Sky Madrigal (2014) the Impostor: Concerto for Banjo (2011)

Sky Madrigal (2014) coalesces into a centrifugal 52 note melody On a parallel track, Fleck continues to enrich which climbs continually, sometimes on the the expressive language of the banjo by forging Dylan Mattingly (b. 1991) surface and sometimes beneath, until the Ànal unprecedented connections with the realm [World Premiere] breath of the piece. of classical music—a world introduced to him during childhood by his stepfather, a cellist. In June of 1924, British mountaineers George Narratively, the piece tells a story of ascent. Fleck, in fact, was named after no fewer than Mallory and Sandy Irvine climbed into the sky. Drawn from both the intrigue of George three great composers—Béla Bartók, Anton(in) Ascending towards the summit of the highest Mallory’s legendary climb and my own highway DvoŐik, and Leoä Janiÿek—making the mountain on the planet, they disappeared into constellations, Sky Madrigal is a work fashioned classical past literally part of his identity. He a cloud and never came back. The peak of from stargazing. Whether or not Mallory made it credits Edgar Meyer, the bassist with whom he Mount Everest is 29,029 feet above the sea, a into the sky, like the building of a cathedral and has collaborated on numerous projects since height at which the world is more space than the tuning of a lyre to the laws of the universe, the early 1980s, with reawakening his mature earth. The atmosphere is so thin, climbers captains our imaginations toward a destination interest in classical music. Meyer also helped need the assistance of an oxygen tank just to that could only be the result of the bliss, terror, instill in him the desire to undertake a classically breathe. When asked what reason there was inspiration, and yes—perfection—of a human based composition of his own, following two to go, Mallory, who was the Àrst to try for the life. That is the kind of perfection I want to chase. previous collaborative efforts. The Concerto peak, stated that the journey was of absolutely for Banjo marks a signiÀcant new departure —Dylan Mattingly “no use,” and that “there is not the slightest for Fleck, which he describes as “a liberating prospect of gain whatsoever.” Sky Madrigal was written for the Cabrillo Festival experience for my efforts as a composer, and of Contemporary Music and Maestra Marin hopefully the banjo as well.” Sky Madrigal is a piece about perfection. A Alsop for this world premiere performance. strange human desire within a world of explosive No familiar models for such a piece exist. Fleck and untenable beauty, our history is punctuated Not recorded mentions just three previous examples, which by bursts of creative perfection. From the fractals include a concerto written for Pete Seeger of microscopic imaging to the construction of The Impostor: in the 1960s, one by Swiss banjo player Jens cathedrals, we yearn for underlying patterns Kruger, and a farcical send-up by the parodist and their physical manifestations. After a year Concerto for Banjo (2011) P.D.Q. Bach. With his own Banjo Concerto, Fleck spent decoding the beautiful and terrifying Béla Fleck (b. 1958) has crafted a large scale composition requiring rhythmic and intonational patterns of ancient [West Coast Premiere] intricate organization, and he has taken on his Greek music, followed by a cross-country road Àrst experience of writing for a hefty orchestra. trip DJ-ed by Leonin and Perotin, I found myself This program note was originally written for the haunted both by the specters of motets and Nashville Symphony program book. The challenge, he recalls, led him to evoke masses of the late Medieval period, obsessed “different sounds on my banjo than I was used to with the “sounding number” and divine order, as It wasn’t until 1973, while he was a teenager, doing.” Fleck observes that, unlike a traditional well as the cosmic pull of the mathematics of that Béla Anton Leoä Fleck received his Àrst string concerto, where the solo instrument is intonation (from Pythagoras to Ben Johnston). I banjo, but in less than a decade he had already mirrored in the larger ensemble, the wrote Sky Madrigal as my own secular testament recorded his Àrst solo album, Crossing the banjo possesses “a voice that is not present in to this world of astral synchronicity. Whatever Tracks (1979)—and was well on his way to the orchestra” and which is resonant enough to the randomness and missed connections that reclaiming the instrument for a new era. With a play effectively with it. The speciÀc instrument occur throughout ordinary time, music has the unique combination of virtuosity, imagination, for which Fleck wrote his concerto is a vintage opportunity to transcend; and as a composer, in and insatiable curiosity, Fleck has devoted his 1937 Gibson Mastertone banjo made of some ways I have the opportunity to perfect time career to exploring and revealing the hidden mahogany—a prized possession he calls the —that canvas on which our chaos is splattered. potential of the banjo. The iconic style of Earl “holy grail” of banjos, much as a violinist might Scruggs, to whom Fleck’s Banjo Concerto is treasure an instrument made in the workshops Sky Madrigal is a celebration of inter– dedicated, was a formative inÁuence, yet one of Stradivarius. connectedness, real and imaginary, and our that Fleck characteristically fuses with those of historical quest for harmony. The title is an jazz legends Chick Corea and Charlie Parker. In During initial rehearsals with the Nashville allusion to both the ancient Greek synchronicity this concerto, we also hear the stimulus of voices Symphony, Fleck recalls conductor Guerrero between our soul and the natural order of the from classical tradition—particularly Bach and observing that “the banjo doesn’t sound cosmos, and the Medieval devotion to the divine Beethoven—Àltered through a new perspective. like a banjo at the beginning” but becomes fractals of form. Hence the name is Sky Madrigal Fleck’s innovative approach extends across an emphatically banjo-like by the end. The remark (a madrigal being the secular Renaissance heir astounding spectrum of achievements, from his shed light on a scenario that runs through the to the religious Medieval forms). early work in progressive bluegrass with the New three-movement score, though Fleck points Grass Revival (which led him to settle in Nashville out that this was the creative work of his Architecturally, the piece is drawn entirely three decades ago) to the “blu-bop” blend of jazz “subconscious” rather than a deliberate plan: from its opening chords (structurally as well as and bluegrass he continues to pioneer with his “The banjo is the hero in this play and is trying thematically), themselves drawn entirely from group, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. to avoid the truth of who he is, but in the end the overtone series of a single pitch within them. cannot avoid it.” Fleck notes that the musical arc Thus these chords serve as an ampliÀcation of The African origins of the banjo have provided could be likened to the pattern by which, “when the natural harmony within their atoms, and the yet another area of exploration for Fleck in you’re young, you try every possible idea, but as piece as a whole follows the trajectory of these recent years, leading to such world music you become wiser, sometimes the obvious is not opening chords along a geological time scale. collaborations as the recording sessions Throw such a terrible thing. So in the Àrst movement, Spinning outward from the opening, the music Down Your Heart in 2009. continued on page 39 CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSICSIC 3737.

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