Crossroads of Traditions Concert
| Sonata for Two Pianos | Alfonso Montencino (born 1924, Chile) |
| Backyard songs | Don Freund (born 1943, USA) |
| Divertimento | Raymond Torres Santos (born 1958, Puerto Rico) |
| 3 Cánticos Sagrados, Op. 108 | Juan Orrego-Salas (born 1919) |
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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| Auer Hall Sunday Afternoon June 30 Four O'clock | |
Program Notes
Sonata for Two Pianos (1992-93)
Alfonso Montecino
The first movement makes use of repeated notes as a common denominator together with dotted rhythms. Its rhythmic character contrasts sharply with the expressive and dramatic mood of the second movement. The third movement which follows without interruption has a jovial and unhibited mood. It alternates rhythms in 6/8, 5/8 and 9/8. (Note by the composer)
Backyard Songs (1990)
Don Freund
Backyard Songs emulates the carefree virtuosity heard in the jazz singing of Ella Fitzgerald and the raw emotional power communicated by Memphis blues singer Ruby Wilson. The voice-dominated "songs"-settings of poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks-are introduced and linked by "scat" sections in which the voice is instrumentally integrated to whimsical naughtiness of "a song in the front yard," through the threatening suppressed violence of the up-tempo "We Real Cool," and concludes with the wrenching, cathartic blues-cortege "of DeWitt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery." (Note by the composer)
Backyard Songs - Three Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
a song in the front yard
I've stayed in the front yard all of my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose.I want to go in the back yard now
And maybe down the alley,
To where the charity children play.
I want a good time today.They do some wonderful things.
They have some wonderful fun.
My mother sneers, but I say it's fine
How they don't have to go in at quarter to nine.
My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae
Will grow up, to be a bad woman.
That George'll be taken to jail soon or late
(On account of last winter he sold our back gate).
But I say it's fine. Honest, I do.
And I'd like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with pain on my face
WE REAL COOL
The Pool Players
Seven At the Golden ShovelWe real Cool. We
Left school. WeLurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thing gin. WeJazz June. We
Die soon.
of DeWitt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery
He was born in Alabama.
He was bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.Drive him past the Pool Hall.
Drive him past the Show.
Blind within his casket,
But maybe he will know.Down through Forty-seventh Street:
Underneath the L,
And Northwest Corner, Prairie,
That he loved so well.Don't forget the Dance Halls-
Warwick and Savoy,
Where he picked his women, where
He drank his liquid joy.Born in Alabama.
Bred in Illinois.
He was nothing but a
Plain black boy.Swing low swing low sweet sweet chariot.
Nothing but a plain black boy.
"a song in the front yard," "WE REAL COOL," "of DeWitt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery," © 1987 by Gwendolyn Brooks, The David Company, Chicago, Illinois.
Divertimento (1996)
Raymond Torres Santos
Divertimento is an eclectic showpiece of musical styles including Latin rhythms, jazz improvisation, and passionate melodic elements, framed into a mainstream contemporary vocabulary. Its melodic gestures evoke the chants of the Puerto Rican singing frog, coqui; its textural polyphony reminds us of the sonic complexity of tropical nights. The work is comprised of one movement divided into five major sections: introduction, exposition of theme, variations of the theme, recapitulation, and coda. (Note by the composer)
Bluescape (1996)
Christopher Cook
Bluescape for piano and tape was written for Mary Hellmann and realized at the Indiana University Center for Electronic and Computer Music. Much of the computer-generated accompaniment is composed of processed sounds from the solo instrument. Jazz and blues styles are drawn upon with varying degrees of subtlety. Gestures build by accretion and mutation form a fluid background of sustaining timbres with shuffling and swinging rhythms. Integration and oppositions exist between the piano and the tape landscape. (Note by the composer)
3 Cánticos Sagrados, Op.108 (1995)
Juan Orrego-Salas
This composition was written in memory of my friend and colleague of many years Alfonso Letelier (1912-1994). Each of the chosen Latin texts is related to the repertoire that both of us used in our early activities as choral directors. The treatment of the texts is preferably dramatic rather than strictly liturgical and somewhat affected by the choices made by Palestrina, Victoria, and J. S. Bach in their settings. In De profundis, the basses of the chorus and the low instruments of the ensemble participate in the repetition of the verse "De profundis clamavi" ("Out of the depths I have cried to thee"), while the rest of the chorus and the instrumental tutti respond "Exaudi vocem meam" ("Hear my voice"). Jesu dulcis has another character; here the chorus progresses in very simple harmonies around the Benedictine Hymn of the XIV century that is introduced by the basses in recitative style. From this point the texture is driven towards the "Alleluia" which represents the climax of the entire work. I have interpreted very freely the text of the O vos Omnes, to express the suffering of all men in their transit through life. A solo of bells leads to the somber entries of the voices; henceforth, this movement develops in constant alternations of instrumental interludes and chorus, thus expressing the aforementioned idea, questioning if there is a greater pain than this, and finally asking that both cries and praises may come to God. After a whispering "Amen," the motif of the bells leads to an instrumental pianissimo with which the Cánticos end. (Note by the composer)
3 Cánticos Sagrados, Op.108
1.De profundis
Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord;
hear my voice.
Let thy ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication.
From the morning watch even until night,
let Israel hope in the Lord.
My soul hopes in the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.2. Jesu Dulcis
Jesus, how sweet the very thought,
giving true joy to the heart,
but sweeter than honey and all else
is His Presence. Amen.
Jesus, hope of the penitents,
how kind you are to petitioners!
How good you are to those that seek!
But what more to those that find you! Amen.
Jesus, hope of the penitents,
nothing more melodious is sung,
nothing more delightful,
nothing sweeter is ever thought,
than Jesus, the Son of God.
Blessèd be the name of our Lord.
Alleluia. Amen.3.O vos omnes
O all you
who pass along this way,
behold and see
if there is any sorrow
like mine.
As a hart longs for the springs,
my soul longs for thee, Lord
Creator of Light, neither blame nor accuse me.
Hasten, Lord, to help me.
Hasten, Lord, and through your name deliver me.
And may my cry, as well as my praise, come to thee.
Amen.
Notes prepared by Mario Ortiz
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