The Sea Program Notes
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! Introduction It is interesting to consider that seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered. You never have to go far to find some body of water whether it be a lake, a river or the ocean. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland I was only minutes from the Chesapeake Bay. Known for its seafood, particularly crabs, shipping and industry, as well as historic Navel battles the Chesapeake is the life source of the city and the eastern half of the state. I have fond memories of picnics at Fort McHenry watching tankers or cruise ships come in and out of the port, sitting on a pier fishing for crabs, and spending my summers on a sailboat. These memories remind me of the opening lines of Longfellow’s poem The Secret of the Sea, “Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me, As I gaze upon the sea!, All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me…” There are many great poems, stories and songs that have water or the sea as a central theme. Tonight I want to share with you a small collection of pieces from the flute repertoire that depict some of the many secrets! of the sea. Flute Concerto No. 1 in F major, Op. 10, No. 1, RV 433 "La Tempesta! di Mare” Antonio Vivaldi: Born: March 4, 1678, Venice, Italy. !Died: July 28, 1741, Vienna, Austria. La Tempesta di Mare is the first of six concertos, known as Op. 10, that Vivaldi was commissioned to write in 1725 for a publisher in Amsterdam. These six concerti were finished and published between 1729-30 and are notable as the first collection of flute concerti ever published. Vivaldi’s style includes impelling rhythmic vitality, varied textures, and relatively spontaneous-sounding melodic ideas. The spontaneity of the melody and rhythmic vitality in La Tempest di Mare can be heard from the opening of the first movement as the notes just burst forth with sudden force and energy. The effect is a highly !stylized characterization of a storm out at sea. The first movement is in ritornello form which creates an antiphonal characteristic between the soloist and tutti. This opposition augments the dramatic role of the soloist. Each entrance of the solo flute line becomes more ornamented and decorative creating a sense of the growing intensity of the storm. In the second movement the storm comes to a momentary calm as the ship passes through the eye of the storm. Here Vivaldi is focused on the broad and bold effect of the momentary relief after the preceding fury. The simple chordal texture, sparse rhythm and few melodic elements in the strings help convey elements of a calm sea. The flute solo also plays a melodic line made up of triplets which gives the movement a gentle rocking feel. This doesn’t last long and the little ship is thrown back into the ferocity of the storm with the third movement. The antiphonal elements are back but this time in shorter sections creating a thicker texture throughout. It is as if the sea and storm have become one and drowned the little ship. If the beating to the ship is not enough, rapid ascending scales can be heard in the flute solo that resemble lighting striking a final blow.! Sonata ‘Undine’ in! E minor, Opus 167 Carl Reinecke: Born: June 23, 1824, Altona, Hamburg. !Died: March 10, 1910, Leipzig, Germany. The inspiration for the Sonata came from Friederich Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouque’s romance novella called Undine. The title character is a water spirit who longs for an immortal soul which can only be obtained by marriage to a mortal man. Though Reinecke was highly influenced by Fouque’s novella, he was more interested in representing the larger ideas of the story rather than a !musical retelling of the legend. Elements of the story are evident throughout the work. In Fouque’s story, Undine leaves her water world and is discovered as a child by a fisherman and his wife who then raise her as their daughter. The second movement paints a picture of Undine and her life with her foster parents. A free spirit, she is often naughty. Reinecke captures this relationship with a musical chase between the flute and piano. The carefree folk-like piano solo represents the knight Hulbrand whom Undine falls in love with. Their love theme can be heard in the beautiful flute melody in the middle of the movement. The third movement represents the couple's happy years of marriage. However, the peacefulness is interrupted when a fountain is uncovered and water spirits rush out and beckon to Undine to return to her watery home. All is stilled suddenly by the dropping of a boulder over the fountain and peace briefly returns. Undine does return to her watery home. Hulbrand, lacking constancy, makes plans to remarry. On the night of his wedding Undine returns in spirit form veiled and shrouded like a bride! to take revenge on him and kills him with a kiss. Six Lieder for flute and piano arranged by Theobald Böhm !Das Fishermadchen & Am Meer from Scwahengesang! by Franz Schubert, text by Heinrich Heine Franz Schubert: Theobald Böhm: Born: January 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, Austria. Born: April 9, 1794, Munich, Germany. !Died: November 19, 1828, Vienna, Austria. Died: November 25, 1881, Munich, Germany. Böhm arranged a collection of six Shubert Lieder for flute and piano in 1870. He had virtually stopped composing original works by the time he sent his new flute to Dorus, flute professor at the Paris Conservatoire, in 1863, but he arranged these Schubert songs to promote the instrument. They were not published during his lifetime. The two you will here tonight are from Schubert’s Scwahengesang and based on poems by Heinrich Heine. Das Fischermädchen (The Fishermaid) and Am Meer (By the Sea) are two with texts by Heine. In Das Fischermädchen, the narrator calls the maiden in her boat to come to shore and be with him. The music is a deceptively pleasant barcarolle in which the gentle lapping of water on the boat encourages the poet’s false trust in the fishermaid. The story then leaps forward in Am Meer, as the narrator describes how the two sat together by the sea. But it is a lover’s lament, full of irony and bitterness. The poem's final lines first reveal his current sadness ("My !soul dies of desire") and point to the cause ("The wretched woman has poisoned me with her tears"). Barcarola et scherzo pour! flute et piano, Op. 4 Casella, Alfredo: Born: July 25, 1883, Turin, Italy. !Died: March 5, 1947, Rome, Italy. Alfredo Casella was one of the leading Italian composers of the first half of the twentieth century. This early work was written in 1903 and dedicated to Philippe Goubert, a flute virtuoso on the faculty of the Paris Conservatory, where Casella studied. In style it is a melodic piece with rich late Romantic harmonies. A barcarole is a boatman¹s song, most typically a Venetian gondola song. The genre typically has a gentle rocking motion and a flowing, romantic melody. Casella’s barcarole begins in that mood, but in a contrasting central section the piano writing becomes more percussive and the melody takes on a more passionate, disturbed character. The second half of the work, the scherzo, retains some of the pattern of the accompaniment from the barcarole for a prominent ostinato figure, as well as other musical material from the first part. It is marked to be played "Presto possible" (as fast as possible) and features bright staccato notes from the flute..