Notes on the Program By Ken Meltzer Cuban Overture, (1932) george gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1898, and died in Hollywood, California, on July 11, 1937. The first performance of Cuban Overture took place at Lewisohn Stadium in New York on August 16, 1932, with Albert Coates conducting the New York Philharmonic. Cuban Overture is scored for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings. Approximate performance time is ten minutes. First Classical Subscription Performances: April 6, 7 and 8, 2006, Robert Spano, Conductor. In February 1932, American composer George Gershwin and some of his friends vacationed in Havana, where they spent two hysterical weeks in Cuba, where no sleep was had. Gershwin was fascinated by the popular music he heard in Havana, and in particular, its use of exotic percussion instruments. Gershwin took several of these instruments back with him to New York, and incorporated them into an orchestral work he originally entitled Rumba. On August 16, 1932, Rumba premiered at New York s outdoor Lewisohn Stadium, as part of an all-gershwin concert. Albert Coates conducted the New York Philharmonic. More than 15,000 people attended the concert, and, as the composer recalled, just about 5,000 were at the closed gates trying to fight their way in. For Gershwin, it was the most exciting night I ever had. Gershwin later renamed Rumba as the Cuban Overture. As previously noted, the Cuban Overture includes several percussion instruments (claves, guiro, maracas and bongos) Gershwin heard during his stay in Havana. In a composer s note included in the original score, Gershwin directed that those instruments be placed in front of the conductor s stand. The Cuban Overture is notable for the vibrancy and beguiling melodic genius that are the hallmark of Gershwin s finest works. The work is in A B A form, with two rollicking sections framing a lyrical central episode (Sostenuto), introduced by a seductive clarinet solo. A varied reprise of the opening A section leads to the Cuban Overture s rousing conclusion. Conjurer, Concerto for Percussionist and String Orchestra, (2007) john corigliano was born in New York on February 16, 1938. The premiere of Conjurer took place at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 21, 2008, with Evelyn Glennie as soloist and Marin Alsop conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Conjurer is scored for xylophone, marimba, wooden keyboard, chimes, vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales, large tamtam, medium tam-tam, suspended cymbal, talking drum, timpani, kick drums, congas, tom-toms, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-five minutes. These are the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra premiere performances. Atlanta s Performing Arts Publication 25
John Corigliano is internationally recognized as one of the foremost composers of his generation. His dynamic and expressive orchestral, chamber, opera and film works have inspired enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Mr. Corigliano s Symphony No. 1 (1991) one of the most performed contemporary orchestral works received the Grawemeyer Award for Best New Orchestral Composition. His opera, The Ghosts of Versailles (1991), commissioned and premiered by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, was named Composition of the Year at the first International Classic Music Awards. Mr. Corigliano s Symphony No. 2 (2001) received the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Mr. Corigliano s compositions have also earned several Grammys, and his score for the 1998 François Girard film, The Red Violin, earned an Academy Award. Mr. Corigliano is a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York, which recently established a composition scholarship in his name. John Corigliano was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra s Composer of the Year for the 2007-2008 season. On February 21, 2008, the Pittsburgh Symphony, conducted by Marin Alsop, performed the world premiere of Mr. Corigliano s Percussion Concerto, Conjurer. The soloist was Evelyn Glennie, for whom the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as the Nashville Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Music Department (Lisbon, Portugal), and National Arts Centre Orchestra, commissioned the work. John Corigliano discusses Conjurer Cadenza, Movement I: WOOD Cadenza, Movement II: METAL Cadenza, Movement III: SKIN When asked to compose a percussion concerto, my only reaction was horror. All I could see were problems. While I love using a percussion battery in my orchestral writing, the very thing that makes it the perfect accent to other orchestral sonorities makes it unsatisfactory when it takes the spotlight in a concerto. For starters, a percussionist plays dozens of instruments. Again, this is wonderful if his role is to color an orchestral texture: but if he (or she) is the main focus, it is terrible. The aural identity of the player is lost amid the myriad bangs, crashes, and splashes of the percussion arsenal. Only the visual element of one person playing all these instruments ties them together. In addition, most of the instruments have no pitch at all (or very little), and don t sustain a sound (like a violin or trumpet). As a result, most percussion concerti I have heard sound like orchestral pieces with an extra-large percussion section. The melodic interest always rests with the orchestra, while the percussion plays accompanying figures around it. 26 Encore Atlanta
Of course, one could limit oneself to writing for keyboard percussion: marimba or vibraphone, for example. Many concertos have been written like this, and the combination of using an instrument with definite pitches and restricting oneself to one instrument does focus the work on a single soloist. I thought of all of this as I sat down to discuss my writing a percussion concerto. Obviously I had more than mixed views about this project, but something about the challenge fascinated me, too. Many of my works begin this way. I pose a problem and write a piece as the solution. In this case, the problem is the following: How do I write a concerto for a solo percussionist playing many different instruments in which the soloist is always clearly the soloist (even with your eyes closed), and how do I write a concerto in which there are real melodies and those melodies are introduced by the percussionist, not the orchestra? I) WOOD The pitched wood instruments are the xylophone and marimba. To supplement this, I constructed a keyboard of unpitched wooden instruments (wood block, claves, log drum, etc.) ranging from high to low and placed it in front of the marimba. The soloist could play pitched notes on the marimba and then strike unpitched notes on the wooden keyboard. The initial cadenza starts with unpitched notes, but gradually pitched notes enter and various motives are revealed as well as ideas based upon the interval of a fifth. This interval will run through the entire concerto as a unifying force. After a climactic run, the orchestra enters, developing the 5th interval into a rather puckish theme. Soloist and orchestra develop the material and build to a climactic xylophone solo, and finally return to the opening theme. II) METAL The cadenza is for chimes (tubular bells) accompanied by tam-tams and suspended cymbals. It is loud and clangorous, with the motivic 5ths clashing together. The movement itself, however, is soft and long lined. The melody that will end the movement is introduced in the low register of the vibraphone, and the movement develops to a dynamic climax where the chimes return, and then subsides to a soft texture in the lower strings as the struck/bowed vibraphone plays its melody. III) SKIN The skin cadenza features a talking drum accompanied by a kick drum. The talking drum is played with the hands, and can change pitch as its sides are squeezed. Strings connect the top and bottom skins, and squeezing stretches them tighter and raises the pitch. It provides a lively conversation with a kick drum: a very dry small bass drum played with a foot pedal and almost exclusively used as part of a jazz drum set. This cadenza starts slowly, but builds to a loud and rhythmic climax. Atlanta s Performing Arts Publication 27
Once it was complete, it occurred to me that the piece s cadenza-into-movement form characterizes the soloist as a kind of sorcerer. The effect in performance is that the soloist doesn t so much as introduce material as conjure it, as if by magic, from the three disparate choirs: materials which the orchestra then shares and develops; hence, the title CONJURER. John Corigliano March 2008 Symphony No. 9 in E minor ( From the New World) (1893) Antonín Dvo Rák was born in Mühlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, the Czech Republic), on September 8, 1841 and died in Prague on May 1, 1904. The first performance of the New World Symphony took place at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Symphony No. 9 is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle and strings. Approximate performance time is forty minutes. First ASO Classical Subscription Performance: March 16, 1947, Henry Sopkin, Conductor. Most Recent ASO Classical Subscription Performances: February 2, 3 and 4, 2006, Emmanuel Krivine, Conductor. On September 21, 1885, Jeannette Meyer Thurber founded the National Conservatory of Music of America. Mrs. Thurber hoped that the Conservatory, located in New York City, would foster the development of important American concert music. Jeannette Thurber realized that in order for the National Conservatory to thrive as a major institution, it would be necessary that its Director be a musician of international stature. Mrs. Thurber considered two composers for the position Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvo rák. Mrs. Thurber was not inclined to make the long journey to Sibelius s homeland of Finland. Because her family lived in Vienna, Mrs. Thurber decided that it would be far easier to contact Dvo rák either in the Austrian city, or the composer s home in Prague. In June of 1891, Mrs. Thurber offered Antonín Dvo rák the position of Director of the National Conservatory. Dvo rák, who was then a Professor of Composition at the Prague Conservatory, politely declined. However, Jeannette Thurber was not to be denied. After several cables to the Czech composer, Mrs. Thurber sent Dvo rák a contract setting forth the generous terms of his employment with the National Conservatory. Only Dvo rák s signature was required. In December of 1891, Dvo rák, with characteristic modesty, accepted Mrs. Thurber s proposal: Mme. Dvo rák and my eldest daughter Otilka, are very anxious to see Amerika, but I am a little afraid that I shall not be able to please you in everything in my new position. As a teacher and conductor I feel myself quite sure, but there (are) many other trifles which will make me much sorrow and grieve but I rely on your kindness and indulgence and be sure I shall do all to please you. 28 Encore Atlanta
Dvo rák in New York Dvo rák s duties as Director of the National Conservatory commenced in the fall of 1892. On September 26 of that year, Dvo rák, his wife, and two of his six children arrived from Europe at the port in Hoboken, New Jersey. While on board, Dvo rák enjoyed his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Awed by the magnificent sight, he exclaimed, In the head alone there is enough room for sixty persons! Dvo rák and his family took up residence near the Conservatory, which was located at E. 17th Street and Irving Place. Dvo rák s contract with the National Conservatory dictated that he would teach three composition classes and conduct semiweekly orchestral rehearsals. In his spare time, Dvo rák preferred to avoid social functions. Instead, he paid frequent visits to the docks, the railway station and Central Park the latter providing Dvo rák with a reminder of the countryside he so enjoyed in his native land. Dvo rák s homesickness was somewhat alleviated when, in the summer of 1893, he and his family vacationed in Spillville, a northeast Iowa town populated by Czech immigrants. Dvo rák had always taken a keen interest in the folk music of his native Bohemia, and indeed, acknowledged: I myself have gone to the simple, half forgotten tunes of Bohemian peasants for hints in my most serious works. Only in this way can a musician express the true sentiment of his people. He gets into touch with the common humanity of his country. It s not surprising that when Dvo rák arrived in America, he began to study the folk traditions of the New World. Dvo rák concluded that America s great folk tradition was based in the music of African-Americans (it should be noted that in May of 1893, the National Conservatory opened its doors to African-American students). As Dvo rák commented during a May 21, 1893 interview with the New York Herald: I am now satisfied...that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition in the United States. When I first came here last year I was impressed with this idea and it has developed into a settled conviction. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. Dvo rák also acknowledged the importance of the folk music of Native Americans, which, the Czech composer felt, was virtually identical to Negro melodies. The New World Symphony On May 24, 1893, three days after the publication of the New York Herald interview, Dvo rák completed his Symphony in E minor, begun the previous December. The work received its premiere at New York s Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic. A month earlier, Dvo rák gave the E-minor Symphony its famous nickname, From the New World. In an article published in the New York Herald the day before the premiere, Dvo rák offered this analysis of his New World Symphony: Atlanta s Performing Arts Publication 29
Since I have been in this country I have been deeply interested in the national music of the Negroes and the Indians. The character, the very nature of a race is contained in its national music. For that reason my attention was at once turned in the direction of these native melodies...it is this spirit which I have tried to reproduce in my new Symphony ( The New World ). I have not actually used any of the melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the...music and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, harmony, counterpoint and orchestral color. The premiere of the New World Symphony was an unqualified success. Dvo rák proudly informed his publisher, Simrock: The papers say that no composer ever celebrated such a triumph. Carnegie Hall was crowded with the best people of New York, and the audience applauded so that, like visiting royalty, I had to take my bows repeatedly from the box in which I sat. Jeannette Thurber extended Dvo rák s original two-year contract with the National Conservatory through 1896. However, in the summer of 1895, Dvo rák, yearning for his beloved homeland, tendered his resignation. Mrs. Thurber reluctantly accepted. In a November, 1919 article, published in The Etude, she wrote: In looking back over my thirty-five years of activity as President of the National Conservatory of Music of America there is nothing I am so proud of as having been able to bring Dr. Dvo rák to America, thus being privileged to open the way for one of the world s symphonic masterpieces... Musical Analysis I. Adagio; Allegro molto The New World Symphony begins with a slow introduction (Adagio). The rather pastoral mood of the opening measures is shattered by a thunderous orchestral outburst. Then, almost as if rising out of the mists, hints of the Allegro s opening theme appear in the horns, violas and cellos. A final crescendo, a massive timpani explosion, and a tremolo passage for violins serve as a bridge to the Allegro s dramatic opening theme, first introduced by the horns. The playful second theme (with its hint of Turkey in the Straw ) features the flutes and oboes. A solo flute presents another, lovely, theme with, as many commentators have noted, a kinship to a spiritual Dvo rák loved Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. The brief development features a stirring juxtaposition of the first and third themes. A varied recapitulation of the principal themes and a stormy coda round out the opening movement. II. Largo Dvo rák envisioned the second movement of his New World Symphony as a study or sketch for an opera or cantata based upon Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s Hiawatha a project that, sadly, never came to fruition. After a brief, somber introduction, the solo English horn, over muted strings, sings the unforgettable principal melody ( Dvo rák s pupil, William Arms Fisher, later adapted this haunting melody for the song, Goin Home ). The flutes and oboes inaugurate the melancholy central section. Suddenly, a jaunty woodwind interlude leads to a grand proclamation of the first movement s principal theme. The English horn returns for a reprise of the opening melody. A 30 Encore Atlanta
restatement of the Largo s introduction, an ascending string passage, and solemn bass chords bring the Largo to a poignant close. iii. Scherzo; Molto vivace The composer noted that the third movement was suggested by a scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance, and is also an essay which I made in the direction of imparting the local color of Indian character to music. After a brief introduction, the flute and oboes, with counterpoint by the clarinets, present the agitated principal theme, soon thundered by the entire orchestra. The first Trio section, which highlights the woodwinds, has a far more relaxed quality. A reprise of the Scherzo follows, the conclusion of which offers hints by the cellos and violas of the opening movement s principal theme. The second Trio section emerges like a bright ray of sunshine. A repeat of the Scherzo and initial Trio leads to the coda, which again presents echoes of the Symphony s opening Allegro, before the movement reaches its fortissimo conclusion. IV. Allegro con fuoco The strings launch a vigorous introduction to the announcement by the horns and trumpets of the forceful, principal theme. A solo clarinet offers a plaintive, contrasting melody. The finale, cast in rather loose sonata form, is notable for the return of principal themes from the preceding three movements. As Dvo rák notes, he treats these themes in a variety of ways. The magnificent coda features a synthesis of the principal themes of the outer movements. The closing orchestral fanfare is capped by an extended diminuendo, leading to a ppp close. Atlanta s Performing Arts Publication 31