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Home , Antonio Vivaldi, Haochen Zhang, Joseph Haydn, Peter Boyer, Program music

Classical 1

A Beginning—Our journey begins in an extravagantly ornate period, when one of the greatest , , created his best-known work—The Four Seasons. Of course, exploring the Baroque period’s grandeur would not be complete without the of Bach and Handel.

George Frideric Handel (February 23/March 5, 1685-April 14, 1759) “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” from Solomon, HWV 67 (1748) Born in Germany, Handel received training and achieved early success in Halle, Hamburg, and as a of vocal music. He was also a fine organist. He was invited to England for a series of performances of his music in 1710, and the resulting attention and success led him to settle permanently in London in 1712. His combination of Italian lyricism and German gave his compositions an appeal that was shared by critics and the general public, making him almost as famous as his contemporary, J. S. Bach, in Europe at the time. His shift from Italian-styled to was key to his success in England, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1727. By the end of his life, he was seen as one of the great composers of the preceding era. Solomon is an oratorio in English based on the biblical stories of King Solomon. The music was composed between May 5 and June 13, 1748, and the first performance took place on March 17, 1749, at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. The “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” is a short and celebratory piece for two and strings in Act Three, where the Queen of the ancient kingdom of Sheba arrives at Solomon’s court for a state visit. The piece has become famous on its own, featured in many different settings, including the London Olympics in 2012.

Christoph Willibald Gluck (July 2, 1714-November 15, 1787) “Dance of the Furies” and “Dance of the Blessed Spirits,” from (1762) Born in the Upper Palatinate (now part of Germany) and raised in Bohemia, Gluck is generally considered to be a transitional composer of Italian and French opera between the Baroque and Classical periods. With several new works in the , among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he changed the course of opera by taking the best of French, German, and Italian styles and presenting them with “Beautiful Simplicity.” Orfeo ed Euridice ( and Eurydice) tells the story of Orpheus of Greek mythology, the famous poet and singer who could charm wild animals with his music. When his wife Euridice died, he followed her to Hades and won her back by his art with the condition that he should not look at her until he reached the world again. In some versions, he does turn around and lose her, but other plot twists occasionally find ways to reunite the lovers. It was first performed in in October of 1762, and is the most popular of Gluck's works. In Act 2, Orpheus descends into the Underworld, arriving the gates of Hell. The music depicting the gates themselves, the Dance of the Furies, vividly depicts the leaping flames and billowing smoke with agitated rhythms, flashing melodic figures, and dramatic dynamic contrasts. Once through the gates, he arrives at the Elysian Fields, where he sees Eurydice, and we hear the Dance of the Blessed Spirits. This is one of the Gluck’s best known and best loved pieces of music. Composed for solo and string , the first theme is pastoral and serene in mood, and magical in its beauty. The middle section is more intense, the perfect foil for the utter beauty of the opening section. The return of the opening seems even more beautiful because of where we have been. Beautiful simplicity, indeed. The simplicity and clarity of the Dance of the Blessed Spirits have drawn audiences to the work since its premiere, but as with all great operatic music, its true dramatic power is felt when heard within the opera itself, or at least paired with the Dance of the Furies.

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21/31, 1685-July 28, 1750) Orchestral Suite No. 3 in , BWV 1068 (ca. 1730) Orchestral suites were very popular in the mid- and are important predecessors to the . These suites generally consisted of several movements that are stylized dances, with additional instrumental numbers, like and airs, and using larger orchestral forces for outdoor or large-scale events. Of Bach's four orchestral suites, the third appears to have been composed around 1730, and the conjecture is that he wrote it for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, a community musical group that performed throughout the city at various and ceremonial functions. The third is also the best known, largely due to the fame of the second movement, the famous “Air for the G string.” Three out of the five movements are based on dance forms—two bold combined into one, a spritely Bourrée, and an energetic . The famous Air is structured in two sections but composed much like a vocal . The suite begins, however, with a French —slow, majestic beginning, a fast imitative section, and a brief return to the opening material. All movements except for the Air are scored for three , , two oboes, strings, and continuo. The oboes rarely play independently of the in this work. Typical of the time, the trumpets and drums are used for color and emphasis.

Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678-July 28, 1741) The Four Seasons, from Il Cimento dell' armonia e dell' inventione, op. 8 (1725) This popular set of four is part of a larger collection of 12, entitled "The Contest between Harmony and Invention." Harmony, in this case, is the rational side of music, and Invention is the imagination, and this "battle" was a key aesthetic issue for many composers in the transition from Baroque to in the 18th century. Viewed as one of the earliest examples of true "program" music, there is an added twist to this collection of "seasonal" concertos which is highlighted in this performance. Vivaldi wrote sonnets to go with each of these pieces: the Spring poem speaks of birds, streams, flowers, grass, and eventually shepherds (with faithful dog barking from the section in the second movement) and shepherdesses dancing to the sound of bagpipes. Summer's hot sun is the next focus, quickly giving way to late summer winds and storms. Autumn is filled with sounds of harvest and hunting, while Winter is dark and cold, with slippery ice and chilling winds.

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Classical 2

Classical Classics—, Mozart, Beethoven—three composers who truly put the symphony on the map, with works that represent the infancy, maturity, and refinement of the genre. A historic time which produced perhaps the most recognizable sounds in Western music.

Franz (March 31, 1732-May 31, 1809) Symphony No. 3 in , H. I/3 (1760-62) One of the more famous composers in Western musical history, Haydn’s early life as a singer and free-lance musician in Vienna has been thoroughly documented, as has his steady rise from a relatively early age to the position of (basically Music Supervisor) for the Austro-Hungarian court at Esterhazy. At court, he managed an ensemble of 15-20 players and, thanks to his patron’s strong support of music, was allowed to develop his music in a very craftsman-like way which, in turn, allowed him to become an important force in music history, including the father of the modern symphony. Scored for a typical orchestra of the time (two oboes, , two horns, and strings), his third symphony is considered the very first to have four movements in what would become the standard configuration: fast, slow, , fast. The melody is generally shared by violins and oboes, frequently in unison or in alternation/echo. The horns provide harmonic support. The first movement is the longest and contains the most musical material, with phrasing that is somewhat predictable yet occasionally surprising. The second movement is a lovely expressive movement in minor (mostly) for the strings. In the stately but upbeat third movement, the winds rejoin the texture, with the violins and oboes essentially in unison for the Minuet, and the winds featured in the Trio. Occasional imitative texture provides interesting contrast, as well. This imitation continues in the fourth movement which begins much like a . The sense of the instruments chasing each other carries through to an exciting finish. This early symphony does not contain the same sort of refined, spun-out melody or interesting development sections that would characterize his later works, but it is clear that Haydn had made a break with the past and set the symphony on a unique course for the future.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756-December 5, 1791) Concertante in E-flat major, K. 297b (1778) By the mid-1770s, the Mozart family had achieved considerable success thanks to the entrepreneurial capabilities of Leopold and the prodigious performing talents of Wolfgang and, to some extent, his sister Nannerl. In 1773, the family returned to after essentially a 10-year European tour which laid the foundation for Wolfgang’s success and fame. Once re-settled, the family discovered that the recent change in the artistic leadership of the city’s cultural life was not conducive to what the Mozarts had to offer. By 1777, the family had enough and began looking for a new position. They visited , Augsburg, Mannheim, and finally Paris. Wolfgang arrived in Paris in March of 1778 and began showing his compositions to prospective employers and composing new music for local musicians. One of the pieces composed there was a for solo winds (flute, , , and bassoon) with orchestra. The original score to this work was lost, so when a manuscript of a piece in a late 18th-century style with a similar scoring (clarinet replacing the flute) turned in Berlin in 1870, even though it was not in Mozart’s hand, it is not surprising that some scholars connected the two works. At various times, this piece has been hailed as Mozart’s genuine work, deemed spurious and removed entirely from his collected works, and even suggested that it is a revised version of the original. There is even a hint that the piece was stolen by Italian composer Giuseppe Cambini, also in Paris at the time, whose sinfonia concertante replaced Mozart’s lost work on the concert when it was supposed to be premiered. The piece itself is charming and energetic, and the wind parts are consistent with the challenges Mozart usually presents. The criticism tends to revolve around the orchestral scoring and the fact that the clarinet part is clearly idiomatic, not a transcribed or adapted flute part. Much has been written about the piece, even to the present day, yet the mystery remains unsolved. This, however, does not take away from the music’s beauty and audience appeal, which has made it a very popular work since its discovery just over 100 years ago.

Ludwig van Beethoven (December 17, 1770-March 26, 1827) Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67 (1808) Beethoven's reputation as one of the greatest composers in Western music was cemented before his death, something very few composers can claim. His impact on music was undeniable during his life; critics sought to explain his music, and composers and performers tried to respond to an audience that now demanded more drama, more variety, and more technical flash. Obviously, the culture was ready to receive his energy and overt expressiveness, filled with political and social unrest, and facing the looming Industrial Revolution. The Fifth Symphony falls squarely in Beethoven’s “Heroic” period (1803-1814), during which many of his most famous works were composed. Premiered in Vienna at the on December 22, 1808, it was not until a year later that critics began to notice the work’s power and depth, and with every premiere it received in various countries, its reputation grew. Many allegories have been suggested regarding Beethoven’s state of mind, his view on the world, and the cultural climate of Europe during this time. His choice to unify the four movements with a memorable rhythmic motive is ingenious and allowed him to explore a wider breadth and depth of musical possibilities. The key of C minor was reserved only for his most passionate, expressive pieces, and the range of harmonic manipulation creates an imbalance and anticipation that makes resolutions more satisfying. The extended physical length of the symphony itself as well as its larger also are unique for the time and contribute to its impact. There are many reports of individuals being consumed by the music to the point of being overcome emotionally and physically during performances. E. T. A. Hoffmann, in 1810, described the symphony in this way:

Radiant beams shoot through the deep night of this region, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy all within us except the pain of endless longing—a longing in which every pleasure that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and succumbs. Only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with a full-voiced general cry from all the passions, do we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits.

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Classical 3

The Romantics—Tonight we celebrate the late 19th century, where emotion and individualism reign supreme, an intense period gave birth to Tchaikovsky’s heart-pounding Symphony No. 4. Our Maestro will take the stage with his in hand to present ’ fierce double-.

Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833-April 3, 1897) Concerto for Violin, , and Orchestra in A minor, op. 102 (1887) One of the major challenges for a composer of orchestral in the 19th century was, once overcoming Beethoven’s intimidating shadow, to find a balance of old and new. , embodied in the literary works of Goethe (Brahms’ favorite author), encouraged composers to express themselves fully, but with a familiar, if extended vocabulary. Johannes Brahms’ works, especially his orchestral pieces, show a progression in balancing and re-balancing past and progressive elements through the second half of the century. Brahms’s orchestral works are some of the most popular in contemporary repertoire. The reason for this seems to be very simple—they are well-crafted, easy to follow, yet complex enough to find new things at each hearing. Brahms's final work involving orchestra, the Concerto for Violin and Cello, was completed in the summer of 1887 and premiered October 18 of that year in Cologne, with Brahms himself . The soloists were two long-time friends, violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann. The first movement opens dramatically with the orchestra, giving way almost immediately to a cello . There is a brief, calming orchestral interlude, after which the violin joins, and the music gradually builds to a forthright first theme in the orchestra. The soloists then rejoin the fray for their own statement and development of these ideas. The contrasts between the various moods and explorations of ideas are occasionally surprising, other times subtle, but crafted very well, with a surprising narrative flow that suggests a discussion of the musical ideas at hand, not a demonstration of technique, as might be expected in a concerto. Things gradually settle in and the first movement comes to a satisfying, triumphant end. The second movement begins somewhat seriously, with an earnest, expressive melody played by the soloists in unison. Eventually, they begin a dialogue that also includes the winds. As things progress, they become more intense, driven by interjections of the cello, seemingly trying to change the subject of the discussion, but eventually the music winds its way back to the unison melody, and the movement closes gently with one last gush of the main theme. The third movement begins almost mysteriously with a minor key and a bouncy gypsy-like theme in each soloist. Gradually, things build between them, and the orchestra finally bursts in as if to signal that the movement has officially begun. A stately contrasting theme arrives in the cello, and the violin and orchestra pick it up and carry it for awhile. Eventually, more contrasting ideas are explored and the textures get more complicated as if the music is searching for a path to the end. A return to the opening bouncy theme give a sense of hope that a direction will be found. Finally, the soloists direct the piece forward and, after briefly revisiting the stately contrasting theme, things seem to calm down a little before a final push to the finish. Joachim and Hausmann played the concerto several times in its initial 1887-88 season, with Brahms at the podium, and the composer gave the manuscript to Joachim, with the inscription “To him for whom it was written.” It received mixed reviews in its early years but has come to be viewed as a masterpiece, especially for this combination of solo instruments with orchestra. It is easy to understand how some may get lost in its complexity, but it is still a work of Brahms nonetheless, and its craftsmanship is undeniable.

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840-November 6, 1893) Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 35 (1878) Tchaikovsky's orchestral music has a somewhat universal appeal—exciting climaxes, sufficient activity in all sections catering to traditional strengths, and interesting progressions of ideas. His music fits the late 19th- century ideal very well—passionate, extroverted, melodies and rhythms rooted in folk-like elements, with traditional forms and ingenious twists in orchestration and harmony. He chose to avoid the self-conscious attempts to write “Russian” music by colleagues who made up the “Mighty Five” (including Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky, among others) and simply wrote from his heart. As a result, many have viewed him as more “Russian” than the self-professed nationalists. Still, however, this issue is not one of content but of style, and Tchaikovsky's music has enjoyed popularity all over the world. The Fourth Symphony, composed in 1878, was part of an especially productive period that coincided with some of his most difficult personal conflicts and anxieties. It is more overt in its emotions that any other of his , and nowhere is this felt than in the first movement’s opening fanfare, called the “Fate” motive by the composer. Gradually, the music moves to an almost dream-like state with a lyrical waltz feel. Various attempts at putting a positive face on this mood are eventually scuttled by the Fate motive. As the composer wrote, “Thus we see that life is only an everlasting alternation of somber reality and fugitive dreams of happiness.” The second movement is slower and more melancholy, “mourning the past and having neither the courage nor the will to begin a new life.” But it turns out to be more nostalgic than suicidal, and sets up an amazing contrast with the third movement. Tchaikovsky said of this next movement, “here are capricious arabesques, vague figures which slip into the imagination when one has taken wine and is slightly intoxicated. The mood is now gay, now mournful. Military music is heard passing by in the distance. These are disconnected pictures which come and go in the brain of the sleeper.” The contrasts between the strings, the mournful but determined winds, and the martial brass, fit this description perfectly. The final movement, using an actual Russian folk song “In the Field Stood a Birch Tree,” combines the excitement of peasants singing and dancing together with the occasional intrusion of “real” life (in the form of the returning “Fate” motive). Tchaikovsky wrote that the movement juxtaposes the innocence of children at play with heaviness and sorrow that life presents. Unbelievably, in describing the meaning of the symphony to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky actually apologized for the weakness and inadequacies of the music in bringing these ideas forward. Anyone who hears this symphony is unlikely to agree.

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Classical 4

A Brave New World—Boundaries are pushed and new vistas are reached in the 20th Century. Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff throw out the old rules in this multi-dimensional concert, featuring the Aubergine Belly Dance Troupe, Half Mad Theatre, and master , Gold-Medal Winner of the Van Cliburn International Competition.

Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864-September 8, 1949) “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salome, op. 54 (1905) The “Dance of the Seven Veils” is part of the biblical story of John the Baptist. Matthew 14: 3-6 (NASB) says:

For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded John as a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

The assigning of “Seven Veils” to this dance originates with Oscar Wilde's 1891 play Salome in which he includes the stage direction “Salome dances the dance of the seven veils.” Wilde’s choice of title for the dance has been linked to the popularity of orientalist “veil dances” and to the emergence of striptease acts at the time. Scholars suggest that Wilde’s intent was to equate Salome’s stripping naked to reaching ultimate truth, a symbolic descent to the depths of the unconscious. Strauss himself stipulated that the dance should be “thoroughly decent, as if it were being done on a prayer mat.” Nevertheless, many productions make it explicitly erotic. However it is interpreted, the musical textures and timbres create a sensuousness and a sense of pacing that fits the imagery and its dramatic placement. As might be expected, this opera was censored or banned at different times and places, but today it is a standard work in operatic repertoire.

Sergei Rachmaninoff (March 20/April 1, 1873-March 28, 1943) Concerto No. 2 in C minor, op. 18, for piano and orchestra (1900-1901) Rachmaninoff showed great promise as a child and entered the Moscow Conservatory at age 12 to study both piano and composition. Upon graduation, he achieved increasing success writing piano pieces, songs, and orchestral music, until a disastrous performance of his first symphony in 1897 put him into an emotional tailspin that lasted several years. Rebounding from this experience in the early 1900s, he arrived at a personal style that stayed with him for the rest of his career as a composer—broad, lyrical melodies, full-bodied, large-scale orchestration (clearly inspired by Tchaikovsky), and consistently melancholy and sentimental moods which brought him widespread appeal on both sides of the Atlantic. He left Russia during the Revolution and settled in New York in 1918. While he made most of his living as a pianist, he also achieved some fame as a conductor. The overall structure and interaction between solo and orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto are a culmination of 19th-century concerto style. Clearly, the stereotype of the soloist as hero against the world (i.e., the orchestra) is fully engaged. The first movement begins with a sense of ruminating. The piano is fully integrated from the start, and long melodic phrases combined with unsettled create a feeling of ongoing development. It ends with a sudden push and resolution, as if feelings of resignation have received a shot of inspiration to go on resolutely. The second movement begins quietly, with one of Rachmaninoff’s best- loved melodies in the clarinet, accompanied by the piano, and supported by the orchestra. Then the piano takes over and the music becomes increasingly intense and complex, mixing with other solo instruments, and finally releasing to the theme’s last gasps in the strings and then in the piano. The third movement begins with fanfare in the orchestra, and then the piano joins in virtuosic splendor. After a few contrasting sections, another long development explores every corner of the theme. In the end, the music accelerates to a final climax, as all the emotions of the piece are finally released and resolved. This fantastic concerto is one of Rachmaninoff's most popular pieces. Its melodies have inspired many others, most famously “All By Myself” by Eric Carmen. Carmen’s use of the main theme of the second movement, which he thought to be in public domain, created some copyright infringement difficulties with the Rachmaninoff estate, but these were eventually resolved.

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (June 17, 1882-April 6, 1971) Petrushka (1947) Igor Stravinsky’s early works are a volatile mix of primitivism and nationalism, with violent rhythms and percussive dissonance. Of these earliest works, the three famous primitivist/nationalist ballets commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballet Russes, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, are landmark works in the orchestral repertoire. Petrushka was first performed in Paris in June of 1911. The story is the Russian version of the Punch and Judy puppet traditions that were part of the pre-Lenten Carnival festivities in St. Petersburg of the 1830s. The first movement or tableau takes place in the St. Petersburg town square, with the festive and exotic atmosphere of a carnival. After a variety of acts, the puppets are brought to life. The second tableau takes place in Petrushka’s Room, as he contends with his love for the Ballerina and his hate for the Magician. The Ballerina sneaks into his room, but once he notices her, he only succeeds in frightening her. The third tableau takes place in the Moor’s Room. The Ballerina is sent by the Magician to the Moor, who begins to seduce her. Petrushka interrupts them and attacks the Moor, who chases him from the room. The fourth tableau returns to the town square that evening, with a variety of dances and antics, including a variety of performers and even a dancing bear. Petrushka races in, chased by the Moor, who catches him and kills him, to the horror of the Ballerina and the crowd. The police question the Magician, and eventually the crowd disperses, leaving him alone with Petrushka’s body. Suddenly, Petrushka’s ghost appears, chastising the Magician and frightening him away, closing the ballet on a somewhat unsettling note. Like The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Petrushka successfully combines a last look at Russian Romanticism with burgeoning , setting the stage for Stravinsky's remarkable influence on 20th- century music.

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Classical 5

The American Dream—What does the future hold for classical music? In this concert, we explore today’s composers and those who came in search of the American Dream. Watch (and listen) as real life memoirs and letters from are brought to life through theatrical presentations by Jack Hartman and actors from York Little Theatre. The award-winning trio Time for Three also takes the stage in a genre-bending performance.

James Beckel (b. July 16, 1948) “The American Dream,” from Night Visions (1992) James Beckel graduated from the Indiana University School of Music and has been the Principal Trombonist with the Indianapolis Symphony since 1969. He is also on the music faculty at DePauw University and the University of Indianapolis. In addition to these responsibilities he has been a very active composer and arranger. Many of his original works have been performed by professional all over the US. He has also received many grants, fellowships, and awards for his compositions. “The American Dream” is the final movement of a longer composition entitled Night Visions. Composed in 1992, the work was commissioned by Price Waterhouse and is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Charles O’Drobinak. The entire piece is comprised of four movements with each movement dedicated to a different dream. The other movements are “Flying,” “Gates of the Unknown,” and “Vision of a Lost Friend.” The final movement was meant to pay particular tribute to Mr. O'Drobinak in his success as CEO of Price Waterhouse. In the composer’s words, “With the freedoms that our country offers, any individual has the opportunity to pursue and achieve their dreams and aspirations.” A majestic opening gives way to an optimistic first section. The middle section is a calm contrast that includes the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth, paying homage to the natural resources that bless our country. The first section returns and the piece closes triumphantly.

Chris Brubeck (b. March 19, 1952) Travels in Time for Three (2010) Son of jazz legend Dave Brubeck, Chris Brubeck is an award-winning performer and composer. He has created an impressive body of symphonic work while maintaining a demanding touring and recording schedule with the Brubeck Brothers (with brother Dan on drums). As a performer, Chris plays bass, trombone, piano, guitar and sings and has earned international acclaim as composer, performer and leader of his own groups. On stage his irrepressible enthusiasm is matched by his fluid command of jazz, blues, folk, funk, pop and classical musical styles. As a composer, Chris is known for his many innovative works for various combinations of musicians, actors, dancers, and visuals. Travels in Time for Three is one such innovative piece. Composed in March 2010 for the , Time for Three, the piece was commissioned by a consortium of eight orchestras, including the Boston Pops, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony, the Portland Symphony, and several others. The piece is a concerto in four movements: I. Thematic Ride; II. Irish Folk, Odd Times; III. Suspended Bliss; IV. Clouseau’s Mardi Gras,“Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler” (Let the Good Times Roll). The range of styles covered in the piece is remarkable and a testimony not only to Brubeck’s innovation but Time for Three’s musical versatility. Over the course of the piece, one hears everything from bluegrass to jazz to classical, with the emphasis, as Brubeck said in a recent interview, on FUN! An award-winning composer, Chris Brubeck is clearly tuned into the pulse of contemporary music. John von Rhein, music critic for The Chicago Tribune, calls him: “a composer with a real flair for lyrical melody–a 21st century Lenny Bernstein.”

Peter Boyer (b. February 10, 1970) Ellis Island: The Dream of America (2002) Peter Boyer was born in Providence, in 1970, and began composing at the age of 15. Boyer attended Rhode Island College and The Hartt School of the . Following his doctoral work at Hartt, Boyer studied privately with in New York, then moved to to study film and TV scoring at USC, where his teachers included . In 1996, Boyer was appointed to the faculty at Claremont Graduate University, where he holds the Helen M. Smith Chair in Music. In recent years, he has become one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers, with over 250 public performances of his works by 90 orchestras. He has received a Grammy nomination, as well as numerous national awards. In addition to his work for the concert hall, Boyer is active in the film and television music industry, contributing orchestral arrangements to more than a dozen major feature film scores, as well as music for the Academy Awards. Ellis Island: The Dream of America is Boyer’s most ambitious work to date. According to his website, it

celebrates the historic American immigrant experience and the American dream. Innovative in its format, the work brings elements of the theatre and multimedia into the concert hall, employing actors and projected historical images from the Ellis Island archives. The spoken texts for the work come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, an historic collection of interviews with actual immigrants about their experiences emigrating to America. After extensive research in this archive, Boyer chose the stories of seven immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island from disparate nations between 1910-1940. He fashioned short monologues from the actual words of these immigrants, and wove them into an orchestral tapestry which frames and comments on their stories—by turns poignant, humorous, moving, and inspiring. The work concludes with a reading of the Emma Lazarus poem The New Colossus (“Give me your tired, your poor…”), providing an emotionally powerful ending to this celebration of our nation of immigrants.

Ellis Island was commissioned by The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. It was premiered by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in April 2002. Since its premiere, Ellis Island has become one of the most performed American orchestral works of the last decade, receiving over 160 performances by more than 70 orchestras. A recording of the piece with Boyer conducting the , with actors Barry Bostwick, Blair Brown, Olympia Dukakis, Anne Jackson, Bebe Neuwirth, Eli Wallach, and Louis Zorich, was released by Naxos and received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in 2006. Maestro Golan recently recorded several works by Peter Boyer with the Moravian Philharmonic for Albany Records (Tchaikovsky 6 & Tchaikovsky 6.1, www.albanyrecords.com).

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Classical 6

Carmina Burana—The old and new collide in our season finale, featuring the York Symphony Chorus and Susquehanna Children’s . Based on 24 poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana, this scenic composed by Carl Orff hits the stage in an epic conclusion to our Musical Journey Through Time.

Carl Orff (July 10, 1895-March 29, 1982) Carmina Burana (1937) German composer and music educator Carl Orff was born into a Munich family of army officers who loved science, history, and music. He began studying piano, organ, and cello at the age of five. He began composing at an early age, and showed strong interests in theatrical music, writing and staging puppet shows, and setting texts to music with the help of his mother. In his early 20s, as his professional career began, he discovered the music of Debussy as well as the musical language of Schoenberg. After a short stint in the army, he returned to Munich in 1919, and devoted himself to studying the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, especially the music of Monteverdi. As his compositions grew in size and scope, the mix of modern and historic styles, along with a strong interest in theatre and dramatic settings, created a unique voice that matured in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Today, Orff is known primarily for two things: his work in the area of children’s music, and for his “scenic cantata” Carmina Burana. The former was codified in his Schulwerk (Music for Children, 1950-1954), a graded collection of music for use in schools, combining the methods of another pedagogue, Hungarian Zoltan Kodaly, with movement, singing, and playing appropriate instruments, all of which provide a natural way for children to learn music. This first direction in his work was a result of the founding in 1924 of the Güntherschule in Munich (by Dorothee Günther), a school for gymnastics, rhythmic movement, music and dance. As a member of the staff, he developed the concept of elementare Musik, a synthesis of gesture, poetic language, and music from which his Schulwerk would eventually result. With this in mind, the subject matter of his titanic work Carmina Burana is quite a contrast. The songs used for this work are from a 13th-century collection of secular songs (“carmina”) from the ancient town of Beuern (hence “Burana”), re-discovered in a monastery at Benedikt-beuern in the Bavarian Alps and published for the first time in 1847. The subject matter describes rather “primitive” behavior, at times even risqué by current standards, and the music reflects this behavior, with simple, direct delivery of the text, and accompanying sensual melodies and pulsating rhythms. This work was one of the first in a different direction for Orff, one that emphasized stage pageantry and drama, and is by far his most popular work. He continued writing music along these lines for the rest of his life. Orff’s Carmina Burana is essentially a parable of the power of Eros. Its design involves a progression of songs in three sections devoted to Springtime, Drinking, and Love. It seems, however, that the work is more about the maturing process, beginning with self-discovery, working through tribulations (or vices?), and finally arriving at maturity or wholeness. The work begins and ends with an ode to the goddess of Fortune, which creates a provocative framework for the different sections as they unfold—why call on Fortune except to acknowledge that life involves constant change? In the first section, “In Springtime,” the songs progress from the celebration of the arrival of Spring to the springtime of life, where young people become concerned about love. In the second section, “In the Tavern,” there is ruminating on bad fortune and then it’s “party time,” with the male members of the chorus singing about gambling and drinking. In the final section, “The Court of Love,” we hear that Cupid flies everywhere and the songs progress through the intimate side of Love, arriving at a final moment of adoration before the final ode to Fortune, a curious way to end in terms of subject matter, but a very exciting musical climax to the work. Throughout Orff’s masterpiece, there are ebbs and flows that match the text, with exciting dance-like rhythms and sensuous melodies that encourage listeners to live in the moment, to enjoy the feelings as they pass rather than analyze them. The piece was an unqualified success from its premiere, and has been an audience favorite around the world ever since.

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