Program Notes

Serenade in E Minor, Op. 20 EDWARD ELGAR BORN June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, England; died February 23, 1934, in Worcester PREMIERE Composed 1892; first performance March 1892, Worcester Ladies' Orchestra Class, conducted by the composer THE STORY Edward Elgar was born to a lower-middle-class family, the son of a music store owner. Elgar always had a chip on his shoulder for not being a gentleman and for not having served in the army. He was nervous, insecure, a hypochondriac, and prone to depression; he was also a Catholic, which did not help his social standing. Even a knighthood in 1904, several honorary degrees, and the invitation to compose music for the coronation of King George V did not assuage his inferiority complex. To the chagrin of Britain’s music establishment, Elgar — an outsider lacking academic musical training — was the first English composer to achieve world fame since Henry Purcell in the 17th century. In 1899, at age 42, his “Enigma” Variations propelled him from parochial obscurity to worldwide recognition. Previously, he had composed a number of choral and orchestral works that had garnered a modicum of success in Britain, as well as many salon pieces to make ends meet. He also wrote a number of works inspired by his beloved Alice, whom he married in 1889; his Serenade in E Minor was one of these. Composed in 1892, this gentle work was rejected by one publisher with the comment that “…this class of music is practically unsalable.” But the German publisher Breitkopf accepted it. It was Elgar’s first full score in print. LISTENING TIPS The three movements are coherent in mood, a gentle but intense love song, devoid of extremes of passion but heavy with what the British call “sentiment.” Throughout, Elgar uses several sighing motives, particularly the interval of an ascending minor seventh dropping to a major sixth. The two outer movements are in a flowing 6/8 meter; in both we hear a murmuring accompaniment. These two movements frame the longer second movement, in a slow larghetto tempo, which constitutes the emotional center of the piece. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Suite in G Major for Organ and Strings OTTORINO RESPIGHI BORN July 9, 1879, in Bologna, Italy; died April 18, 1936, in Rome PREMIERE Composed 1905, published 1957; first performance unknown THE STORY Ottorino Respighi was a musical nationalist, keenly interested in reviving Italy’s musical heritage — especially its instrumental music. In 1905, he began editing the works of Baroque composers Claudio Monteverdi and Tomaso Antonio Vitali — although in an idiosyncratic manner anathema to modern musicological practices. LISTENING TIPS In addition to composing a series of works based on 17th-century melodies, Respighi composed works that hark back to an earlier style while incorporating more modern harmonies. The Suite in G Major was one of the first; it was, however, not published until 1957. In form and style, the suite most closely resembles the Baroque concerto grosso, because the organ part is integrally woven into the texture of the rest of the orchestra, often doubling the strings, as opposed to being a virtuosic, stand-out solo. As in a typical Baroque dance, each movement is in A-B-A form. Unlike either model, the pace of all four movements is slow and stately. First movement: The Preludio uses a theme reminiscent of a Bach fugue. Of the four movements, it is the fastest and has the densest, most contrapuntal texture. Second movement: The Aria is a conventional slow movement in A-B-A form. Respighi’s harmonies recall those of Edward Elgar in his serenades. Third movement: The Pastorale is a Baroque dance in a 12/8 meter, associated always with rural folk music. Here, the sections are divided between the strings and the organ soloist. Fourth movement: The Cantico begins with a brief organ solo that introduces the theme. INSTRUMENTATION Organ, strings Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS BORN October 12, 1872, in Down Ampney, England; died August 26, 1958 in Hanover Terrace PREMIERE Composed 1910, first performance September 10, 1910, at Gloucester Cathedral, conducted by the composer THE STORY By the end of the 19th century, British composers were eager to recapture the glory of their musical past. In 1906, armed with degrees in music and history, and with a passion for collecting English folk tunes, Ralph Vaughan Williams was given the task of editing the music of The English Hymnal. Plowing through “some of the best and worst tunes,” Vaughan Williams discovered a group of nine melodies composed for The English Psalter in 1567 by Thomas Tallis, one of the English Renaissance’s brightest stars. In 1910, Vaughan Williams composed a fantasia for two string orchestras and string quartet for the Three Choirs Festival, a long-standing music festival taking place in the cathedrals of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. First performed in Gloucester Cathedral, the three string ensembles were to be placed at a significant distance from each other in order to enhance the antiphonal effect, something not always possible in a modern concert hall. One of the composer’s earliest works, it remains his most popular. LISTENING TIPS The fantasia is, by definition, a free form – varying and developing a theme without the formal structure of a “theme and variations.” In this work, Vaughan Williams seamlessly combines Tallis’ original tune with musical motives of his own invention. Vaughan Williams was particularly taken by one of Tallis’s melodies in the Phrygian mode, a scale with a flatted second and seventh. This mode sounds somber and exotic to modern ears. The phrasing is fluid and irregular, producing a soaring effect as the piece gradually crescendos to a dramatic climax. Vaughan Williams is especially interested in providing a sense of antiphonal dialogue — contrasting the high and low strings, and contrasting the differently sized ensembles — creating a sense of listening to monastic chant. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH BORN March 31, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany; died July 28, 1750, in Leipzig PREMIERE Composed around 1720; first performance unknown THE STORY It is difficult for us to realize that in his lifetime, Bach’s fame rested on his virtuosity on the clavier (harpsichord) and organ, and not on his compositions. For many years it was his organ playing that supported him and with which he tried to improve his employment situation. At that time, in Lutheran Germany, the local church was the center of musical life and the music sprang from the principal instrument of the church — the organ. To be a composer was in most cases synonymous with being an organist, and Bach the composer was known primarily as a composer of organ music. Bach’s prodigious technical ability on the organ opened for him new musical possibilities unheard of before. His musicianship and musical scholarship acquainted him with all the major musical luminaries of his day, and, as was the common habit, he copied their music and often used it for his own compositions. Many 17th- and 18th-century composers are known today only through the music Bach borrowed from them, making them immortal. Few today would remember the name Jan Adams Reinken (an organist and composer who lived from 1623 to 1722) if Bach had not used the theme from his Sonata No. 5 for the fugue of the Fantasia & Fugue in G Minor. Bach probably composed this work in 1720, apparently for a performance at the Katherinerkirsche in Hamburg honoring the 97-year old Reinken, who was present. LISTENING TIPS One of the qualities to listen for in works for solo organ is the registration (which pipes the performer selects). The entire character of the piece can change based on the registration – not to mention with the size and quality of the instrument. The selection of registers renders the organist a co-composer – or at least arranger. This work combines the most freewheeling genre in Western classical music with one of the strictest. The fantasia is full of ornamentation that Bach might originally have improvised at the keyboard in performance. It alternates between elaborately ornamented sections and more sedate sections of chordal harmony and simple counterpoint. The fugue is also made up of alternating sections. The first involves the fugue subject, the voices of which enter one after the other; these fugal passages alternate with sections of freely composed counterpoint – multiple melodic lines heard simultaneously. INSTRUMENTATION Solo organ, strings Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Strings, and Timpani FRANCIS POULENC BORN January 7, 1899, in Paris; died January 30, 1963, in Paris PREMIERE Composed 1934-38; first performance December 16, 1938, conducted by Nadia Boulanger, with Maurice Duruflé as soloist THE STORY Francis Poulenc came from an affluent family of pharmaceuticals manufacturers (the forerunners of today’s Rhône-Poulenc company) and was considered the black sheep of the family. It was from his mother that he inherited his musical talent and received support in his avocation. From his father he received enough money to sidestep the family business. Poulenc's style owed much to Ravel’s Impressionism and to Neoclassicism. He never participated in the musical experimentations so popular among his colleagues in Paris between the wars and after. The Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani was composed on a commission from Princess Edmond de Polignac, a lover of music and a great supporter of Poulenc. (She was American by birth, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, and had also commissioned his 1932 Concerto for Two Pianos.) For the organ part, the composer sought the help of famed organist and composer Maurice Duruflé, who was the soloist in the first public performance.

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