Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3
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Jessica Meyer’s Through Which We Flow is really evocative and beautiful, and uses sounds and techniques we don’t always get to use. I am always excited to discover new works — and the exploration into those new sounds makes the standard repertoire sound more fresh to my ears as well! BONNIE THRON, NCS PRINCIPAL CELLO Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3 OTTORINO RESPIGHI BORN July 9, 1879, in Bologna, Italy; died April 18, 1936, in Rome PREMIERE Composed 1931; first performance unknown OVERVIEW Ottorino Respighi was one of the most imaginative orchestrators of the first part of the 20th century. While most of his musical studies were undertaken in Italy, he spent two crucial years in Russia where he took lessons in orchestration with Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov. He developed a masterful technique in the use of instrumental color and sonority, firmly rooted in the late-Romantic tradition. He maintained this style with only marginal influence from the revolutionary changes in music that occurred during his lifetime. Respighi was also a scholar of early music, editing the works of Claudio Monteverdi and Tomaso Antonio Vitali, as well as transcribing works by many Renaissance and early Baroque composers — although in an idiosyncratic manner anathema to modern musicological practices. He also delighted in arranging obscure early music for modern performance. His three suites of Ancient Airs and Dances are based on Italian and French lute music mostly from the early 17th century to accompany dancers and singers. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Respighi composed the Suite No. 3 in 1931 for string orchestra. His orchestration brings a modern cast to the old melodies, but unlike many modern arrangers of older music, he does not tamper with the original harmonies. His predilection for broad internal tempo changes is definitely not authentic to the original versions. On the other hand, Renaissance and early Baroque lutenists would have been freer with ornamentation, especially during repeats. The suite comprises four distinct movements. The first, marked Andantino, is based on an anonymous Italian popular melody of the early 17th century. The second movement is based on six numbers from the Arie di Corte (Airs of the Court) by the Burgundian (Northeastern French) lutenist and composer Jean-Baptiste Besard, born in 1567. The third movement, in ABA form, is an anonymous pastoral Siciliana from early in the 17th century, with a more vigorous middle (B) section. The final movement is based on a passacaglia (a form based on a short repeating bass line or harmonic progressions) from the 1692 collection Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola by the 17th-century Italian guitarist and composer Ludovico Roncalli. INSTRUMENTATION Strings “Holberg” Suite, Op. 40 EDVARD GRIEG BORN June 15, 1843, in Bergen, Norway; died September 4, 1907, in Bergen PREMIERE Composed 1884; first performance believed to be 1885, in Bergen, Switzerland, conducted by the composer OVERVIEW The most successful and best known of 19th-century Scandinavian composers, the Norwegian Edvard Grieg was one of the great exponents of Romantic nationalism. He was popular in Europe’s music centers as a composer, pianist, and conductor. His wife, Nina, was an accomplished singer, and the two traveled extensively together, popularizing his songs and piano works. In the process, he also helped bring the writings of Scandinavian literati — the most famous being the playwright Henrik Ibsen — to the attention of the rest of Europe. Grieg excelled in the smaller musical forms, intimate songs, short piano pieces, and Scandinavian dances. As a student he had been a failure. He quit school at 15 never to return. Under the sponsorship of Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, he was granted a scholarship to the Conservatory in Leipzig but hated his teachers there and never forgave them their conservatism and pedantry. After his return to Norway, he developed the lasting interest in Norwegian folk music that would solidify his reputation. Understandably, he was not satisfied with the constraints of the classical sonata structures. Of all his surviving output, only eight works fall into this category, including the famous piano concerto, a string quartet, a piano sonata, three violin sonatas, and a cello sonata. In all his other compositions he insisted on the freedom of form so dear to the Romantic tradition. WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), known as the Molière of the North, was the first Scandinavian literary figure to garner a reputation outside his own region. Although Danish by birth, Holberg had spent time in Bergen, Norway — then a province of Denmark — and Grieg wrote the “Holberg” Suite in 1884 to commemorate the bicentennial of Holberg’s birth. Grieg originally composed the suite for piano, orchestrating it a year later. He particularly sought to recreate the Baroque idiom, especially the suites of the French keyboard masters Jean-Philippe Rameau and François Couperin, who were Holberg’s contemporaries. However, the style of Domenico Scarlatti and J.S. Bach, born a year after Holberg, can be heard respectively in the toccata-like figuration of the Prelude and the ornamental melody in the Air. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Through Which We Flow JESSICA MEYER BORN 1974, in New York PREMIERE Composed 2017; first performance May 18, 2017, by NOVUS NY, the contemporary music orchestra of Trinity Church Wall Street, New York, New York OVERVIEW Composer, violist, and educator Jessica Meyer composed Through Which We Flow in 2017, premiering it with the NOVUS NY contemporary music orchestra. Meyer writes: “This work is based on assertions found in Masaru Emoto’s book The Hidden Messages in Water, which can be interpreted as a more spiritual extension of String Theory/Quantum mechanics. “String Theory is about how objects in our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy, and the author asserts that the best vehicle to capture and transport these vibrations is water. “His way of proving this was to take pictures of the crystals formed in frozen water after being exposed to different kinds of music and concentrated thoughts directed towards the water. The results were a visual representation of the manifestation of variations of positive and negative emotions. “Through Which We Flow embodies different sonic manifestations of joy, hate, and prayer — using the resonances specifically created by string instruments and the unique acoustic of the church itself to remind us of the power of our own thoughts and actions.” WHAT TO LISTEN FOR Through Which We Flow offers a soundscape that passes through various emotional states. It is a work that explores the enormous range and variety of the sonic effects of orchestral strings. This includes bowing within the traditional emotional range associated with strings (think Romanticism), pizzicato, harmonics, col legno percussiveness with the wooden part of the bow, and jarring discord. Even without an understanding of the work’s metaphysical significance, we can listen to it as a musical metaphor. It is immediately accessible on an emotional level and speaks — or sings — for itself. INSTRUMENTATION Strings Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY BORN May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia; died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg PREMIERE Composed 1880; first performance October 30, 1881, in St. Petersburg; Russian Musical Society Orchestra Strings, Eduard Nápravnik conducting OVERVIEW Throughout his creative career, Tchaikovsky went through extreme cycles of inspiration — or lack of it — tied to his frequent bouts of deep depression and self-doubt. His music usually reflected his mood, especially the depression, but sometimes he managed to escape. One of these occasions occurred in 1880. The year had not been productive, but in the fall he produced in quick succession two vastly dissimilar works: The bombastic 1812 Overture, composed for the consecration of the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow commemorating Russia’s victory over the armies of Napoleon; and the Serenade for Strings, one of his warmest, heartfelt creations. Tchaikovsky commented on the two works: “The overture will be very loud, noisy, but I wrote it without any warm feelings of love and so it will probably be of no artistic worth. But the Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner compulsion. This is a piece from the heart and so, I venture to say, it does not lack artistic worth.” He wrote to his friend and publisher: “Whether because it is my latest child or because in reality it is not bad, I am terribly in love with this Serenade and can scarcely wait to have it presented to the world.” WHAT TO LISTEN FOR That being said, the Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 was an accident. Although Tchaikovsky was planning a symphony or a string quartet when he started writing, his work gradually evolved into the serenade, perhaps because of its lack of weighty substance. It is surprisingly lighthearted, compared to the composer’s many melancholy works. Although the number and structure of the movements conform to the symphonic model, its sunny mood caused the composer to refrain from calling it a true symphony. In the 19th century, music had to be serious to be taken seriously. The composer wrote on the score: “The larger the string orchestra, the better the composer’s desires will be fulfilled.” The serenade’s enthusiastic reception at its first performance in St. Petersburg confirmed Tchaikovsky’s evaluation; the waltz movement had to be encored. INSTRUMENTATION Strings © 2019 Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn .