Concert III Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz

Ralph Vaughan Williams' 1929 opera, Sir John in Love, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Included in the opera were a number of pastoral interludes, the most well-known of which is the "Fantasia on Greensleeves". Although the opera is rarely performed, the fantasia has remained popular, most often presented as a standalone composition. The brief work employs the traditional "Greensleeves" folk melody as the main material of a three-part setting for solo flute, harp and strings. The middle section quotes another tune, an East Anglian folk song that Vaughan Williams had collected during his study of British folk music.

The six Brandenburg concertos are considered by many to represent the pinnacle of baroque concerto writing. They were assembled in 1720, when Bach was serving as Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen. A number of these concertos had been composed earlier in Bach's career, while some were newly written for inclusion in the set.

The impetus for this group of magnificent concertos was a passing remark by the Margrave of Brandenburg, for whom Bach had played in 1718–19. At the conclusion of his visit to the Margrave, the composer was invited to "send in some compositions." Bach clearly considered this a very important request, and was very careful in making his decisions about what to include. It took him two years to fulfill the charge.

The musical resources available to Bach at Cöthen were far more ample than those in the Margrave's employ, and it is therefore not really surprising that the composer neither received any thanks for his beautifully written score, nor any performances or remuneration. The manuscript simply languished in the Margrave's library.

In assembling the Brandenburgs, Bach determined to include a great variety of concerto types and settings, a goal he surely accomplished. Some of the concertos are like concerti grossi and others like concertos for orchestra. One of them (no. 6) is properly considered to be a piece of chamber music

The fourth concerto was composed for the set. Completed about 1720, it is scored for three solo instruments (2 flutes and violin) and strings. The musical material is shared between the soloists and the orchestra, making it something of a ripieno concerto. In a typical slow-fast-slow setting, the work allows all the soloists to shine, with especially virtuosic passages written for the solo violin.

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) studied at a conservatory in Naples. Upon completing his studies, he left Naples to become maestro di cappella to Prince Ferdinando Colonna Stigliano. Shortly afterward he returned to Naples to enter the service of the Duke of Maddaloni. His tragically brief life (he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26) nevertheless saw the creation of a good deal of music: operas, sacred music and instrumental works.

Although Pergolesi enjoyed only limited success during his lifetime, his fame increased by vast proportions immediately following his death. Four of his cantatas were published in Naples and traveling companies of musicians and singers began performing his comic operas, especially La serva padrona. His sacred works also won favor, and they began to be seen as the ideal church music.

The craze for Pergolesi caused many works to be wrongly attributed to him. A famous instance of misattribution concerns a number of instrumental compositions adapted by Stravinsky for his ballet Pulcinella, all of which were thought to be by Pergolesi, but are in fact by other composers.

Included in the list of misattributions is the Magnificat in B flat, which was assigned to Pergolsi at the beginning of the twentieth century, an error that was perpetuated in Filippo Caffarelli's 1939–42 edition of Pergolesi's works. Strong evidence correctly assigns this work to Pergolesi's teacher, Francesco Durante (1684–1755), who spent most of his career on the faculty of the two foremost conservatories in Naples. The well-known and highly respected teacher not only of Pergolesi achieved international recognition both as a composer and as a teacher. His sacred compositions conform to the traditions of the church music he inherited while at the same time including imaginative and forward-looking aspects.

Durante's Magnificat employs a cantus firmus, a pre-existing melody taken from the Gregorian first psalm tone. Appearing in the opening and closing movements, this melody serves as a unifying theme. It is also a musical pun, since in the final movement it reappears with the text "as it was in the beginning...." The text of the Magnificat is divided up in a typically Baroque manner into two duets, the first for soprano and contralto, the second for tenor and bass, and portions for four-part choir. The blend of intricate writing and appealing melody, hallmarks of the Neapolitan style, here result in a work that is original, tuneful and engaging.

Concert IV Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz

Alberto Ginastera, Argentina's most highly regarded composer, was born in Buenos Aires. He began music study at the age of seven, and at twelve he entered the Williams Conservatory, where his talent was recognized and nurtured. At the age of 22, following his graduation from the National Conservatory, Ginastera began to make his name as a composer. He came to the United States to work under a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1945–46, and within a few years was able to make his mark on the European scene, with the performance there of his First String Quartet. His international reputation as a fine composer has been maintained since that time.

The Variaciones Concertantes para orquesta de camera (Concert Variations for Chamber Orchestra) was commissioned by the Society of Friends of Music of Buenos Aires, and first performed in that city in June 1953. It was composed at a time in the composer's career when he was shedding direct quotation of old material. Nevertheless, the piece may be said to display a kind of subjective nationalism, albeit couched within an international musical language. Although no actual folk material is present, an Argentine atmosphere is evoked through Ginastera's own melodies and rhythms.

The work consists of an especially lovely theme, played by the cello and harp, followed by eleven variations, each of which exploits the particular characteristics of one or more of the instruments in the ensemble. The twelve sections, played without pause, are as follows: i. Tema; ii. Interludio for strings; iii. Variazione giocosa for flute; iv. Variazione in modo di scherzo for clarinet; v. Variazione drammatica for viola; vi. Variazione canonica for oboe and bassoon; vii. Variazione ritmica for trumpet and trombone; viii. Variazione in modo di moto perpetuo for violin; ix. Variazione pastorale for horn; x. Interludio for winds; xi. Reprise of the Tema for double bass and harp; xii. Variazione finale in modo di Rondo for the entire orchestra.

Villa Lobos described his set of Bachianas brasileiras as an "homage to the great genius of Johann Sebastian Bach ... [whom I] consider [to be] a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound ... [a source] linking all peoples."

The Bachianas brasileiras were formally conceived as suites in the Baroque sense (that is as pieces made up of two or more dance movements). The nine works (composed from 1930–45) were written for various combinations of voices and instruments. Each explores the kinship of Bach's counterpoint with Brazilian folk music, and most have two titles, one reflecting the Baroque elements, the other referring to a Brazilian popular form. The works were not intended as stylized renditions of the music of Bach but as free adaptations of a number of Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures to Brazilian music.

Bachiana Brasileira No. 9 is the only one in the group that does not have double titles. Instead, this brief work (the shortest in the series at eight minutes) is in the Bachian form of a prelude and fugue.

The work is scored for string orchestra. The opening, marked with the Italian direction "vague and mystical" begins with a striking sonority played by the high strings. A very Bachian aria melody unfolds, with harmonization that is often bitonal (in two keys simultaneously). The fugue that follows features a quick and sprightly subject.

Carlos Chávez, composer, conductor, teacher, writer on music and government official, was born in Mexico City in 1899 and died there in 1978. An important figure in the cultural life of Mexico in the mid-20th century, he was a prolific composer who produced more than 200 musical works, a conductor of many orchestras in the US, Latin America and Europe, a government official representing the arts in Mexico, and a lecturer and writer about music and its place in society.

Three sometimes competing stylistic attributes permeate Chávez's music: Mexicanism; a mixture of pungent dissonance, jagged melody, polytonality and atonality; and a conservative leaning toward classical forms, moderation of dissonance, and tonality.

Chávez composed six symphonies. Together, they demonstrate the huge variety of his stylistic procedures. The first two invoke faraway cultures, the first Greek (employing ancient Greek modal scales), the second Pre-Hispanic Mexican. The Third Symphony demonstrates the innovative manipulation of form, while the fourth returns to classical-era formal structures. The Sixth Symphony seems to synthesize many of the procedures in all five of his previous symphonies.

The Symphony No. 5 is unique in Chávez's symphonic output in that it is scored entirely for strings. The musical language has been described as neoclassic, meaning that it employs techniques, harmonic and formal structures reminiscent of the Classical period of music history. The first movement, for example, follows a strict sonata form. The slow movement is one of Chávez's most original pieces, combining strictness of form with a constant feeling of improvisation. The work concludes with an energetic and driving finale.

Ever since I can remember, I wanted to learn to dance the tango. Watching experienced dancers execute this elegant and passionate dance always inspired me but alas I could never muster the courage to do so. Each year, I donate a new work to the Oregon Mozart Players as an auction item. Since we decided that the commission would be on the South of the Border concert, it gave me the opportunity to exorcise my tango demons.

Tango Fantasy is a miniature tone poem and series of traditional tango arrangements for small orchestra. The scene opens with a gentleman who has decided to take the plunge and learn the tango. The music is dark and lugubrious, representing his fear of the tango-unknown and eventually he dances for the first time. These first tentative steps are danced to Gallo Ciego, a traditional tango by Osvaldo Zotto which I have arranged with some alterations. This tango has a story with two meanings: the game played by covering the eyes of a man or a woman, and then making him/her to find a person only with the voices as a help, or the rooster fights which were authorized until 1885, and then forbidden, but continue for some years in private places. Rooster was also an idiom to define a brave person, and there were popular songs, like this one that some guapos/chieftains like to sing in a round of guitar players:

For me there is no man who will dare
even if he consider himself brave
to brave the rooster's fight arena.
I wait for anyone to dare.

After a marginal success, the opening music returns and leads us to the second tango, Alma de Bohemia, by Roberto Firpo. The music starts elegantly and quite reserved as our tango hero gets his dancing legs under him. It then develops and becomes more passionate. The words to this tango say it all as this excerpt demonstrates:

I want my fantasy and the mad poetry
that is in my heart, full of love and joy, to sing my song.
I always felt sweet illusion of living my passion.
If I live my dream, I dream all that singing, And that my charm is love.
My poor bohemian soul want to caress
and have the sweet smell of a flowers perfume.

The link to the last tango is a very short and virtuosic cadenza for the solo violin. Our hero is now fully confident and dances to a tango filled with hot, burning passion: Danzarin by Julian Plaza.

The only way to make love
or anything else worthwhile
is without caution.
Feeling the drums in my blood
for a moment it seems
I can see who you are hoping
you may tell me of your journeys
and of the shadows and forms
which are part of your songs.