EMMANUEL GHENT: Songs For Children (and All Their Friends)

Emmanuel Ghent

Songs For Children (and All Their Friends)

© 1999 Emmanuel Ghent (616548051529)

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These 23 captivating songs for children are both fun and educational, written for children of all ages. As well as being enjoyable, sing along music, the songs have an added value: contained within each piece are subtle hints about melody, harmony & meter

tracks

1 Now Is The Time
2 Spain
3 One, Two, Three, Four, Five
4 I'm Sorry
5 What's All That Noise?
6 Our Dog Was Barking All Night
7 I'm Sleepy
8 Every Week Has Seven Days
9 January, February
10 Just Five Minutes More
11 My Mother and Father
12 Let's Hope There Ain't A Ghost Behind Us
13 Abigail
14 Here Comes The Monster
15 The Moon Was Green With Envy
16 Mischief!
17 All You Need Is An Extra Head
18 Soon We Will Learn To Count
19 Better get Your Ticket Right Away
20 The Circumdiddle
21 I So Wish You'd Come Over Here
22 If You Knew How Hard I Tried
23 I'm Calling

notes

It is with great sorrow that we acknowledge the passing of Emmanuel Ghent at age 77 on March 30, 2003. "Emmanuel Ghent was an extraordinary and wonderful person, a warmly human pursuer of both science and art, as a psychiatrist,
teacher, composer, and technological innovator for the arts. He was also one of the most lovable and also wisest people I've ever met and I'm sure he will be deeply missed by many." - Laurie Spiegel, friend and colleague


About the Artist:

Emmanuel Ghent wrote "Songs For Children and all their friends" shortly after his youngest daughter was born in 1967. Recorded 32 years later, this is his first children's album, and his last recorded work. Ghent was the recipient of many awards for music composition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. His instrumental and computer generated music, as well as music for dance, has been widely performed. One of his most well known pieces, Phosphones, is available on a Wergo recording: WER 2022-50.

Also available is the "Songs For Children and All Their Friends" songbook, with complete sheet music/chord charts for each song on the CD. Please visit weststreetrecords.com to order at this time.

Full Artist Biography

EMMANUEL GHENT (b. 1925) had his early training in Montreal, Canada, both privately and at the McGill Conservatory. Later, in New York, he was deeply affected by the work of Varese, and of Ralph Shapey with whom he studied. Early on Ghent was interested in multi-tempo rhythms -- the interest created by their tensions and also by the composite rhythms that resulted. In the 1960's, in order to facilitate the realization of his rhythmic ideas, Ghent developed a system of transmitting composed signals to performers, enabling them to play at independently varying tempi and meters, yet at all times synchronized with each other and, in some instances, with prerecorded tape.

In 1968-69 he made use of a Guggenheim Fellowship to work at the Bell Telephone Laboratories on a project that used the GROOVE computer system for the control of sound-generating electronic equipment. The electronic music in HELICES was one of the first results of this experimental system. In the early 1970's Ghent put the GROOVE computer system to a new use -- using it not only to generate the music, but also the computer-controlled theatrical lighting for a number of pieces commissioned and choreographed by Mimi Garrard. PHOSPHONES, the first of these pieces, has received over a hundred performances.

Beginning in 1974, Ghent has turned his interest to teaching the computer to be his compositional assistant, or even associate. The first of the works co-composed by computer was LUSTRUM, a piece commissioned by the Fromm Foundation. It is performed by an ensemble consisting of a brass quintet, amplified string quintet and computer-generated tape. Later Ghent composed PROGRAM MUSIC 1, 2, ... 29, a series of computermusic pieces varying in duration from 2 to 27 minutes. Some of these pieces have acquired other identifying titles. For example, PROGRAM MUSIC 19 No. 3 (19 min.) is also known as LITTLE CHANGES. Another piece, BAOBAB (19 min.), for computer music and film, is a collaborative work with Ken Knowlton who created the computer graphics.

In 1967, upon the birth of his third daughter, Ghent composed a series of 25 SONGS FOR CHILDREN AND ALL THEIR FRIENDS which have recently been recorded, as produced and performed by Valerie Ghent, vocalist and keyboardist.

Ghent's music has been widely performed throughout the United States, Canada and in Europe, in regular concerts, at festivals, and in numerous radio broadcasts. His work has been published by Oxford University Press, Persimmon Press and Subito Music and has been recorded on several labels. He has received many awards, grants and commissions.

About Songs For Children:

"Songs For Children", by Emmanuel Ghent, is a collection of 23 wonderful songs written for children of all ages from 2 to102! As well as being enjoyable, sing along music, the songs have an added value as well: contained within each piece are subtle hints about melody, harmony and meter.

Unbeknownst to the children themselves, as they sing along they are learning all sorts of things about music. But the songs' main claim to fame is the pleasure they give. Some songs are joyous, some fun; some songs are wistful, some mischievous - but all are full of fun and imagination. The 20 page booklet contains all the lyrics as well as a set of notes drawing attention to the points of musical interest embedded in each song.

Written years ago when his own children were young (and all three daughters grew up singing these songs), now Emmanuel Ghent's middle daughter, Valerie Ghent - herself a vocalist/keyboardist/recording engineer - has produced this collection of songs so that other kids and their parents can share the fun.

Although Valerie sings most of the songs, on a few songs you can hear the voices of children: these voices are of Ghent's grandchildren! Grady Locklear, was only 3 years old when Valerie recorded him on "I'm Sorry", and "Here Comes The Monster". Grady is Ghent's grandson of his youngest daughter, Theresa Locklear. Also on the CD are the voices of Alexander and Sara Krolewski, Ghent's grandchildren of his oldest daughter, Nadia Ghent. Alex, Sara and Grady can be heard on the intro and outro of "All You Need Is An Extra Head". (The *kids* voices singing "All You Need Is An Extra Head" are actually all Valerie Ghent!) David Tofani plays clarinet and flute on several songs including "1,2,3,4,5". Other vocalists on the CD include Keith Fluitt and Deborah Berg. (Keith and Valerie are all the adult and *kids* voices you hear on "1, 2, 3, 4, 5".

Also available is the complete songbook - all 23 songs - of"Songs For Children". The music book contains the piano/vocal parts (lead sheet, chords and lyrics - easy for guitar or piano!) with a complete set of lyrics and notes. A perfect accompaniment to the CD! This sheet music is perfect for teaching in a school or home environment, for teachers, for parents and for kids who are learning to read music. Please weststreetrecords.com orders page if you are interested in ordering a copy of the score. Thanks!

reviews

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  • Skillfully arranged and produced...art songs for children that are fun and educa
    author: Brian Muni/American Songwriter Magazine

    "Songs For Children" is a collection of 23 songs written for children by composer Emmanuel Ghent, recently released on West Street Records. Unlike the Raffi-style music most kids hear, these songs are art songs for children that are not only fun to sing but also contain subtle hints about melody, harmony and meter. As children sing along, they are learning about music. Ghent, the recipient of many awards for music composition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, composed this collection of songs shortly after his youngest of three daughters was born in 1967. "It seemed like an exciting idea to compose songs that not only were tuneful and expressive but that also taught the children something about music without, of course, drawing attention away from the pleasure of the music itself," he writes in the CD1s 20-page booklet. "And if, on top of all this, the kids learned to count to one hundred, or caught on to the days of the week, or the months of the year -- well, that was just gravy." Songs such as "One, Two, Three, Four, Five" are an exercise in learning to count to a hundred while coursing through a circle of fifths, one of the most common harmonic patterns in music. "Now We're Going To Go To Spain" weaves Flamenco style rhythms and Phyrgian melody into a simple harmonic pattern. Commenting on the album, his eldest daughter, Nadia, a violinist said, "My sisters and I really did grow up singing this music. "I'm Sorry" was a real favorite, especially after nasty episodes of inter-sister warfare. It did take, though, several semesters of ear training for me to be able to sing "If You Knew How Hard I Tried", the only 12-tone one, but now it is my favorite, not only for the beauty of its arching intervals, outlining a sad resignation in the wide leaps downward, but also for the sentiment expressed to a parent from a child, a quiet request to see the effort required for a child to live up to an adult's expectations." Skillfully arranged and produced by the 74 (now 77 – editor update) year-old composer and his middle daughter, Valerie, herself a pianist and singer, this is Ghent’s first children's album. His instrumental and computer-generated music, as well as, music for dance, has been widely performed. "Phosphones", perhaps his best known piece, is available on a Wergo recording, WER 2022-50. "Songs For Children" can be found at amazon.com or by contacting West Street Records, POB 20086, West Village Station, New York, NY 10014 -- review by Brian Muni, February 2000

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