Serenade/Toccata

Serenade/Toccata was written in October, 1996, for Los Angeles area pianist and pedagogue, Carol Dvoran-Lancaster. Her style of playing combines lyricism and dynamic attention to rhythm with an imaginative use of pianistic color; she commissioned this work with those qualities in mind. Ms. Lancaster, originally from New York, has studied extensively with the Romanian pianist Sofia Cosma.

Serenade/Toccata was retitled Poem for a New Millennium by Ms. Lancaster. I prefer the original title since the piece is by no means avant-garde. The principal theme is a lyrical idea, reflecting the feeling of a serenade. Understated at first, it becomes more emphatic and propulsive, more toccata-like, as it reappears and is transformed during the course of the work. Each statement of the theme is followed by developments of its rhythmic nature.

There are six main sections. The second section begins at measure 108 with a slight slowing of the and a somewhat diffuse atmosphere, becoming more expressive and more rubato at measure 133. The main theme returns more insistently at measure 203; this section serves as a transition to the rhythmic and percussive variation starting in measure 232. Some semblance of the calm of the opening appears at the recapitulation at measure 283 before a dramatic, arpeggiated bridge leads to the coda at measure 343. From measure 362 to the end a gradual, lavishly-pedaled crescendo builds to a dramatic and colorful ending. The piece should be played quite freely, though with great forward motion, with an expressive range from a dolce cantabile to a driving, rhythmic urgency.

Kathleen Murray performed the premiere in January, 1999, during the Festival of Contemporary at Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. It has been recorded on compact disc by Joan DeVee Dixon on RBW Recordings, P.O. Box 14187, Parkville, Missouri 64152. Emma Lou Diemer

About the

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Emma Lou Diemer received her degrees in music composition from the Yale School of Music (BM, MM) and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D.). She studied further in Brussels on a Fulbright Scholarship and at Tanglewood. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she taught theory and composition from 1971 to 1991. She was composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara 1990-92, and has been organist at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara since 1984.

Diemer has received annual ASCAP awards since 1962 for performances and publications. Other recognition includes a Louisville Orchestra Student Award, a Ford Foundation Young Grant for a 2-year composer-residency in the Arlington, VA schools, an NEA fellowship in electronic music, a 1992 Kennedy Center Friedheim award for her in One Movement for Piano, the 1995 American Guild of Organists Composer of the Year award, and a Mu Phi Epsilon Merit Award for 1995.

In publication since 1957, her music includes works for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voices, and electronic pieces. She has received numerous commissions from schools, churches, and professional groups. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, Hildegard Publishing Company, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, The Sacred Music Press, Arsis Press, Plymouth Music Company, and others. Recordings include piano and on the Vienna Modem Masters label (Encore), North/South Consonance (Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, , and Cello), Coronet (Toccata), and Leonarda (Fantasy) labels, and recently-recorded orchestral works on the Contemporary Record Society label ( No. 1, Suite of Homages), RBW Recordings (Serenade/Toccata) and Master Musicians Collective labels (Concerto in One Movement for Piano and Santa Barbara Overture).

Her philosophy in writing music has been to compose in a number of mediums from songs and hymns to and , with the level of difficulty ranging from quite easy to quite difficult, depending on the needs and capabilities of the performers.