Crossroads of Traditions Concert
| Chica Aruma | Nicolás Suárez-Eyzaguirre (born 1953) |
| La feria fantástica | Igor de Gandarias (born 1953, Guatemala) |
| Icnocuicatl (Song of bereavement) | César Potes (born 1957) |
| Scream (1996) | José Halac (born 1962, Argentina) |
| INTERMISSION | |
| Misa Breve (1995) | Mario Lavista (born 1943, México) |
Presented by The Latin American Music Center with the support of the School of Music and the Office of Creative Arts Exchange Program of the United States Information Agency. | |
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| Arts Museum Sunday Afternoon July 14 One O'clock | |
Program Notes
Responsorio in memorian Rodolfo Halffter (1988)
Mario Lavista
The score of Responsorio, written in memory of composer Rodolfo Halffter, bears the following epigraph by Chinese poet Li-Po: "He who lives is but a traveler in transit, he who dies is a man who returns to his abode." Scored for bassoon, tubular bells and bass drums, the work evokes funeral processions witnessed by the composer in remote Mexican villages, and the funeral use of the bass drum has an important predecessor in Verdi's Requiem Mass, openly admired by the composer, and in whose Dies irae this instrument figures prominently.
The bassoon and bass drums work together during the first part of the piece, and the use of the latter instrument can be compared to the funeral drone played by the band that accompanies the coffin during the procession. According to the composer: "I think that the music's role at that moment is to help the human soul to separate from the body. Such a separation is not easy because that soul has inhabited that body for a long time. When the body dies, the soul must find a path to leave it behind, and the music helps in the search of such a path."
The entrance of the first bell on a unison marks the beginning of the second section of the work, and the analogy with toiling church bells is clear enough. At this point, the composer ingeniously uses rhythmic patterns or taleae derived from the last two sections of Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame. The tubular bells use the talea from the Ite missa est (Go, you are dismissed), while the bass drums use the talea from the concluding Amen. Over these patterns the bassoon plays a long melodic passage based on multiphonics, which alternates with reminiscences of the first part's recitative. The work ends at the moment when all rhythmic patterns coincide and the bells return to their first pitch while the bassoon plays an overtone of a fifth.
Responsorio was premiered in 1988 during the Tenth International Forum for New Music in Mexico City. The work was dedicated to the bassoonist Wendy Holdaway, responsible for the work's first performance along with the percussionists Homero Valle and Jesús Guadarrama.
Mtukwekok Naxkomao(1994)
(The Singing Woods )
Brent Michael Davids
1. Tagwanko Saxan (Fall Wind)
2. Pon Nepaank (Winter Moon)
3. Nepan Soknan (Spring Rains)
4. Sikwan Kisox (Summer Sun)
Mtukwekok Naxkomao or The Singing Woods, written especially for the Kronos Quartet, uses a single-string Apache violin, distinctively designed percussion instruments, and hand-fashioned leather, silk and velvet bows. Apaches call their violins "tsii'edo'a'tl" or "wood that sings" as they are constructed from dried Agave stalks. The indigenous violins articulate Apache social and ceremonial life, according to their maker, Chesley Wilson. In some cases, Apache violins are the voice of love.
In Mohican, "m-tu-kwe-kox nax-ko-mao" translates as "the singing woods" and the musical work of the same name voices a triple meaning: the wood instruments of the Kronos, the Apache violin and the indigenous forests of Native America. The work Mtukwekok Naxkomao parallels the cycles of life as the various woods "sing" the seasons of the earth into existence.
Our woods and our people, together, invite each season to arrive like a cherished relative, and in turn, every season greets us with a song. These seasons and cycles are systems of communication, sharing, reciprocity and respect. Like vigilant midwives, we birth our intimate songs, then learn to sing them aloud and, together, create the medley of our world. We sing . . . the woods sing . . . the world sings. In truth and in fact, the eternal song of the seasons is our own song
A beautifully hand-notated manuscript, Mtukwekok Naxkomao shows a distinct emphasis on sound color. The music draws from Native American sound patterns evocative of the animal people, bird people and tree people. The score calls for extended instrumental techniques and microtones that are carefully selected to contribute specific coloristic dimensions to Mtukwekok Naxkomao. Imitation is used in both thematic and naturalistic ways. Generally, however, imitation is not used in sequences nor in series except to aid the creation of sonic textures. (Note by the composer)
Selections from The Ghosts of Versailles (1991)
John Corigliano
1. As Summer Brings a Wistful Breeze
2. The Aria of the Worm
3. They Wish They Could Kill Me
The Ghosts of Versailles, a grand opera buffa in two acts with libretto by William M. Hoffman suggested by Beaumarchais' "Figaro" Trilogy, was a centennial commission by the Metropolitan Opera and its first new opera in 25 years. It is set in Marie Antoinette's private theater in Versailles. The ghost of the playwright Beaumarchais, author of the The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, has fallen madly in love with the ghost of the executed Queen Marie Antoinette, and devised an opera with the power to change history. In this opera-within-the-opera Count Almaviva plans to sell the queen's necklace in order to bribe her way out of prison so that she does not die but runs off with Beaumarchais to the New World.
La mére coupable, the last play of the "Figaro" Trilogy, takes place some twenty years after the denouement of The Marriage of Figaro and played a significant role in shaping the characters of Hoffman's libretto. In La mére coupable, which can be interpreted as an acid criticism of human nature in general and of the marriage institution in particular, we meet Figaro and Susanna again, now a middle-aged coupled, and learn that both Count Almaviva and Rosina have children outside of their marriage.
In "As Summer Brings a Wistful Breeze" Susanna and Rosina sing about their lost youth. In "The Aria of the Worm," Bégearss, supposedly Count Almaviva's best friend and confidant, plans to steal the jewels the count is planning to sell, which would indirectly ruin Beaumarchais' attempt to save Marie Antoinette from the guillotine. In "They Wish They Could Kill Me" Figaro momentarily eludes a motley group of men, women, and children-all of whom he has deceived in some way or another-by hiding in a closet. As Figaro relates the story of his life, the group keeps banging on the door and the aria concludes with the pursuers finally managing to break in.
Selections from The Ghosts of Versailles (1991)
(Libretto by William M. Hoffman)1. As Summer Brings a Wistful Breeze (Susanna, Rosina)
(Susanna)
As summer brings a wistful breeze,
Cooling houses,blowing trees,
Women dream their bridal days.(Rosina)
As autumn brings its windy chill
And waters freezes on the hill,
Women love and hate their men,
Wishing they were young again.
O time, O time,
O thieving time,
Give me back my stolen years.(Susanna)
As winter brings a longer night,
And women read by candle light,
They come to know, like sun, like rain,
Nothing lasts, not love or pain,(Both)
O time, O time,
O thieving time,
Give me back my stolen years.2. The Aria of the Worm (Bégearss)
Oh, the lion may roar,
And the eagle may soar,
And man may sail the darkest sea,
But the worm lives on eternally.
Long live the worm.Cut him in two,
Each part'll renew.
Slice him to bits,
The worm persists.
He still crawls on,
Scales walls on
Sheer will and
Burrows burning sand
Long live the worm.
He travels on by
The poor man's sty,
Groveling past
The royal palace,
And enters the coffin
Of the red-haired dauphin.
Long live the worm.
The wind whistles
And the storm bristles,
And mud covers the ground.
The worm wanders round and round
Morning and night,
Hidden from sight,
Over mountain and shore,|
Wanting more and more,
Devouring city and plain,
Enduring snow and rain,
Long live the worm!Oh, the lion, dies,
The eagle dies,
And man . . . man dies,
But the worm lives on eternally.
Long live the worm.
3. They Wish They Could Kill Me (Figaro)
They wish they could kill me.
They wish they could stop me.
They hate me, they loathe me.
Tell me why do they torment me so.
They're jealous! They're jealous!
Of what . . . you may ask.
I pant when I walk.
I wheeze when I talk.
My muscles are slack.
I've a pain in my back.
My money is low,
My status less than quo.
I'm poor, I'm weak,
My future's rather bleak.
I'm stopped, I'm spent,
I'm almost impotent.
Once master now valet,
As fortune would have it,I've been diplomat, acrobat,
Teacher of etiquette,
Student and swordsman,
Spy and musician.
I've been satirist, pessimist,
Surgeon and Calvinist,
Spanish economist,
Clockmaker, pharmacist,
Vet'rinarian,
Egalitarian,
Heathen comedian,
Pious tragedian.
I've been orator, poet,
And pirate and prophet,
A man for the ladies
And father of babies,
Drunken and sober,
A husband and sailor,
Banker and brother
And barber and lover.
Diplomat, acrobat,
Teacher of etiquette, [etc.]And now I'm a failure!
I've seen ev'rything, done ev'rything, had ev'rything, and lost ev'rything.
Of what are they jealous?
My spirit:
A vapor deliquescent,
An effervescent liquid
Pervading, invading, taking my body,
making me fluid, light, buoyant.
I'm sunlight, a moonbeam,
And carefree
I fly to the stars.
Capella, Carina, Spica, Auriga, Libra, Lyra, Andromeda, Fornax, Phoenix, Bellatrix, Polux.
Joy! Joy! Carefree I fly to the stars:
Vulpecula, Vela, Columba, Ara, Lacerta, Lupus, Lepus.
Joy! Joy! Joy!
Pegasus, Perseus, Aquila.They wish they could kill me.
They wish they could stop me.
They hate me, they loathe me.
And we know why they must torment me so!
They're jealous! They're jealous!
Yes, jealous of Figaro, your Figaro.
I'm back at last!I've been veterinarian
Egalitarian [etc.]I'm Figaro,
Your Figaro.
I'm home again!
Etude Fantasy (1976)
John Corigliano
My Etude Fantasy is actually a set of five studies combined into the episodic form and character of a fantasy. The material in the studies is related most obviously by the interval of a second (and its inversion and expansion to sevenths and ninths) which is used both melodically and in the building of the work's harmonic structure.
The first etude is for the left hand alone-a bold, often ferocious statement which introduces both an opening six-note row (the first notes of the work) and a melodic germ (marked "icy" in the score) which follows the initial outburst. This etude reaches a climax in which both the row and the thematic germ are heard together, and ends as the right hand enters playing a slow chromatic descent which introduces the next etude-a study of legato playing.
In the short second etude both hands slowly float downward as a constant crossing of contrapuntal lines provides melodic interest. The sustaining of sound as well as the clarity of the crossing voices is important here.
The third etude, a study on a two-note figure, follows-a fleet development on the simple pattern of a fifth (fingers one and five) contracting to a third (fingers two and four). In this section there is much crossing of hands; during the process a melody emerges in the top voices. A buildup leads to a highly chromatic middle section (marked "slithery"), with sudden virtuosic outbursts, after which the melody returns to end the etude as it began.
The fourth etude is a study of ornaments. Trills, grace notes, tremolos, glissandos and roulades ornament the opening material (Etude I) and then develop the first four notes of the third etude into a frenetically charged scherzando where the four fingers of the left hand softly play a low cluster of notes (like a distant drum) as the thumb alternates with the right hand in rapid barbaric thrusts. This leads to a restatement of the opening six-note row of the fantasy in a highly ornamented fashion.
After a sonorous climax comes the final etude, a study of melody. In it, the player is required to isolate the melodic line, projecting it through the filigree which surrounds it; here the atmosphere is desolate and non-climatic, and the material is based on the melodic implications of the left hand etude, with slight references to the second (legato) study. The work ends quietly with the opening motto heard in retrograde accompanying a mournful two-note ostinato. (Note by the composer)
Kaleidoscope (1959)
John Corigliano
Paraphrasing the title of James Joyce's first novel, Kaleidoscope can be described as a "snapshot of the composer as a young man." Written while a student of Otto Luening at Columbia University, this work exudes a basically happy mood and is structured in simple ternary form. Kaleidoscope was first performed at the Spoletto Festival, Italy, in 1961.
String Quartet (1995)
John Corigliano
I - Prelude
II - Scherzo
III - Nocturne
IV - Fugue
V - Postlude
In writing my string quartet I was always aware that I was dealing with a unique instrument (composed of four instrumentalists). Unlike the orchestra (unified by a maestro's vision and beat) or most other chamber combinations (composed of highly differentiated soloists), the string quartet must be able to produce a conductorless unity of sound and ensemble that can only be accomplished by years of playing together.
It is possible to ask a quartet to play and "breathe" as one instrument, even while employing considerable rhythmic freedom (rubato). Alternately, the players can achieve an independence from one another that is otherwise only possible when a group is precisely conducted.
These special qualities of quartet playing became the basis of my first essay in this extraordinary medium.
Added to this was the fact that I was writing for one of the greatest of all quartets, the Cleveland Quartet, and that they were presenting this work during their farewell concert tour before disbanding.
The ideas of an ensemble such as this playing for the last time surely colored the emotional palate of my quartet with a feeling of farewell, and while the work is basically abstract in content, certain areas (like the final Postlude) cannot help but echo these sentiments.
Architecturally, the 30-minute work is in five movements that bear a superficial resemblance to arch form principles of Bartók's fourth quartet (movements I and V are related, movements II and IV are related, with a central "night music"), but in fact all five movements of the quartet are also united by similar motives and thematic content.
Specifically, the quartet is based upon a motto composed of even repetitions of a single tone, and a sequence of disjunct minor thirds. There are also four pitch centers recurring throughout the work: C, C-sharp, G and G-sharp. (Note by the composer)
Notes prepared by Luiz Fernando Lopez
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