October 12/13 notesSYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE By Dr. Richard E. Rodda 30 SECOND NOTES: In Sculpture, commissioned by the Des Moines Symphony in celebration of its 75th Season in 2012-2013, is Minnesota composer Steve Heitzeg’s musical impression of works in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, the green gateway to the city’s downtown. He composed Symphony In Sculpture II in 2015 and this concert features the premiere of Symphony in Sculpture III, dedicated to John and Mary Pappajohn in celebration of their three newest additions to the Sculpture Park, including Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE. Complementing Heitzeg’s work on this program are the cinematic by Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotic Scheherazade, inspired by The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of millennium-old fantasy tales from Egypt, Persia and India.

MODEST The mountain referred to in the title of MUSSORGSKY Mussorgsky’s tone poem, well known in Russian Born March 21 1839 in legend, is Mount Triglav, near Kiev, reputed to be Karevo, Russia; the site of the annual witches’ sabbath that died March 16, 1881 in occurs on St. John’s Night, June 23-24, the eve St. Petersburg. of the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The sinister god , the devil himself in disguise, A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (1867) presides over the demonic revelries. The score Arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov contains the following synopsis of the action: (1844-1908) “Subterranean sounds of supernatural voices ... • First performed on October 15, 1886 in St. Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed Petersburg, conducted by Nikolai Rimsky- by that of Satan himself ... Glorification of Satan Korsakov. and celebration of the Black Mass ... The Sabbath • First performed by the Des Moines Symphony Revels ... At the height of the orgies the bell of on May 3, 1953 with Frank Noyes conducting. the village church, sounding in the distance, Three subsequent performances have occurred, disperses the spirits of darkness ... Daybreak.” most recently on November 22 & 23, 2003 with The mood of the music is dark, unearthly Joseph Giunta conducting. and more than a little weird. At the beginning, (Duration: ca. 12 minutes) swirling strings and shrieks from the woodwinds, like great gusts of wind, seem to rise out of the ground itself. The blare forth a Des Moines Symphony, conducted by Joseph savage summons for the demons to assemble; Giunta. their arrival is portrayed by the clucking and (Duration: ca. 15 minutes) chattering of the woodwinds. A loud brass fanfare marks the appearance of Satan, and the Steve Heitzeg, born in Albert Lea, Minnesota on witches join old Beelzebub in a wild and ghoulish October 15, 1959, grew up on a dairy farm in his dance. The revels go on all night, and only when hometown. By age eight, he was playing guitar dawn breaks do the unearthly participants and ; he began composing in high school depart and the music return to the plodding with a rock titled P.S., based on the world of mere mortals. A distant church bell parable of the Prodigal Son. From 1978 to 1982, sounds, and the bizarre ceremony is over. Heitzeg attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he received his The score calls for piccolo, pairs of flutes, Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He , and , four horns, continued his professional training at the two , three trombones, , University of Minnesota’s School of Music in , drum, cymbals, chimes, Minneapolis, completing his Ph.D. in Music tam-tam, gong, harp and the usual strings Theory and Composition in 1986 as a student consisting of first violins, second violins, and teaching assistant of Dominick Argento. violas, violoncellos and double basses. Heitzeg has taught and held residencies at Mankato State University, Gustavus Adolphus College and University of Saint Thomas in Saint STEVE Paul, served as library assistant with the HEITZEG Minnesota , and created, organized Born October 15, 1959 in and performed in the “Music of the Earth” Albert Lea, Minnesota. Program for the Young Arts Program at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Among Heitzeg’s honors are an Emmy Award for his score for the public television documentary SUITE FROM SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE I & II Death of the Dream: Farmhouses in the (2012 & 2015) Heartland, Bush Foundation Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, Meet The Composer/ PANORAMIC AWARENESS PAVILION (OLAFUR Reader’s Digest-Lila Wallace Commissioning ELIASSON) from SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE II Grant, and multiple grants and commissions (2015) from the American Composer’s Forum, Meet The • Premiered on May 23 & 24, 2015 by the Composer, ASCAP and other organizations. He Des Moines Symphony, conducted by Joseph was named Minnesota’s “Composer of the Year” Giunta. in 2000 by the Minnesota Music Academy. Mr. Heitzeg has written “orchestral, choral POST-BALZAC ( SHEA)” and “NOMADE and chamber music in celebration of the natural (JAUME PLENSA) from SYMPHONY IN world, with evocative and lyrical scores SCULPTURE I (2012) frequently including naturally found instruments • Premiered on September 29, 2012 by the such as stones, manatee and beluga whale bones, and sea shells” — rocks and leaves the southern hemisphere. appear in his Enduring Earth, soil and horse “Your moonbow hymn — rainbows at night bones in Songs of the Soil, rain sticks in Litanies are called moonbows or lunar rainbows. This for the Living, birch bark and pine cone wind variation is a contemplative hymn for strings, chimes in Raven and Crow: Medicine Birds, glockenspiel and tingshaws (small Tibetan stones, an obsidian wind gong and jade and cymbals) honoring nighttime hues. agate slice wind chimes in Sacred Stones “Your noon flourish — a brass fanfare with (Symphony in Stone), and acorns, maple timpani, percussion and low strings heralds solar seedlings and Catalpa tree pods in Leaf Songs. power and energy. The lowest notes of the cellos Since 1991, Heitzeg has also been creating what and basses is tuned down yet another half-step, he calls “eco-scores” or “earth-scores,” which similar to the effect Respighi used in the last he defines as “music scores/drawings with an movement of The Pines of Rome. This section/ earth-centric or an environmentally based variation is marked radiant, evoking ancient sun statement dedicated to the preservation of the power. many voices in nature.” World Piece, for example, “Your kaleidoscopic interlude — a features 192 chords in honor of each of the mixed-meter, energetic dance depicting daily world’s 192 countries. His other main concern in activities in which one of the percussionists his music is addressing social issues — the plays a sea glass rattle as a symbolic reference ballet Social Movements explores war, global to the sculpture’s colored glass panels and warming, refugees and human rights; Song prisms of color. (The Pacific Ocean sea glass Without Borders is dedicated to United Nations was found by our daughter, who has a keen eye personnel who lost their lives in pursuit of peace; for it, and the lake glass is from Lake Superior). Peace March for Paul and Sheila Wellstone is Another percussionist plays a sistrum, a composed in the shape of a peace sign. common percussion instrument in Ethiopia, in Heitzeg wrote, “Panoramic Awareness tribute to Olafur Eliasson’s work with 121 Pavilion (Olafur Eliasson). I had the privilege of Ethiopia and his global project based on Little meeting and talking with Olafur Eliasson when Sun, a solar-powered LED lamp designed to he visited Des Moines for the dedication of his deliver clean, affordable, reliable light to the 1.6 Panoramic Awareness Pavilion. He spoke billion people worldwide without access to the eloquently about the sculpture as a study in electrical grid. (littlesun.com) light, space and plurality. Scored in a bright key, “Your panoramic chorus — the original this movement is a set of variations for the seven theme returns, slightly altered, with the full colors of the rainbow. Influenced by Eliasson’s orchestra. use of the phrase ‘Your rainbow panorama and “Your luminous paean at dusk — an Your black horizon’ in his previous works, the extremely high pitched and shimmering episode sections/variations are: brings the piece to a celebratory close with huge “Your dawn fanfare — marked bright, B major chords.” sparkling, this full orchestra fanfare celebrates “Post-Balzac (Judith Shea). ‘Is it the evanescence and beauty of dawn. nothingness or does a spirit reside? Music will “Your aurora dance — this is a brief and certainly live inside …’ There is a sense of loss Druidic-inspired dance for the aurora borealis in in the hollow space where a person should be the northern hemisphere and aurora australis in inside Judith Shea’s sculpture. Yet there is also an evocation of comfort, even though the robe is SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE III (2019) cast in bronze and not soft fabric. To portray • World Premiere: first performances of this, I have scored this movement in the exact Symphony in Sculpture III at these concerts on instrumentation of Elgar’s Nimrod from the October 12 & 13, 2019. Enigma Variations, one of the most famous and (Duration: ca. 17 minutes) beautiful adagios ever composed. “Nomade (Jaume Plensa). Jaume Plensa’s The composer has kindly provided the following sculptures share a deep respect for all cultures information for this performance. and reference the beautiful universality of the world in their inclusiveness, approachability and I. Iron Tree Trunk (Ai Weiwei). Marked “In playfulness. To reflect this as well as the notion Protest, procession-like,” the Symphony begins implied in the title of the sculpture that we are all with the harp, piano and basses in their lowest nomadic, this movement begins with the sound registers, slowly moving, as if from the deepest of a shruti box drone, one of many transportable roots of earth and sound, and gather in scope instruments employed here. (Similar to a until the full orchestra is involved. harmonium, this small wooden instrument with a About Ai Weiwei, Jeff Fleming, Director of system of bellows frequently accompanies other The Des Moines Art Center, states: “Ai draws on instruments in Indian . I have current global politics, Chinese culture, human included an electronic shruti box in this work for rights and more to push the definition of the arts its cross-cultural purposes. ‘Shruti’ means into new realms. He is committed as an artist to ‘hearing, revelation’ in Sanskrit.) Percussion effecting social change. This work, Iron Tree instruments such as hand drums, finger Trunk, refers to the tradition of contemplating cymbals, seed rattle and tambourine propel the rock and landscapes in Chinese culture. This movement and underscore the mixed-meter tree exemplifies the tension between melody based on a synthetic scale. Celebration industrialization and cultural China.” and dance abound, but they are interrupted by a The opening theme is shaped and searching, bittersweet melody that remains permutated like a series of different branches unresolved. The earlier dance theme returns forming (the sculpture is a vertically standing briefly, then the work closes with the full tree trunk, with imaginary branches). Strings are orchestra expanding on the searching theme.” marked “ battuto,” meaning with the wood side of the bow, and horns are marked The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two ‘cuivre’ to emphasize the iron ‘metal’ of this oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass sculpture. In the middle of the movement is a , two bassoons, , four lyrical and tranquil reflection in the high strings horns, three trumpets, three trombones, for the souls of trees and birds. Percussionists tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, play a wide range of natural percussion glockenspiel, xylophone, chimes, instruments: small stones, fallen tree branches, tambourine, triangle, finger cymbals, and a sunflower seed rattle (sunflower seeds are tam-tam, sistrum, tingshaws, sea glass sacred in Chinese culture). The movement rattle, hand drums, seed rattle, stones, closes with grand gestures with the opening shruti box, harp, celesta, piano and the usual theme returning — this time heroic and rising, strings. like a protest itself. II. Pumpkin Large (Yayoi Kusama). Kusama’s xylophone, chimes, triangle, woodblock, playful polka-dot pumpkin sculpture cried out for whip, tam-tam, bamboo wind chimes, temple me to compose a cheerful and slightly tongue- blocks, beer bottles, crowler aluminum can, in-cheek polka. Inspired by Strauss’ Champagne glass pop bottles, growler bottle, pumpkin Polka, I have composed a “craft beer polka.” seed rattle, sunflower seed rattle, stones, Percussionists play the usual traditional ginkgo tree branches, a soup can, stainless percussion instruments in a polka such as steel coffee tumbler, cast iron scrap metal, glockenspiel, triangle and bass drum, but they harp, celesta, piano and strings. also play a growler bottle, a crowler aluminum can and two beer bottles from a variety of craft breweries in Des Moines — for an authentic NIKOLAI RIMSKY- Des Moines sound. KORSAKOV In the middle of the polka I have scored a Born March 18, 1844 in vamp so that the conductor and the string Tikhvin, Russia; principals can toast each other, the orchestra, died June 21, 1908 in and the audience with either a craft beer or Luga. a pumpkin spice latte before starting the polka up again. SCHEHERAZADE, OP. 35 (1888) • First performed in St. Petersburg on October III. LOVE (Robert Indiana). Robert Indiana’s iconic 22, 1888 with the composer conducting the LOVE sculpture required that I compose a Russian Symphony Concerts at the Club of pop-infused movement; his LOVE print was Nobility. created in 1965, the LOVE sculpture in 1970. • First performed by the Des Moines Symphony This movement reflects on the various on December 6, 1973 with Henry Charles Smith meanings of the word love, opening with a conducting. Six subsequent performances carefree melody and closing with the cyclical occurred, most recently on September 29 & 30, groove “Love More,” inspired by American 2012 with Joseph Giunta conducting. soccer star Megan Rapinoe’s eloquent speech on (Duration: ca. 42 minutes) July 12, 2019: “This is my charge to everyone. We have to be better. We have to love more. Hate “In the middle of the winter [of 1888], engrossed less.” The youth choir sings this text with lush as I was in my work on and other string chords and cascading piano riffs. Extra things, I conceived the idea of writing an instruments include glass pop bottles, a 1970s orchestral composition on the subject of certain electric Magnus chord organ, electric guitar and episodes from Scheherazade.” Thus did Nikolai drum set. Rimsky-Korsakov give the curt explanation of the genesis of his most famous work in his The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two autobiography, My Musical Life. His friend oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass had died the year before, clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four leaving his magnum opus, the opera Prince Igor, horns, three trumpets, three trombones, in a state of unfinished disarray. Rimsky- tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare Korsakov had taken it upon himself to complete drum, bongos, claves, glockenspiel, the piece, and may well have been inspired by its exotic setting among the Tartar tribes in seem definite enough to lead the listener to 12th-century central Asia to undertake his own specific nightly chapters of Scheherazade’s soap embodiment of musical Orientalism. The stories opera. On closer examination, however, they on which he based his orchestral work were prove too vague to be of much help. The taken from The Thousand and One Nights, a Kalandar Prince, for instance, could be any one collection of millennium-old fantasy tales from of three noblemen who dress as members of the Egypt, Persia and India which had been gathered Kalandars, a sect of wandering dervishes, and together, translated into French, and published in tell three different tales. “I meant these hints,” many installments by Antoine Galland beginning advised the composer, “to direct but slightly the in 1704. hearer’s fancy on the path which my own fancy To refresh the listener’s memory of the had traveled, and leave more minute and ancient legends, Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced the particular conceptions to the will and mood of score with these words: “The sultan Shakriar, each listener. All I had desired was that the convinced of the falsehood and inconstancy of hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, all women, had sworn an oath to put to death should carry away the impression that it is each of his wives after the first night. However, beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some the sultana Scheherazade saved her life by numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders.” arousing his interest in the tales she told him during 1,001 nights. Driven by curiosity, the The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two sultan postponed her execution from day to day, oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass and at last abandoned his sanguinary design.” clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four To each of the four movements Rimsky gave a horns, three trumpets, three trombones, title: The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship, The Story of the tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare Kalandar Prince, The Young Prince and the Young drum, tambourine, triangle, tam-tam, piano, Princess and Festival at Baghdad—The celesta, harp and the usual strings. Sea—Shipwreck. At first glance, these titles