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Mothership Born in Philadelphia but raised in Richmond, Virginia, Mason Bates earned degrees in both English literature and music composition in the joint program of Columbia University and the Juilliard School, followed by a doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. With a predilection for writing for unconventional forces, he composes both concert music and electronica, frequently combining the two. While spending his nights playing in upscale dance clubs, he spends his days as composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony. He has also spent a year as Composer of the Year with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Bates composed Mothership in 2011 in versions for orchestra and wind ensemble. He writes: “This energetic opener imagines the orchestra as a mothership that is ‘docked’ by several visiting soloists, who offer brief but virtuosic riffs on the work’s thematic material over action-packed electro-acoustic orchestral figuration. The piece follows the form of a scherzo with double trio (as found in, for example, the Schumann Symphony No. 2.)”The “Mothership” scherzo comprises a nervous, jangling theme with an underlying electronic ostinato that appears at the beginning and end of the piece, as well as between the two trios.  Each of the trios involves a different jazz rhythm and features two different instruments, so that there are, in effect, four “dockings”. The baritone saxophone and trombone dominate the first trio. The flute and keyboard share the second. All the percussion sounds are produced electronically. | ||||||||||
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Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp and Piano Clarinetist Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing”, had wide-ranging musical interests and wanted to secure a place in classical music as well. He commissioned a number of well-known composers to write for him, including Béla Bartók (Contrasts) and Paul Hindemith (Clarinet Concerto). In 1947 he commissioned Aaron Copland for a work for clarinet and orchestra, giving him free rein and making no demands on what he should write. Copland, who had long been an admirer of Goodman said that “I never would have thought of composing a clarinet concerto if Benny had not asked me for one.” The Concerto, finished in 1948, is an unusual work, consisting of two movements connected by a long, aspectacular cadenza. The decision to use jazz idiom was Copland’s, inspired by Goodman’s playing. Its form is similar to Copland’s jazzy Piano Concerto of 1926. Despite its title, which suggests a prominent role for the harp and piano, Copland concentrates on the clarinet, weaving the other two instruments into the orchestral fabric. The Concerto is in two dramatically contrasting movements bridged by an enormous cadenza. The lyric first movement is a languid song, a gentle interplay between the clarinet and the orchestra, without a hint of jazz. It relies for expressiveness on shifts in tempo, rather than dynamics, and adheres to Copland’s dictum that “orchestral know-how consists in keeping instruments out of each other’s way.” By extending the phrases and delaying cadences Copeland creates a musical oxymoron of relaxed improvization and a buildup of tension. It leads into the cadenza, which works itself from florid pyrotechnics, exploiting the inimitable sonorities of the different ranges of the clarinet, into foreshadowings of the main jazz themes in the coming Finale. Apparently, the difficulty of the cadenza so intimidated Goodman that he broke down and requested changes – to no avail except for a single high note. It is only in The Finale, a free rondo form, that Copeland uses all his instrumental forces. It begins as the piano takes over from the free-form cadenza into a clockwork motive that will set the pulse for the entire movement around which the clarinet will weave its jazzy syncopations. In the absence of a traditional orchestra or jazz percussion section, he used slapping basses, whacking harp sounds, finger snapping and, of course a piano, to achieve the effect of the underlying beat. This little riff also slips into a bit of South American popular music, an influence traceable to Copland’s visited Brazil in 1947 as a goodwill emissary of the State Department. The movement ends with a clarinet glissando – a “smear“ in jazz parlance – perhaps a bow to Gershwin, whose Rhapsody in Blue begins with just such a device. Incidentally, listeners who detect bits of Appalachian Spring throughout this Concerto are not just "hearing things."Goodman premiered the Concerto in November 1950 with the NBC Symphony of the Air, Fritz Reiner conducting. In 1951 Jerome Robbins of the New York City Ballet used the Concerto for a ballet, The Pied Piper. | ||||||||||
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Overture to The School for Scandal, Op. 5 Richard Sheridan’s (1751-1816) madcap comedy of manners, The School for Scandal, has delighted (and scandalized) audiences ever since it premiered in 1777. Samuel Barber, all his life an avid reader of literature, composed his overture not as a prelude to the play, but rather: “as a musical reflection of the play’s spirit.” The overture was Barber’s first completed work for full orchestra. He composed the bulk of it while vacationing in Italy during the summer of 1931, tossing it off between tennis matches, swimming, bicycle trips, shopping expeditions and other vacation activities. It was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1933. The Overture, in classical sonata form, opens with a sneering fanfare (perhaps in “tribute” to the play’s principal female villain, Lady Sneerwell). The fanfare sets in motion a scurrying, tonally ambiguous theme, suggestive of the nefarious scandal mongering and plotting of Lady Sneerwell, her hireling, Snake, and arch hypocrite, Sir Joseph Surface. The contrasting second theme, a sentimental melody introduced by the oboe perhaps represents the play’s principal innocent, Maria, who is in love with Charles Surface and is being pursued by Sir Benjamin Backbite. There are innumerable rapid changes in tempo, dynamics and meter changes as the two themes are developed, in one place seven changes within 30 measures, a representation of the complexity of a plot driven by the webs of deceit woven by six of the principal characters. | ||||||||||
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Symphonic Dances from West Side Story West Side Story was Leonard Bernstein’s attempt to demonstrate that it was possible to write a Broadway musical with the characteristics of high art. He succeeded beyond all expectations. With lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and with Jerome Robbins as director and choreographer, the show opened on Broadway on September 26, 1957 and ran for over 1,000 performances. The movie was just as spectacular a success, as was the recording. But its birth was not easy. The show was originally conceived eight years earlier as a conflict between Jews and Catholics during the Easter-Passover celebrations and at one point was to be called East Side Story. The protagonists were finally switched to ethnic gangs on the Upper West Side, but no backers could be found. West Side Story became notorious for having been turned down by nearly every producer because no one thought that such a tragic story was suitable material for Broadway. Finally, Harold Prince and Robert Griffith, two successful Broadway producers, emerged as the show’s financial the “angels.” Casting was another problem. The perfectionist Robbins wanted a cast of 38 who could both dance and sing – a nearly impossible demand in those days, but now the rule rather than the exception. A choreographer first and foremost, Robbins finally settled on dancers who could sing – as opposed to singers who could dance. When Bernstein, unencumbered by staging constraints, re-recorded West Side Story in 1988, he used opera singers for the main roles: Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, Tatiana Troyanos and Marilyn Horne. It became another bestseller. While describing the tragic life of ordinary people in a New York Puerto Rican ghetto, West Side Story tackles an archetypal theme: love clashing with prejudice and clan hatred, an inner city Romeo and Juliet. The Symphonic Dances, which Bernstein extracted from the musical, are not in the order of the original show. Consisting of nine segments played without pause, the suite was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1961: 1. Prologue: A fantasy on the Jets’ number, the Prologue portrays the rising violence between the two street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets in harsh, jazzy dissonances and rhythms. | ||||||||||
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| Copyright © Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn 2015 | ||||||||||
