CONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 2020-2021 The McKim Fund in the Library of Congress JACK QUARTET & CONRAD TAO, PIANO Thursday, December 3, 2020 ~ 8:00 pm The Library of Congress Virtual Event The MCKIM FUND in the Library of Congress was created in 1970 through a bequest of Mrs. W. Duncan McKim, concert violinist, who won international prominence under her maiden name, Leonora Jackson; the fund supports the commissioning and performance of chamber music for violin and piano. Conversation with the Artists Join us online at https://loc.gov/concerts/jack-quartet.html for a conversation with the artists, videos about Elliott Carter and Ruth Crawford Seeger, and additional resources related to the concert, available starting at 10am on Thursday, December 3. Facebook Chat Want more? Join other concert goers and Music Division curators after the concert for a chat that may include the artists, depending on availability. You can access this during the premiere and for a few minutes after by going to facebook.com/pg/libraryofcongressperformingarts/videos How to Watch Concerts from the Library of Congress Virtual Events 1) See each individual event page at loc.gov/concerts 2) Watch on the Library's YouTube channel: youtube.com/loc 3) Watch the premiere of the concert on Facebook: facebook.com/libraryofcongressperformingarts/videos Videos may not be available on all three platforms, and some videos will only be accessible for a limited period of time. The Library of Congress Virtual Event Thursday, December 3, 2020 — 8:00 pm The McKim Fund in the Library of Congress JACK QUARTET & CONRAD TAO, PIANO Christopher Otto & Austin Wulliman, VIOLIN John Pickford Richards, VIOLA Jay Campbell, CELLO Videography: Stuart Breczinski (Rodericus & Crawford Seeger) Videography: David Bird (Carter & Sorey) Audio Engineering: Ryan Streber 1 Program Rodericus (fl. late 14th century)/Christopher Otto Angelorum psalat (c.1390s) Elliott Carter (1908-2012) Duo for Violin and Piano (1973-4) Tyshawn Sorey Everything Changes, Nothing Changes (2018) Ruth Crawford [Seeger] (1901-1953) String Quartet 1931 (1931) I. Rubato assai—Più mosso—Tempo primo—Più mosso—Tempo primo—Meno mosso—Più mosso—Meno mosso—Più mosso—Meno mosso II. Leggiero (tempo giusto) III. Andante—Doppio movimento—Quasi tempo primo—Tempo primo IV. Allegro possibile Tyshawn Sorey For Conrad Tao (2020) Elliott Carter (1881-1945) String Quartet no. 3 (1971) Duo II: Maestoso (giusto sempre)—Pause—Grazioso—Giusto, meccanico / Duo I: Furioso (quasi rubato sempre)—Leggerissimo— Andante espressivo—Pause Duo II: Pause—Scorrevole / Duo I: Giocoso—Pause Duo II: Giusto, meccanico—Grazioso / Duo I: Leggerissimo—Furioso—Pause Duo II: Maestoso—Pause / Duo I: Giocoso—Andante espressivo Duo II: Largo tranquillo—Appassionato—Largo tranquillo / Duo I: Pause—Leggerissimo—Giocoso—Furioso Duo II: Scorrevole—Appassionato—Coda / Duo I: Andante espressivo—Furioso—Coda 2 • About the Program Rodericus/Otto, Angelorum psalat Angelorum Psalat is a strikingly original two-voice ballade from the Chantilly Codex, a collection of music in the style known as Ars Subtilior (“subtler art”). It is the only surviving work of Rodericus, known in the codex as Suciredor. Many works of the Ars Subtilior experiment with rhythmic and notational complexity, and Angelorum Psalat is one of the most extreme examples, using no fewer than twenty different varicolored note shapes. For my arrangement I have relied on the transcription of Nors S. Josephson, in whose interpretation the note shapes signify a radical expansion of rhythmic possibility, specifying a much richer variety of speeds and durations than most Western music before the twentieth century. I have given the first violin and viola the original two voices and added the second violin and cello parts to clarify the underlying grid of these complex rhythms. ~ Christopher Otto • Elliott Carter, Duo for Violin and Piano From the Composer: The Duo for Violin and Piano derives its character and expression from the contrast between its two very dissimilar instruments—the bow-stroked violin and the key-struck piano. The mercurial violin music, at times intense and dramatic, at others light and fanciful, constantly changes its pace and tone of expression; the piano plays long stretches of music of consistent character and is much more regular both in rhythm and in style. The piano makes extensive use of the pedal to mask one sonority with another and then gradually to uncover the second—as in the very first measures. In fact, the long opening section for the piano forms a quiet, almost icy background to the varied and dramatic violin, which seems to fight passionately against the piano. After this beginning, the music is joined seamlessly until the end. In the course of the work, the violin focuses on one aspect of its part after another—and often on two or more aspects at a time—playing in a rubato, rhythmically irregular style, while the piano constantly plays regular beats, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. 3 Toward the end, while the violin is involved in a very fast, impassioned music, the piano becomes more and more detached, playing a series of regular rhythmic patterns, each successively slower than the previous one. As the piano reaches a point of extreme slowness, the violin is heard increasingly alone, isolating for a few measures at a time the various elements of its part, with the quiet and more lyrical aspects given more prominence than previously. The general form is quite different from that of the music I wrote up to 1950. While this earlier music was based on themes and their development, here the musical ideas are not themes or melodies but rather groupings of sound materials out of which textures, linear patterns, and figurations are invented. Each type of music has its own identifying sound and expression, usually combining instrumental color with some “behavioral” pattern that relies on speed, rhythm, and musical intervals. There is no repetition, but a constant invention of new things—some closely related to each other, others, remotely. There is a stratification of sound so that much of the time the listener can hear two different kinds of music, not always of equal prominence occurring simultaneously. This kind of form and texture could be said to reflect the experience we often have of seeing something in different frames of reference at the same time. ~ Elliott Carter Composer Jeffrey Mumford, a former student of Elliott Carter, participated in a conversation with the JACK Quartet and Anne McLean. He offers some additional thoughts on the Carter and Crawford works included on this program, and these are interspersed below. *** Duality and multiplicity are hallmarks of Elliott Carter's work, from his Piano Sonata written in 1945 through his late works. Specifically as this relates to the Duo for Violin and Piano (1973-4) commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, Carter sets up multi-relational scenarios contrasting the prevailingly fragmented nature of the violin writing with the often flowing and variously unfolding piano music, resulting in simultaneously divergent journeys. When I first encountered this work as recorded by Paul Zukovsky and Gilbert Kalish, I was immediately struck (as I am with all of Carter’s music, irrespective of period or harmonic language) by its directness and passion. The violin (not unlike the beginning of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata) is featured prominently in an almost soloistic manner, presenting profoundly expressive and searching solo material, no doubt a tribute to 4 Zukovsky's virtuosity, similar in this way to the opening of Beethoven's work showing the esteem he felt for the playing of its original dedicatee, George Bridgetower. In Carter's work, the constantly unfolding violin music is initially partnered by sparse chords in the piano, giving the violin free reign to explore a wide range of expressive possibilities. Not to be overshadowed by the violin's fragmented expansiveness, the piano eventually offers explosions and cascades of notes in counterpoint to the ongoing journey of the violin. There are moments of coalescence only to again spin off into divergent paths. As Carter often stated, he likes to set up dramatic scenarios for the instruments for which he writes, and the Duo certainly displays a wide array of them. As Carter also noted, "there is a stratification of sound" such that the listener prevailingly experiences the sensation of hearing two different kinds of music simultaneously. This is particularly the case toward the end, wherein the violin continues to play in what Carter describes as "a rhythmically irregular style," often extremely impassioned, while the piano emphasizes regular beats. As the violin speeds up, the piano becomes more detached and slows down, allowing the violin to be heard alone, becoming quieter and more reflective as the work comes to its close. ~ Jeffrey Mumford • Tyshawn Sorey, Everything Changes, Nothing Changes Tyshawn Sorey is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, already legendary for his unspeakable instrumental command, deep embodiment and memorization of the most involved scores, and a singular combination of formalistic structure and improvisation in his compositional work. Commissioned by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, his first string quartet explores a shifting harmonic field controlled by the knife’s-edge precision of Sorey’s chess-master mind. In Everything Changes, Nothing Changes, shifting orchestrations and harmonic revelations unfold into a new state of musical thought and mental space for the audience to inhabit. Note by Lara Pellegrinelli: Commissioned for the JACK Quartet and premiered at the Banff Festival last summer, Everything Changes, Nothing Changes was inspired largely by sudoku puzzles and the time spent with visual artists during Sorey’s retreat at Robert Rauschenberg’s former studio in Captiva, Florida. The 5 piece derives its formal structure from a grid consisting of 14 sections that contain 16 permuted rhythmic units over time, though the tempo is so slow that they will likely be imperceptible to the listener.