October 12/13 notesSYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE By Dr. Richard E. Rodda 30 SECOND NOTES: Symphony In Sculpture, commissioned by the Des Moines Symphony in celebration of its 75th Season in 2012-2013, is Minnesota composer Steve Heitzeg’s musical impression of works in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, the green gateway to the city’s downtown. He composed Symphony In Sculpture II in 2015 and this concert features the premiere of Symphony in Sculpture III, dedicated to John and Mary Pappajohn in celebration of their three newest additions to the Sculpture Park, including Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE. Complementing Heitzeg’s work on this program are the cinematic Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotic Scheherazade, inspired by The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of millennium-old fantasy tales from Egypt, Persia and India. MODEST The mountain referred to in the title of MUSSORGSKY Mussorgsky’s tone poem, well known in Russian Born March 21 1839 in legend, is Mount Triglav, near Kiev, reputed to be Karevo, Russia; the site of the annual witches’ sabbath that died March 16, 1881 in occurs on St. John’s Night, June 23-24, the eve St. Petersburg. of the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The sinister god Chernobog, the devil himself in disguise, A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (1867) presides over the demonic revelries. The score Arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov contains the following synopsis of the action: (1844-1908) “Subterranean sounds of supernatural voices ... • First performed on October 15, 1886 in St. Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed Petersburg, conducted by Nikolai Rimsky- by that of Satan himself ... Glorification of Satan Korsakov. and celebration of the Black Mass ... The Sabbath • First performed by the Des Moines Symphony Revels ... At the height of the orgies the bell of on May 3, 1953 with Frank Noyes conducting. the village church, sounding in the distance, Three subsequent performances have occurred, disperses the spirits of darkness ... Daybreak.” most recently on November 22 & 23, 2003 with The mood of the music is dark, unearthly Joseph Giunta conducting. and more than a little weird. At the beginning, (Duration: ca. 12 minutes) swirling strings and shrieks from the woodwinds, like great gusts of wind, seem to rise out of the ground itself. The trombones blare forth a Des Moines Symphony, conducted by Joseph savage summons for the demons to assemble; Giunta. their arrival is portrayed by the clucking and (Duration: ca. 15 minutes) chattering of the woodwinds. A loud brass fanfare marks the appearance of Satan, and the Steve Heitzeg, born in Albert Lea, Minnesota on witches join old Beelzebub in a wild and ghoulish October 15, 1959, grew up on a dairy farm in his dance. The revels go on all night, and only when hometown. By age eight, he was playing guitar dawn breaks do the unearthly participants and piano; he began composing in high school depart and the music return to the plodding with a rock opera titled P.S., based on the world of mere mortals. A distant church bell parable of the Prodigal Son. From 1978 to 1982, sounds, and the bizarre ceremony is over. Heitzeg attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he received his The score calls for piccolo, pairs of flutes, Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. He oboes, clarinets and bassoons, four horns, continued his professional training at the two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, University of Minnesota’s School of Music in timpani, bass drum, cymbals, chimes, Minneapolis, completing his Ph.D. in Music tam-tam, gong, harp and the usual strings Theory and Composition in 1986 as a student consisting of first violins, second violins, and teaching assistant of Dominick Argento. violas, violoncellos and double basses. Heitzeg has taught and held residencies at Mankato State University, Gustavus Adolphus College and University of Saint Thomas in Saint STEVE Paul, served as library assistant with the HEITZEG Minnesota Orchestra, and created, organized Born October 15, 1959 in and performed in the “Music of the Earth” Albert Lea, Minnesota. Program for the Young Arts Program at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Among Heitzeg’s honors are an Emmy Award for his score for the public television documentary SUITE FROM SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE I & II Death of the Dream: Farmhouses in the (2012 & 2015) Heartland, Bush Foundation Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, Meet The Composer/ PANORAMIC AWARENESS PAVILION (OLAFUR Reader’s Digest-Lila Wallace Commissioning ELIASSON) from SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE II Grant, and multiple grants and commissions (2015) from the American Composer’s Forum, Meet The • Premiered on May 23 & 24, 2015 by the Composer, ASCAP and other organizations. He Des Moines Symphony, conducted by Joseph was named Minnesota’s “Composer of the Year” Giunta. in 2000 by the Minnesota Music Academy. Mr. Heitzeg has written “orchestral, choral POST-BALZAC (JUDITH SHEA)” and “NOMADE and chamber music in celebration of the natural (JAUME PLENSA) from SYMPHONY IN world, with evocative and lyrical scores SCULPTURE I (2012) frequently including naturally found instruments • Premiered on September 29, 2012 by the such as stones, manatee and beluga whale bones, and sea shells” — rocks and leaves the southern hemisphere. appear in his Enduring Earth, soil and horse “Your moonbow hymn — rainbows at night bones in Songs of the Soil, rain sticks in Litanies are called moonbows or lunar rainbows. This for the Living, birch bark and pine cone wind variation is a contemplative hymn for strings, chimes in Raven and Crow: Medicine Birds, glockenspiel and tingshaws (small Tibetan stones, an obsidian wind gong and jade and cymbals) honoring nighttime hues. agate slice wind chimes in Sacred Stones “Your noon flourish — a brass fanfare with (Symphony in Stone), and acorns, maple timpani, percussion and low strings heralds solar seedlings and Catalpa tree pods in Leaf Songs. power and energy. The lowest notes of the cellos Since 1991, Heitzeg has also been creating what and basses is tuned down yet another half-step, he calls “eco-scores” or “earth-scores,” which similar to the effect Respighi used in the last he defines as “music scores/drawings with an movement of The Pines of Rome. This section/ earth-centric or an environmentally based variation is marked radiant, evoking ancient sun statement dedicated to the preservation of the power. many voices in nature.” World Piece, for example, “Your kaleidoscopic interlude — a features 192 chords in honor of each of the mixed-meter, energetic dance depicting daily world’s 192 countries. His other main concern in activities in which one of the percussionists his music is addressing social issues — the plays a sea glass rattle as a symbolic reference ballet Social Movements explores war, global to the sculpture’s colored glass panels and warming, refugees and human rights; Song prisms of color. (The Pacific Ocean sea glass Without Borders is dedicated to United Nations was found by our daughter, who has a keen eye personnel who lost their lives in pursuit of peace; for it, and the lake glass is from Lake Superior). Peace March for Paul and Sheila Wellstone is Another percussionist plays a sistrum, a composed in the shape of a peace sign. common percussion instrument in Ethiopia, in Heitzeg wrote, “Panoramic Awareness tribute to Olafur Eliasson’s work with 121 Pavilion (Olafur Eliasson). I had the privilege of Ethiopia and his global project based on Little meeting and talking with Olafur Eliasson when Sun, a solar-powered LED lamp designed to he visited Des Moines for the dedication of his deliver clean, affordable, reliable light to the 1.6 Panoramic Awareness Pavilion. He spoke billion people worldwide without access to the eloquently about the sculpture as a study in electrical grid. (littlesun.com) light, space and plurality. Scored in a bright key, “Your panoramic chorus — the original this movement is a set of variations for the seven theme returns, slightly altered, with the full colors of the rainbow. Influenced by Eliasson’s orchestra. use of the phrase ‘Your rainbow panorama and “Your luminous paean at dusk — an Your black horizon’ in his previous works, the extremely high pitched and shimmering episode sections/variations are: brings the piece to a celebratory close with huge “Your dawn fanfare — marked bright, B major chords.” sparkling, this full orchestra fanfare celebrates “Post-Balzac (Judith Shea). ‘Is it the evanescence and beauty of dawn. nothingness or does a spirit reside? Music will “Your aurora dance — this is a brief and certainly live inside …’ There is a sense of loss Druidic-inspired dance for the aurora borealis in in the hollow space where a person should be the northern hemisphere and aurora australis in inside Judith Shea’s sculpture. Yet there is also an evocation of comfort, even though the robe is SYMPHONY IN SCULPTURE III (2019) cast in bronze and not soft fabric. To portray • World Premiere: first performances of this, I have scored this movement in the exact Symphony in Sculpture III at these concerts on instrumentation of Elgar’s Nimrod from the October 12 & 13, 2019. Enigma Variations, one of the most famous and (Duration: ca. 17 minutes) beautiful adagios ever composed. “Nomade (Jaume Plensa). Jaume Plensa’s The composer has kindly provided the following sculptures share a deep respect for all cultures information for this performance. and reference the beautiful universality of the world in their inclusiveness, approachability and I. Iron Tree Trunk (Ai Weiwei). Marked “In playfulness. To reflect this as well as the notion Protest, procession-like,” the Symphony begins implied in the title of the sculpture that we are all with the harp, piano and basses in their lowest nomadic, this movement begins with the sound registers, slowly moving, as if from the deepest of a shruti box drone, one of many transportable roots of earth and sound, and gather in scope instruments employed here.