We’re about to leave chilly Chicago, so have your tickets or boarding passes ready and don’t forget to bring a snack! This month the ESO invites you on a musical tour of eight European countries. However, the pieces of music chosen for March are not the grand German symphonies, French oratorios or Italian operas. Rather, they’re works in the Musical Notes and Activities for Seniors classical style that we hope will give you a vivid impression of the country. We’ve cho- from the Evanston Symphony Orchestra sen pieces called “tone poems” or “sound pictures” as well as works based on the folk music of each country, Itinerary the music that comes from the earth and lives on in the bones and the souls of the people. These selections include music inspired by Scotland, England, 2 Scottish bagpipe and fiddle tunes, English Morris dances, Spanish gardens, French nursery rhymes, Italian pines and others. So, find Ireland & St. Patrick’s Day 4 a comfortable seat and settle in for the trip. All aboard! By the way, all of the travel posters in this High- France, 6 Notes date from the 1950s, many from airlines that no longer exist like TWA (Trans World Norway, Armenia 8 Airlines) and Pan Am (Pan American), which couldn’t keep up with changing travel demands Italy 10 and went out of business. Braniff, the airline that produced this colorful Chicago poster, Spain 12 suffered the same fate. Others managed to adapt and some of those have just changed Bygones, Puzzles, Jokes names; BOAC, British Overseas Airways Cor- & Other Amusements 14 poration, is now just plain “British Airways.”

Vol. 1, No. 9 March 2021 March 2021

Editor ...... KellyHighNotes Brest van Kempen Technical Advisor...... David Ellis Puzzle & Maze Checkers …………………………..Connor, Addison, Ryan, Calli, Ciara & Gus Hi hN t © C 2021 SO ( f ’ ESOA makes no claim to copyrights held by others and uses such materials for educational purposes only under the “fair use” exception to copyright law.

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First stop on our armchair travels is bonny From Scotland we’ll head south to England, Scotland, the northern half of the island of where so many of our American musical Great Britain and home to bagpipes, tartans, traditions started out, including that of the wild scenery and wonderfully warm people. local brass band. (Think The Music Man!) The bagpipe is the national instrument of Scot- Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”) Vaughan Williams land, but, like kale, you either love the sound (1872-1958) was born into a minister’s family or hate it. We won’t get into that discussion in Gloustershire, which borders Wales in SW here, but will list some sources in the Links. England. He was very influenced by English Max Bruch (1838-1920) was a German composer, conductor and folk song and his music has a distinctly “English” sound. In 1904, he teacher, and who wrote more than 200 works. Although not Scottish, began compiling hymns for the English Hymnal. While reviewing Bruch captured the flavor of the country perfectly in his Scottish collections of English folk songs and church music, he wrote, “I Fantasy, a work in four movements based on Scottish folk songs. wondered then if I was wasting my time. But I know now that two We’ll provide a link to a fabulous performance by Nicola Benedetti, years of close association with some of the best - as well as some Scotland’s foremost classical violinist. of the worst - tunes in the world was a better musical education than any amount of sonatas and fugues.” The first movement is built on "Through the Wood, Laddie". It begins with a brooding violin solo evoking hard life in the glens Vaughan Williams was particularly taken by the folk songs he and by the lochs. Then the music warms with a “Celtic” flavor, discovered because they were fast becoming extinct; the oral tra- perhaps the echo of bagpipes. This tune also appears at the end dition, which had handed them down through the generations, of the second and fourth movements. was being undermined by the increase of literacy and printed music in rural areas. He travelled the countryside, transcribing The second movement is a lively piece built around "The Dusty and preserving many himself, fascinated by the beauty of the Miller", a poem by Robert Burns that tells the tale of a lass who – music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary alas – fell in love with the local grain grinder: ”Dusty was the coat; people. Later he incorporated many of the songs and melodies dusty was the colour; dusty was the kiss that I got from the miller!” into his own music, which did much to raise appreciation of trad- The third tune is a sad lament "I'm A' Doun for Lack O' Johnnie" itional English folk song and melody. (“I’m All Down for the Lack of Johnnie.”), another tale of poignant In March of 2018, the ESO performed Vaughan Williams’ English regret for a lost love, but in this music, it seems so much more… Folk Song Suite of three traditional English folk songs woven toge- The fourth movement includes sprightly variations on the tune in ther for orchestra. Originally written in 1923 for military band, it’s the patriotic anthem "Scots Wha Hae" (also with lyrics by Robert one of his most famous works. The piece has three movements: a Burns, Scotland’s greatest poet). It’s the unofficial Scottish national sprightly March, based on Seventeen Come Sunday; a melancholic anthem and, like “The Star Spangled Banner,” is a song of war. Intermezzo with My Bonny Boy, and a final rousing March from Folk It’s sung in Scots and the first lines translate as “Scots who have Songs from Somerset. It’s easy to imagine a British Army or local with Wallace bled… welcome to your gory bed…” (If you’ve seen band proudly marching along to tunes the musicians had learned the film Braveheart, you’ll understand the reference.)xxxxxxxxx . from their grandparents.

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“Everyone’s a bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day” - Since we’re still in Ireland let’s celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Here are and traditional Irish music must certainly be some facts – and some fiction – about Ireland and its patron saint. one of the reasons! Who can resist a lively jig or a soulful ballad? Many composers have Who was St. Patrick? He was a Roman citizen who was born in arranged traditional Irish songs, but here we’ll the year 385 CE somewhere along the west coast of Britain, most highlight one close to home. likely in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to an Irish sheep farmer. He escaped when he was Leroy Anderson (1908-75) was the king of 22 and spent the next 12 years in a Christian monastery. He then American light music. (We featured his returned to Ireland and is credited with bringing Christianity to that Sleigh Ride in the December HighNotes and island. He died in 461 and is buried at Downpatrick. The Typewriter in October.) In 1947, the Eire Society of Boston commissioned him to create an orchestral suite of traditional Irish What’s this about snakes? Saint Patrick is known for driving folk music to be performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra. the snakes from Ireland. It’s quite true that there are no no Anderson completed four movements in just 11 days, then added no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have two movements in 1949 for the version we know today. been! The island separated from the rest of Europe 1. The Irish Washerwoman: not only a traditional Irish jig, but also at the end of the Ice Age when all the snakes were part of Scottish Highland dancing competitions. Celtic cousins. farther south where it was warmer. (Smart snakes!) 2. The Minstrel Boy: one of the saddest of Irish ballads. “The When was the first St. Patrick's Day parade? Not in Ireland, but minstrel boy to the war has gone…” We already know what rather in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the British army happens to the lad. The song was popular during the U.S. Civil marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their War, when a third verse was added. It’s on the Links pages music, the parade helped them reconnect with their Irish roots.

3. The Rakes of Mallow: a lively jig or polka about the young hell- Are shamrocks lucky? That depends on whether you’re raisers from the Creagh family in the town of Mallow. Also used lucky enough to find one! One estimate suggests that as a fight song for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish! there are about 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers for 4. The Wearing of the Green: an old ballad lamenting the English every lucky four-leaf clover. Legend gives meaning to repression of supporters of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. “They’re each leaf of the clover: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the hanging men and women for the wearing of the green." third for love, and the fourth for good luck. 5. The Last Rose of Summer: a lovely song based on a poem by What’s a leprechaun? In most Irish folktales leprechauns are Thomas Moore about growing old. It was set to music in the small, stocky creatures who like living in remote places. They are early 1800s and a favorite of solo singers. We’ll also thought to be extremely wealthy and like to hide post a link to Mendelssohn’s version for piano on their gold in secret places (including, of course, at the the Links page end of the rainbow.) Leprechauns are also ill-natured and mischievous - and they love to outwit humans. 6. The Girl I Left Behind: Speaks for itself!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

4X X5 might describe. “Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick” references the old English practice of What images do we come to mind when jumping over a candlestick for luck. “Hickory someone mentions France? Definitely Paris, Dickory Dock,” derived from the ancient Celtic with the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, plus numbers for eight, nine, and ten (hevera, high fashion, fabulous wines – and the food devera, dick), is a rhyme that children once is to die for! However, we’d bet that Mother used to select something in the same way Goose is not high on your list of things very that kids today might use “eenie meenie minie moe.” French. Allow us to digress for a page or two As for “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Mary was real, as was the little and, yes, there will be music. lamb, and it probably followed her to school on occasion—so said, So, just who was Mother Goose? Was she author Sarah Hale, who penned the sweet tale in 1830. . real? Where did she come from? These are the questions that And now for the music: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a major children have been asking about Mother Goose for centuries. But French Impressionist in music at the turn of the 20th century. He it’s a good question because the stories had to start somewhere. used rich harmonies and new scales, and was interested in unusual One possible starting point is the mother of the chords from music systems in other parts of the world. Ravel also French king Charlemagne, who was born in 742. had a special quality, and a love for mechanical toys, that allowed His mother, Berthe, was said to have a large him to create music for children that adults could also appreciate. deformed foot with webbed toes, which led to Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite was written in 1910 as a piano duet her nickname “Goose-footed Berthe.” She is for children of friends; it’s based on five classic French fairy tales. also said to have loved children, and there are The following year Ravel orchestrated the work as a full ballet. images in ancient French church showing her spinning yarn and telling stories to young ones. (I) Sleeping Beauty: A princess pricks her finger and is sent into a deep sleep by her Fairy Godmother to protect her. (II) Tom Almost 1000 years later, in 1697, a Frenchman named Charles Thumb: A boy leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to lead him home, but Perrault published a book of eight fairy tales that he subtitled birds eat them up! Listen for the bird calls in this movement. (III) Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye, or Tales of Mother Goose. It included Empress of the Pagodas: A wicked witch has turned a princess “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Puss in Boots” and and a prince into an ugly little girl and a big green serpent. They “Cinderella,” all of which have survived for over 300 years. travel to a land inhabited by tiny beings called Pagodas; the music In 1765, an Englishman named John Newbery published Mother describes their size. The spell is broken and the prince and Goose’s Melody, which shifts the focus of Mother Goose from fairy princess become the good rulers of the land. (IV) Beauty and the tales to nursery rhymes, at least for English-speakers. Newbery’s Beast – Beauty and the Beast converse, with the contrabassoon as collection included early versions of “Hey Diddle Diddle,” “Jack and the voice of the Beast. The gentle Beast persuades Beauty (“Belle” Jill,” “Little Jack Horner” and “Jack Sprat.” (By the way, the Newbery in French, of course!) to marry him, and he is restored as a hand- Medal for books for young people is named John Newbery.) some prince by true love. (V) The Fairy Garden – Prince Most Mother Goose nursery rhymes have European origins, but Charming wakens the Sleeping Beauty, fanfares ring out, and some, like Mary Had a Little Lamb, are uniquely American. Ideas the Fairy Godmother blesses all of the characters. The harp adds and theories abound as to what real people or events the verses to the enchantment of the magical garden.

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Norway – land of skis, fjords, Vikings, trolls A detour to the Middle East, to Armenia, a and giants! Among the human category of country in the shadow of Mt. Ararat that prides the latter stands Edvard Grieg, composer itself on being the first to adopt Christianity as of music with a definite Norwegian flavor. a state religion, which it did in 40 AD. It’s had We featured Grieg and his “In the Hall of its ups and downs, including bitter battles with the Mountain King” in our “Scary Music” its Turkish neighbors and almost 70 years High-Notes in October with this: (1922-1991) of domination by the USSR. Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was lucky to Through all of that, however, it has maintained a strong cultural sense and produced a major have been born into a family that was very 20th involved in the music scene of Bergen, century composer. Norway. He loved music from the time he was a child and would sit Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (1903-1978) had a decidedly non-musical at the keyboard for hours discovering what the piano could do. He childhood. He was born in 1903 into a family of poor Armenians in especially loved finding chords! When Edvard was15, the famous Tbilisi, now the capital of the modern Republic of Georgia. As a boy, Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull, came to visit the Griegs’ summer he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but never estate. He heard Edvard play some of his own compositions, then studied it or learned to read it. In 1921, just before Armenia was said to him, "You are going to Leipzig to become an artist.” annexed to the USSR, Khachaturian went to Moscow to study Graduation from the Leipzig Conservatory in 1862 set Grieg on the music. He began composing almost immediately. path to success as a composer. He became known for his Khachaturian based much of his work on the folk music of the 15 “Scandinavian” music, particularly that based on Norwegian folk Soviet Republics and was wildly popular, receiving the Lenin Prize, themes. He worked on an opera about a famous Norwegian king, the highest honor, several times. However, he fell out of favor in and composed music for some works by the great Norwegian 1948, condemned by the Communist Party’s Composers’ Union as playwright Henrik Ibsen, including the tone poem Peer Gynt. being “too pro-West, not Soviet enough.” Prokofiev and Shostaoko- Grieg’s career as a concert pianist and later as a composer took vich were also targeted and the three were forced to issue public him all over Europe and he became friends with Tchaikovsky and apologies before they could continue working without harassment. Liszt. Grieg is known as the “Father of Norwegian music,” although, In 1941-42, six years before his brush with the Communist Party, like most of these marvelous “fathers” he actually incorporated Khachaturian composed the music for a ballet called Gayane. His themes from his country’s folk music into his own compositions in original Gayane was the story of a young Armenian such a way that made them popular with a wider international woman whose patriotism was tested when she dis- audience. Grieg’s Holberg Suite is based on Norwegian dances covered her husband was a traitor. In later years he from the 1700s. It was originally modified the plot several times; the final story places composed in 1884 for piano, but the romance over “nationalistic zeal.” You’ll recognize following year He adapted it for string the exciting “Sabre Dance,” followed by “Dance of orchestra. There is an introduction the Maidens,” “Lullaby,” and “Hopak,” a dance that followed by five lively dances. gets faster and faster as the finale.

X8 X9 Christians in Rome. Respighi’s music lets us imagine a figure chanting, at first softly, then in a crescendo that gets louder and

louder, then eerily fading away into the depths of the catacomb. This stop in Italy won’t focus on folk music. – “A quiver runs through the air: the Rather we’ll hear a piece by Ottorino Respighi The Pines of the Janiculum pine-trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear that’s a musical description of some of the light of a full moon. A nightingale is singing.” Respighi uses notes famous places in Rome. Respighi (1879- to paint pictures. The piano represents the quiver in the air and a 1936) was born in Bologna, where he began clarinet solo pictures the moonlight. The oboe and viola play his music studies and continued them in together, as do the harp and celesta, then the violins, all making Russia before settling permanently in Rome. the Pines of the Janiculum dreamily rustle in the night air. Then all He was a master at creating “sound pictures,” of a sudden, there is the call of a nightingale - a real nightingale, as “The Pines of Rome” makes very clear. whose song was recorded and played from backstage as part of The Pines of the Villa Borghese. “Children are at play,” Respighi the piece. Respighi did this in 1924, the first use ever of a writes, “in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese; they phonograph record with a symphony orchestra. (It’s interesting to dance round in circles, they play at soldiers, march- speculate what he might have done with today’s technology.) ing, marching and fighting; they are wrought up The Janiculum is a hill, but is not one of the seven hills for which by their own cries like swallows at evening; they Rome is famous, apparently because it is on the other side of the come and go in swarms.” Respighi uses the Tiber River from the site of ancient Rome. However, it has been high instruments – flute, piccolo, celesta, harp, nicknamed the “Eighth Hill” and is very important in Roman history piano, and glockenspiel to evoke the sound of as a site of forts, villas, cathedrals, and a famous aqueduct. It has children’s voices. You can also hear the music been a public park since 1884. of a traditional singing game that’s passed from one section of the orchestra to another, The Pines of the Appian Way - When the nightingale falls silent, getting more and more excited, when all at once three trumpets we hear in the distance the tramping of many feet, a conjuring of the blare in discord – perfect music to describe kids sticking out their Roman legions marching along. Respighi describes the scene: tongues and thumbing their noses! Then all at once, poof! They’re “Misty dawn on the Appian Way: solitary pine trees guarding the gone, off to play somewhere else or perhaps just home for dinner. magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythm of unending footsteps. …[A] fantastic vision of bygone glories: trumpets sound The Villa Borghese park covers an area of about 3.5 square miles and, in the brilliance of the newly-risen sun, a consular army bursts – a lot of space for children to play in! The park also has beautiful forth towards the Sacred Way mounting in triumph to the Capitol.” gardens and several famous museums. The Appian Way was the great military highway of ancient Pines near a Catacomb - Respighi describes the next Rome. Respighi paints a picture of the power of the scene: “Suddenly… we see the shades of the pine Roman Empire, with blaring trumpets representing trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb. From the the Roman army and the sad English horn a lament depth rises the sound of mournful psalm-singing, for those lost in battle. The music then builds to an floating through the air like a solemn hymn, and exciting climax, full of brass and percussion to give gradually and mysteriously dispersing.” These us a musical vision of the grandeur that was Rome. catacombs were often the site of the burials of the earliest

10X X11 But is that the whole story? For many years there was speculation that the second movement was a lament for the 1937 bombing of About 30 miles due south of Madrid in civilians by the German Nazi and Italian Fascist allies of General central Spain is the city of Aranjuez, Francisco Franco’s government during the Spanish Civil War. After whose history and culture are vividly Rodrigo’s death in 1999, his wife made public the rationale given brought to life in Concierto de Aranjuez above. However, a writer in Wikipedia notes that Concierto de (Aranjuez Concerto) by Spanish Com- Aranjuez was written in 1939, when the Spanish Civil War “had just poser Joaquin Rodrigo. Rodrigo was ended, beginning (or continuing, depending on the [region] of born in Sagunto, Spain, on November 22, Spain) the Spanish State of general Francisco Franco. A work 1901, perhaps a very prophetic day for premiered in Spain in this highly charged environment had to cele- him to arrive: the date is St. Cecilia’s Day, brate, or pretend to celebrate, or permit the interpretation that it was the patron saint of music! When Rodrigo celebrating, the current political situation. was three, he contracted diphtheria and The celebration of a palace and its lost his eyesight, but blindness didn’t stop gardens of a 16th century Habsburg him from beginning musical studies when he was eight. He later king offered no ideological threat to studied in Paris with Paul Dukas (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.) From the Francoist State, and was in the beginning of his career as a composer, Rodrigo wrote all of his harmony with its emerging policy works in Braille, then dictated them to a copyist. Rodrigo was the of celebrating Spanish history, main force behind the great interest in classical guitar, which grew conservatively interpreted.” As you listen to the music, you may out of his works for that instrument. However, he himself was an want to ask yourself if there are perhaps more layers to Concierto excellent pianist but never mastered the guitar to his satisfaction. de Aranjuez than originally thought… The concerto opens with the soloist trading phrases with the rest of the orchestra. You can hear the string sections join the soloist in plucking their strings, imitating the sound of the guitar. The lovely Next we head to Andalucía in the far south of Spain, but it’s just a second movement introduces the haunting main theme with the short stop. Andalucía was the center of the Hispano-Arab culture; english horn (a cousin of the oboe). Rodrigo wrote this movement its major cities of Granada, Cordoba and Seville were the most in a single evening. His young wife had miscarried their first child educated in Europe, places where Arab math, arts, science and and lay dangerously ill. He expresses the pain that he may lose her language flourished in the Middle Ages. Muslims, Christians and but at the same time returns to the wonderful memories of their Jews and lived in relative harmony for the honeymoon trip, where they strolled times. But there were wars, of course; the through the beautiful 18th century Christian kings of the north finally prevailed – gardens of Aranjuez. It has been which is why, in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella called one of the most bittersweet ordered all Jews and Muslims to convert, be melodies in music. In the finale, tried by the Inquisition, or leave. Most went to Rodrigo demands the highest skill North Africa – and they took music with them, from the guitar soloist, bringing this music now known in Tunisia as “malouf” or colorful work to a cheerful end. “musiqa andalucia.” More in another HighNotes!

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These puns are so bad that we think we should apologize for suggesting that you suffer through them! Groan away!

What girl didn’t want a matching set of luggage with a round hat box?!

And in honor of St Patrick’s Day… Wow! Look at all that leg room! If you had a window seat, you could But travel wasn’t easy actually get up and move to the or a pleasure for all of aisle without stepping on anyone! us in the 1950s…

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1. Max. ______was German, but he captured the Some important HighNotes are hidden in this puzzle! can you find them? Remember: Words can go up, down, across, OR spirit of Scotland in his Scottish ______diagonally, AND backwards or forwards - 8 directions in all! 2. Robert ______was Scotland’s greatest poet. And, can you find “OZ” at least 40 times?

3. Ralph ______Williams loved English

______music and wrote for ______bands.

4. “The Wearin’ o’ the ______is part of Leroy ______’s Irish Suite to

be performed by the Boston ______Orchestra.

5. Charlemagne’s mother was named ______.

She may have been the namesake of ______’s

______Suite. 6. Edvard ______is considered the

father of ______music.

7. Aram ______was Condemned by the Communist Party’s Composers’ Union and Forced to make a public apology for being “not Soviet enough.”

8. The ______by Respighi is a “sound picture” of the Eternal City.

9. Joaquin ______was blind, but his Concierto de ______gives the listener a vivid musical picture of Spain.

10. Find these hidden instruments: Piano Flute Oboe Drum Tympani Violin Cello

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Here are some 1950s airlines travel posters we couldn’t use in We don’t know who wrote this sunny ode to Illinois winter so we this HighNotes, but we loved the art and wanted to share it! can’t credit the poet – but we can all relate to the sentiment!

CLUES: Bruch, Fantasy, Burns, Vaughan, Folk, Brass, Green, Anderson, Pops, Berthe, Ravel, Mother Goose, Grieg, Norwegian, Khachaturian, Pines of Rome, Aranjuez

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