Hodgson Wind Ensemble The composer has written: “Dragon Rhyme The Hodgson Wind Ensemble Program Notes for symphonic band is cast in two move- ments. You will hear that the thematic mate- rial found in each movement is related and Chen Yi (Born 1953) consists of the basic intervals found in Bei- Thursday Dragon Rhyme (2010) jing opera music. The instrumental textures within this piece range from transparent and October 12 2017 • 8:00 p.m. As a Distinguished Professor at the Univer- delicate, to angular and strong. This variety is sity of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory meant to spark the image of a dragon, which conductor Cynthia Johnston Turner of Music and Dance, a prolific composer, is auspicious, fresh, and vivid, and results in and recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives music that is layered and multidimensional – graduate conductor Bradley J. Esau Living Award from the American Academy similar to the eastern culture.” guest composer Catherine Likhuta of Arts and Letters, Chen Yi blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cul- guest artists UGA Hodgson Singers tural and musical boundaries. As a result, John Adams (Born 1947) she serves as an ambassador to the arts and PROGRAM creates music that reaches a wide range of Lollapalooza (1995/2006) audiences throughout the world. She holds Composer, conductor, and creative thinker, Chen Yi Dragon Rhyme (2010) both the B.A. and M.A. degrees in music John Adams occupies a unique position in composition from the Central Conservato- I. Mysteriously - Harmoniously the world of American music. His works, ry of Music in Beijing, and she received her II. Energetically both operatic and symphonic, stand out D.M.A. from Columbia University where among contemporary classical composi- she studied composition with Wu Zuqiang, John Adams Lollapalooza (1995/2006) tions for their depth of expression, brilliance Chou Wen-chung, and Mario Davidovsky. of sound, and the profoundly humanist na- Bradley J. Esau, Graduate Conductor She was elected to the American Academy ture of their themes. Over the past 30 years, of Arts and Sciences in 2005. Steven Stucky Funeral Music for Queen Mary (after Purcell) (1992) Adams’ music has played a decisive role in turning the tide of contemporary musical aesthetics away from academic modernism INTERMISSION and toward a more expansive, expressive language, entirely characteristic of his New Catherine Likhuta Scraps from a Madman’s Diary (2016) World surroundings. United States Premiere Born and raised in New England, Adams I. Scene 1: Friday, 18th of July learned the clarinet from his father and II. Scene 2: Saturday, 19th of July played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. Af- III. Scene 3: Monday, 21st of July ter earning two degrees from Harvard, he IV. Scene 4: Wednesday, 31st of July moved to Northern California in 1971 and V. Scene 5: Thursday, 32nd of July has since lived in the San Francisco Bay area. VI. Scene 6: Friday, 33rd of July Adams taught at the San Francisco Conser- VII. Scene 7: Monday, 34th of August vatory of Music for ten years before becom- VIII. Scene 8: Saturday, 49th of Octoburary ing composer-in-residence of the San Fran- IX. Scene 9: cisco Symphony (1982-1985), and creator of the orchestra’s highly successful and contro- X. Scene 10: versial New and Unusual Music Series. In XI. Scene 11: 1985, Adams began a collaboration with the XII. Scene 12: poet Alice Goodman and stage director Pe- XIII. Scene 13: ter Sellars that resulted in two groundbreak- ing operas, Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991). HODGSON CONCERT HALL 48 Performance UGA September October 2017 49 Hodgson Wind Ensemble Both Harvard and Yale Universities have Steven Stucky (1949-2016) Catherine Likhuta (Born 1981) conferred honorary doctorates on Adams, as have Northwestern University, The Juil- Funeral Music for Queen Mary Scraps from a Madman’s liard School, and Cambridge University in (after Purcell) (1992) Diary (2016) England. Governor Arnold Schwarzeneg- United States Premiere ger of California honored him with the Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Second Concerto for Orchestra in 2005 Governor’s Award for his distinguished ser- About Scraps from a Madman’s Diary, Cath- and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986, vice to the arts in his adopted home state. erine Likhuta, the composer, writes: His Violin Concerto won the 1993 Grawe- Steven Stucky was one of America’s most meyer Award, and On the Transmigration highly regarded composers. Stucky stud- One evening in 2006, I read a short of Souls, commissioned by the New York ied with some of the leading composition story by Ukrainian author Nikolai Philharmonic to commemorate the first an- teachers, including Karel Husa. Gogol entitled “Diary of a Mad- niversary of 9/11, received the 2003 Pulitzer man.” Born and raised in Ukraine, I Throughout his career, he composed mu- Prize in Music. was well familiar with Gogol’s most sic in all genres and was an admired music popular works, but less so with this educator. Stucky taught at Cornell Univer- The composer writes: one. I did not expect much of it. Ten sity, where he chaired the Music Depart- pages later, I was in a state of shock, Lollapalooza was written as a forti- ment from 1992 to 1997 and served as amazed by how Gogol was able to eth birthday present for Simon Rat- Given Foundation Professor of Composi- pack such an intense drama into Gogol spent several pages in his tle, conductor of the Berlin Phil- tion. He also served as Visiting Professor such a short story. That same night, story having his Madman investigate harmonic, who has been a friend of Composition at the Eastman School of I decided that one day I would write imaginary correspondence between and collaborator for many years. Music and was the Ernest Bloch Professor an oratorio based on this work. In two dogs. He was quite elaborate with The term “lollapalooza” has an at the University of California, Berkeley. He 2015, after nine years of keeping the description of the dogs and their uncertain etymology, and just that was appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard this idea in a special corner of my letters, which seemed funny and silly vagueness may account for its pop- School shortly before his untimely death heart and mind, I commenced work at first. Shortly after, however, that ularity as an archetypical American from brain cancer. on Scraps from a Madman’s Diary. same idea didn’t seem entertaining at word. It suggests something large, About Funeral Music for Queen Mary (after all anymore – quite the opposite. It outlandish, oversized, not unduly Since it had been nearly a decade Purcell), the composer writes: accentuated the darkness and the refined. H. L. Mencken suggests it from when I first read Gogol’s sto- tragedy of the new reality into which may have originally meant a knock- It was at the suggestion of Esa-Pekka ry, I hardly remembered any details his Madman was falling. I decided to out punch in a boxing match. I was from it. I did, however, remember incorporate the dogs in my oratorio attracted to it because of its inter- Salonen that I transcribed this music of Purcell for the Los Angeles Phil- all the emotions that Gogol evoked as well, though briefly. They become nal rhythm: da-da-da-DAAH-da. in me, as if it happened yesterday. one of the attributes of my Madman’s Hence, in my piece, the word is harmonic Orchestra. I used three of the pieces heard at the funeral I decided not to re-read the origi- imaginary world. spelled out in the trombones and nal story while writing the oratorio, tubas, C-C-C-Eb-C (emphasis on of Mary II of England, who died of smallpox on 28 December 1694: a as I was afraid that I might find it The Madman lives in two worlds the Eb) as a kind of ideé fixe – an underwhelming the second time in the first eight scenes: the real- idea or desire that dominates the solemn march, the anthem In the Midst of Life We Are in Death, and around. Instead, I decided to come ity, shared with others (Scenes 1, 2, mind, which can be represented by up with my own plot and use Go- 4, and 6) and his own imagination a musical motive. The “lollapaloo- a canzona in imitative polyphonic style. In working on the project, I gol’s work as the source of inspira- (Scenes 3, 5, and 7). In Scene 8, the za” motive is only one of a profu- tion and point of reference. One of two worlds approach each other with sion of other motives, all appearing did not try to achieve a pure, musi- cological reconstruction, but on the the things I remembered about “Di- catastrophic speed and eventually col- and evolving in a repetitive chain of ary of a Madman” was the format of lide. This results in the Madman’s re- events that moves this dancing be- contrary, to regard Purcell's music, which I love deeply, through the lens a personal diary used throughout alization of his mental illness culmi- hemoth along until it ends in a final the story, each chapter represent- nating in a nervous breakdown. The shout by the horns and trombones of three hundred intervening years. Thus, although most of this version is ing a diary entry. I decided to use remaining five scenes have no date and a terminal “thwack” on timpani a similar format for the main part entries and are dedicated to the de- and bass drum.