• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The D’Angelo Department of Music at Mercyhurst University presents Faculty Recital Eleanor Lee, cello Chiaroscuro An Unaccompanied Recital Walker Recital Hall Wednesday, November 11, 2020 8:00pm www.mercyhurst.edu/music PROGRAM Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello in C Minor J.S. Bach Prelude (1685-1750) Allemande Courante Sarabande Gavottes Gigue Brief Pause (5 minutes) Variations on a Theme of Paganini Hans Bottermund (1892-1949) Arr. Janos Starker (1924-2013) Spring Song Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) Theme & Variations on “Draw the Sacred Circle Closer” Adolphus Hailstork Theme: Moderately (b. 1941) Variation I: Spritely Variation II: Playfully-Dramatic-Playfully-Dramatic Variation III: Adagio Variation IV Variation V: Animated The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited. Please turn off and stow all electronic devices. Thank you. NOTES Chiaroscuro - (n.), from Italian chiaro, “light,” and scuro, “dark”, technique employed in the visual arts to represent light and shadow as they define three-dimensional objects; used to dramatically enhance emotive effect and psychological impact - Encyclopedia Britannica 2020 has been an emotionally fraught year for our nation and the world at large. With COVID-19 and political division ever-looming, as a collective, we have known isolation, insecurity, grief, anger, and fear. Music and musicians have suffered some of the worst consequences, limited in our ability to both collaborate and to share. While it is true that most of our training comprises independent activities - spending countless hours practicing, score-studying, and listening - music, in its final execution, is meant to be social: a celebration of civilization, of universal human experience. If ever there was a time when we needed music, it is now. This year has been difficult; this year has been dark. And yet... Here we are, sharing music. Though in shadow and despair, we have found a way to celebrate our common humanity. I cannot speak for others, but in spite of or because of it all, I have uncovered a renewed appreciation for the good in my life, this year, and anticipate a brighter future. This program is entitled Chiaroscuro because even though darkness surrounds us, there is still a beacon of light to be found in hope. In that vein of thought, the program begins with Bach’s dark, ambiguous Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello in C minor. After a brief pause, we continue with the Bottermund-Starker Variations on a Theme of Paganini, a virtuosic piece that highlights the extremes of the cello’s register and various techniques. While this work, like the Bach, is also in a minor key, the theme and variations form is more light-hearted and less pensive than the Bach. Following this, Augusta Read Thomas’s Spring Song exhibits both intimate and emotionally heightened moments, much like the spring we had this year. Lastly, to end on a hopeful note, the program concludes with Adolphus Hailstork’s Theme and Variations on “Draw the Sacred Circle Closer” which references Beethoven’s ninth symphony in both its content and its purpose: a call for universal unity, an ode to joy. J.S. Bach: Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello in C Minor Celebrated cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, has recorded the six Bach Cello Suites three times in his career (so far): in 1983, 1998, and 2018. Now in his sixties, he has chosen to tour less with concerto repertoire but continues to perform the Suites around the world to inspire unity, togetherness, and peace. Every cellist who has the honor of studying these works never quite feels like their journey with Bach is ever finished; there are always new layers to be uncovered. In my own journey, I finally studied Suite No. 5 for the first time just this year. When I was younger, my teachers wanted me to wait; as I got older and started juggling other deadlines and projects (all worthy in their own right), I somehow didn’t get around to it. However, I’m glad I waited. Of the Suites, the C minor is the most mature and requires the ability to express a deep complexity found in dark, searching solitude, nuanced with hope. Appropriately, in Yo-Yo Ma’s second Bach album (1998), a visual collaboration with other artists, the fifth suite was subtitled, “Struggle for Hope.” Studying this heavy, pensive work under the circumstances of this year, I worried that it would become too much for me. Bach leaves it up to interpretation whether hope is actually found in the cellist’s “struggle.” Ultimately, though, this search, in how it paralleled my mindset, proved fruitful for me, and hope prevailed. The fifth Suite is the only suite of which we have an original manuscript, autographed by Bach, and this manuscript is not even the cello version. Bach, himself, transcribed the work for lute. The Cello Suites’ closest rendering to an autographed original is a copy made by Anna Magdalena Bach, his wife, whose handwriting is notoriously difficult to read. Thus, cellists are allowed an additional measure of freedom in interpretation that extends to bowings, some rhythms, and even, sometimes, the notes themselves. The fifth Suite is also the only suite that calls for scordatura, or a retuning of the cello’s typical string pitches to alternate ones. In this case, Bach asks for the A-string (the cello’s highest) to be tuned down a whole step to a G, creating an even darker timbre and additional sympathetic resonance. (I have chosen to perform this piece at normal tuning, which is an equally common practice.) The movements of the Suites align with the format of a church service. As such, each opens with a Prelude, the purpose of which is to explore the home key. In Suite No. 5 in C minor, Bach chooses to include an implied fugue, a form based on imitation at various pitch points in the home key. Although the home key of this Suite is C minor, Bach ends his wild, dynamic, fugal Prelude with a “Picardy third,” the parallel major harmony. This was pretty common practice in church music of the time, as the more uplifting final chord was thought to pay a greater respect to God. Following the Prelude are the Allemande and Courante, a pair of contrasting dances. The Allemande was considered outdated when Bach wrote the Suites, an old-fashioned, stately entrance dance for royalty, while the Courante, after French for “running,” is a brisk, almost jovial dance. In church, the Allemande would likely be the Processional and the Courante, the Offertory. Standing alone at the center of the suite, the Sarabande perfectly encapsulates the prevailing sense of searching. Originally, the Sarabande was a fast, vigorous dance brought over to Europe from Latin America that was banned for being too scandalous. Over time, it was drastically slowed down enough to eventually be considered acceptable by the church. There are no chords or double-stops (two notes played at the same time) in this movement, only a single voice. Of all of the movements from all of the suites, the Sarabande of the Fifth Suite is the most ambiguous, setting a reflective mood perfect for Communion. Following the existentialism of the Sarabande are the Gavottes I and II, which are played together, concluding with a return to the Gavotte I. Though paired, these movements are polar opposites: the Gavotte I is stately, robust, and heavy with many chords, while the Gavotte II runs in a squirrelly, single voice line. The activity of the Gavottes represents the Recessional. As with all of the Suites, the fifth ends with a Postlude-worthy Gigue (after “jig”), an earthy, rowdy dance that lands on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the Allemande. However, in keeping with the work’s solemnity, the Gigue of the fifth Suite incorporates a sicilienne rhythm, giving it more pastoral energy, rather than that of a barn dance. The sicilienne rhythmic feature dates back to Italian Renaissance madrigals of the 1500s and, arguably, even further back to spoken meters used in epic Greek and Roman poetry. Rather than ending with a “grand finale,” Bach concludes our introspective journey with a sense of timelessness. Hans Bottermund-Janos Starker: Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Unaccompanied Violoncello Paganini was an incredible violin virtuoso whose challenging 24 Caprices are often used as inspiration for further technical “showpieces.” Hans Bottermund (1892-1949) wrote a set of variations based on the theme of the 24th Caprice for solo violin - in spite of being a cellist, himself! Janos Starker, renowned cellist and leading string pedagogue of the 20th century, later arranged this work for cello. Starker revolutionized a more ergonomic approach to cello technique that expanded the possibilities of how the cello could be played. Two of my own teachers studied with him, and I have long admired him. This work features extended techniques like false harmonics, left hand pizzicato, saltando, and plucking and bowing at the same time. Augusta Read Thomas: Spring Song for Solo Violoncello “Spring Song, composed at the request of Scott Kluksdahl and recorded by him on Albany Records, is a short, five-minute, piece which celebrates the lyrical, long line, expressive, and elegant characteristics of the instrument. The double stop passages remind one of a carillon of bells, all ringing in a flurry, atop a large cathedral. At times the piece is very intimate, and other times bold and energized. Much of the piece is in the high register, so that when it finally falls down to the low C string, one feels as if one has landed back on the earth, if only for a while.” - Augusta Read Thomas (augustareadthomas.com) The music of Augusta Read Thomas (b.

Load more

  8

Copy Link