AMERICAN CLASSICS WIND CONCERTOS Ticheli • Warnaar • Ranjbaran James Zimmermann, Clarinet Leslie Norton, Horn • Érik Gratton, Flute Nashville Symphony • Giancarlo Guerrero Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) • Brad Warnaar (b. 1950) • Behzad Ranjbaran (b. 1955) composed for voice. Thus, this movement is an At the same time, the language Warnaar developed Wind Concertos adaptation of my earlier work (An American Dream, for for the piece resulted from a striking limitation he imposed soprano and orchestra), but altered significantly to suit the upon himself: to use nothing but the seven notes of the Frank Ticheli (b. 1958): Clarinet Concerto (2010) between the soloist and ensemble,” the composer unique lyrical traits of the clarinet. pure diatonic scale – also known as the “white scale,” explains. “This high-speed game is intensified by a “While composing the final movement, Riffs for because the piano’s white keys produce a diatonic scale “It’s a process in which the head and the heart are walking bass line, jazzy syncopations, and heavy Lenny, I imagined Bernstein perched on a pulpit (a in C major. This scale has no sharps or flats, which constantly keeping each other in check,” Frank Ticheli backbeats that come and go at will. podium?), passionately preaching about music as a removes “the possibilities of some of the harsh says about the art of composing. “The tension between powerful and necessary force for humanity. In a sense, I dissonances of the full chromatic scale.” Without the use those two forces is what creates a piece of music. And it’s Frank Ticheli pay tribute to his lifelong enthusiasm, unleashed through of such chromatic notes, Warnaar aimed at “avoiding a real mystery, a hall of mirrors: the more you learn, the his conducting, composing, performing, and teaching, and tonality per se … The goal was to avoid the full more you realize you don’t know.” in countless other ways. Like the opening movement, gravitational pull associated with traditional tonality and to Ticheli is also a highly respected teacher and mentor Riffs for Lenny is somewhat jazzy, but now in a more, have the harmonic element constantly evolving and who has taught at the Thornton School of Music at the sultry, gospel-like manner. It swoons, sighs, seduces, and redefining itself.” University of Southern California since the early 1990s. then suddenly takes off in double-time, dancing all the He studied composition with William Bolcom and others at way.” the University of Michigan. Among his numerous accolades are three from the American Academy of Arts Brad Warnaar (b. 1950): Horn Concerto (2015) and Letters: the Charles Ives Scholarship, the 2012 Arts and Letters Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Brad Warnaar began his career following a more or less Fellowship. His catalogue of orchestral, choral, and traditional path for a classical musician: training as a horn chamber works includes pieces commissioned by player at respected institutions (Interlochen Arts Chamber Music America, the American Music Center, Academy, Eastman School of Music) and performing as a and the Orange County, California-based Pacific member of such ensembles as the Rochester Symphony, where he served as composer-in-residence Philharmonic Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony. He for seven years. Ticheli has also built a reputation as a also played for other Canadian ensembles and Rob composer for concert band and as a guest conductor. McConnell’s acclaimed big band, The Boss Brass. Ticheli’s Clarinet Concerto is one of five concertos But in 1980 Warnaar relocated to Los Angeles to he’s composed, the others being for trumpet, trombone, focus his efforts on the entertainment industry. He has alto saxophone, and flute. Wishing for years to compose a worked in the studio with some of the biggest names in concerto specifically for the clarinet, he found his popular music and jazz, and he has played on more than opportunity when he received a commission from the a thousand film scores, while continuing his connections Swedish-American clarinetist Håkan Rosengren. “His to the classical world by playing frequently with the Los fiery virtuosity, combined with his poignantly beautiful Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Chamber sound, had a direct influence on my creative decisions Orchestra. throughout the work,” notes Ticheli. Cast in the familiar Warnaar’s prolific film and commercial work includes three-movement format, the Clarinet Concerto also pays orchestrating music for some of the Fast and Furious homage to a trio of American musical icons: George movies and “ghost-writing” for other composers. Writing a Brad Warnaar Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. concerto for his own instrument inspired Warnaar to draw “The first movement, titled Rhapsody for George after “The second movement, Song for Aaron, evokes the on the wide range of musical styles he has encountered What is traditional is the format of three movements, a wink to the famous clarinet solo – with thanks to the gentle, open-aired quality sometimes heard in Copland’s throughout his career. His Horn Concerto, he explains, with a slow movement enveloped by two faster ones. The Gershwin Estate – is built largely from chromatic, jazzy, slow movements. If the listener notices a song-like quality betrays the influences of “Minimalism, jazz, rock, opening movement is titled Tintinnabulations – an allusion relentless flurries of 16th notes, volleyed back and forth here, it may be because the music was in fact originally pandiatonicism, polytonality, and atonality.” to Edgar Allan Poe’s invented term, which describes the reverberation “that so musically swells from the bells.” In (again, in 6/8!). “It’s all in good fun,” adds Warnaar, “and literature, Omar Khayyam’s Ruba’iyat provided the source Orchestra, encountered Ranjbaran’s Piano Concerto the concerto, the composer notes that “repeated bell the movement then carries on to its happy conclusion.” for Songs of Eternity for soprano and orchestra, which the during a performance by his orchestra. Khaner was so notes signal the beginning and the end of the first composer wrote for Renée Fleming. taken by the music that he suggested writing a concerto movement” and “recur as a signature motif in the first and Behzad Ranjbaran (b. 1955): Flute Concerto (2013) for his own instrument. “This is a real concerto with the third movements.” Still another layer to the bell imagery Behzad Ranjbaran flavor [of Persian musical culture] in it,” he says. “There comes in the form of wordplay, “referring to the ringing of “It is the international character of classical music that Photo: Peter Schaaf are only a few really fine flute concertos. This, I think, will the ‘bell’ of the French horn.” allows composers and performers to work in different add to that list.” The second movement, Elegies; Lamentations, lays countries,” Behzad Ranjbaran observed in a lengthy Ranjbaran has provided the following note on his out a harmonic framework in the strings, over which the interview in 2009 with Persian journalist Shahrokh Flute Concerto: solo horn “sings its elegies in a free-spoken, almost Ahkami. Ranjbaran was expressing his optimistic outlook “The melancholic tone of the ney (the Persian bamboo declamatory style,” followed in each case by a on music as “a powerful means of human expression that flute) is known for its alluring sound, emulating the human descending motif whose downward slope alludes to a transcends borders and nationalities” – an outlook that is voice. In Persian literature, the ney is considered a mystic long-standing musical image that has been used over the particularly valuable in today’s political climate. instrument capable of expressing deep human emotions. centuries to signify grief and lamentation. This motif Born and raised in Iran, Ranjbaran began studying In writing my Flute Concerto, I aimed not only to highlight typically occurs as the bass line and is hence known as violin at the conservatory of his native Tehran at age 9; the modern flautist’s ability to play agile and brilliant the basso lamento; its ubiquity endures even in pop music from an early age, he also knew he wanted to compose. passages, but also to emulate the delicate sound of the today. The process is repeated twice, “after which there is His training was in Western classical music. In fact, the ney, particularly in extended solo flute passages. a sort of fantasia based on the ‘lamentations’ motif, which composer recalls that interest in classical Iranian music “Two prominent characters permeate the first could be seen as transfigurative in nature,” Warnaar was not encouraged at the Tehran Music Conservatory, movement of my concerto. They are marked in the score explains. The movement closes with a return to the initial so he had to take classes at another institution and study as lamentoso and con spirito, expressing grief and loss, statement in the strings, above which the horn “soars off on his own to satisfy his curiosity about classical and folk and joy of living, respectively. The lament is mostly beyond view” to the top of its range. music traditions in Iran. In 1974, at 19, Ranjbaran moved expressed in several extended cadenzas for solo flute, The impulse for the finale originated many years ago. to the United States, continuing his training in Western while the con spirito consists of robust and energetic fast An Italian horn player friend of Warnaar’s had passed classical music at Indiana University and then at The sections played by all forces of the orchestra. Apart from away, and the composer imagined celebrating his life by Juilliard School in New York, where he remains on the these two characters, there are moments of mystery, writing a Tarantella: a fast dance, in a whirling 6/8 meter, faculty. comedy, and the grotesque, among others.