PROGRAM NOTES by Daniel Maki
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PROGRAM NOTES by Daniel Maki España, Rhapsody for Orchestra by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 -1894) The rich and colorful culture of Spain has long been a source of inspiration to artists from other cultures in search of the exotic and the picturesque. In music, cultivation of Spanish style became so common that it gave rise to the old cliché that much of the best Spanish music was written by foreigners. Exoticism is where one finds it , and though Spain is just next door, French composers were particularly fascinated by the colors of Spanish folk instruments as well as the lively rhythms and (to them) unusual modal melodies of Spanish folk music. The locus classicus of such exoticism is Bizet’s beloved opera Carmen , first performed in 1875, but also in purely instrumental music composers such as Eduard Lalo, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel made rich use of Spanish sources. Another name to be added to that list is that of Emmanuel Chabrier, a superb musician much admired in his own day and today underrated. Chabrier was very much in the center of the exciting artistic avant-garde of the period, counting among his circle of friends such important artists as the poet Paul Verlaine and painters susch as Manet, Monet, and Degas. Incidentally, Chabrier was an avid art collector, and a number of the best known paintings of the period which now hang in major museums actually came from his remarkable private collection. Chabrier himself was celebrated as a brilliant pianist as well as a daringly inventive composer. Composers as different in style as Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky spoke highly of him , as did French musicians such as Debussy and Ravel. Ravel himself claimed that Chabrier had changed the course of harmony in French music and that he was the greatest influence of any composer on his own work. In 1882 Chabrier visited Spain and was enthralled by what he saw and heard. He loved the sound of flamenco music and eagerly absorbed the style of dances such as the jota and the malagueña, all danced, so he claimed, by beautiful women, a fact that he much appreciated. (Even though he was accompanied by his wife !) Upon his return to France he began work on a piano piece based on Spanish themes but eventually turned it into a free-form orchestral work. Although he had originlly planned to call it Jota, he eventually chnged the title to España and dedicated it to the conductor Charles Lamoureux, who conducted the first performnce n Paris in 1883 with enormous success. Chabrier became famous almost literally over night. España opens with a representation of the orchestra as one great guitar and then gives us several different themes, one of which has been identified as a lively jota and another as a sultry malagueña. Some of the material is primarily of rhythmic interest, with exciting cross rhythms, while other parts are more melodic. This colorful material is brilliantly orchestrated , including skillful use of woodwinds and brass, passages for two harps, and interesting percussion effects including that of the tambourine . The exilerating effect is that which Chabrier promised in a letter to a friend :” My rhythms , my tunes will arouse the whole audience to a fverish pitch of excitement : everyone will embrace his neighbor madly”. Though Elgin Symphony audiences may generally not be quite that demonstrative, they can nevertheless understand why Manuel de Falla, the leading Spanish composer of his generation , said that no Spanish composer had better captured the spirit of Spanish dance. * * * Maninyas : Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Ross Edwards ( 1943 - ) There was a time in the history of European art music when there was a consensus about what such music actually should be. This period, which lasted roughly from 1650 to 1900, has come to be called the Common Practice Period by music theorists. It might be thought of as a kind of handshake agreement among composers that, although each would speak in his or her own voice, they would all speak essentially the same musical language. At the beginning of the twentieth century that changed dramatically as composers began to stretch the limits of this traditional language, and sometimes to create entirely new ones. By the second half of the twentieth century, after decades of furious experiment, composers seeking to establish an artistic identity were faced with a bewildering set of “isms” from which to choose: expressionism? serialism ? neo- classicism? minimalism? neo-romanticism? post-modernism? The Australian composer Ross Edwards went through just such a musical identity crisis when he was in his 30’s, when he became disenchanted with the current trends in European music and stopped composing and even listening to music for several years. The crisis was eventually resolved as a result of Edwards’ move to a small village north of Sydney where he found inspiration in the natural world around him. From that point on he has said, “the natural environment remains the supreme generative force “ of his music. Other influences on his music include his interest in the rituals and dances of the diverse cultures of his native Australia, as well as a number of other non-Western cultures. Out of this crisis grew two new styles, the first being known as Edwards’ “sacred style “, a plain, contemplative style which was influenced by the sounds of nature as well as his study of Zen texts. The other was developed in the 1980’s , as Edwards wrote what he called his Maninya series, a set of five pieces for voice and instruments. The name comes from a nonsense text which he made up for the first piece of the series, a song for voice and cello. The composer has described the progression of his thinking as follows: “ As I proceeded with the series the ’word’ maninya, meaningless at first, began to connote, for me at least, certain characteristics of the music I was writing. “ Those characteristics include the systematic repetition of rhythmic cells over slowly changing chords which produce an effect which Edwards has called “ dance-chant”. The static and repetative quality of the style suggests both the sounds of nature, such as birdcalls and the chirping of insects, but also the sacred rituals of ancient cultures. Edwards has said that he was probably influenced sub-consciously by various non- Western musics, including African music and the music of the Sufis, a fact born out by the sound of such exotic scales as the pentatonic which permeates the style. Though aspects of the style do suggest a similarity with the so-called minimalist style, Edwards has never associated himself with that movement. The Maninyas: Violin Concerto was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary in 1988, and received its first performance at the Sydney Opera House in August of that year. Like most concertos, this one falls into three movements, two outer fast ones with a contrasting slow middle movement. In this case, the two outer movements are in the maninya style, and are, in fact, based on two pieces from the series: the first movement deriving from Maninya I (1981) for voice and cello, and the third mvement from Maninya V (1985), for voice and piano. The violin part is essentially an elaboration of the voice parts. The opening movement, called First Maninya, begins slowly and calmly with the marking lontano (“in the distance”). Soon the tempo increases as we launch into the maninya style, marked by driving irregular rhythms, with the meter changing at virtually every barline. The motion slows finally and the movement ends quietly. An extended cadenza for the soloist serves as an intermezzo, leading into an austerely meditative, chorale-like movement in which the orchestra plays its slow simple chords while the violin soars plaintively above. The finale, called Second Maninya, launches immediately into a perpetual motion of more irregular rhythms, continuing until the motion stops abruptly and the concerto ends as it began, with a calm postscript played lontano. * * * Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) By Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) One aspect of Maurice Ravel’s complex personality seems to have been a kind of childlike sense of wonder that he retained into adulthood. As one of his biographers has put it, many of his friends thought that in some ways his entire life was lived “ in an exalted state of childhood.” Part of the mystery of the man was that this facet of his character , which took a naïve delight in toys and mechanical objects of all sorts and enjoyed the company of children, could coexist with the most sophisticated and refined of artistic personas. Inevitably this feeling for the world of childhood influenced his music, producing such works as the early song Noel des jouets (Christmas of the Toys), and his opera l’Enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Sorceries). Nowhere, however, did he more successfully evoke the wonder and enchnantment of childhood than in the exquisite music of Mother Goose. As he himself said, “My intention of evoking the poetry of childhood in these pieces naturally led me to simplify my style and thin out my writing.” Simple though the musical language might be in some respects, however, it is handled with the most exquisite craftsmanship and the most sophisticated of orchestral techniques. Like a number of Ravel’s orchestral works, Mother Goose began as a piano piece. It was written in the years 1908 through 1910 for Mimi and Jean Godebski, the young children of his friends , Ida and Cyprien Godebski. As it happened, the Godebski children declined the opportunity to play the public premiere in April of 1910, a task that was given to two other youngsters who were students at the Conservatoire.