio” [And behold, I now sleep in the dust.] The form of this piece is inspired by Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte. Beethoven’s song has six contrasted sections that are united thematically to form a coherent cycle. This general plan seemed well-suited to Merwin’s poem, which introduces six distinctive characters in succession. Into the Still Hollow is a set of variations on the melody that is first presented by a King, and is then taken up by a Monk, a Scholar, a Huntsman, a Farmer, and a Woman, each of whom projects a distinct personality and life-path. The poet himself appears at the end to offer an epitaph, and to join in the inevitable procession to the grave.

This song aspires to be in conversation with “Der Lindenbaum” from Schubert’s Winterreise. In the Schubert song, the tree is the locus of the poet’s nostalgia and yearning for home. In Elegy for a Walnut Tree, Merwin considers how his life has been intertwined with this beloved tree for many decades, since the time of his youth. More than an object that triggers nostalgia, Merwin’s walnut tree is a life companion.

In this highly celebrated poem, each line offers a new, powerful jolt of insight. The poem holds both a sense of wonder and a despair for human fallibility — both an expansive cosmic vision, and a focused presence in the here and now. For the poet, his day of death was March 15, 2019, 26 years after he wrote the poem.

Time and Wind
fragments from Ulysses, by James Joyce

These heavy sands are language tide and wind have silted here. . . . tranquil brightness, form of forms . . . thought of thought . . . tranquility vast, candescent . . .

The text of this piece consists of a few disconnected fragments from the first chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses that are placed together in a collage-like arrangement. These non sequiturs enter inexplicably into the main character Stephen Dedalus’s stream of thought. Without spelling things out, they point toward an awareness of deep time, and they allude to a certain guiding intelligence in nature.

Louise Glück’s poem captures those astonishing moments when a child first begins to engage with the things and creatures around them, and to use language to name the world. In a casual, unceremonious prayer, a child’s enthusiastic encounter with a dog is lifted up as something blessed.

In his poem titled Love Song 2, A. R. Ammons contemplates the way in which our physical bodies dissolve into the cosmos, leaving behind only the slightest vestiges of our lives. When the wood decays, the rings of birchbark stay in place as a reminder of the tree’s presence, just as the song persists beyond death as a trace of the poet’s love.

This song was written for the wedding of Helen Stuhr-Rommereim and Michael Schapira on July 13, 2019.

Inspired by The Man With the Blue Guitar, by Wallace Stevens

The man bent over his guitar
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, “You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.”
The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.”
And they said then, “But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A name upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are.”

These three movements for solo guitar offer musical contemplations of the Wallace Stevens poem, The Man With the Blue Guitar.

This chorale prelude reinterprets a familiar hymn tune. The four repeated notes with which the tune begins are a distinctive aspect of the melody that shapes the arrangement. The melody presses forward into a jubilant climax before settling into a reverential mood at its conclusion.

This set of variations is based on the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 — a movement that is itself a set of variations. The title comes from Beethoven’s marking: “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung” [filled with song, with deepest expression.] Beethoven’s theme is a slow, reverent, hymn-like tune that undergoes a series of variations that become ever more rapturous as the piece progresses. In Gesangvoll, rather than presenting the entire melody in each variation, certain salient moments are developed on their own, such as the plangent repeated notes that appear in the second half of the theme, or the prolonged, languorous trills of the penultimate variation. The tensions that are exploited in Beethoven’s music are further amplified and stretched out in time. Along the way, the oboe’s distinctive timbre is occasionally juxtaposed with the oboe stop of the organ. Overall, Gesangvoll is a personal response to the enormous, overarching emotional trajectory and the concentrated lyricism of Beethoven’s sonata, where the composer seems intent on saturating every note with meaning.