The Other Side of Time
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Brian Fennelly The Other Side of Time “Sigol” for Strings | Moravian Philharmonic | Joel eric Suben, conductor Fantasia Concertante | duo parnas | iU new Music ensemble | David Dzubay, conductor www.albanyrecords.com Tropes & echoes | Jean Kopperud, clarinet | Washington Square ensemble | louis Karchin, conductor TROY1350 albany records u.s. 915 broadway, albany, ny 12207 Corollary III | Chris Gekker, trumpet | rita Sloan, piano tel: 518.436.8814 fax: 518.436.0643 albany records u.k. The Other Side of Time | NEC Wind ensemble | Charles Peltz, conductor box 137, kendal, cumbria la8 0xd tel: 01539 824008 © 2012 brian fennelly made in the usa ddd waRning: cOpyrighT subsisTs in all Recordings issued undeR This label. The Composer The Music Brian Fennelly (b. 1937) studied music composition at the Yale School of Music The five varied compositions presented on this CD provide a concise portrait of my compositional (M.M.) and music theory at the Yale Graduate School (Ph.D.). Among his teachers practice. They are arranged to begin with string orchestra, move through combinations with soloists, were Mel Powell, Allen Forte, Gunther Schuller, Donald Martino, and George and end with wind orchestra. Three of the pieces in this compilation recall the common Baroque Perle. In 1968 he was the first student to earn a degree in the newly created Ph.D. practice of re-using previous musical material as a source or springboard for new compositions by program in music theory at Yale. From then until 1997 he was Professor of Music re-composing, expanding, enlarging, or re-arranging the musical source. In the present case, the in the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University. His awards include first two titles hearken back to my third string quartet, which provides the basis for elaboration and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for re-molding of both textures and musical structure. The third instance, the chamber concerto for the Arts, commissions from the Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundations as well as from orchestras, clarinet Tropes and Echoes, is an almost literal setting of a solo clarinet piece into an ensemble work. ensembles, and soloists, and composer residencies at the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Bellagio (Italy), the Camargo Foundation in Cassis (France), the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy), The source for both ”Sigol” for Strings (2007) and Fantasia Concertante (2009) is my 2005 String and Copland House in Westchester, NY. His music has been awarded prizes in the Goffredo Quartet No. 3 (“Sigol: Thirty Flowers”), a work in three movements — a contemplative first move- Petrassi Competition for Orchestral Music, the Premio Cittá di Trieste, the Louisville Orchestra ment (“Dreams/Fantasies”), a set of variations (“Scherzando/Variations”), and a fugue. All the ideas New Music Competition, and the Portland Chamber Music Festival Competition, among others. derive from motives of what I call the “Sigol” theme, a melody meant to convey the loveliness of my In 1997 he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. young granddaughter, Sigol Sarah Fennelly. For its first movement, “Sigol” for Strings elaborates “Dreams/Fantasies,” exploring the textural possibilities of the full string orchestra. This movement, His music grows out of strong European and American traditions as represented by Roger Sessions and titled “Dreams and Fantasies,” states the theme and then alternates between fairly calm sections Elliott Carter, as well as the elements of jazz. It favors well-defined melodic profiles combined with rich and two contrapuntal fantasies, in three and four parts respectively, reminiscent of the late expressive harmony and figuration as well as compelling counterpoint. It has been performed world-wide Renaissance; it closes with a variant of the theme. For its second movement, the piece elaborates the at various international festivals and is recorded on the Albany, CRI, New World, Pro Viva, First Edition, fugue of the string quartet. This vigorous fugue is interrupted by an intense songful section for low and other labels. His previous Albany CDs include Chrysalis: Orchestral Music of Brian Fennelly (TROY 491) strings. “Sigol” for Strings was written at Copland House while on a composer residency thanks to and Skyscapes: Chamber Music of Brian Fennelly (TROY980). His catalog includes 17 titles for orchestra, 44 an Aaron Copland award. The piece was premiered by the Woodstock (New York) Chamber pieces of chamber music, 25 pieces for solo instruments, as well as choral, solo song, and electronic titles. Orchestra under David Leighton. Prior to his studies at Yale, Fennelly received bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering and liberal The variation movement of String Quartet No. 3 was written with the concept of a scherzando arts at Union College and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force in Korea and California. section, itself a variation, functioning in reprise as a “bookend” to the remaining variations, thereby In college he played various instruments: piano, trombone, bassoon, French horn, and at Yale he creating a hybrid form of scherzo. This movement was then the source for a violin and cello duo written began cello studies with Aldo Parisot. He has contributed theoretical and biographical articles to the for sisters Madalyn and Cicely Parnas, who perform together as duo parnas. They have performed and Journal of Music Theory, Perspectives of New Music, New Grove, and the Dictionary of Contemporary Music. recorded that piece, the fantasy duo ‘Sigol’ for Two, for their CD “Gare du Nord.” It was suggested that In past years he served as officer and board member of ACA and League-ISCM, and he continues as I embed ‘Sigol’ for Two in a new work for them with orchestra. The result, Fantasia Concertante, Co-Director of the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society. sets the theme and variations in concertante fashion for the two soloists, as the orchestra provides not only congenial settings for them, but maintains its own character and intensifies the expressive content of the original as it engages fully in the musical discourse. The musical continuity is often shared and elaborated by the orchestra, so that Fantasia Concertante is a third longer than its source. This journey. The title is from a book by paleontologist Robert Titus concerning the origin of the Catskill recording is of the premiere given at Indiana University. Fantasia Concertante won first prize in the Mountains in New York State. Several sections appear, all in related tempos, whose harmonies derive 2009 Fauxharmonic Competition. from a single nine-note pitch collection and its transpositions. The long thematic statement that occurs near the beginning is heard in the bass register; it concludes with a rising scale (the “master” Tropes and Echoes, as the title suggests, relies on gestural elaboration and development by the nine- collection) followed by a dramatic downward leap of a minor ninth. This melody is recalled at the member ensemble of the solo clarinet’s line. This solo line is an almost literal presentation of Tesserae close of the piece, which ends with a literal restatement of the anxious percussion activity heard at the VII for solo clarinet, commissioned by the American Music Center for clarinetist Murray Colosimo. beginning, followed by a plaintive line in the flugelhorn. The Other Side of Time was chosen by the Tropes and Echoes is itself a transformation, as this is a chamber version of Tropes and Echoes for International Jury of the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) for performance at the Clarinet and Orchestra, written on a Guggenheim fellowship and premiered in Carnegie Hall by 2011 ISCM festival, held that year in Zagreb, Croatia. The performance heard on this recording is of David Shifrin and the National Orchestral Association under Jorge Mester. The arch concept of the premiere by the NEC Wind Ensemble, director Charles Peltz conducting. the five parts consists of two substantial outer movements, between which is an extended song —Brian Fennelly surrounded by two short, lively, playful scherzos. (The central movement, “Song,” tries to convey the sense of a text by e. e. cummings with the clarinet as an excited bee in a placid rose.) The instru- mentation within the whole piece sometimes varies by movement; e, g., “Song” sports a nervous solo clarinet commentary while the melody is given to the English Horn, accompanied by strings, piano, The Performers and percussion; and the following “Giocoso II” is restricted to winds, piano, and percussion. At times The Moravian Philharmonic ranks among the foremost and oldest symphony orchestras in the extended techniques and multiphonics in the solo clarinet appear, integrated into the continuity and Czech Republic. Many important conductors have led the orchestra including Otto Klemperer and prevailing harmony. This chamber version was premiered by clarinetist Allen Blustine at Merkin Yehudi Menuhin, among others. The orchestra performs the celebrated composers of 19th and 20th Hall, New York, with the ensemble conducted by Robert Black. centuries and is an authentic interpreter of the Czech classical music of Dvorˇák, Smetana, Janácˇek and Martinu˚, The orchestra intensively promotes contemporary compositional activity, having intro- Corollary III, from a set of four Corollaries for wind instruments and piano, was written in 1989 for duced more than 250 new pieces. The orchestra tours regularly and has taken part in important inter- Chris Gekker; it took first prize in the 1990 International Trumpet Guild Composers Contest. Each national musical festivals in Greece, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Austria. corollary is a fantasy based on properties derived from the theme of Fantasy Variations, a work for large orchestra commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation which won First Prize in the 1986 Since 1981 Joel eric Suben has led first performances and commercial recordings of Louisville Orchestra New Music Competition and which was subsequently recorded by them.