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[MOSTLY] DEAD WHITE GUY MUSIC

December 9, 2000 at 2pm - Grant Recital Hall

Poster by Colin Hartnett.
Click on image to enlarge (pdf file).

Cooperstown Fanfare - William Schuman

Benjamin Asriel, Courtney Naliboff: trumpet • Ashton Allen, Kaolin Kinsey: trombone

Density 21.5 - Edgard Varése

Virginia Pierce: flute

Sonata For Violoncello Solo, op. 25, no. 3 - Paul Hindemith

i. Lebhaft, sehr markiert
ii. Mässig schnell, Germächlich
iii. Langsam
iv. Lebhafte Viertel
v. Mässig schnell

Troy Chang: cello

Sonata For Two Clarinets - Francis Poulenc

i. Presto
ii. Andante
iii. Vif

Steve Canon, Dan Restuccia: clarinet

Duo Concertant - Jindrich Feld

i. Introduzione
ii. Toccata
iii. Intermezzo
iv. Scherzo
v. Epilogo

Thomas Jerde, Virginia Pierce: flute

Drei Lieder, op. 23 - Anton Webern

i. Wie Bin Ich Froh

Courtney Naliboff: soprano • Ju Dee Ang: violin • James Baker: piano

Vier Stüke für Geiger und Klavier, op. 7 - Anton Webern

i. iv.

Courtney Naliboff: soprano • Ju Dee Ang: violin • James Baker: piano

Jet Whistle - Heitor Villa-Lobos

i. Allegro non Troppo
ii. Adagio

Virginia Pierce: flute • Troy Chang: cello

Contrasts - Béla Bartók

i. Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance)

Dan Restuccia: clarinet • Stephanie Krejreck: violin • Drew Maletz: piano

Histoire Du Tango - Astor Piazzolla

ii. Café 1930

Virginia Pierce: flute • Nathan Stumpff: guitar

Colin Hartnett: poster

composer biographies

American William Schuman (1910-1992) wrote a plethora of works in virtually every musical genre, each mirroring his strong personality in their sharply defined sense of structure, line, and dynamism. He incorporated American jazz and folk traditions into works which ranged from a harmonically conservative early style to later excursions into dissonance and polytonality.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was a German composer whose influence upon the musical canon involved him not only as a composer, but also as a teacher and music theorist. An experienced performer on the violin and viola, Hindemith always thought of himself as a practicing musician. Much of his music was composed for teaching purposes. The Sonata for solo cello demonstrates the frequent use of energetic rhythms, sharp dissonance and lyrical slow movements common to his "middle" period.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was a member of “Les Six,” a group of anti-romantic young French composers living in Paris beginning the late 1910s. His prolific output for woodwinds is witty and charismatic. Besides the sonata for two clarinets (1918, rev. 1945), he wrote sonatas for clarinet, flute and oboe each with piano, a sonata for clarinet and bassoon and a sextet for wind quintet and piano.

Born in Prague, Jindrich Feld, (1925- ) was exposed to music at an early age by his parents, who were both violinists. He graduated in 1952 from the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Music, receiving in the same year a doctorate in musicology, aesthetics, and philosophy from Charles University. The Duo Concertant of 1982 is rife with such avant-garde white guy standbys as quasi-traditional forms, idiomatic flute techniques, and a cohesiveness brought about by an unhealthy preoccupation with the minor second.

Anton Webern (1883-1945) was a devoted disciple of Schoenberg and a composer of great precision and maturity. He wrote a number of pieces, miniature examples of atonality and serialism. Webern spent his life in Vienna and Germany, where he died of a gunshot wound inflicted by an American soldier.

“This is my conservatory,” Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) once said, pointing to a map of Brazil. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he traveled extensively throughout his homeland, immersing himself in the indigenous Brazilian music that would eventually figure prominently in his compositions. A prolific composer and dedicated educator, Villa-Lobos became one of the greatest exponents of musical nationalism, and a national hero.

Béla Bartók, (1881-1945) was renowned as a composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. Bartok's music was heavily influenced by the folk music of his native Hungary, which he collected and transcribed. Contrasts (1938) was commissioned by jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman and is dedicated to Goodman and Bartók's countryman violinist, Josef Szigeti.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) born of Italian parentage, found himself surrounded by the sounds of the tango in Argentina, the country where he spent most of his life. After experiments with many “tipica” bands (traditional Argentinian Tango bands,) Piazzolla spent time in both in New York and in Paris, where (largely through the advice of Nadia Boulanger) he dropped his academic pursuits to follow the music that he truly loved, and develop the unique blend of jazz, classical and traditional tango styles that became his trademark.