Big Week, Part I: Faculty Gala

First Presbyterian, Lakeland

This week was a big week for all of us here in the Department of Music at Southeastern. It started with the first concert of our season, the faculty gala.

This time around, the gala was built around the concept music of the Americas and my colleagues provided works ranging from Canada to the Caribbean. I was particularly pleased by the variety of works spanning opera arias, chamber music (including a work for snare drum and computer), and jazz. A favorite aspect of this concert for me was being introduced to the music of Srul Irving Glick. I am copying the program and a few remarks shared during the gala at the end of this post.

I also enjoyed getting back into thinking about a canon of American keyboard works that could serve as an alternative to the traditional European canon that most of us continue to promulgate. I am not looking to displace that canon, but I am interested in providing a somewhat parallel set of experiences developed on our shores that raises awareness of how things have evolved here.

There are several points that are on my mind today regarding that alternative canon.  

1. It’s lacking in significant Baroque-era works. That should not come as a surprise as we didn’t get the country started quite early enough. Even after Bach and others were done writing in a heavily contrapuntal style in Europe, we were mostly just starting to get a bit of musical infrastructure in place. By the time that was a little bit up and running, early Classical music was on the scene. Some composers had come across the ocean with those new ideas while others already here were operating with older models suggesting a compositional mindset that almost had more in common with Medieval procedures than those of the Baroque or Classical periods.

At that time, Alexander Reinagle was writing in an early classical style informed by what was idiomatic on harpsichord and fortepiano. His dances and variations can provide a sense of airiness similar to what a Handel suite or Mozart variations might contribute to a European-based recital.

2. It seems that the early American repertoire is much more engaged with British material than the mainstream European music that has survived in the standard repertoire. While Scottish songs of Haydn or Beethoven are occasionally performed, the keyboardist playing early American music will be frequently confronted with sets of reels, variations on fiddle tunes, and references to British military triumphs.

3. As one moves toward the repertoire of the 20^th century, Afro-Cuban influences become more and more important. Beginning with Gottschalk’s musical souvenirs of Havana and continuing with the crossover of those ideas into ragtime, Latin rhythms become a part of the fundamental vocabulary of music in the United States. In some ways, our music might be a whole lot better integrated than our nation.

  

Jefferson’s March - Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809)

The Willow Song - Douglas Moore (1893-1969)

Ricordanza - George Rochberg (1918-2005)

Stop Speaking - Andy Akiho (b. 1979) 
    
Intermission
                                                                                   

Caprice: Sui Moi! - Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)

                                                                               

Monica’s Waltz - Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)                                                                           

Suite Hebraique no. 6 - Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002)

        

St. Thomas - Sonny Rollins (b. 1930)

                                                                                       

Who is an American? Where is an American? When is an American?

These three increasingly strange sounding questions remind us that the American experience differs significantly depending upon one’s culture, location, and moment in time. The music of this year’s faculty gala has been chosen to move us across such boundaries of geography, history, and ethnicity so as to hear, as it were, America singing.

We begin in the early days of the United States with a march composed for our third president. Then, Dr. Braamse will join me for an aria from the 1950s that is strongly suggestive of folk music, particularly British folk music which shaped the sound of American popular music in the 1800s. Our third work is described by its composer as a “commentary” on the opening passage of a Beethoven cello sonata and leads us to recollect the Germanic roots of American classical music.

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More and more, we find ourselves collaborating with machines. And these machines seem to be taking on a life of their own. But it is a life that we gave them. We are about to hear a work that explores that very relationship. A snare drum over there and a “digital storyteller” over here are going to have a conversation. That has always been the ideal of chamber music: a conversation. So the concept of this piece is tried and true, but some of the sounds are new and reflect the age of machines in which we are living.

At yesterday’s rehearsal, I checked the volume level with a decibel meter and I can assure you that what you are about hear will never be louder than 90 decibels and will generally not be much over 80 decibels. That means that the sounds bouncing around the room will not be much louder than a rather noisy car driving down the street. This performance will also rarely be significantly louder than it is at its beginning. I tell you that so can relax and not be worried that it will suddenly get much louder. However, the sounds will continue at a fairly intense level for a while. So those with hearing aids or those with sensitive ears who are sitting directly in front of the amplifier might want to make some little adjustments.

Mr. Blume is doing a great service by performing a work like this right here on our concert series. While this work might seem a bit abstract or odd to some of us, it is representative of the huge repertoire of electro-acoustic music that has been created since the advent of the tape recorder. And, like any work of art, “Stop Speaking” is open to a range of interpretations. So you should feel free to find it off-putting, or witty, or maybe even poignant.

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A New Orleans native, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, was the first American pianist to achieve acclaim in Europe. In addition to his time there, he went on numerous tours performing in the United States and in Latin America. His many experiences abroad are expressed in works like the one you just heard which combines a Chopin-like flare for the keyboard with the rhythms Gottschalk heard in the music of Cuba.

Now we turn to another aria from the mid-20^th, century this time from Menotti’s The Medium. The character Monica is singing to, and on behalf of, a mute boy named Toby who works as a servant in her home. Monica is expressing their affection for each other. After this aria, Mrs. Gardiner and I will share a beautiful work by the prolific Canadian composer, Srul Glick who is well known for his contributions to concert music and to the Jewish liturgical repertoire.

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Our final selection this evening is a great example of sounds of music that journey through time and space to create a sense of identity in our hemisphere. The tune, St. Thomas, is thought to have its origins in an English tune that first appeared in print in the 1770s. Transplanted to the Caribbean, in was transformed into a nursery song. Finally, through the “interpretation” of Sonny Rollins it has become a jazz classic.