Verdehr Trio Walter Verdehr, Violin Elsa Ludewig Verdehr, Clarinet Gary Kirkpatrick, Piano

SONOKLECT '96-'97 A Concert Series of Twentieth-Century Music Terry Vosbein, Director Verdehr Trio Walter Verdehr, violin Elsa Ludewig Verdehr, clarinet Gary Kirkpatrick, piano Donald Erb Guest Composer WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY KELLER THEATRE• 8:00 P.M. • 15 MARCH 1997 PROGRAM Trio Concertante (1985) William Wallace Commissioned by the Verdehr Trio Serbelloni Serenade (1996) Jonathan D. Kramer Commissioned by the Verdchr Trio and Michigan State University Trio No. 3 (Persian) (1995) T. C. David Vivace A11da11te Moderato Commissioned by the Verdehr Trio - INTERMISSION - Drei disparate Essays (1995) Georg Katzer !11troversio11 DisparateEreig11issc und Stille Extraversio11 Commiss ioned by the Verdchr Trio ,md Michigan State University Sunlit Peaks and Dark Valleys (1995) Donald Erb J= 144 Children's Song-for the children of Oklahoma City _j= 132 Comm issioned by the Verdehr Trio ;ind Michig;,n State University J PROGRAM NOTES Trio Concertante William Wallace It was both a challenge and a pleasure to write for this unusual but highly effective combination of instruments . (And a pleasure it was as well to assist the Verdehr Trio in its efforts to expand the literature for such a natural grouping.) Trio Concertante is a single movement work falling into three sections . In the first, the basic thematic materials appear in somewhat traditional fashion. In the extensive third section, these materials recur in a highly developmental way, with much use made of canon as well as less strict imitative devices. The middle section is devoted to unaccompanied solos for clarinet and violin. At the conclusion of the third section a brief clarinet solo followed by a climax for all three instruments brings the work to a close. - Wi[[iam Wafface Born in Salt Lake City in 1933, William Wallace received his musical education at the University of Utah (Ph.D. in Composition, 1962, under Leroy J. Robertson), with a year's graduate work at the University of Oxford (studies in composition under Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra). Best known of Dr. Wallace's numerous orchestral works are Introduction and Passacaglia,now widely performed in the U.S.A. and Canada, and the lively, soloistic Concerto Variations. He has produced, in addition, a large number of choral and chamber works. Major publications include Ceremoniesfor Orchestra, Diversions for Brass Quintet, and Sonata for Viola and Piano (all by Berandol Music Ltd.). Publications also include numerous choral works (various publishers). Dr. Wallace is Professor of Music at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada . He divides his time between that location and Wyoming, where he maintains a home and devotes himself to composition. 4 Serbelloni Serenade Jonathan D. Kramer I composed the Serbelloni Serenade at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy. This wonderful place, run by the Rockefeller Foundation as a retreat for scholars and artists, is beautiful and peaceful. As I had previously been writing a book (on music and post-modernism), I had little time before coming to Bellagio to plan what music I wo uld compose. I knew only that it was to be a trio for clarinet, violin, and piano for the magn ificent Verdehr Trio. My first day at the Rockefeller center I went to the composer's studio, in the woods overlooking Lake Como. I stared at blank music paper. Three weeks later, I drew a doub le bar at the conclusion of the piece. Freed from concerns of daily existence and living far away from the outside world, I was able to work uninterrupted for eigh t to ten hours a day, seve n days a week. Since one of the theses of my book is the demise of structural unity in post modern music, I wan ted the music to have a healthy degree of disu nity: Non sequiturs, "discontin uiti es", unrelated materials, surpr ises. But pieces have minds of their own. Probably because I wrote it in one intense period, thinkin g of little else, the Serbelloni Serenade ended up tightly unifi ed. I kept discovering that different part s of the piece, whic h had tricked me into believing that they were unr elated, were actually thinly disgu ised variants of each other. I saw that the form, far from being the free association of ideas I had wanted, was quite logical. To my amazement, I found the piece beginning and ending in the same key! This Serenade is noneth eles s po st-modern in its use of different styles, references to various historical period s, and surprising juxtaposition. But, because of how it was writt en, it is more inte grated than I had expected or plann ed it to be. I am amu sed when I compare it to another recent chamber pie ce, A Game, for cello an piano (1988-92). When I wrote that short piece, I was not so consciously interested in disunity. However , it came out delightfully chaoti c, becaus e it was composed over a four-year period of considerable change in my life: I mov ed from a small Midwestern city to a large Northeastern one, and from a music conservatory to an academic music department. Just as A Game unintentionall y reflects my chaotic life when I wrote it, so the Serbelloni Serenade shows how orderly my existence was when I composed it. It resolutely refused to become the statement on disorder I had tried to make it. Also, the Verde hr Trio had wanted a piece with aspects of jazz, as in several of my earlier compositions. I tried to incorporate jazz elements, but again the piece was not going to allow me to dictate to it. Almost every time I tried to inject some swing, Serbe/loni rejected it. Thus, the piece has only a few small hints of jazz. 5 With the help of the Serbe/loniSerenade, I have discovered my love of chamber music. This music is not jazz and it is not a statement of ideas that properly belong in a book. No, it is simply a piece of chamber music, composed for some wonderful chamber musicians. That is what it insisted on becoming throughout its three-week gestation period, and-despite its composer's intentions to the contrary-that is what it ultimately is. - Jonatfian 'J(ramer Jonathan D. Kramer (b. 7 December 1942, Hartford Connecticut) received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included Karlheinz Stockhausen, Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, Seymour Shifrin, and Andrew Imbrie. Currently a professor at Columbia University , he has previously taught at Oberlin, Yale, and the University of Cincinnati. He was the Cincinnati Symphony Composer-in-Residence from 1984 to 1992. Honors include a Barlow Endowment Commiss ion , the Ohio Governor's Award for Individu al Artists, three Composer Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, an Independent Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Alienor Harpsichord Composition Award, and three individual Artist Fellowship Grants from the Ohio Arts Council. Three times Kramer's music has been performed at the World Music Days Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (Israel, Holland, and Poland). His music has been played in 23 countries by such ensembles as the London Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Cleveland Chamber Symphony Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Sacramento Symphony, Nat ion al Orchestra of El Salvador, members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and members of the Saint Louis Symphony. A compact disc of his music is available on the Leonarda label. Also active as a writer on music, Kramer has published numerous articles and the books, The Time of Music and Listen to the Music. He is currently writing a book on music and post-modernism. 6 Trio No. 3 (Aziz Djune) Thomas Christian David Aziz Dju11eis a Persian concept and means something like sweetheart. It is the first word of a folk song with banal content which is very popular in Iran (what else can one expect from a love song?). This love melody is rooted in every single part of the music and is woven into the overall structure of each mov ement. The compos itional technique could be compared to the weaving of an oriental carpet-everything is made from the same yarn and follows one format. The music should be executed with the most vivid tonal colors. It transforms the musicians into an orienta l mentality but never leaves the European structure out of sigh t. The work was commissioned by Michigan State University for the Verdehr Trio. - %.omas Cfiristian 'Davia Thomas Christian David, son of composer Johann Nepomuk David, was born in Weis, Austria, in 1925 and for many years was Professor of Composition at the Hochschule fur Mu sik in Vienna. One of Austria's most prolific, distingui shed and frequently played composers, he is also well known as a conductor. He presently divides his time between his duties in Vienna and concert tours on which he plays and conducts many of his own compositions. He has received composition prizes from the City of Stuttgart, Paris Radio , the City of Vienna and the Province of Upper Austria. Christian David has had a long association with the Verdehr Trio which began when he was a guest professor at Michigan State University in 1977. This close relationship has resulted in two trios , a duo for violin and clarinet , the TripleConcerto for Trioand Orchestra(which has been recorded with the Verdehr Trio and the Tonkiinsler Orchestra), the Sinfonia Concertantefor Trio and Wind Symphony (commissioned by the Michigan State University Wind Symphony), and Schubertiade(in the style of Schubert) .

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