Program Notes Adam Mitchell (B
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Program Notes Adam Mitchell (b. 1990) is a 5th year vocal music education major studying voice with Louise Toppin at the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He currently sings with the UNC Men’s Glee Club under director Dr. Dan Huff and is enrolled in the UNC-BEST program for music education. A native of Wilmington, NC, Adam entered UNC in fall of 2008 with intent to study pharmacy before switching to music the next year. He has studied guitar since age fourteen, and has been playing and singing professionally since age eighteen. Since then, Adam has performed in restaurants and venues in Wilmington, Chapel Hill, and Durham, most notably Jack Sprat Café and The Franklin Hotel, where he regularly performs one to two times a month. As a classical vocalist, Adam has performed recitals in both Wilmington and Chapel Hill for public schools, nursing homes, and university functions and has performed as a soloist for UNC Men’s Glee Club. Adam also spent a two week intensive study in Spanish art song repertoire at La Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid where he performed on recitals and master classes focused on bettering the understanding and performance of Spanish song. In addition to performing, Adam cur- rently teaches private voice, guitar, and drum lessons. As a composer and songwriter, he has completed seven pop songs, one piece for classical guitar entitled La Corrida, and a musical setting of four poems by Shel Silverstein for classical voice and piano. In addition to composing, Adam has also arranged Every Time We Touch by Cas- cada for pep band and The Beatles’ Let it Be for men’s choir. Tres Morillas: Tres Morillas is a Spanish strophic song popular in the 15th Century. This arrangement is a hybrid of two arrangements: Tres Morillas by Fernando Obradors (1897-1945) and Las Morillas de Jaén from Can- ciones Españolas Antiguas by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936). It incorporates the thematic motives of Lor- ca’s arrangement while drawing from the harmonization of Obradors’. The verses in this arrangement are the ones set by Obradors. It is important to note that in the Lorca version, there is slightly different text and an extra verse at the end. Tres Morillas tells the story of three Moorish girls who go to pick olives in the mountain town of Jaén. While there, they meet the men who will become their husbands. At the end of the song, the women have lost their youthful luster, and return to the mountains this time to pick apples. In Spanish poetry, the olive grove is often an archetypal location for the meeting of young lovers-the girls are “picked” in Jaén. Old and worn, they return to pick apples, a much less risqué orchard to be visiting. Tres Morillas The Three Moorish Girls Tres morillas me enamoran en Jaén, Three Moorish girls fell in love with me in Jaen Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Tres morillas tan garridas, Three moors so poised, iban a coger olivas They went to pick olives y hallábanlas cogidas en Jaén, And found themselves picked in Jaén Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Y hallábanlas cogidas , And they were picked, y tornaban desvaidas. And became fades Y las colores perdidas en Jaén, And their colors were lost in Jaén Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Tres morillas tan lozanas, Three girls so lush Tres morillas tan lozanas Three girls so lush iban a coger manzanas a Jaén, They went to pick apples at Jaen Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Axa, Fátima, y Marién. Joaquín Turina Pérez was born in Sevilla on the 9th of December 1882. Born into a comfortable middle class family, he was surrounded by an artistic environment that was a good influence on the future musician. At the age of four he was given as a gift an accordion and surprised everyone with the speed and facility he learned to play. In 1894 he began his formal studies of harmony theory and counterpoint. Almost immediately he began to com- pose small pieces. His debut was on March 14 1897 where he performed the Thalberg's Fantasy on a theme from Rossini's Moses that set him on the road to become a full fledged performer. In 1902 he moved to Madrid where he quickly became involved in the musical scene there and saw the premier of his Zarzuela La Sulamita. In 1905 he, as most other Spanish composers of the time, went to Paris. He studied piano with Moszkowsky and theory under Vicent d'Indy in the Schola Cantorum. He became good friends with Albeniz and Falla, and it was Albeniz who encouraged to find inspiration in the popular music of Spain and Andalucía. His quintet that was premiered in Paris was given the Op. 1 as the beginning of a new way of looking at music and he rarely looked back on the many works published before this time. In 1914 he returned to Madrid he life in Madrid was divided between composing, teaching and performing. Turina died in Madrid on the 14th of January 1949. Notable works: La Su- lamita, Poema en forma de canciones, Margot Nunca olvida…: Poema en forma de canciones is a look into the mind of a man who is so enamored with a certain woman that he literally goes crazy for her. This woman returns his love, but not necessarily on the intense emo- tional level that he desires. He claims that even in the face of his own death, he cannot forgive her for making him love her because that is the one sin for which he refuses to repent. Nunca olvida... Never Forget... Ya que este mundo abandono Since I am leaving this world, antes de dar cuenta a Dios, and before I give my account to the lord, aquí para entre los dos I will confess to you, mi confesión te diré. here, between the two of us. Con toda el alma perdono With all my soul I forgive those hasta a los que siempre he odiado. whom I have always hated. A ti que tanto te he amado You, whom I have deeply loved, nunca te perdonaré! I will never forgive! Cantares: Our hopelessly smitten gentleman engages in a dance with his fair lady. She leads him on and drives him wild with desire in a dance of passion that he cannot forget even when they are apart. This canción is a direct representation of a flamenco dance. Cantares Singings Más cerca de mí te siento Much closer to me I feel you Cuando más huyo de tí When I have fled far from you Pues tu imagen es en mí Well your image is burned into me Sombra de mi pensamiento. Shadow of my thoughts Vuélvemelo a decir Return to me to say! Pues embelesado ayer While I was thinking of you yesterday Te escuchaba sin oir I heard you without hearing Y te miraba sin ver. I saw you without seeing. Las locas por amor: Our smitten gentleman tells his fair “Goddess” that her will love her forever and always be there for her. She is not ready to commit to a future, but insists instead that he love her often and passionately, if only for an instant. In this canción the mind of the man has completely broken down as he staggers about, drunk on his own desire. Las locas por amor The madness for love Te amaré diosa Venus I will love you goddess Venus si prefieres que te ame mucho tiempo y con cordura If you’d like I will love you forever and with moderation y respondió la diosa de Citeres: And the goddess of the nymphs responded Prefiero como todas las mujeres I prefer, as all women do, que me amen poco tiempo y con locura. That you love me for a short time and with passion. Te amaré diosa Venus, te amaré. I will love you goddess Venus, I will love you! Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most im- portant Latin American classical composers. Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires to a Catalan father and an Italian mother. Ginastera studied at the conservatory in Buenos Aires, graduating in 1938. As a young professor, he taught at the Liceo Militar General San Martín. After a visit to the United States in 1945–47, where he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, he returned to Buenos Aires and co-founded the League of Composers. He held a number of teaching posts. Ginastera moved back to the United States in 1968 and then in 1970 to Europe. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 67 and was buried in the Cimetière des Rois there. Among his nota- ble students were Ástor Piazzolla (who studied with him in 1941), Alcides Lanza, Waldo de los Ríos, Jacqueline Nova and Rafael Aponte-Ledée. Ginastera grouped his music into three periods: "Objective Nationalism" (1934– 1948), "Subjective Nationalism" (1948–1958), and "Neo-Expressionism" (1958–1983). Among other distinguish- ing features, these periods vary in their use of traditional Argentine musical elements. His Objective Nationalistic works often integrate Argentine folk themes in a straightforward fashion, while works in the later periods incorpo- rate traditional elements in increasingly abstracted forms. Much of Ginastera's works were inspired by the Gauchesco tradition. This tradition holds that the Gaucho, or landless native horseman of the plains, is a symbol of Argentina. The progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer brought Ginastera attention outside of modern classical music circles when they adapted the fourth movement of his first piano concerto and recorded it on their popular album Brain Salad Surgery under the title "Toccata".