Lorelei Ensemble Releases David Lang's 'Love Fail' With Proceeds Going To NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Nationally acclaimed, Boston-based Lorelei Ensemble today releases David Lang's love fail (2012, revised for women's vocal ensemble in 2016) on Cantaloupe Music. In observance and celebration of Juneteenth, the proceeds of all album sales today will go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

love fail is a meditation on the timelessness of love that weaves together details from medieval retellings of the story of Tristan and Isolde with stories from more modern works by Lydia Davis, Marie de France, Gottfried von Strassburg, Béroul, Thomas of Britain, and Richard Wagner. Originally written for vocal quartet performing on simple percussion instruments, Lang's love fail was arranged for women's chorus in 2016 and the new version was premiered by Lorelei at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA.

Lang says, "A few years after writing [love fail] I heard a great recording by Lorelei that included my music and I immediately thought of making a larger version of the piece, just for them. I want to thank them for their musicality, their passion and their commitment."

Lorelei Ensemble Artistic Director Beth Willer is thrilled to be working with Lang on the project: "We have an affinity for David's music, and have been performing it since our early years together as an ensemble. This piece is particularly striking-David's brilliant use of silence and direct delivery of text, the intimacy and immediacy of Lydia Davis' poetry, the ancient tale of accidental and all-encompassing love-it draws you in, and it's gripping."

After almost 1000 years, the story of Tristan and Isolde is still being told in many different versions and considered one of the greatest love stories ever. Lang says, "I think the main reason why people love this story is because the love of Tristan and Isolde begins by accident-they drink a love potion. They didnʼt mean to drink it, and they didnʼt mean to fall in love. They drink and-BAM!-it starts. It is almost a laboratory experiment into what love might be like without any of the complications of how real love begins or works-without the excitement, embarrassment, frustration, guilt or competition present in the courtships of ordinary people.

"I thought I might learn something about love if I could explore this in a piece, putting details abstracted from many different retellings of Tristan and Isolde next to texts that are more modern, more recognizable to us, more real. First I scoured the literature and took my favorite weird incidents from the originals; for example, in Marie de Franceʼs version Tristan carves his name on a stick for Isolde to find, she sees it and immediately knows what message Tristan means to convey, and that message-incredibly-is many many pages long. Another example: Tristan and Isolde drink the potion, thinking it is wine, and Gottfried von Strassburg writes, dramatically, that it isnʼt wine they are drinking, but a cup of their never-ending sorrow. I compiled the oddest incidents from these versions of their romance, took out all the names or technological information that would make the texts seem ancient, and put them next to stories by the contemporary author Lydia Davis. These stories are oddly similar to the Tristan stories-they are also about love, honor and respect between two people, but they are much more recognizable to us."

love fail Track List

David Lang - love fail (Version for Women's Chorus)
1. he was and she was
2. break #1
Clare McNamara, mezzo-soprano
3. dureth
4. a different man
Carrie Cheron, mezzo-soprano
5. the wood and the vine
6. right and wrong
Sonja Tengblad, soprano
7. you will love me
8. forbidden subjects
Sarah Brailey, soprano
9. as love grows stronger
10. break #2
11. the outing
Emily Marvosh, alto
12. i live in pain
13. head, heart
14. break #3
15. mild, light

Lorelei Ensemble

Beth Willer, artistic director and conductor
Elizabeth Bates, soprano
Sonja Tengblad, soprano
Sarah Brailey, soprano
Carrie Cheron, mezzo-soprano
Christina English, mezzo-soprano
Clare McNamara, mezzo-soprano
Stephanie Kacoyanis, alto
Emily Marvosh, alto