Wendy Herbener Mehne, Flute
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Wendy Herbener Mehne, flute A Musician During the Pandemic Online, live from the Hockett Family Recital Hall Sunday, November 8th, 2020 4:00 pm Program Isolation and Contemplation Meditation for a Lonely Flute (1983) Fredrick Kaufman (b. 1936) Comfort and Joy Prelude from The J. S. Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book (1685-1750) I, BWV 850 (c.1722) Transcribed by Fritz Schindler/Revised by Gerhard Braun Courante from the Cello Suite, No. 3, BWV 1009 (c. 1717-1723) Nature and Transformation To Greet the Sun (2004) Katherine Hoover (1937-2018) Bati l’Gani (2003) Meira Warshauer (b. 1949) Danza de la Mariposa (2008) Valerie Coleman (b. 1970) Dance and Love (or the Dance of Love) Tango Etudes (1987) Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) IV. Lento-Meditativo III. Molto marcato e energico Peace and Hope Be Still My Soul (2003) Rhonda Larson (b. 1963) Program Notes Last Spring at the beginning of the pandemic, faced with cancelled performances and the loss of artistic collaboration with my fellow musicians, I began to reflect on how I could maintain a sense of well-being and musical inspiration. I turned to an in-depth exploration of the vast and rich solo repertoire for the flute. The pieces I chose for this recital represent the variety and scope of this repertoire – music of Peru and Argentina, Native American music, new age music, contemporary music, and 18th-century music, as well as traditional and non-traditional ways to play the flute. This repertoire also represents the different ways I sought to maintain my equilibrium – meditating, playing the music of J.S. Bach, taking a walk out in the beauty of nature, dancing (like no one’s watching), and staying hopeful for the future by counting my many blessings. Meditation for a Lonely Flute was conceived by Kaufman during his service in the Israeli army. He found himself sitting alone in the Sinai Desert at the conclusion of Israel’s 1973 Yom Kippur War amid the sand dunes and wind. Kaufman’s uniquely expressive sense of stillness in this piece creates a vision of the desert that transcends the bloodshed, the cold and heat of the moment and meditates on the magic of the desert’s sounds and sands. J.S. Bach’s Prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier and Courante from his Cello Suite, No. 3 are the only transcriptions on this program. Both of these pieces where written in the early 1700’s, which is the same time period that Bach wrote his Partita for Solo Flute, one of the most important solo works in the flute repertoire. The challenges of performing pieces written for instruments that do not have to physically breathe aside, Fritz Schindler’s transcriptions work surprisingly well for the flute and, with apologies to harpsichordists, pianists, and cellists, offer flutists the opportunity to expand our repertoire of J. S. Bach’s music beyond the incredible works he wrote specifically for the flute. Katherine Hoover’s To Greet the Sun is one of her four solo works for flute that was inspired by the Native American flute and its role in their society and culture. The music not only reflects the style of Native American flute playing, but also the connection between flute playing and nature. Hoover wrote the following about her inspiring piece. “To greet the sun is to give thanks for the great richness of the Earth and gift of life. Various cultures have done this in differing ways, from dawn prayers to dances and ceremonies to researching the sun’s awe-inspiring power.” Internationally acclaimed flutist Paula Robison commissioned Meira Warshauer to write Bati l’Gani. Warshauer wrote the following about this beautifully expressive piece. “Bati l’Gani (I Have Come into My Garden) offers a glimpse of intimacy between lovers, between Creator and Creation, the delight of recognition: Divine goodness flowing into the world. Here Shechinah, God’s in-dwelling feminine Presence, communes with Creator in the earthly garden of Creation.” Danza de la Mariposa (Dance of the Butterflies) is flutist/composer Valerie Coleman’s only solo piece for flute. She writes the following about her unique and colorful piece. “Danza de la Mariposa is a rhythmic and melodic tone poem giving the listener a tour of South America, inspired by the various species of butterflies that inhabit the continent. Full of rich and unique colors, butterflies dance and weave in syncopated rhythms within the work, while alternating between the feel of 3 over 4 throughout. The slower sections pay homage to the beautiful and sorrowful sounds in the style of Yaravi, a Peruvian lament song. The melodies and rhythm eventually begin to evolve into the spirit and syncopation of Argentinean concert tango, and the end returns to the feel of Yaravi.” Argentinian tango composer and master of the bandoneon, Astor Piazzolla, wrote his Tango Etudes in 1987. Originally written for flute, or alternatively violin, these pieces are reflective of Piazzolla’s reinvention of the tango after studying composition with Nadia Boulanger. His tango nuevo (new tango) combines elements of the traditional tango with dissonance, chromaticism, frequent meter changes, polyphony, and jazz, and brought the tango from its beginnings in the bordellos of Argentina to international concert halls. Flutist-composer Rhonda Larson was inspired by the hymn Be Still My Soul, which originated from Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia. The lyrics to the hymn’s first verse are: Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul; Thy best, thy heavenly Friend Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Larson writes the following about her inspirational experience while composing this piece. “The first line of the hymn reads, Be still my soul, thy Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently your cross of grief and pain. At the time I was writing what was to become this solo, those words rang a chord deep within my own heart, as if being personally addressed. It was this soulful epiphany that convinced me to incorporate the Sibelius theme, since it was incessantly playing through my mind whenever I was not working on the piece. And true to the title, the soul never quite “stills”, though the mists and clouds clear at the end where the soul seems to “cross over to the other side” in perfect peace.” Wendy Herbener Mehne Wendy Herbener Mehne is professor of flute at Ithaca College, where she was a 1995-96 Dana Teaching Fellow and the 2004 London Sabbatical Scholar, and principal flutist with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. With Pulitzer prize-winning composer, Steve Stucky, and colleagues from Ithaca College and Cornell University, she was a founding member of the new music group, Ensemble X. Dr. Mehne has been a guest artist and given master classes throughout the United States and has performed with the Chautauqua Symphony and at the Skaneateles Festival. As a member of the Ithaca Wind Quintet, she gave the world premiere performances of Karel Husa's Cayuga Lake (Memories) at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and Dana Wilson's Mirrors at the 1993 National Flute Association convention in Boston. As a soloist, she gave the National Flute Association convention premiere performance of Dana Wilson’s The Conjurer in 2017. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Constitution Hall, national ACDA and SEAMUS conferences, the International Guitar Festival in Fort de France, Martinique, numerous National Flute Association conventions, and in broadcasts by affiliates of National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service. Dr. Mehne is a contributing author for Flutist Quarterly, Flute Talk and the Instrumentalist, and has recorded for the Koch, Albany, Mark, and Open Loop labels. Her CD, The Conjurer: Chamber Music for Flute by Dana Wilson, was released in August 2016..