Colorado College Music Department presents Wisdom in Folk Music A spiritual, musical and danceable message of classical and contemporary folklore-based works by Toronto Messiaen Ensemble Gideon Gee-Bum Kim, artistic director/conductor Peter Pinteric, clarinet Jihye Joelle Kee, violin Hee Yeon Kim, cello Matthew Ming Li, piano with guests Paul Nagem, flute Collin McAllister, guitar February 21, 2015 3:00 pm Packard Hall Yesusum, Yesusum! (The Desert Shall Rejoice!) Ofer Ben-Amots (b. 1955) Alborada del Gracioso (Aubade of the Jester) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Regard de l'Esprit de joie (Gaze of the joyful Spirit) Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) Improvisations on an English Folk Tune David Crumb (b. 1962) Intermission You Raise Me Up Gideon Gee-Bum Kim Five Ancient Dances Ofer Ben-Amots 9 Haiku Michael Fiday (b. 1961) From Darkness to Light Ofer Ben-Amots rd 3 Movement out of Concertino Kindly silence all electronic devices during the performance Program Notes Yesusum, Yesusum! (The Desert Shall Rejoice!) is a new rendition of an old Israeli Folk tune by the great David Zehavi. The text is taken from the Book of Prophet Isaiah. The prophetic verses depict a blooming desert and a blossoming wilderness. The fulfillment of this prophecy has been witnessed with the miraculous agricultural life in Israel’s southern desert, the Negev. The current musical arrangement for flute, clarinet, violin and cello is Gideon Gee-Bum Kim’s instrumentation of Ofer Ben-Amots’ arrangement for mixed chorus a cappella or with piano (or organ) accompaniment. The wilderness and the parched land shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose, For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. Isaiah, Chap. 35, Vers. 1, 6 ~ Maurice Ravel was born in the French Pyrenees near the border of Spain. His mother was of Basque origin and was raised in Madrid. The Spanish influence of the composer’s mother is prominent throughout Ravel’s compositions. In 1905, Ravel wrote a set of five piano pieces named Miroirs. The fourth piece of the set, Alborada del Gracioso, is among the first compositions where Ravel experimented with Spanish elements. This piece became so immensely popular that in 1918, Ravel transcribed it (along with one other from the same set) for full orchestra. To pianists, Alborada del Gracioso is notorious for the extremely fast repeated notes, where Ravel gave specific instructions to never slow down to compensate for the difficulty. The double-note glissando passages in the final section of the piece can easily injure pianists’ fingers, especially under unresponsive pianos or ones with sharp key edges. The title itself does not reveal much about the character of the piece, save for the word “Alborada”, which refers to morning music (opposite to “serenade” for evening music). Little bursts of fast triplets among steady eighth notes permeate the piece, imitating the sound of a Spanish castanet player. The seven-minute piece is set in three sections; the two lively outer sections that share the same theme and rhythmic motives and a deeply expressive and melancholic middle section in the middle. The style of the middle section is inspired from “Cante jondo”, a vocalized type of flamenco music typical from the Andalucía region. The return of the opening theme is followed by a festive explosion of pipes, horns and drums that wraps up a rather boisterous dance of clowns. Regard de l'Esprit de joie (Gaze of the joyful Spirit) Violent dance, wild tone of the horns, rapture of the Holy Spirit…the joy of love of the blessed God in the soul of Jesus Christ…I have always been struck by the fact that God is happy, and that an unutterable and perpetual joy lives in the Soul of Christ. Joy, which for me is ecstasy, an intoxicant in the most extravagant sense of the word.” ~Olivier Messiaen One of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, the French composer Olivier Messiaen is probably best known for his chamber work, Quartet for the End of Time, which was written during World War II when he was made prisoner of war during the capitulation of France in 1940. The piano cycle 20 Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus was written in 1943, two years after his release from prison and his appointment at the Paris Conservatoire. It is an enormous set that lasts around two hours when performed as a whole. The cycle is based on meditations on the Nativity, and unifying themes and rhythmic motives are used throughout the entire set. Regard de l’Esprit de joie is the tenth piece of the set and one of the most technically demanding. The piece centers on the “theme of joy”, an ascending scale- like motive in the mixolydian mode. The opening is a heavy dance in the low bass. “Theme of joy” arrives the first time after the dance section with a ghostly development that Messiaen calls “asymmetrical growth”. Violent, horn-like calls dominate the next section and grow in magnitude and complexity within three variations before the music peaks at the second statement of “theme of joy” and the second development section that uses “theme of God” that occurred in earlier pieces of the set. The wild dance returns in double notes in the right hand and builds into the Coda, the third and final statement of joy. Improvisations on an English Folk Tune [2004]: The melody that I use as the basis for this cycle of nine improvisations, known as Scarborough Fair, is from an anonymous English folk song that dates back to late medieval times. As a child, I first heard the tune in a popularized arrangement sung by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (from the 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme). This simple yet melancholy Dorian melody exhibits an exquisitely balanced phrase structure that ultimately allows for a variety of potential harmonizations, many of which I explore throughout the composition. Improvisations on an English Folk Tune was commissioned in 2003 by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University, and premiered by the Third Angle New Music Ensemble in January 2005. ~David Crumb You Raise Me Up When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary; When troubles come and my heart burdened be; Then, I am still and wait here in the silence, Until you come and sit awhile with me. There is no life – no life without its hunger; Each restless heart beats so imperfectly; But when you come and I am filled with wonder, Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity. Refrain: You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up… To more than I can be. You Raise Me Up was composed by Rolf Løvland and based on the traditional Irish tune, Danny Boy which was then based on the tune of Derry Air. Løvland approached Brendan Graham, who was a veteran songwriter, and created the lyrics for the tune. This song complements the theme of the inauguration concert of the Toronto Messiaen Ensemble, “Adversity and Transfiguration”. Gideon Gee-Bum Kim arranged this piece for violin, clarinet, cello and piano in a unique way. The piece starts with solo clarinet that captures the overtones through playing inside the piano. It also adopts two Contemporary Church Music (CCM) songs, Let us pray together by Korean CCM writer, Hyeongwon Ko and You are my all in all by Dennis Jernigan, an American CCM composer. Jernigan has inspired Kim by his belief, “If you lead people to freedom, they WILL worship.” These melodies are juxtaposed spontaneously with the theme of “You raise me up” which is constant in the piano. ~GK Five Ancient Dances is a suite of five character pieces for viola and piano. The piece is one of my earliest compositions, from my student days at the Detmold Music Academy in Germany. It was originally written for clarinet and piano in 1983, but was later revised twice (1996, 2005) and a viola version was added. The music is influenced by Jewish and Israeli folk music, though other east- Mediterranean styles also make an appearance. The second movement, for instance, is based on the Bedouin "Debka" dance, in which a melody is repeated several times at increasing speed and energy, then returns to its original state. The last movement shows Balkan and even Klezmer influence. This work was among my early attempts to combine folk elements within art and concert music. ~Ben-Amots 9 Haiku are a set of varied musical reflections on texts by Basho. Haiku pose a paradox in terms of scope, their concise forms revealing an entire world within. In keeping with this, some of the reflections are as long as 3 minutes, others barely 30 seconds. I chose the texts, then arranged them in a specific order based on subject (birds, moon, bells), framing them by two outer texts suggesting the beginning and end of a life journey. The first setting does make use of an actual rice planting song (Ta-ue-uta), which recurs from time to time. The last haiku is significant in that it is Basho’s “death poem” – the last haiku he ever wrote. 9 Haiku was originally composed for Eleonore Pameijier and Marcel Worms as part of their ‘6 Continents Project’. ~MF 1 The beginning of art – a rice-planting song in the backcountry 2 Midfield, attached to nothing, the skylark singing. 3 Harvest moon – walking around the pond all night long.