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Remembrance of 9/11 - A Soldier's Tale/Crane Maiden - Erzsébet - On the Nature of Silence - Spring Fling


 

VCME Program Notes
2011-2012 Season

Remembrance of 9/11
(in program order)

 

Anthony Cornicello - Fractured Landscape, Suspended Song

I was teaching Computer Music when my wife frantically phoned. Her words were filled with grief, anger, and despair on September 11. I listened in disbelief. I was a little boy living in Brooklyn when the WTC was being built. My dad took me to the site of the future world's tallest building. At that point there was only a big hole in the ground. As an adult, I frequented the area, sitting at the fountain with Atlas holding up the world. When the Vermont Chamber Music Ensemble approached me about writing a work in response to the attacks, I was still overwhelmed with grief. For me, the piece needed to project a message of hope and understanding, in a time when hope and understanding were difficult concepts for me to grasp. As I began writing the work, my thoughts kept returning to current events. It became difficult to even think about writing. So I decided to write a piece about writing a piece after September 11. My work, a theatre-esque piece, is a chronicle of my own thoughts since the attack: disarray, confusion, followed by the eventual desire to return to work. The piece includes samples of eyewitness accounts, Hubert Parry's choral anthem, "I was glad when they said unto me", which makes use of the hopeful words of Psalm 112, "pray for the peace of Jerusalem," as well as Arabic chant, quoting the opening incantation of the Koran, as well as a passage instructing Islamic believers to "repel evil deeds with good deeds, and then you will find that he with whom you had enmity will become your friend." The writing of "Fractured Landscape, Suspended Song" was a catharsis for me as a composer, and I thank the Vermont Chamber Music Ensemble for the opportunity.
Notes by the composer

 

Belinda Reynolds - Dust

DUST was commissioned by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble as part of their Winter "Coffee House" Concert to benefit the victims of the events of September 11, 2001. While no words can ever sufficiently encompass all the emotions and thoughts we all have surrounding this day, this short duo tries simply to create a musical offering for all of those lives affected by this moment. A special thanks goes to Steven Klimowski and Bonnie Thurber Klimowski for their input in the composition of this work. Other thanks go to The MacDowell Colony for their support of this project.
Notes by the composer

 

Allen Shawn - Dark Song

In order to respond to Steve Klimowski's request for a work reflecting upon the massacre that occurred in New York on September 11 of 2011, I had to first overcome a sense that, as a distant bystander to the events of that day, I didn't have a right to compose such a piece. When I did sit down to write, I thought about how such horror might have been experienced by one of its victims, and in turn by those close to that one person. I thought about the dark shadow the event cast over all of us. The bass clarinet and piano piece lasts five minutes; after the initial outburst in the piano, its chords and melodies are ritualized, circular and restrained.
Notes by the composer

 

Troy Peters - Lament

For me, the biggest feeling in the wake of 9/11 was numbness. The imediacy and impact of what happened were so powerful that I found myself exhausted for weeks. In the cello solo which opens Lament - 9/11/01, I tried to capture this sense of being emotionally lost. The cell9o mulls over its sorrow and doesn't know where to go with it, turning in circles. When the cello finally exhausts itself, the voice enters with a brief song of mourning to this text by Ab Al-ala Al-ma'arre, an 11th century Arab poet from what is now Syria:

The soul driven from the body
Mourns the memory it leaves
behind. A dove hit in flight sadly
turns its neck and sees its nest
destroyed.

notes by the composer

 

Thomas Read - A Watch in the Night

My trio, A WATCH IN THE NIGHT, was composed between Sept. 11 and November 11, 2001, especially for the VCME. The music comprises two contrasted, interlocked sections. The first unfolds three varied statements of a self-contained, singable melody. Scattered remnants of the melody propel the agitated beginning of the second section, raising the possibility of the melody's eventual restatement. Such an eventuality becomes increasingly impossible as the music, now utterly transformed, draws to a quiet, meditative close.

Two mottos are appended to the score:

In this world
we walk on the roof of Hell
gazing at flowers.
Kayabashi Issa

La memoria es raiz en la tiniebla.
(Memory is a root in the dark.)
Octavio Paz

 

David Gunn - faux pastiche

faux pastiche is a piece for New York City. It's a pasticcio of nine themes, six of which depict the mercurial activity of the burg. The other three - collapse, aftermath, and revivification - connote events of the last two-thirds of September 2001. The "collapse" theme is but two measures, representing a brief if daunting interlude in the city's collective continuum. So it really isn't a pastiche after all, but rather a "faux" pastiche.

 

Daniel Jessie - A Feary Tale

In conversations after the attack, I was most struck by the sense of confusion. We are benevolent, how can we be so hated? In truth, our generosity toward the world was often viewed as unwont influence - subtle imperialism. I felt a need to understand how something could seem so right and be seen as so wrong.

At the same time, I sensed a ponderous attitude taking hold in many minds outside New York City. Meanwhile, in The City itself, life was more cherished and civil. This piece is an attempt to put a lighter face on the gloomy, frightening reality of world society, hoping to help us all take a calmer view of our place within God's world.
Notes by the composer

 

Dennis Báthory-Kitsz - Fuliginous Quadrant

Composed ten weeks after the 9/11 tragedy, Fuliginous Quadrant extracts the abstract shape of unbearable, slow-motion television images that played over and over throughout the middle of that September. The flickering timing numbers of home videos are stretched across time as octave F's strike a heartbeat 337 times on the piano while the images themselves are pixelated with digital closeups and flash cuts, expressed as bursts of active conversation among violin, clarinet, cello and piano. The composition does not paint a scene but rather envelops the listener in a sonic analog of a single intake of breath and a silent plea for the images never to have existed.

Fuliginous Quadrant began as The Key of Locust, a nearly unplayable 1200-measure trio for violin, viola and cello written in early October; it evolved into a similarly unplayable quartet, and finally this version, first played by the Rode Pomp Ensemble in Ghent in 2005.
Notes by the composer

 

Alex Abele - Arise and Unite

This work is dedicated to the memory of those that died as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks. While the dedication is concerned with those who have passed, the inspiration is from those who remain and remember. Arise and Unite is a reflection of the courage, strength of spirit, unity and resolve demonstrated by the American people and our friends worldwide.

The piece is based on two chords, a ninth chord, and an eleventh chord. These chords are played in succession in various voicings throughout the range of the piano followed by melodic echoes. The resulting sounds seek to honor the past and to inspire the future.
Notes by the composer

 

Don Jamison - Three Threshold Songs

Not only were the lives of thousands of people brought to an abrupt end on September 11, but those thousands were suddenly thrown into a state of existence that most were unprepared to meet. My Three Threshold Songs look at death from increasingly close up. In Spring and Fall (Gerard Manley Hopkins), young Margaret is saddened by falling leaves and the "leafmeal" they become. The narrator tells her, or maybe only thinks, that Margaret has realized that what she is seeing "is the blight man is born for," and that her sadness is for her own eventual fate - "It is Margaret you mourn for." In Emily Dickinson's The Sun Kept Setting, Setting, the narrator's own perceptions are strangely askew: the sun is setting, but it is noon; the dusk is dropping, but the only dew to be found is on her face; her feet are asleep, but her fingers are awake; she can't hear any of the sounds she thinks she is making. At last, she understands - without fear - that "'Tis dying I am doing." The narrator of the third song, I See You in the Spirit World (an adaptation of a meditative verse by Rudolf Steiner), is addressing someone who has recently died. She sends her love in the hope that it will "help you find the way through darkness to the spirit's light." According to Steiner, death is a birth into the spiritual world, and while the living can't serve as midwives to that birth, there are things we can do to help.
Notes by the composer


Erik Nielsen - We Must Always Have a Song

When Steven Klimowski approached me, along with a number of other composers, with the idea of writing a short piece for a special concert in memory of those killed on September 11, I quickly agreed. For a number of reasons I have written several memorial pieces in the past 10 years or so and I initially imagined this would be a similar sort of work. However, the more I thought about what I would compose, the less I felt I could write such a piece for this occasion. As hideous as the events of September 11 were, they are no more nor less tragic than the atrocities humans have been visiting on each other for thousands of years. In searching for what I could bring to this concert I was struck by a poem my friend David Budbill began appending to his correspondence after September 11. I realized after reading the poem that it said what I was feeling, namely that we need Art, now more than ever, not only to express more powerfully than any other way our sorrow, but also our hopes and strivings, our spirituality and our sense of beauty that persist despite pain, tragedy and injustice. And so I tried to write a simple piece that gives my sense of what is embodied in David's very wise and beautiful poem. - notes by the composer

What Issa Heard

Two hundred years ago Issa heard the morning birds
singing sutras to this suffering world.
I heard them too, this morning, which must mean,
since we will always have a suffering world,
we must also always have a song.

David Budbill

Notes by the composer

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A Soldier's Tale - The Crane Maiden

L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT
(THE SOLDIER'S TALE)
A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
from : http://myhome.sunyocc.edu/~bridger/papers/lhistpaper.htm by Robert Bridge


This paper will discuss Stavinsky's L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT. It will be concerned with the following: facts about the work; information about the instrumentation; facts about the story and a synopsis of the story; information concerning the genesis of the work; and a short analysis of the music and how it relates to the story.

L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT does not fit exactly into any set genre. It could be called: a ballet d' action with a story told in narrative by the characters and a narrator[1]; "a play with music and dance"[2]; a miniature theatre piece, full of experiments.[3] It is also interesting that this work is included in Loewenberg's Annals of Opera 1597-1940. [4] However you choose to label it, L'HISTOIRE represents many innovations in music and theatre.

The facts on L'HISTOIRE are as follows: it was composed at Morges in 1918 and dedicated to Werner Reinhart; the full work was published by J & W. Chester in 1924. It was also arranged into a suite for clarinet, violin, and piano in 1919 (Werner Reinhart was an excellent amateur clarinetist). And, a suite featuring the original instrumentation was arranged in 1920. A rehearsal version, the composer's piano reduction, is also available.

L'HISTOIRE's libretto, in French, is by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. There are English translations by (1) Rosa Newmarch and (2) Michael Flanders and Kitty Black. Hans Reinhart produced the German translation.

Instrumentation for this work represents treble and bass in each instrumental family. It consists of: violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion (played by one player). This instrumentation closely resembles that of the New Orleans Dixieland Jazz band that was traveling through Europe during this period. Stravinsky however, did not hear this band in person until 1919.[5] It can be said that he was aware of the instrumentation in that he studied many jazz and ragtime scores, and is quoted as saying that he could hear them in his head. However, the rhythms of this work allude more to jazz than the harmonies or melodies. This is one of the first times that the jazz influence appears in the music of Stravinsky.

Primitivism made it vogue for Europeans to be interested in Jazz, as it was descended from African rhythms and melodies.[6] The memory of W.W.I caused an even more serious need to rid music of romanticism. Stravinsky said "Rhythm and motion, not the element of feeling, are the foundations of musical art." [7]
The bassoon was a substitute for the saxophone; Stravinsky did not care for the instrument. The percussion instruments approximate those of a trap set or dance drums. The set up includes: a bass drum, cymbal, side drum with snares, two side drums without snares (different sizes), small drum with snares, tambourine and triangle. Although the drums were to approximate a dance drum set, a pedal bass drum was not admissible. In a letter to Robert Craft dated October 7, 1947, Stravinsky states that the pedal bass drum will not work for this piece.[8] The part calls for the bass drum to create different timbre effects with the use of different implements. Great care was given to the percussion writing in L'HISTOIRE; Stravinsky even bought his own set of percussion instruments in Lausanne and learned to play them.[9]

This work does mark one of the first times that Stravinsky uses the violin as a solo instrument. Also, the percussion writing is virtuosic throughout this piece. These two featured instruments assume the roles of the soldier's soul (violin), and the "Diablerie" (percussion).

The story for L'HISTOIRE was one from a collection by Alexander Afanasiev. Afanasiev collected "soldier stories" from peasant recruits of the Russo-Turkish War (1827-1829). Stravinsky says:

We were particularly drawn to the cycle of legends dealing with the adventures of the soldier who deserted and the devil who inexorably comes to carry off his soul. This cycle was based on folk stories of a cruel period of enforced recruitment under Nicholas I....[10]

More symbolically, it is a story about a deserter who barters his violin, his soul, for the rewards of the devil.
What follows is a brief story synopsis, as taken from White's Stravinsky The Composer and his Works [11]:

Part One, Scene 1 -- ('Scene au bord du ruisseau'-- 'The Banks of a Stream'.) The Soldier, returning to his native village with a fortnight's leave, is accosted by The Devil disguised as an old man with a butterfly net. The Devil obtains the Soldier's fiddle in exchange for a magic book and invites him to spend three days of his leave with him. The Soldier accepts.

Scene 2 -- ('Scene du sac' -- 'A crossroads in the open country, showing a frontier post and the village belfry in the distance'.) On reaching his native village, the Soldier finds he has been away not three days but three years. The Devil appears disguised as a cattle merchant and explains that with the help of the magic book the Soldier can make his fortune.

Scene 3 -- ('Scene du livre' -- 'A room'.) By now, the Soldier is thoroughly disillusioned by his wealth. The Devil disguised as an old clothes woman calls on him and displays her wares, including a fiddle which he recognizes as his. He wants to buy it back, but finding he can get no sound out of it, hurls it into the wings and tears up the book in despair.

Part Two, Scene 4 -- ('Scene du jeu de cartes' -- 'A room in the palace'.) The Soldier, who has now lost his wealth, comes to a town where the King's daughter is ill and the King has promised her hand in marriage to whoever succeeds in curing her. The Soldier meets the Devil disguised as a virtuoso violinist and plays cards with him. He goes on losing and plying him with wine, until the Devil falls unconscious, and he is able to recover his old fiddle.

Scene 5 -- ('Scene de la fille guerie' -- 'The Princess's room'.) The invalid Princess is lying on a couch. The Soldier enters and plays his fiddle. The Princess rises and dances a tango, a waltz and a ragtime, at the end of which she falls into the Soldier's arms. During their embrace, the Devil enters dressed as a devil (with forked tail and pointed ears). The Soldier fiddles him into contortions and with the help of the Princess drags his body into the wings.

Scene 6 -- ('Scene des limites franchies' -- same as Scene 2.) Sometime after their marriage, the Soldier and Princess decide to visit his native village; but as soon as he crosses the frontier, he falls into the power of the Devil, who appears in gorgeous scarlet apparel, and has got hold of the fiddle again. He follows the Devil very slowly, but without resisting.

The libretto carries the following introductory note concerning the staging: A small stage mounted on a platform. A stool (or barrel) at either side. On one of the stools the Narrator sits in front of a small table on which there are a carafe of white wine and a glass. The orchestra is placed on the opposite side of the stage.

In his book, The Music of Stravinsky[12], Stephen Walsh parallels the 'Soldier's Tale' to Stravinsky's own situation in 1918. There are similarities in that Stravinsky is in semi-exile and many people felt that he had deserted his roots (he would become a French citizen in a few years). Walsh states that he is playing foreign tunes to keep his soul. Also, Stravinsky does state that he found the Peace of Brest-Litovsk humiliating.[13] Many do not agree with Walsh's view, but it is worth noting.

A final point on the story is that although the story was originally Russian, Stravinsky and Ramuz decided to broaden it into a worldlier tale. Some have compared it to a miniature Faust.

The genesis of L'HISTOIRE was in 1915 when Stravinsky and Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (b. 1878) met through the introduction of a mutual friend, the conductor Ernest Ansermet. Ramuz was a French novelist who, like Stravinsky, lived in Switzerland during the war. The duo worked together to translate Reynard (1916) and Les Noces (1917) into French. Because Ramuz knew no Russian, He and Stravinsky had to work closely together. From this work, their friendship grew.

After the completion of Les Noces, They looked for a new project to work on together. Both men were in need of money due to the war. Stravinsky could no longer receive funds from his estate in Russia. Also, he was receiving no royalties from his publishers. Ramuz, a novelist, was also subject to the financial devastation of the war. With this mutual lack of money, their interests pointed towards something that would be very simple to produce.

This "small production," would have a small cast, a small orchestra, and require a small space. It would also need to be very mobile. Since Ramuz was a novelist, he suggested that he should write a story rather than a play.

From these beginnings, their miniature theatre piece was born. It was a way for the duo and their friends to make some money. In concept, it was a traveling theatre, easily moved because the stage sat on saw horses with a barrel on each side. There was a small orchestra on one side of the stage while the action took place on the other. The stage divided into three portions, with the inclusion of the narrator. This was visually appealing in that they could lead the eye where it needed to go; left, right, center, all at once or nothing at all.

The first performance of L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT, conducted by Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), took place on September 28, 1918, at the Theatre Municipal de Lausanne. Werner Reinhart sponsored, and underwrote to a large degree, this performance. This performance was a great success but the tour had to be canceled because of the Spanish Influenza epidemic. It would later be revived and performed on numerous occasions.

Although a complete theoretical analysis of this work is beyond the scope of this paper, some theoretical points deserve consideration. This work marks a consolidation of the past four years of Stravinsky's work. L'HISTOIRE also leads to Stravinsky's next composition, Ragtime for eleven instruments (1918). The Ragtime of L'HISTOIRE is, in particular, a precursor to this piece.

The pitch relations in this work are predominantly diatonic. A juxtaposition of major and minor mode is fairly common and some chromaticism is apparent. However, it is the rhythm and the motion of the music that contributes most to the drama. The opening of Part 1 is The Soldier's March. In spite of many changing meters, the bass maintains an almost constant march feeling. To achieve this march feeling, Stravinsky employs a rhythmic pattern that is always of quarter note value (although notated eighth note, eighth rest). Furthermore, the implied harmony of I, V, I, V, leads to a feeling of motion as well.

The Music to Scene One also has a bass ostinato that stays constant while the melodies are in multimetric form.

Metrical ambiguity continues in The Royal March when the opening measure is in 5/8 moving the original downbeat to the upbeat in the accompaniment. The resolution occurs with a second 5/8 bar in the ninth bar.

The structure of this march is much freer and this signifies the Soldier's new freedom. If the first march was full of military memories, this march speaks of the freedom of the future. But, it is also in this march that we meet the Devil posing as a virtuoso violinist; with freedom comes the responsibility of guarding your soul. With a return to the original trombone melody, this march ends.

The Little Concert is the climax of this portion of the work. The motives contain parts of the preceding pieces. They work against each other to break up all continuity of rhythm. At rehearsal 7, the clarinet and trumpet are moving from 7 to 6 to 5 while the violin is in 6 and the bass in 4.
From here the piece works toward a large tutti and then back to the recapitulation (it is almost in sonata allegro form). This piece represents the Soldier attaining all that he has dreamed of in spite of the trials that he has encountered since we met him.

The Tango is performed by the violin and the percussion. The clarinet is added when the princess begins to dance. It is in this piece that we see the "soul" dancing above the constant of the "Diablerie". The percussion in this portion is treated "organically". That is, it is not being used as a color but rather, it is a functioning part of the music and the music would not be the same with any other treatment.

Waltz is a continuation of the dance. It is notable in that the rhythm stays in a "3" feel the entire time. Also, the percussion drops out in this piece, signifying safety from the devil and stability. This piece was approached attacca with a rhythmic modulation and it segues to Ragtime in the same manner.

The modulation into Ragtime is a bit more tricky. It moves from a fast "3" feeling, to a medium "4" feeling. This, and the reappearance of the percussion, foreshadows the entrance of the Devil at the conclusion of this piece.

The Devil's Dance is a furious dance with incredible motion. It combines the aspects of a solid beat under an ambiguous meter like many of the previous pieces, but does this at a terrific rate. It is in fact the violin playing the Devil to death. At this point, the Soldier and Princess unite to pull the Devil off stage. Then they fall into each other's arms at the strains of The Little Choral that follows.

The Devil's Song is a warning of the Soldier's impending doom. But, he and his bride are not listening. The narrator continues this prophesy in the Great Choral.
The music to both Chorals is said to come from Lutheran Hymns.[14] Also, the theme of The Great Choral is said to have been given to Stravinsky in a dream.

The final piece, The Triumphal March of the Devil, signifies the Devil's victory. There are many instances where the violin and percussion are playing by themselves. This is again the contrast of the Soldier's soul over the Devils constant rhythm. In the end though, the only sound left (last thirteen measures) is the percussion. The Devil has won. This last bit is controversial in that Stravinsky notated a decrescendo; this perhaps signaled the Devil descending into Hell. However, many performers prefer to end with a steady crescendo, thereby heightening the excitement and drama of the work.

In conclusion, though based on a Russian folk tale from the first quarter of the nineteenth century, L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT is still a moving work of art today. Its combination of stage, story, dance, symbolism and music is unique.

The Crane Maiden - Erik Nielsen

HOW "THE CRANE MAIDEN" CAME ABOUT

In 2001 I saw the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble perform Stravinsky's l'Histoire du Soldat, a work for instrumental sextet, narrator, two actors and dancer. I was very impressed and said to the VCME's Music Director, Steven Klimowski, "Steve, you really ought to take this on tour. But you need another piece to go with it to make an entire concert." Steve said, "Can you do this?" As any self-respecting composer would do, I said "Sure."

I knew exactly what work I wanted to set to music. I had loved the Japanese folk tale The Crane Maiden for many years and as early as 1992 had begun work on a version but had never completed it. So in 2002 I took months trying to obtain permission from the copyright holder of the only written edition of the story I knew. What with corporate takeovers and the original publisher's no longer existing it seemed there was no clear copyright owner. However, I finally realized this was a folk tale with many versions and a new retelling would be completely without copyright difficulties. I turned to the best folktale re-writer I knew, my daughter Christina, who had loved the story as a child and turned out a wonderful new version before she left for college. Having obtained a grant from the Vermont Arts Council that funded part of the work, I completed most of the piece in the fall of 2003. There it languished for lack of funding for a number of years while I took on other projects. Finally, in 2009 I received a grant from the Kittredge Fund and completed the work. I sent it on to Steve who began putting together the calendar for the 2011-12 season and put The Crane Maiden front and center.

For me the story has always tugged at my heartstrings. This tale of an old couple and the young maiden they invite into their home is beautiful, but also bittersweet. In the end it shows how sometimes, despite our best intentions, things don't always work out happily. Yet in Christina's version, they work out for the best, as all concerned realize that what must happen is also what ought to happen.
Notes by the composer 2011


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Erzébet

coming soon

 

On the Nature of Silence

Don Jamison

Waking and Sleeping
These two pieces, which together are named “Waking and Sleeping,” are responses to poetry written by Jean Connor. The first, “One Morning,” comes out of these lines: “Silence is a meeting place of the Holy, a place of returning…” (from “On the Nature of Silence”) and “The world was silent that morning, until the goats began to bleat their complaints…” (from “One Morning”). The vibraphone and harp play the role of the celestial sphere, slowly rotating, the rhythms remaining the same, but the tones gradually shifting. The flute and clarinet are creatures (goats or people or zinnias, as in the poem) beginning their day.

The second piece, “Full Moon,” takes place at the other end of the day. The vibraphone and harp are again playing a celestial role, but this time more like the “moving stars” – the planets. The flute and clarinet “stroll around and speak of ordinary things in ordinary tones… but time is slightly bent,” as Connor’s poem, “Full Moon,” puts it. The piece ends with the moon’s rise, a quiet ascent from the harp’s lowest register.

notes by the composer

Daniel Kessner

Dances for Clarinet and Guitar
Dances was written in 1997 at the request of my cousins, Richard Lesser, then Principal Clarinetist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Jordan Charnofsky, prominent Los Angeles area guitarist. However, since the two of them never found themselves on the same continent long enough to perform it together, the premiere performances featured them separately: in July of 1998 Richard gave the first performance in Tel Aviv with guitarist Doron Salomon; then in March of 2000, Jordan did the first American performance with clarinetist Julia Heinen at California State University, Northridge. The two have joined forces to record it on a recently-released CD with Crystal Records. Since then, I have also completed versions of it for flute/alto flute and guitar and for oboe/English horn and guitar.

notes by the composer

John Mantegna

Prologue:
This movement for solo guitar is characterized by major/minor ambiguity and a limited harmonic vocabulary. To portend the subsequent poetry, this limited harmonic vocabulary aims to project a sense of stasis and simplicity. Though rhythmically and texturally contrasting, the middle section maintains harmonic fidelity with the first section, including major/minor juxtaposition and ambiguity. Finally, in a nod to the palindromic structure of the entire program, the palindromic middle section is followed by a reverse presentation of varied material from the first section.


Epilogue:

Scored for flute, Bb clarinet, violin, violoncello, and guitar, this movement revisits material from the Prologue movement and introduces new material. The introduction continues the quiet stasis from the Prologue movement, although in a more optimistic way. A faster section follows, characterized by an incessant underlying rhythmic pattern. Thematic material is tossed around among the parts imitatively, with 'cello favoritism prevailing. Subsequently, things unwind and we return to direct quotes from the Prologue. The unwinding continues, leaving only naked guitar harmonics.

notes by the composer

Otto Muller

chorale: what they seem […] that stillness
Echoing the theme of simplicity in Connor’s poetry, this piece focuses upon a very limited set of material, a single suspended moment of voice-leading. Moreover, I am not interested in the development of this material so much as the different textures that are revealed as it is turned in the hand. Intricate details emerge and recede as light and shadow play on its contours and crevices.

chaconne: missing this last […] the seamless
The chaconne, with its stately repeating harmonies, seems an appropriate vehicle for capturing the stillness of Connor’s poetry. In this piece, warbles, whistles and songs shift against each other over a subtle undulating harmonic cycle. The harmonies themselves refer to an absent bass line, far below the lowest notes of this low ensemble, by outlining the upper partials of these invisible pitches.

notes by the composer

 

Thomas Read

Meridian
While composing Meridian, the purity and vitality of Jean Connor's poetry together with the immediate brilliancy associated with a sunny midday were primary inspirations. However, the musical result is not so much meditative as narrative. Through the precipitant, bright opening of my septet, we can imagine the outdoor excitement and noise of an urban noonday rush hour!

Refuge from noise and commotion arrives shortly, and we find ourselves inside a secluded courtyard. We wander into a spacious arcade, glass roofed and brightly lit but with darker alcoves, some strangely disordered, some enfolding a kaleidoscope of distractions, momentary come-ons, ephemera. There is every kind of shop: hairdressers, jewelers… We pass an ornate gallery conjuring images of prehistory. Another houses, from floor to ceiling, shells collected from seas of the world. Approaching the end of the arcade we encounter four musicians rendering a distorted version of Dvorak's orchestral poem, The Noonday Witch (Polednice).

Suddenly, as in a dream, we find ourselves outdoors again, high up on a balcony looking out over the tumult of a crowded plaza. There are commodity seekers, dancers, and outdoor cafes. Off to the side, a political rally is in progress… everywhere a changing landscape.

notes by the composer


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Spring Fling

 

Alban Berg

Adagio from the Chamber Concerto
"I can tell you, dearest friend , that if it became known how much friendship, love and a world of human and spiritual references I have smuggled into these three movements, the adherents of program music—should there be any left—would go mad with joy". —Alban Berg to Arnold Schoenberg , February 9, 1925.

For Alban Berg's 50 birthday celebration violinist Dea Gombrich asked to play the second (adagio) movement of his Chamber Concerto in a violin/piano arrangement. Berg suggested that he make a completely new chamber version . The result was a rewriting of the movement for violin , clarinet and piano. The casualness with which this was done is surprising when one considers that the original score is a highly structured, three movement work which encompasses a hidden program enciphered in mathematical formulae or different row combinations. But Berg liked coincidental connections and this movement may have had special, personal significance . The original Chamber Concerto was written in honor of Arnold Schoenberg's fiftieth birthday in 1924-25, his (Berg's) own fortieth birthday and the twentieth anniversary of his, Webern and Schoenberg's famous association . The Adagio also has the working "secret" title Liebe (love) in his early notes. Musicological sleuthing has conjectured that this title reflected the concern Berg had for Arnold Schoenberg when Mathilda Schoenberg (Arnold's first wife) was stricken with the illness that took her life. The Adagio falls into two larger sections, both three-part lied forms (A1- B - A2 where A2 is an inversion of A1). The original intention was that the second section be a strict palindrome of the first. It ended up being a rather loose palindrome in this arrangement but the astute listener will notice that similar events seem to be happening in reverse order.

 

Vida Chenoweth

Pointillism ('Lakes Suite')
Chenoweth composed Pointillism in the spring of 1951. Originally a two-movement suite, the instrumentation is defined as "optional" – flute, marimba, and clarinet. The composer believes Pointillism to be the first ensemble/chamber work for marimba, flute and clarinet. The piece was composed while Chenoweth was at Northwestern University – the composer's aim was "to introduce to music faculty the potential of the marimba as a chamber instrument".[1]

In painting, pointillism is defined as:

A technique of neo-Impressionist painting using tiny dots, which become blended in the viewer's eye.

With reference to the painting technique, Chenoweth notes:

"An attempt to transfer the technique to music would suggest a contrapuntal texture, the voices assuming independent importance to allow individual timbres to penetrate. A fragmentary character is maintained until the end when instrumental "colors" are fused."[2]

The original score contains only the outer movements: "Lake Michigan" and "Lake Carl." However, all three movements' titles are penciled in the front of the score – "Lake Mendota" was added later. Chenoweth has a 1950 recording of the two-movement version ("Lake Michigan" and "Lake Carl"), which is most likely from a workshop session as there is no audience applause. It appears Chenoweth herself did not ever publicly perform all three movements of Pointillism together in concert.

Pointillism was performed at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on May 12, 1960, by Roy Andreotti on his Senior Recital. Andreotti's program lists all three movements: "Lake Michigan," "Lake Mendota," and "Lake Carl." Instrumentation is listed as flute, clarinet, bass drum, and marimba.[3] The piece is listed in the program as Lakes Suite, not Pointillism. A more recent performance of Pointillism ("Lake Michigan", "Lake Carl"), was given by Indiana University professor George Gaber, according to Chenoweth.

The instrumentation of the second movement ("Lake Mendota") has changed in multiple drafts of the score and parts. Originally, Chenoweth states this movement was scored for marimba and flute with a bass part on timpani. Chenoweth found this "proved impractical for such a short role" and the bass part was subsequently reassigned to bass drum, bass clarinet, or ‘cello. The VCME's 2012 performances of Pointillism represent the public premieres of this entire work for the instrumentation of clarinet, flute and marimba.
(notes by Jane Boxall)

[1] Chenoweth, Vida, 2007a

[2] Chenoweth, Vida, 1951

[3] UIUC 1960: 231

Marc Mellits

Tight Sweater
Tight Sweater was written in 2005 and was commissioned by ‘Real Quiet' and the Muzik 3 Foundation. It is music that is tightly composed, with rapidly shifting patterns of notes and rhythms. Each one of the six movements explores relationships between the instruments, combining them in unique ways that each create vivid sound worlds. The instruments themselves are treated as only one small part of a larger combined instrument. Linear melodic lines are formed from vertical sounding harmonies; funky bass lines can dictate harmonic textures while chordal sounds can inspire melodic writing occurring between the instruments.

 

Thomas Read

Chamber Concerto
Consistent with its earliest nominal predecessors, my Chamber Concerto joins together a diverse ensemble of instruments, and presents them in a variety of timbral and textural combinations. It also unites different compositions projecting a variety of emotional states-some energetic and joyful, others melancholy, and one, perhaps, a little frightening. All are performed without pause, some unfolding consecutively, others simultaneously. The subtitle of my concerto -- The June Sea Breathes (what would you fear from a breath on the waters), a compilation of lines from St.-John Perse’s epic poem, Amers, offers an ancillary dimension of meaning.


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