For The Beauty Of The Earth August 15th, 2020 7PM CDT
Teger Tulon (2018): I. Funtukuru* Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté (arr. Jacob Garchik) Teddy Wiggins, Violin Madlen Breckbill, Viola Zou Zou Robidoux, Cello Teddy, Madlen and Zou Zou, Clapping
"Sein Wir Wieder Gut" from Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) Richard Strauss Kirsten Larson, Mezzo-Soprano Thomas Kasdorf, Piano
Beau Soir (1880) Claude Debussy Madlen Breckbill, Viola Chris Lian-Lloyd, Piano
Nocturne (1911/14) Lili Boulanger Teddy Wiggins, Violin Sun Chang, Piano
Partita (2020) World Premeir Micah Behr I. Ritornello II. Allemande III. Minuet and Trio IV. Chaconne V. Musette
Brad Cherwin, Clarinet Chris Lian-Lloyd, Piano Madlen Breckbill, Viola Philip Bergman, Cello Jennifer Murphy, Violin
Carnival of the Animals (1886) Camille Saint-Saëns VIII. Characters with Long Ears IX. The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods XIII. The Swan
Jennifer Murphy, Violin (VII) Madlen Breckbill, Violin (VII) Brad Cherwin, Clarinet (IX) Micah Behr, Piano (IX & XIII) Phlip Bergman, Cello (XIII)
Blow the Wind Southerly Traditional Zou Zou Robidoux, Cello
May Song (1901) Edward Elgar Teddy Wiggins, Violin Sun Chang, Piano
Sunflower Slow Drag (1901) Scott Joplin Micah Behr, Piano
Teger Tulon (2018): I. Funtukuru* (reprise) Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté (arr. Jacob Garchik) Teddy Wiggins, Violin Madlen Breckbill, Viola Zou Zou Robidoux, Cello All of Today's Performers, Clapping
*This piece was commissioned for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, a project of the Kronos Performing Arts Association. The score and parts are available for free online. Kronosquartet.org.
"Sein Wir Wieder Gut" from Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) Richard Strauss Sein wir wieder gut. Let's be good again. Ich sehe jetzt alles mit anderen Augen! I see everything with new eyes! Die Tiefen des Daseins sind unermeßlich! The depths of existence are immense! Mein lieber Freund! My dear friend! Es gibt manches auf der Welt, There are things in the world, Das läßt sich nicht sagen. That cannot be said. Die Dichter unterlegen ja recht gute Worte, The inferior poet is indeed quite good with words, Jedoch Mut ist in mir, Mut Freund! But courage is in me, courage friend! Die Welt ist lieblich The world is lovely Und nicht fürchterlich dem Mutigen. But not terribly brave. Was ist denn Musik? What is music? Musik ist eine heilige Kunst zu versammeln Music gathers sacred arts Alle Arten von Mut wie Cherubim Of all kinds, courage as Cherubim, Um einen strahlenden Thron For a radiant throne, Und darum ist sie die heilige unter dem Künsten And that is why it is sacred below the arts Die heilige Musik! The sacred music!
Beau Soir (1880) Claude Debussy Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses When at sunset the rivers are pink Et qu'un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé, And a warm breeze ripples the fields of wheat Un conseil d'être heureux semble sortir des choses All things seem to advise content - Et monter vers le coeur troublé. And rise toward the troubled heart;
Un conseil de goûter le charme d'être au monde Advise us to savour the gift of life, Cependant qu'on est jeune et que le soir est beau, While we are young and the evening fair, Car nous nous en allons, comme s'en va cette onde: For our life slips by, as that river does: Elle à la mer, nous au tombeau. It to the sea - we to the tomb.
Blow the Wind Southerly Traditional
Blow the wind southerly, southerly, Southerly, Blow the wind south for the bonny blue sea. Blow the wind southerly, southerly, Southerly, Blow, bonny breeze, my lover to me. They told me last night there were ships in the Offing, And I hurried down to the deep rolling sea. But my eye could not see it, Wherever might be it, The barque that is bearing my lover to me. Blow the wind southerly, southerly, Southerly, Blow, bonny breeze, o'er the bonny blue sea. Blow the wind southerly, southerly, Southerly, Blow, bonny breeze, and bring him to me. Is it not sweet to hear the breeze singing, As lightly it calms o'er the deep rolling sea? But sweeter and dearer by far when 'tis Bringing The barque of my true love in safely to me!
Program Notes Written by Brad Cherwin
If there can only be one thread that is woven through the entire history of music, uniting all its disparate elements, it is the beauty of nature. Indeed, that is the unifying theme of this year’s festival! While much has been taken from us this year, I find comfort in what remains: the quiet beauty and purifying power of the natural world.
The lilting, repetitive melodies of Hawa Diabete’s Funtukuru, create an image of the twisting trees and yellow-red hills of western Mali. The movement is an arrangement of tegere tulon, a tradition of clapping songs performed underneath the moon by young girls. The music is often generated spontaneously, born from the joyful interplay of counting, singing, and dancing.
Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne and Claude Debussy’s Beau Soir are two more evocations of the night. Both composers use gentle accompanying figures, supporting plaintive melodies, to conjure the image of the peaceful sky at night.
Debussy’s love for nature is a defining aspect of his work. On this subject he said:
I have made mysterious Nature my religion ... When I gaze at a sunset sky and spend hours contemplating its marvellous ever-changing beauty, an extraordinary emotion overwhelms me. Nature in all its vastness is truthfully reflected in my sincere though feeble soul. Around me are the trees stretching up their branches to the skies, the perfumed flowers gladdening the meadow, the gentle grass-carpeted earth, ... and my hands unconsciously assume an attitude of adoration.
Personnages à longues oreilles (Characters with Long Ears), written for two violins, is the shortest and perhaps silliest movement of Saint-Saens’ beloved suite Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals). The music represents the braying of donkeys, though it has long been suspected that Saint-Saens’ wrote the movement as a wink at the braying of critics.
In Le Coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods), we hear the evening call of the cuckoo. Scored for two pianos and a solitary clarinettist, Saint-Saens instructs the clarinetist to play off-stage, further emphasizing the quiet isolation of the cuckoo.
Perhaps the most well-known piece in the repertoire for cello, Saint-Saens’ Le cygne (The Swan), recalls the tradition of French melodie (or song), represented earlier in this program by Debussy and Boulanger. Once again, a soloist is propelled by beautiful rippling gestures in the piano, but this time evoking the still water that frames the eponymous swan.
Blow the Wind Southerly, a traditional English folk song, first appeared in print in 1834. However, the song was made famous by Kathleen Ferrier, and enormously popular singer of her time, whose performances straddled the genres of popular music, folk songs, and classical art music.
In Elgar’s May Song, we hear the composer indulge in light-hearted nostalgia of ragtime, a genre brought into the spotlight by the iconic works of Scott Joplin. Closing this program we hear Joplin’s Sunflower Slow Drag. Like Elgar and Ferrier, Joplin crossed genres, writing ballet and operas in addition to the over 100 rags he is known for today.
A Note from Micah Behr "There is a time for everything," wrote wise King Solomon.
A time to weep and a time to laugh, A time to mourn and a time to dance.
These words came to me more than once during the last several months. Amid violence, protests, and national unrest, I found them in my daily reading:
A time to love and a time to hate, A time for war and a time for peace.
Another afternoon, on a farm in a quiet room, a mentor spoke to me:
A time to keep and a time to throw away, A time to tear and a time to mend.
I saw my friend, wanted to give him a hug, but remembered that there is, "a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing."
When I set out to compose something for the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, I was paralyzed by the idea of trying to capture this year's events in a musically profound way. On one hand, I was deeply affected by the pain of the world we find ourselves in. But on the other hand, did I deserve to feel this way? I hadn't lost my job, my home, my health, my life. Does my voice even matter in this conversation?
But once I gave up on the idea of being profound, of being taken seriously as a serious composer, and simply wrote from a place of honesty, the form and musical ideas came easily. As I look back on the piece, I see that Partita (2020), while not speaking to every corner of the human experience, expresses the juxtapositions that we've all felt this year. It holds together community and isolation, celebration and mourning, what has passed and what is to come. It is both dialogue and dance.