RACHEL BARTON PINE VIOLIN

MATTHEW HAGLE PIANO

BLUES DIALOGUES MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS RACHEL BARTON PINE BLUES DIALOGUES PIANO MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS MATTHEW HAGLE

DAVID N. BAKER (1931–2016) CLARENCE CAMERON WHITE (1880 –1960)

1 Blues (Deliver My Soul) (4:11) 14 Levee Dance (3:51) COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON (1932–2004) DUKE ELLINGTON (1899 –1974), ARR. WENDELL LOGAN Blue/s Forms for solo violin (6:51) 15 In a Sentimental Mood† (3:25) 2 I. Plain Blue/s (1:21) DOLORES WHITE (b. 1932) 3 II. Just Blue/s (2:59) Blues Dialogues for solo violin (10:13) 4 III. Jettin’ Blue/s (2:30) 16 I. Blues feeling (3:24) 5 Louisiana Blues Strut (A Cakewalk) for solo violin (2:32) 17 II. Expressive (2:45) 18 III. Fast and funky (1:13) WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1895 –1978) 19 IV. Moderately fast* (2:49) Suite for Violin and Piano (12:51) 6 I. Suggested by Richmond Barthé’s “African Dancer” (4:31) ERROLLYN WALLEN (b. 1958) 7 II. Suggested by Sargent Johnson’s “Mother and Child” (6:08) 20 Woogie Boogie (2:26) 8 III. Suggested by Augusta Savage’s “Gamin” (2:06) BILLY CHILDS (b. 1957) NOEL DA COSTA (1929–2002) 21 Incident on Larpenteur Avenue* (7:44) A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin* (13:05) DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (b. 1971) 9 I. Walk Around “Brudder Bones” (3:54) 22 Filter for Unaccompanied Violin** (4:35) 10 II. Neumedia (2:56) 11 III. Little Diamond/Bird on the Wing Jigs (1:58) CHARLES S. BROWN (b. 1940) 12 IV. New Orleans Clog (0:58) 23 A Song Without Words†† (3:10) 13 V. “New Orleans” Clog Blues (3:17) TT: (75:51)

*World Premiere Recording †First recording of this arrangement AVAILABLE DIGITALLY **First recording with new cadenza ††First recording of violin version WILLIAM GRANT STILL, ARR. LOUIS KAUFMAN “Blues” from Lenox Avenue for violin and piano (3:55) PERSONAL NOTE

The researcher in me was inspired, that I’ve had the opportunity to share and I quickly discovered that most of with audiences throughout the world. RACHEL BARTON PINE 2018 this music is out of print or only exists in manuscript. So, in 2001, my RBP As I was reviewing selections for the As a native Chicagoan, I grew up jazz, including pieces such as the Ravel Foundation committed to our Music MBC curriculum, I found myself playing with the blues. Whether it was my Violin Sonata No. 2 and Corky Siegel’s by Black Composers (MBC) project. a blues-influenced piece. I started parents’ old LPs of The Siegel-Schwall Opus 11. I worked with my dear friend, MBC’s efforts include the creation of reminiscing about my teenage years Band, listening to Koko Taylor, Muddy violinist Edgar Gabriel, to learn to play curricular materials for young classical and flipping through the stacks of Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Paul the blues and put those skills to the test musicians and the dissemination of music looking for others. Thus was Butterfield, and Charlie Musselwhite jamming with Son Seals and Sugar Blue information about repertoire and born this album of classical works for on WXRT’s Blues Breakers, going to the at an event at O’Hare Airport, one of history to professional performers, violin and piano with a strong blues Chicago Blues Fest, or sneaking into the musical highlights of my life. The educators, and others. In the course of influence, written by Black composers Kingston Mines as an underage music more comfortable I became, the more this project, we have collected more from the 20th and 21st centuries. enthusiast, this is my local indigenous I incorporated blues and jazz inspired than 900 works spanning four centuries music. I’ve watched the Martin repertoire into my recital programs and by more than 350 Black Composers I had the great honor of working with a Scorsese documentary numerous times as encores after concertos. (men and women) from North America, number of the composers who appear and own many collections of historic South America, the Caribbean, Asia, on this album and am deeply grateful blues recordings. This recording project might never Europe, and Africa. for their invaluable insights. Many years have taken shape if not for a recording ago, Chicago’s own Coleridge-Taylor One of my favorite things to do as a I made for Cedille Records in 1997 — The languages of these works are as Perkinson gave me some wonderful teenager was visit my favorite sheet Violin Concertos by Black Composers varied as the centuries and countries coaching and even attended an music shop, Performers Music, and of the 18th & 19th Centuries. The from which they hail, representing a all-classical program I performed at leaf through stacks of music in search album contained wonderful historic diverse range of compositional styles the legendary Green Mill jazz club of interesting new repertoire. You compositions by Afro-Caribbean and and voices — from the Baroque, that included his Blue/s Forms. Dolores can imagine my excitement when I Afro-European composers from the Classical, and Romantic eras to White and Billy Childs are more recent encountered David Baker’s Deliver My Classical and Romantic eras that had contemporary styles such as serialism friends with whom I have greatly Soul. Here was 12-bar blues made into been unjustifiably neglected. I soon and minimalism, and incorporating a enjoyed collaborating, while Daniel a classical work for violin and piano! found myself sitting on diversity panels variety of non-classical influences such Bernard Roumain and I go way back as I had to learn it — and I was eager to and fielding questions from students, as folk music, Negro spirituals, jazz, teacher and performer colleagues. I’m play more. parents, teachers, and colleagues blues, and even hip hop. Working on so grateful to DBR for writing me a new about where to find more works by the MBC project has introduced me introduction to his awesome Filter, just Over the years, I collected many Black composers. to many incredible pieces that have for this recording. classical works inspired by blues and become a part of my repertoire and 4 5 I hope to meet Errollyn Wallen I had long wished to play Noel I’m so grateful for the opportunity to one day soon, and her inclusion Da Costa’s five-movement share this part of my musical heritage on the album reminds us that a Belize- unaccompanied suite, but the with you. born British composer can be every complexity of the writing combined bit as funky as her American brothers with the hard-to-read handwriting of It’s my hope that, in years to come, and sisters. the manuscript created a significant this repertoire will be considered every barrier. Thankfully, the music was bit as mainstream as works by White The Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation’s As a proud member of the Chicago engraved just in time for me to learn it composers who are currently more Music by Black Composers (MBC) project Music Association (the National for the recording. It is an extraordinary well-known. Yet blues and jazz inspired spreads awareness of and access to music Association of Negro Musicians, piece and more than exceeded works represent but one drop in the by Black composers in ever-expanding Branch No. 1), I have been delighted my expectations. Wendell Logan’s bucket of the treasure trove of music ways, and places Black composers and to discover many great works by one masterful arrangement of Duke by composers from Africa and the their previously overlooked music into of NANM’s founders, virtuoso violinist Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” African diaspora. I hope this album today’s cultural consciousness. In 2018, Clarence Cameron White. was another piece that required inspires you to seek out, listen to, MBC releases the first in a series of engraving in order to be performed. and play more great music by Black pedagogical books of music exclusively I almost missed Charles S. Brown’s composers! by Black classical composers, MBC Violin amazing A Song Without Words, as it I previously recorded the middle Volume I, plus a coloring book of 40 Black wasn’t composed for violin and I had movement of the William Grant Still classical composers, and a timeline originally decided to avoid non-violin Suite, “Mother and Child,” on my DEDICATION poster of 350+ Black composers. MBC is works on the recording. Since there Violin Lullabies album. It was a real To Michael Morgan, who got it also creating an online database that are no lyrics, however, it didn’t feel like treat to record the full Suite, probably all started, and to the memory of will provide information about works a transcription, so I decided to make the closest work on this album to a Dominique-René de Lerma, who written by Black composers; the MBC an exception. There is actually a long repertoire standard. I’ll leave it to you encouraged me to keep it all going. website (listed below) currently includes tradition of instrumentalists playing to judge whether my interpretation a searchable directory of living Black songs without words, such as those by as the parent of a six-year-old is composers. Mendelssohn and Dvořák, so I decided noticeably different than that of a to include it. That it was inspired by nursing mother. www.musicbyblackcomposers.org Blind Willie Johnson’s haunting “Dark Was the Night,” a hummed blues Blues Dialogues was an incredible joy classic, helped connect the whole to make and reconnected me with my album with its roots. second-favorite genre of music (yes, the blues edges out heavy metal).

6 7 PROGRAM NOTES

The blues is a process of working things out. strength from the tradition of Robert Johnson, THE FREEDOM Blues lyrics typically tell a story. Its classic Memphis Minnie, Blind Willie Johnson, and BLUES (DELIVER CALL OF THE BLUES poetic form — often analyzed with the Bessie Smith. Yet rather than rehearse the MY SOUL) (1968) symbols AAB — is inherently a dialogue: conventional 12-bar blues progression, the MARK CLAGUE statement, restatement, response. The artist composers featured here find inspiration in DAVID N. BAKER grapples with life and takes action. The blues the freedom of the blues. Ever changing To sing the blues is to say something. It may is thus less a formal model than an expressive meters and continuous musical transformation David Nathaniel Baker (1931–2016) expanded be a cry of personal pain, a celebration of practice — an art of understanding to inspire convey a living, organic sense of the blues the role of the composer as a voice of community hope, or a scream of human change. It may often have 12-bars with as a vital engagement with the world. There African-American music history. Originally a injustice. The blues is about relationships, a three-fold cyclic pattern of four chords are quotes of American fiddle tunes, gospel jazz trombonist and recording artist, an injury typically between the self and the world, but (I-I-I-I•IV-IV-I-I•V-IV-I-I), but it is not a genre hymns and spirituals, upbeat boogie-woogie prompted his switch to the cello and the often as not with a symbolic resonance that born of textbook descriptions. It is the raw, dance tunes, sonic references to the signal move toward composition and education. A argues for the universal. The blues is about direct expression of the individual, most processing of electronic dance music, repairs pioneering theorist of jazz, Baker had a lasting struggle. It is a music born of the Deep South idiomatically a singer with a guitar. There offered to the racist traditions of minstrelsy, impact on jazz pedagogy and shaped the after the U.S. Civil War, created by the sons, are infinite types of blues, beginning in the and screams of anger, frustration, and Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University and a few daughters, of enslaved African- American South with Delta and Piedmont despair at the killing of Black Americans (Bloomington) where he taught for some Americans. Often the blues accompanied Blues but extending geographically in space, by those charged to protect them. Each 50 years. Often labeled a “Third Stream” sharecropping in the Mississippi Delta — a place, and time. There are honky-tonk blues, composer draws from the cultural tributaries composer who mixed jazz and classical practice of farming leased land that was country blues, urban blues, and electric of the African Diaspora, and each has come musics, Baker is more accurately described as essentially a new form of permanent, blues. Louisiana blues, Kansas City blues, to terms with the power of this heritage an artist who traversed the stylistic continuum indentured servitude by Black bodies to White Chicago blues, and West Coast blues. Gospel to forge an utterly personal expression of from improvisation through the symphony masters. The blues draws expression from blues and hokum blues. Acid blues, blues universal community across time, place, and and all styles between. Adapting “Deliver their work songs and field hollers, hopes and rock, boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, punk people. Dialoguing with the blues is thus to My Soul” for violin and piano from his Psalm trials, spirituals, chants, shouts, and narrative blues, and hip hop. There are even blues in enact a prayer of possibility and of hope — 22 for chorus, Baker created a gospel-blues ballads. It is a secular music with a sacred classical music, a symphonic form pioneered whether given voice by a singer, an electric hybrid, idiomatic to the violin and deeply charge to amplify the voice of freedom, to by George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue guitar, or on the strings of a violin. rooted in the blues form and style. The celebrate the expression of those previously (1924), William Grant Still’s Afro-American virtuoso opening cadenza introduces a rich, denied the right to speak. It is a music of Symphony (1930), and Duke Ellington’s full-chorded gospel-tinged melody that passion, perseverance, resilience, hope, Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (1937). grows into an ecstatic, accelerating shout, and joy. While having the blues is to feel the recalling the power of a Black church service. weighted veil of sadness, even depression; to Rachel Barton Pine’s Blues Dialogues explores Harmonically, Baker adapts classic 12-bar perform the blues is to fight back against the the expressive power of the blues, its history blues harmonies into a three-part 24-bar shadows. To sing the blues is to triumph. and future directions. Each track draws 8 9 structure (3x8 bars) in triple meter. The work debut recording on the 2004 Cedille album Still celebrated this spirit of African-inspired closes with a reprise of the opening theme Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: A Celebration.) LOUISIANA creativity, but since indigenous African plus a bluesy coda. Written in the key of G to take advantage BLUES STRUT (2001) music was all-but-unknown in the United of the lowest open string on the violin, the States at the time, Still took inspiration from BLUE/S FORMS (1972) work has no key signature but shifts freely COLERIDGE-TAYLOR the Black American writers, poets, painters, between major and minor. This ambiguity PERKINSON and sculptors of the era. Together, they COLERIDGE-TAYLOR draws upon the expressive harmonic blurring sought to instill Black pride by imagining the of “blue notes” that fall between the cracks conceptual, unifying power of “Africa” in PERKINSON Although written 29 years later, Louisiana of the Western European tempered scale, Blues Strut was originally envisioned as a their heritage. Following upon such works between major and minor harmonies. The as the Afro-American Symphony (1930) and Named in homage to the Afro-British fourth movement to Blue/s Forms. Instead, opening gesture of Movement I, Plain Blue/s, choral ballet Sahdji (1931), Still wrote the Suite composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875– the music took a different compositional 1912), Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932– for example, features the pitches G and D turn. Subtitled “A Cakewalk,” its rhythmically for Violin and Piano (1943). It was composed 2004) was a characteristically American with an A-sharp sliding to a B natural. Thus, an driving slides depict the strutting and for a husband-and-wife duo — violinist Louis Renaissance musician who worked creatively opening G minor chord morphs into G major preening of the ironic plantation dance in Kaufman and pianist Annette Kaufman — across multiple genres and styles. Born and as B-flat / A-sharp becomes B natural. This which Black couples mock the pretension of after the inspiration of three African-American trained in New York City while later moving gesture repeats four times, is interrupted by a Whites by imitating the grand march of their visual artists. Movement I is a response to the “Big House” society balls. Perkinson’s driving to Chicago, he made a living by teaching contrasting triplet segment, and returns twice entranced kinetics of “African Dancer,” a rhythms within an ever-shifting metric feel at Brooklyn College, composing classical again. Movement II, Just Blue/s taps into the 1933 plaster sculpture by Richmond Barthé nevertheless create a bouncing syncopation music, conducting orchestras (he co-founded feelings of sadness typically associated with (1901–1989). Its “majestic” opening piano and bring the cakewalk’s humor to the fore. the Symphony of the New World), playing blues music. Played freely with a mute, the fanfare evokes African drumming while piano in jazz drummer Max Roach’s quartet, movement is unified by an upward sighing highlighting the expressive tension between serving as music director for choreographers motivic gesture — a short note decorated SUITE FOR VIOLIN lyricism and rhythm in the violin’s quickening including Jerome Robbins and Alvin Ailey, by a grace note followed by a longer athleticisms. A languid 4/4 slow blues section writing arrangements for popular singers tone. Movement III, Jettin’ Blue/s is a jazzy, AND PIANO (1943) alternates with the fast triple-time dance, such as Marvin Gaye and Harry Belafonte, chromatic jig with shifting asymmetrical yet the chromaticisms of the blues can be and composing film and television scores. meters that keep the syncopation of its WILLIAM GRANT STILL heard throughout. Movement II is inspired by th Blue/s Forms similarly traverses popular and perpetual 16 -note patter ever off balance. the California-based artist Sargent Johnson For composer William Grant Still (1895–1978), classical impulses. It is deeply connected to (1888–1967), specifically a work titled “Mother the blues assert a distinct ethos of Black its dedicatee — Sanford Allen (b. 1939), the and Child” that he realized in both sculpture America — a proud spirit of beliefs and New York Philharmonic’s first full-time African- and lithography in the 1930s. Its imagery aspirations. Guided by the intellectual and American violinist, active from 1962 to 1977. focuses on a monumental Black female artistic optimism of the Harlem Renaissance, (Not coincidentally, Allen made the work’s figure being hugged by a child. This infinite expression of acceptance, comfort, and 10 11 love conveys Johnson’s goal: “to show the Da Costa (1929–2002) moved from the West Da Costa imitates the rondo-like form of natural beauty and dignity” of the “American Indies to New York City at age 11 and grew “Neumedia” with its three distinct themes, LEVEE DANCE, Negro” in a universal human gesture. The up in Harlem. The sonic kaleidoscope of but uses octave shifts and embellishments to OP. 26, NO. 2 (1927) composer conveys this same bond musically, New York — in the streets, in church, in the vary — if not fully disguise — their repetitions. using a neighbor-note figure, as the melody concert hall, and on the radio — shaped The melody of “Little Diamond Jig” opens CLARENCE CAMERON WHITE alternates back and forth between a pair of his polystylistic musical imagination. The the third movement, while the “Bird on the two notes that thus become one. This simplest composer even felt that his childhood Wing Jig” tune enters after the fermata. Championed by violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz of motifs is emblematic of the movement as a experiences in Africa and the West Indies The opening jig later returns in abstracted in recording and recital, Levee Dance whole as the melodic gesture (set as a triplet provided an “unconscious memory” of form to close the medley. Movements Four (1927) was written by the Tennessee-born plus a long note) expands to wider intervals indigenous “snatches, motives and patterns” and Five form a pair through the use of the violinist and composer Clarence Cameron in a turbulent middle section and then returns that appeared in his compositions. In 1968, same clog dance tune, titled “New Orleans White (1880–1960). White was a founding to its original stepwise form that climaxes in a however, Da Costa turned to an unexpected (Lancashire)” in Ryan’s collection. Movement member of the National Association of Negro soaring lyricism. “Gamin,” by sculptor Augusta source for inspiration, arranging and Four presents the whimsical, lilting melody in Musicians (est. 1919) and later served as its Savage (1892–1962), gives Movement III transforming five American fiddle tunes as full. A faster contrasting section intervenes, president. (Rachel Barton Pine is a proud life its title. The bust depicts a young African- A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin. The until the first four bars of the lilting theme member of the Chicago Music Association American boy glancing askew. The title is source melodies were likely found in William return to close. This clear statement of the — NANM’s first and founding branch — and a French term for a “kid” or street urchin. Bradbury Ryan’s 1883 Mammoth Collection, musical theme serves to introduce Da Costa’s her 2016 recital for the organization helped Savage’s work conveys a spirit of irrepressible a book containing more than 1000 reels, most transformative writing of the set; in inspire this album.) White’s compositions optimism, energy, and wise-beyond-its- jigs, hornpipes, clogs, walk-arounds, and Movement Five, the composer offers a full- characteristically evoke Black identity, often years determination that Still captures in the other dances. Da Costa translates the core blown blues reinterpretation of the traditional by quoting spirituals. The commanding and boogie-woogie eighth notes of the piano and pitches, rhythms, and accents of each tune clog melody, now slower and grittier, while powerful melody of “Go Down Moses,” the syncopated bluesy dance of the violin. faithfully, but enriches their harmonies and expressing feelings that are in turn poignant, for example, forms the central episode of adjusts the shape of each tune with new intense, and tender. Levee Dance. On the surface, this traditional slurs, dynamics, and octave shifts. After the African-American spiritual tells of Moses’s A SET OF DANCE tune has sounded in full, Da Costa frequently demand to the Egyptian Pharaohs to “Let TUNES FOR SOLO extends the melody with original elaborations My People Go.” However, its call for freedom in a parallel stylistic vein. “Brudder Bones” had resonance for all oppressed peoples and VIOLIN (1968) is a walk-around for a minstrel show especially the enslaved people of the United cakewalk. The quoted melody appears as States who created the song as a covert NOEL DA COSTA the opening 17-bar “slow march” and then form of protest in the guise of faithful worship. as the first eight bars of the faster “Dance.” The composer frames the traditional melody Born in Lagos, Nigeria to Salvation Army Both tunes return to close the movement with a syncopated dance in which a rising missionaries from Kingston, Jamaica, Noel after a “Free (improvisational)” interlude. 12 13 F-major phrase lands on a playful alternation of Ellington’s 32-bar song with 20th-century ends with a stunning tritone double-stop of major and minor thirds (A and A-flat), experiments in concert music. Logan’s BLUES DIALOGUES glissando. Movement II, marked “Expressive bringing out a blue-note chromaticism that rendition embellishes, using the violin’s (1988/2016) / Improvisatory,” offers a contrasting “laid features prominently throughout the piece. idiomatic virtuosity in range, gesture, and back,” “bluesy feel.” Muted sighing gestures Virtuoso gestures of technique and range, color to convey the song’s dreamy love lyric, DOLORES WHITE express a blues melancholy, with fortissimo plus a solo cadenza made Levee Dance one yet never loses touch with Ellington’s tune. An and rapid-fire outbursts that seem to of Heifetz’s favorite encores. No recording opening piano fanfare and violin cadenza Dolores White’s (b. 1932) Blues Dialogues struggle against a haze of depression. “Fast of White seems to have survived. Given invite a sotto voce introduction of the for solo violin gives Rachel Barton Pine’s and Funky” is a short, excited interjection the composer’s high stature and musical melody’s initial A section. When the pianist recording project its title and its inspiration. with a jazzy triplet swing that sets up the attainment, it is likely that the racial bias of reaches into the instrument to pluck its strings, White’s own inspiration was hearing her son concluding movement, “Moderately fast.” the time prevented him from recording this it imitates the pizzicato line of a jazz double perform Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Blue/s White decided to add this new movement composition, as well as others. bass. Like the tune, Logan’s arrangement Forms on his Master’s Degree Recital at in 2016 because she felt the original three- is here delicate, “strange and sweet.” A Boston University. White explained in an email movement piece was incomplete and fuller repetition of the melody’s A section, that the work is based in “African-American needed a fourth movement that exhibited IN A SENTIMENTAL highlighting Ellington’s rich harmonies, follows vocalizations and harmonic language rooted a full bravura sound and technique across and leads to a flowing, songful presentation historically in the blues as both a genre and both genres (classical and blues). It features MOOD (1935/1988) of the melody’s contrasting bridge or B culture.” In the style of an improvisation, the a rollicking 4/4 dance in blues form that DUKE ELLINGTON section. The opening title-phrase soon music largely avoids verbatim repetition and bookends a freeform contrasting interlude ARR. WENDELL LOGAN returns and rises through the words “in a instead unfolds as a free-flowing conversation of brief virtuoso episodes. One such episode sentimental mood” to complete the music’s or dialogue. With frequently changing meters, briefly paraphrases the first movement of journey through the AABA form. A brief its rhythms escape predictability to enhance Bartók’s 1944 Sonata for Solo Violin, helping Wendall Logan (1940–2010) was inspired coda, realized sul ponticello, leads to wistful this sense of improvisation. White’s musical to exemplify how this fourth and concluding to pursue composition after hearing Igor recollections of the melodic motto to end in language is classically based with influences dialogue is propelled by the composer’s Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. It is little surprise, a dreamlike reverie. The arrangement’s sheer from “jazz and country music,” forging a imaginative sense of ever-developing then, that mixing old with new, exploring variety disguises how the entire performance distinctive combination of her “adored variation and exploration. instrumental color, and experimenting with presents just a single journey through composers” — models including “Béla form and performance technique became Ellington’s tune. Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, Alberto his stylistic hallmarks. His violin and piano Ginastera, and Thelonious Monk.” Written in realization of Duke Ellington’s (1899–1974) 1988 as the first in a set of three movements, blissful ballad, “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Blues feeling” evokes its performance speaks to Logan’s long experience as both direction as virtuoso vocalisms filter through a jazz and concert music composer. It evolving harmonic mutations, chromaticism, fuses the sophisticated artistic aspirations and blue notes. Its opening section 14 15 while its singing melodies, dynamic shifts, original composition and is meant to evoke composing process was very cathartic for me WOOGIE and ever-changing accents test the the psychedelic blues stylings of electric and helped me to clarify my feelings about BOOGIE (1999) violinist’s musicality. guitarist Jimi Hendrix — a musician similarly the horrible incident.” fascinated by the transformation of noise ERROLLYN WALLEN into musical expression. In Hendrix’s case, this The beautiful dread of the spinning violin FILTER (1992, WITH meant the expressive use of the peals and melody that opens Childs’ musical vision Woogie Boogie, by the Belize-born NEW CADENZA 2018) shrieks of amplified electronic feedback. is destabilized by the foreboding of the British composer Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958), piano’s metrically unstable running 16th-note updates boogie-woogie piano stylings for DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN accompaniment: “It is haunting, unsettling, the classical violin. A composer who crosses INCIDENT ON an omen of bad things to come,” explains boundaries between classical and popular With Filter, violinist and composer Daniel LARPENTEUR the composer. The violin soon adopts this musics, Wallen captures the spirited energy of th Bernard Roumain (b. 1970) conjures the agitated 16 -note passagework as the this traditional African-American genre while sound world of hip hop and electronic dance AVENUE (2018) tension rises, leading to a descending run thoroughly, and humorously, departing from music on the acoustic violin. While spinning that crashes to a halt on a fortississimo its conventions. Although the piece is not in BILLY CHILDS blistering virtuosic patterns, the performer augmented seventh chord with an added 12-bar blues form, nor in predictable 4/4 time, is asked to “filter” the violin’s coloring by sharp ninth. It is here that the events of video boogie-woogie’s characteristic “eight to the Commissioned by Rachel Barton Pine moving the bow “as close to, and as far away are depicted. Seven additional augmented bar” left-hand bass line with its continuous specially for this album, Billy Childs’ (b. from, the bridge as possible.” This technique chords echo the seven fatal gunshots stream of driving eighth-note energy is clearly 1957) Incident on Larpenteur Avenue is morphs the tone colors of the instrument fired at Castile. The composer hears these felt in both the violin and piano of Wallen’s a single-movement violin sonata as tone by emphasizing different partials of each chordal strikes as a dissonant polychordal composition. The resulting rhythmic interplay poem that explores the events and impact vibrating string to bring out the high trebles combination of “C-sharp and D minor” with creates a rock ’n’ roll feel, updating the of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a or resonant lows of the overtone series. The missing tones. The violin’s snap pizzicatti traditional genre to a more modern popular Minnesota police officer. Castile’s girlfriend, composer states that the “effect should mimic the piercing shots, while representing music style. Commissioned by Faber Music Diamond Reynolds, live-streamed the emulate a high-/low-pass filter found on most the shock of victim, officer, and girlfriend for its Unbeaten Tracks Series, Woogie Boogie shooting’s aftermath on social media as her DJ consoles.” Each performance of Filter is alike. A stunned hymn-like adagio follows has been featured as an examination piece mortally injured partner lay slumped over thus unique as the player “filters” her sound with the piano’s soft chording highlighting for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools in the driver’s seat, bloody and moaning. improvisationally. This recording features the angry exclamations from the violin. “The violin of Music. Its rhythmic displacements, empty Officer Jeronimo Yanez was charged with premiere of an added opening cadenza bursts are from the point of view of Diamond downbeats, and the playful contrapuntal manslaughter but was later acquitted. that Rachel Barton Pine requested from the Reynolds, while the piano represents Philando interaction of the two instruments make “Castile’s murder affected me deeply,” the composer. Titled “Hollerin’ in the night…” and Castile’s life slipping away,” explains the extraordinary demands upon the performers’ composer wrote in an email, “and filled featuring the blues scale, it foreshadows the composer. Sadness sets in as the violin soon sense of pulse and rhythmic accuracy, me with a sense of rage and sadness. The joins the hymn, culminating in descending

16 17 tremolo chords. “Musically, I was thinking of folklorist Willis L. James at Morehouse College (and later a ballet) with a scenario by Verna Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C-sharp minor,” A SONG WITHOUT and tenor John McCollum at the University Arvey, scored for narrator, chorus, piano, Childs reports. A “plaintive,” baroque- of Michigan (B.M. 1974, M.M. 1975). A voice and orchestra. It tells the story of a visitor to like “lament” melody emerges, again WORDS (1974) teacher and professional choral singer, the the neighborhood with a dollar to spend in featuring outbursts of anger that inspire a CHARLES S. BROWN composer writes most frequently for solo and sampling the avenue’s many sounds and recapitulation of the turbulent music of the choral voice and has taught at Missouri’s ideas. The visitor is paralyzed by Harlem’s work’s opening. Episodes of struggle interrupt, A Song without Words was inspired by Lincoln University, Borough of Manhattan many choices of musical delights. He wanders and the work ends with a final, ambiguous the singing of evangelist, bottleneck slide Community College, and in the New York City between Club Creole (jazz), the Haven of fading away of the violin’s atmospheric cry — guitarist, and gospel blues master Blind Willie Public School system. Rest Mission (spirituals), and an apartment unanswered and unresolved. Johnson (1897–1945). Johnson recorded house (blues). It is here that the strains of 30 influential sides in three short years AVAILABLE DIGITALLY a languid piano blues melody in 12/8 time “The recapitulation reveals that this incident (1927–1930) for Columbia Records. His debut escape a rent party. The visitor is seduced is continuing. This is happening somewhere recording was so popular that it outsold a “BLUES” FROM by the music and tempted to enter by the else in our world,” explains Childs. Incident, in concurrent release by reigning blues queen flirtations of a sensuous solo dancer seen at Childs’ mind, serves as a political statement, Bessie Smith. Composer Charles S. Brown (b. LENOX AVENUE a window. “Blues” from Lenox Avenue for simultaneously demanding justice while 1940) was born in Marianna, Arkansas (not violin and piano is an almost note-for-note proclaiming an essential humanity. Childs far from Pendleton, Texas where Johnson was FOR VIOLIN AND transcription of this rent party music, arranged explains that his message is not direct: “Mine born), but grew up in Detroit, where he was by the composer’s friend Louis Kaufman — is not a controlled message. I want people mentored by the influential choir director PIANO (1937) the violinist for whom Still wrote his 1943 Suite to be moved by it: for it to create a dramatic for Violin and Piano. Brazeal Dennard. Brown composed his WILLIAM GRANT STILL, impact. If that experience makes them look lyric-less song after hearing Johnson’s iconic at the world differently, that’s the goal. recording “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was ARR. LOUIS KAUFMAN Basically, I want people to feel.” While Childs the Ground,” influenced by the bluesman’s Mark Clague is Associate Professor of composed Incident without any reference to atmospheric bottleneck slide guitar playing New York City’s Lenox Avenue runs from the Musicology, American Culture, and African or direct inspiration from the blues, his use of and spiritual, non-texted humming. Typically north gate of Central Park up to 149th Street American Studies at the University of narrative parallels the blues tradition of telling performed by solo voice and piano, Brown’s in Manhattan. In the 1930s, especially, the Michigan and serves as Chief Advisor to the one’s story as a form of protest. Incident homage calls for a wordless, improvised heartbeat of African-American culture pulsed Rachel Barton Pine Foundation’s Music by on Larpenteur Avenue, like the blues, is a vocalise, here artfully realized on the violin. through Lenox Avenue. The street served Black Composers project. He also wrote meditation on real events; it is about trying to Bow on strings becomes the analog of breath as the social and cultural artery of Harlem the extensive program notes for Pine’s gain a deeper understanding. through vocal chords, evoking Johnson’s and its artistic renaissance. Commissioned 1997 Cedille album, Violin Concertos nuanced expressive slides, ghosted notes, by CBS Radio in 1936, William Grant Still’s by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th and subtle colorations. Brown studied with Lenox Avenue is a 25-minute radio show Centuries.

18 19 BIOGRAPHIES In 1997, Pine released Violin Concertos composer biographies, profiles of Black by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th role models in classical music, and Centuries, an album of compositions feature articles about the history of RACHEL BARTON PINE by Afro-Caribbean and Afro-European Black participation in classical music, composers from the Classical and past and present. Romantic eras that had been unjustifiably Heralded as a leading interpreter of the performances of the six Bach Sonatas and neglected. The album was nominated for In addition to MBC, Pine’s RBP Foundation great classical masterworks, international Partitas, the 24 Paganini Caprices, and an NPR Heritage award and Pine found also assists young artists through various concert violinist Rachel Barton Pine thrills the three Brahms Sonatas. In addition to herself fielding questions about where to projects, including the Instrument audiences with her dazzling technique, her violin soloist career, Pine is an avid find more works by Black composers. She Loan Program, Grants for Education lustrous tone, and emotional honesty. performer of baroque, renaissance, and soon discovered that most of this music and Career, and Global HeartStrings With an infectious joy in music-making medieval music on baroque violin, viola is out-of-print or exists only in manuscript. (supporting musicians in developing and a passion for connecting historical d’amore, renaissance violin, and rebec. So, in 2001, her Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) countries). research to performance, Pine transforms Foundation committed to its Music by audiences’ experiences of classical music. Her discography of 37 recordings includes Black Composers (MBC) project which www.rachelbartonpine.com Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with creates curricular materials for young Pine has appeared as soloist with many the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, classical musicians and disseminates of the world’s most prestigious ensembles, Sir Neville Marriner conducting, which hit information about repertoire and history including the Chicago and Vienna number three on the Billboard classical to professional performers, educators, Symphonies, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal chart. Her Testament: Complete Sonatas and others. Philharmonic, and Camerata Salzburg. and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann She holds top prizes from the J.S. Bach Sebastian Bach and Violin Lullabies both Over the last 15 years, Pine has collected (gold medal), Queen Elisabeth, Paganini, charted at number one, and her Bel over 900 works by more than 350 Black Kreisler, Szigeti, and Montreal international Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other composers from the 18th–21st Centuries, competitions. works for solo violin charted at number representing North and South America, four. She released Brahms & Joachim the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The many contemporary composers with Violin Concertos with the Chicago In October 2018, the RBP Foundation whom she has collaborated include David Symphony Orchestra, Carlos Kalmar releases MBC Violin Volume I, the Chesky, Billy Childs, John Corigliano, Joe conducting, and most recently, Elgar inaugural book in a multi-instrument Deninzon, Mohammed Fairouz, Marcus & Bruch Violin Concertos with the BBC series exclusively dedicated to music by Goddard, Luis Jorge González, Earl Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton Black composers from around the world, Maneein, Daniel Bernard Roumain, José conducting. Blues Dialogues is her 21st which includes the sheet music (with Serebrier, and Augusta Read Thomas. album for Cedille Records. downloadable reference recordings), She regularly offers single-evening 20 21 CREDITS

Producer James Ginsburg Engineer Bill Maylone MATTHEW HAGLE Recorded December 18-22, 2017 and May 4, 2018 at Nichols Hall, Music Institute of Chicago, Evanston, IL Violin Guarneri ‘del Gesù,’ Cremona, 1742, the ‘ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat’ Pianist Matthew Hagle’s duo with his wife, Mio Isoda-Hagle Violin Strings Vision Titanium Solo by Thomastik-Infeld performances are noted for their and with members of the Chicago Violin Bow Dominique Pecatte musical understanding, imaginative Symphony. Mr. Hagle is a dedicated Steinway Piano Technician William Schwartz programming, and beauty of sound. teacher of piano, music theory, and Cover Photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco | Graphic Design Bark Design

Mr. Hagle has been heard in concert composition whose students have Publishers halls throughout the United States, won high honors in local and national David N. Baker: Blues (Deliver My Soul) © 1991 Lauren Keiser Music Publishing including at the National Gallery of Art competitions. He is currently on Charles S. Brown: A Song Without Words © 1974 Charles Brown Billy Childs: Incident on Larpenteur Avenue © 2018 Lunacy Music, Inc. in Washington, DC, Symphony Space the faculty of the Music Institute of Duke Ellington, arr. Wendell Logan: In a Sentimental Mood © 1935 Sony/Atv Harmony in New York, and the United States Chicago, where he is director of the Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Blue/s Forms © 1972 Lauren Keiser Music Publishing Supreme Court, as well as venues in Musicianship program in addition to his Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Louisiana Blues Strut © 2001 Lauren Keiser Music Publishing England, Canada, Brazil, Australia, teaching duties. William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano © 1943 William Grant Still Music Daniel Bernard Roumain: Filter © 1992 Daniel Bernard Roumain/DBR Music and Japan. A resident of the Chicago Errollyn Wallen: Woogie Boogie © 1999 Faber Music area, he has performed at the Ravinia www.matthagle.com Clarence Cameron White: Levee Dance © 1928 Carl Fischer Inc. Festival, Symphony Center, and the Dolores White: Blues Dialogues © 1999 Grechanivsky K.

Chicago Cultural Center. Mr. Hagle Cedille Records is a trademark of Cedille Chicago, NFP, a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting the finest has also been frequently heard on musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. Cedille Chicago’s activities are supported in part by contributions radio station WFMT, where he recently and grants from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies including The MacArthur Fund for finished performing all of Beethoven’s Arts and Culture at Prince, The Negaunee Foundation, Sage Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. The project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department 32 piano sonatas live over several of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. recitals. He is valued as a collaborator by many artists and for many years, CONTRIBUTIONS TO CEDILLE CHICAGO MAY BE MADE AT CEDILLERECORDS.ORG OR 773-989-2515 he has been the principal recital partner of violinist Rachel Barton Pine. This is their third album together on the Cedille label. He also frequently

performs chamber music as a piano CDR 90000 182 ℗ & © 2018 CEDILLE RECORDS, trademark of Cedille Chicago, NFP 1205 W. Balmoral Ave, Chicago IL 60640 USA I 773.989.2515 tel • 773.989.2517 fax • www.cedillerecords.org

22 23 CEDILLE PRODUCERS CIRCLE Honoring the generosity and loyalty of those individuals and foundations who have supported our recordings through their repeated, major annual gifts to Cedille Chicago

Anonymous Nancy Loeb and Jeffrey Colman Beech Street Foundation The MacArthur Fund for Arts Steven C. Calicchio Foundation and Culture at Prince Kristina Entner and Edward Malone Graci and Dennis McGillicuddy Marian and M. Carr Ferguson Mesirow Financial Frances and Henry Fogel Lori and Steven Mesirow Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Sara and Richard Mesirow Jane Ginsburg and George Spera The Negaunee Foundation Ruth Bader Ginsburg Kathleen Peratis Susan and Sanford Greenberg Rachel Barton Pine and Gregory Pine Irving Harris Foundation Pumpkin Foundation / Carol & Joe Reich Barbara Haws and William Josephson Beverly and Bill Rosoff Andrew and Irma Hilton Foundation Sage Foundation The Julian Family Foundation Barbara Julius and Marc Silberberg Christine and Bill Landuyt Claire and Edward Stiepleman Sandy and Jack Levin