Cedille Records CDR 90000 066 DDD Absolutely Digital™ CDR 90000 066 AFRICAN HERITAGE SYMPHONIC SERIES • VOLUME III WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS 1 MICHAEL ABELS (b. 1962): Global Warming (1990) (8:18) DAVID BAKER (b. 1931): Cello Concerto (1975) (19:56) 2 I. Fast (6:22) 3 II. Slow à la recitative (7:17) 4 III. Fast (6:09) Katinka Kleijn, cello soloist 5 WILLIAM BANFIELD (b. 1961): Essay for Orchestra (1994) (10:33) COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON (b. 1932) Generations: Sinfonietta No. 2 for Strings (1996) (19:31) 6 I. Misterioso — Allegro (6:13) 8 III. Alla Burletta (2:04) 7 II. Alla sarabande (5:35) 9 IV. Allegro vivace (5:28) CHICAGO SINFONIETTA / PAUL FREEMAN, CONDUCTOR TT: (58:45) Sara Lee Foundation is the exclusive corporate sponsor for African Heritage Symphonic Series, Volume III This recording is also made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts & The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Cedille Records is a trademark of The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation devoted to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation’s activities are supported in part by contributions and grants from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies including the Alpha- wood Foundation, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (CityArts III Grant), and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. DDD Absolutely Digital™ CDR 90000 066 PROGRAM NOTES by dominique-rené de lerma The quartet of composers represented here have a par- cultures, and decided to write a piece that celebrates ticular distinction in common: Each displays remarkable these common threads as well as the sudden improve- stylistic versatility, working not just in concert idioms, but ment in international relations that was occurring.” The also in film music, gospel music, and jazz. title Global Warming seemed suitable for the incorpora- tion of these ideas. It was commissioned by the Phoenix ichael Abels was born in 1962 in Phoenix, Ari- Symphony Guild and first performed by the Phoenix M zona, where he also attended grammar school. Youth Symphony in 1991, with conductor Mark Russell He spent his youngest years, however, in rural South Smith. Abels describes the work as follows: Dakota and began studying piano there at an early age. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he The opening section of the piece is a vision studied composition with James Hopkins and Robert of the traditional idea of global warming Linn and was named Outstanding Senior among student — a vast desert, the relentless heat punc- composers for his "Queries" for piano and prepared tuated by the buzzing of cicadas, and an piano. In 1985–86, Abels studied West African music anguished, frenetic solo violin (with help from with Alfred Ladzekpo at the California Institute for the a solo cello). This scene gives way to several Arts. Abels remains a resident of Los Angeles. episodes reminiscent of folk music of various cultures, most noticeably Irish and Middle Abels wrote Global Warming in 1990, not long after the Eastern. At the climax of the piece, a Middle Berlin Wall fell. It attracted international attention when Eastern melody is transformed, through it was featured at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's gradual changes in rhythm and ornamenta- 1992 African-American Symphony Composers Forum tion, back into the Irish refrain, and many and has enjoyed more than 100 performances since its counter-melodies join in to present a noisy debut. Most notably, Global Warming became the first — yet harmonious — world village. piece by a Black composer to enter the repertory of the National Symphony of South Africa. This joyous moment is broken by a sudden return to the stark vision of the opening, Abels has stated that “living in Los Angeles, I've been leaving the listener to decide which image able to learn about music from around the world simply may more accurately reflect our future. by opening the window; among my neighbors are immi- (http://www.michaelabels.com/music.html) grants from every corner of the world. I was intrigued by the similarities between folk music of divergent Among Abels’s other works is Tribute (2001), a short orchestral memorial to the events of September 11. accompaniment. Baker described his next concerto, He has also written works for chorus, two operas, and completed in 1975 and dedicated to his cellist col- other compositions for orchestra, many created on league, Starker, as follows: commission. His output manifests an interest in sports The first movement is lyrical in nature, featur- (he is a triathlete) and his dedication to outreach proj- ing the cello in a somewhat transparent envi- ects, with particular concern for social welfare and for ronment, ending with harmonics. The second young people. Abels ascribes to the philosophy of many movement opens with an extended solo cello contemporary artists of color who see international recitative in which all of the principal thematic implications inherent in their ethnic heritage. material of this movement is presented. The orn in Indianapolis in 1931, David Baker spent the first theme is reminiscent of the material B first part of his remarkable career as a jazz musi- from the first movement; and special effects, cian. Baker’s undergraduate and graduate studies were including glissandi in the upper strings and at Indiana University, where he is now a Distinguished the use of exotic percussion, create an Professor and chair of the jazz department. His original impressionistic atmosphere. The third move- intention to become an orchestral trombonist was short ment is jazz-influenced. The first theme uses lived — orchestral work was more or less out of reach the harmonic progression from Back Home for African Americans at the time — so Baker entered Again in Indiana and is introduced over a the jazz world. He enjoyed rapid success, performing series of rhythmic interjections. The second and recording in the U.S. and Europe with several jazz theme is a clever and charming twelve-tone legends including Quincy Jones, George Russell, May- row conceived by Starker and incorporated nard Ferguson, and Lionel Hampton. An accident put into this movement over a rhythmic bass line. an end to Baker’s trombone playing in 1966. That same There is one particularly remarkable feature about the year, he joined the faculty at Indiana and began training instrumentation of Baker’s Cello Concerto: the orches- a new generation of jazz musicians. Baker then took up tra itself contains no cellos. the cello, studying with faculty colleague Janos Starker. Since 1975, Baker has written several more works for In 1968, Baker’s interest in liturgical jazz produced Starker, including Ode to Starker, for an orchestra of a blockbuster: a massive memorial to Martin Luther cellos, unveiled at a surprise birthday gala for the cellist King Jr., in which an orchestra of cellos appears amid in 1999. several other ensembles. Over the next two years he Baker's talent and hard work have won him endless wrote a violin concerto (for Joseph Gingold) and a flute awards (including the Jazz Education Hall of Fame concerto (for James Pellerite), both featuring jazz band award, the Arts American Jazz Masters Award, and nominations for both the Pulitzer Prize and the Grammy orn in 1961, William C. Banfield secured his initial Awards), commissions (including from the New York B education in his hometown of Detroit, where he Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1979. Beaux Arts Trio, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers), and Banfield began learning guitar at the age of eight, appointments (including to the National Council on the eventually winning a grant from the Chrysler Corpora- Arts, as Senior Music Consultant for the Smithsonian tion, which he used for study in Acapulco. He majored in Institution, and to panels with the National Endowment guitar at the New England Conservatory of Music, earn- for the Arts and for the Kennedy Center). He continues ing his B.M. degree in 1983. In his final undergraduate to write jazz compositions regularly, and also remains a year, Banfield studied composition with T.J. Anderson at prolific publisher of scholarly essays on jazz greats and Tufts University, and with Michael Gibbs at the New Eng- manuals for jazz students. land Conservatory. From 1985 to 1987, Banfield con- tinued his composition studies with Theodore Antoniou at Boston University, while obtaining his M.A. degree in theological studies. From 1988 to 1992, Banfield pursued his D.M.A. degree at the University of Michi- gan, where he worked with composers William Albright, Leslie Bassett, Fred Lerdahl, and William Bolcom. During his student years, Banfield maintained an intense schedule as a performer and conductor of various ensembles in Boston, Detroit, and Sénégal, and also taught. From 1992 to 1997, he served on the faculty of Indiana University and also held visiting residencies at the University of St. Augustine college, Duke Univer- sity, and the University of Texas, Austin. Leaving Indiana University in 1997, Banfield accepted the endowed chair in Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he currently serves as Associate Professor of Music and director of American Cultural Studies. In 2000–2001, he was a W.E.B. Dubois fellow at Harvard University, completing two operas. In 2002, Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison invited Banfield to Princeton University as a visiting Atelier artist. Banfield’s impressive list of symphonic commissions oleridge-Taylor Perkinson was named for the cel- began with one from the Detroit Metropolitan Orchestra C ebrated Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge- in 1983. Since then he has had works commissioned Taylor.