Emerging Artistry
The winner of the Chamber Orchestra’s 2020 Emerging Soloist Competition, Francesca Leo, will perform American composer Michael Daugherty’s stunning work commemorating the Trail of Tears. Daugherty’s music has been consistently praised by our audience, and while Rossini is always a delight, the biggest surprise of the weekend is by a woman composer, Louise Farrenc, whose Third Symphony is a Romantic-era triumph.
|
Saturday, October 16, 2021, 7pm
BROADMOOR COMMUNITY CHURCH Sunday, October 17, 2021, 2:30pm FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH PROGRAM Gioacchino Rossini Tancredi Overture Michael Daugherty Trail of Tears for Flute & Chamber Orchestra
|
"The Trail of Tears concerto is an incredibly moving, colorful piece with powerful musical phrases that fully express the depth and range of human emotion in times of adversity and injustice. This piece serves as a reminder of the tragedy that led to the forced removal of 15,000 Cherokees in the early 1800s, and an opportunity to reflect upon the violence and injustice still occurring against the Native American population to this day. To me, the first movement captures a storytelling of this tragic history, the second movement a moment of reflection, and the fiery third movement as a call to action. I am delighted to share this piece with you and invite you to join me in learning more about ways we can better protect, support, and celebrate indigenous peoples." - FRANCESCA LEO, flutist
VIRTUAL PRE-CONCERT LECTURE!
We are so thankful to Liane Curtis, Ph.D. in Musicology, President of Women's Philharmonic Advocacy; President, The Rebecca Clarke Society, and author and music critic for this wonderful, virtual pre-concert lecture on Louise Farrenc.
We are so thankful to Liane Curtis, Ph.D. in Musicology, President of Women's Philharmonic Advocacy; President, The Rebecca Clarke Society, and author and music critic for this wonderful, virtual pre-concert lecture on Louise Farrenc.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov."
Many thanks to the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy, whose mission is to advocate for the performance of women composers by orchestras and ensembles and address the place of women composers, both historic and contemporary, in today’s repertoire of orchestras and ensembles in the US and internationally, for providing this new edition of Louise Farrenc's Symphony No. 3.
Emerging Artistry Program Notes
By Jennifer Carpenter
Gioachino Rossini (b. Feb 29, 1792 in Pesaro, Italy - d. Nov 13, 1868 in Passy, France)
Tancredi Overture (1813)
Few composers can claim the measure of prestige, popularity, and artistic influence that Gioachino Rossini achieved during his lifetime. His operas were the center of the Italian operatic scene in the early 19th century and his contemporaries recognized him as the most significant Italian composer of his time. Today, however, audiences mostly know Rossini through a handful of comic operas (largely dismissed as silly and sophomoric) and opera overtures, the most famous being commercialized by the mid-20th-century British television show William Tell.
Born to musical parents, Rossini grew up in theaters, which led him to study music at an early age, particularly voice and composition. By 1804 at the age of 12, Rossini appeared as a professional singer; and by 1809 he was the music director of the Accademia dei Concordi in Bologna. Rossini's first opera premiered in 1810 and his success on the operatic stage grew exponentially until his inexplicable retirement in 1830 at the age of 37.
Rossini recounts growing up in the shadow of Mozart who died less than three months before his birth. He wrote, “He (Mozart) was the wonder of my youth,” later followed by “the despair of my maturity, and he is the consolation of my old age.” He studied the music of Mozart and Haydn intensely, assimilating their advanced harmonic writing into his own. Rossini’s contemporaries included Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Berlioz; he lived to influence and witness the music of Wagner, Brahms, Bellini, and Verdi. Even Napoleon Bonaparte, who was just promoted to Captain when Rossini was born, influenced Rossini’s life, dashing his enthusiasm for Italian nationalism later in his life. Rossini certainly felt the weight of the Napoleonic Wars - his father Giuseppe was briefly imprisoned in 1800 for displeasing the papal authorities due to his boisterous pursuit of liberty.
Most opera lovers identify Rossini as a gifted composer of opera buffa (comic opera), a genre filled with light-hearted antics and memorable melodies. However, it was Tancredi, an opera seria (opera with a tragic storyline) written in 1813 that brought Rossini international success. Love and war are at the center of this tale, which is based on a 1760 play by Voltaire that tells of the doomed love of the soldier Tancredi toward the daughter of a powerful ruler. In Voltaire’s story set in 1005 AD, two factions - the Byzantines and the Saracens - were fighting for control in Sicily. Despite its separation in history from the early 19th century, the presence of the ongoing Napoleonic Wars made this tale resonate with Italian audiences.
Rossini nearly single-handedly transformed the operatic overture into independent works of art. Each is as suitable for the concert hall as they are to introduce the operas that follow. Rossini injected such energy and narrative into his overtures that critics coined the term “Rossini crescendo” to describe the exciting build-up that occurs in his overtures. The “Rossini crescendo” is actually several musical elements used together to create a natural crescendo (increase in volume) in the music through a combination of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices. Through his craft, Rossini is able to create a slow-building intensity that often culminates in a musical fury that energizes the audience for the opening of the first act of the opera. The “Rossini crescendo” first appears in the overture to La Pietra del Paragone (1812), which is the same overture used to open Tancredi. Fairly typical for Rossini, he ran out of time to write a new overture for Tancredi and therefore reused an earlier one. This overture begins with a slow introduction (the beginning of the “Rossini crescendo”), which gives way to a frenzied development of exciting rhythm and quick motives, creating the upward rise of activity and volume that is the widening of the crescendo, bringing the overture to its energetic conclusion.
Michael Daugherty (b. April 28, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, IA)
“Trail of Tears” for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (2010)
Michael Daugherty’s compositions continue to draw inspiration from the people, places, and events that have shaped our contemporary American culture. He has successfully merged classical and popular musical traditions starting with his 1995 Metropolis Symphony, a tribute to the Superman comics. Since then, orchestras, bands, and chamber music ensembles have embraced his compositions. The League of American Orchestras identifies Daugherty as one of the ten most performed living American composers and he has been honored with three Grammy Awards, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Daugherty currently serves as the Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan.
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty grew up in a musical family. His grandmother, mother, and father were all accomplished musicians and he and his four brothers all followed in their footsteps to become professional musicians. Daugherty’s musical background is quite eclectic - part of what gives him the experience to bring facets of the American music scene into his compositions. He played in rock bands, country-western bands, marching bands, is an accomplished jazz pianist, and he even worked as a pianist in a cocktail lounge. And this is just the beginning!
Daugherty moved to New York and met avant-garde composers Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez. He then moved to Paris where he studied electronic music, which then led him to study with contemporary composers György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Germany. His musical experiences now span from American populism to European intellectualism. Along the way he received a doctoral degree from Yale, focusing on the music of Ives and Mahler. His wide arrange of experience accounts for his broad musical styles, but his reputation rests upon his co-mingling of the eclectic, particularly his infusion of American culture into his works.
Daugherty’s work Trail of Tears (2010) for flute and orchestra portrays a profound event in American history - the removal of nearly 125,000 Native Americans who lived in the southeastern United States in the 1830s. Daugherty manages to transform this difficult and deadly journey into a story woven through the interaction between the solo flute and the orchestra. Daugherty’s use of the flute and the extended techniques the piece requires for that instrument evoke not only the sounds of native flutes, but also create the imagery of the open plains, wild winds, and the sighs of those who travelled far and experienced this tragedy.
The composer offers the following regarding the inspiration for the work:
One of the tragedies of human history is the forced removal of peoples from their homeland for political, economic, racial, religious, or cultural reasons. In America, the forced removal of all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River began with the passage of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830. In 1838, 15,000 Cherokee men, women, and children were forcefully taken from their homes by the U.S Army and placed in stockades and camps in Tennessee. From November 1838 to March 1839, the Cherokee, with scant clothing and many without shoes, were forced to make an 800-mile march for relocation in Oklahoma during the bitter cold of winter. Suffering from exposure, disease, and starvation, nearly 4,000 Cherokee died during the five-month march known as the “Trail of Tears.”
My flute concerto is a musical journey into how the human spirit discovers ways to deal with upheaval, adversity and adapting to a new environment. The first movement reflects on meaningful memories of things past, inspired by a quotation from the Native American leader, Geronimo (1829-1909): “I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun.” The second movement, entitled “incantation,” meditates on the passing of loved ones and the hope for a better life in the world beyond. The third and final movement, “sun dance,” evokes the most spectacular and important religious dance ceremony of the Plains Indians of 19th-century North America. Banned for a century by the U.S. government, the dance is now practiced again today. I have composed a fiery musical dance to suggest how reconnecting with rituals of the past might create a path to a new and brighter future.
Louise Farrenc (b. March 31, 1804 in Paris, France - d. September 15, 1875 in Paris, France)
Symphony No. 3 (1847)
There are composers who enjoyed rightful praise during their careers but whose music seemingly disappears after their death. Unfortunately, this happens far too often with women composers. But the French composer Louise Farrenc deserves to be celebrated and her music known. Farrenc (née Dumont) showed talent as a pianist early on and by the age of 15 she began studying composition and orchestration at the Paris Conservatoire. She married the music publisher Aristide Farrenc in 1821 and together they ran a successful music publishing business.
Farrenc’s earliest published compositions for piano appeared intermittently between 1825 and 1839; all were issued by her husband and several were published in London and Bonn. Receiving special praise from composer Robert Schumann and the French critic Maurice Bourge, her piano pieces soon became established piano repertoire. In 1842 the Paris Conservatoire appointed Farrenc professor of piano, a post she retained until her retirement in 1873. She was the only woman musician at the Conservatoire in the 19th century to hold a permanent chair of this rank and importance.
Although there were well-known female composers in the 19th century, they often thrived because they were fortunate enough to share a last name with an already recognizable composer, e.g. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. Both were talented in their own rights, but their familial connections gave them visibility that someone like Farrenc lacked. Her success built steadily over time: she focused on piano compositions before expanding to writing orchestral and chamber works, including her three symphonies. Symphonic writing belonged to the Germans in the 19th century and Farrenc faced an uphill battle finding success with orchestral compositions in France where opera reigned supreme. Systemic problems in French musical life led to a lack of orchestras for hire; composers had to put together an ensemble at their own expense or hope their composition was chosen for performance by the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Fortunately, this society did premiere Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in G Minor in 1849.
Farrenc’s Third Symphony’s first movement opens with a short adagio presented by hesitant woodwinds and trembling strings, as if the music is sneaking onto the stage. But what follows is a confident and dramatic Allegro that releases the pent-up energy present in the opening Adagio. The Allegro is rather Beethoven-esque in its urgency and grandiosity. Perhaps Farrenc is paying homage to the German master.
The second movement lives up to its “cantabile” descriptor: it begins its songlike melody with the clarinet who is joined by the strings who share in the elegant dialog throughout the movement. The timpani provides a steady yet emotional heartbeat that underpins the melodies. The third movement is a lively Scherzo. Farrenc manages to introduce each of the instruments (particularly the winds) in their dizzying motives before bringing them all together in their shared frenzy. There is a spirited joy reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s scherzo movements, but I dare say Farrenc outdoes Mendelssohn with her whirling, flighty gossamer of motives that dance around the orchestra.
The final movement, a wild Finale - Allegro, releases any restraint she may have shown in any of the previous movements. It opens with a memorable unison tune before the melody oscillates with frenetic wonder around the orchestra. The movement is full of false endings, but they all build up into a dark and uncompromising minor-key coda (her last left turn!) before the thrilling, cohesive, and ultimate final cadence.
We may hear references to the 19th-century German symphonic masters, but the culmination of each of her compositional devices results in works that are distinctively her own. Farrenc shows sensational mastery of her sparkling orchestration, dramatic formal processes, and long-range harmonic planning. She has a distinguishably expressive and significant voice that deserves to be heard.
By Jennifer Carpenter
Gioachino Rossini (b. Feb 29, 1792 in Pesaro, Italy - d. Nov 13, 1868 in Passy, France)
Tancredi Overture (1813)
Few composers can claim the measure of prestige, popularity, and artistic influence that Gioachino Rossini achieved during his lifetime. His operas were the center of the Italian operatic scene in the early 19th century and his contemporaries recognized him as the most significant Italian composer of his time. Today, however, audiences mostly know Rossini through a handful of comic operas (largely dismissed as silly and sophomoric) and opera overtures, the most famous being commercialized by the mid-20th-century British television show William Tell.
Born to musical parents, Rossini grew up in theaters, which led him to study music at an early age, particularly voice and composition. By 1804 at the age of 12, Rossini appeared as a professional singer; and by 1809 he was the music director of the Accademia dei Concordi in Bologna. Rossini's first opera premiered in 1810 and his success on the operatic stage grew exponentially until his inexplicable retirement in 1830 at the age of 37.
Rossini recounts growing up in the shadow of Mozart who died less than three months before his birth. He wrote, “He (Mozart) was the wonder of my youth,” later followed by “the despair of my maturity, and he is the consolation of my old age.” He studied the music of Mozart and Haydn intensely, assimilating their advanced harmonic writing into his own. Rossini’s contemporaries included Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Berlioz; he lived to influence and witness the music of Wagner, Brahms, Bellini, and Verdi. Even Napoleon Bonaparte, who was just promoted to Captain when Rossini was born, influenced Rossini’s life, dashing his enthusiasm for Italian nationalism later in his life. Rossini certainly felt the weight of the Napoleonic Wars - his father Giuseppe was briefly imprisoned in 1800 for displeasing the papal authorities due to his boisterous pursuit of liberty.
Most opera lovers identify Rossini as a gifted composer of opera buffa (comic opera), a genre filled with light-hearted antics and memorable melodies. However, it was Tancredi, an opera seria (opera with a tragic storyline) written in 1813 that brought Rossini international success. Love and war are at the center of this tale, which is based on a 1760 play by Voltaire that tells of the doomed love of the soldier Tancredi toward the daughter of a powerful ruler. In Voltaire’s story set in 1005 AD, two factions - the Byzantines and the Saracens - were fighting for control in Sicily. Despite its separation in history from the early 19th century, the presence of the ongoing Napoleonic Wars made this tale resonate with Italian audiences.
Rossini nearly single-handedly transformed the operatic overture into independent works of art. Each is as suitable for the concert hall as they are to introduce the operas that follow. Rossini injected such energy and narrative into his overtures that critics coined the term “Rossini crescendo” to describe the exciting build-up that occurs in his overtures. The “Rossini crescendo” is actually several musical elements used together to create a natural crescendo (increase in volume) in the music through a combination of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices. Through his craft, Rossini is able to create a slow-building intensity that often culminates in a musical fury that energizes the audience for the opening of the first act of the opera. The “Rossini crescendo” first appears in the overture to La Pietra del Paragone (1812), which is the same overture used to open Tancredi. Fairly typical for Rossini, he ran out of time to write a new overture for Tancredi and therefore reused an earlier one. This overture begins with a slow introduction (the beginning of the “Rossini crescendo”), which gives way to a frenzied development of exciting rhythm and quick motives, creating the upward rise of activity and volume that is the widening of the crescendo, bringing the overture to its energetic conclusion.
Michael Daugherty (b. April 28, 1954 in Cedar Rapids, IA)
“Trail of Tears” for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (2010)
Michael Daugherty’s compositions continue to draw inspiration from the people, places, and events that have shaped our contemporary American culture. He has successfully merged classical and popular musical traditions starting with his 1995 Metropolis Symphony, a tribute to the Superman comics. Since then, orchestras, bands, and chamber music ensembles have embraced his compositions. The League of American Orchestras identifies Daugherty as one of the ten most performed living American composers and he has been honored with three Grammy Awards, including Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Daugherty currently serves as the Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan.
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty grew up in a musical family. His grandmother, mother, and father were all accomplished musicians and he and his four brothers all followed in their footsteps to become professional musicians. Daugherty’s musical background is quite eclectic - part of what gives him the experience to bring facets of the American music scene into his compositions. He played in rock bands, country-western bands, marching bands, is an accomplished jazz pianist, and he even worked as a pianist in a cocktail lounge. And this is just the beginning!
Daugherty moved to New York and met avant-garde composers Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez. He then moved to Paris where he studied electronic music, which then led him to study with contemporary composers György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Germany. His musical experiences now span from American populism to European intellectualism. Along the way he received a doctoral degree from Yale, focusing on the music of Ives and Mahler. His wide arrange of experience accounts for his broad musical styles, but his reputation rests upon his co-mingling of the eclectic, particularly his infusion of American culture into his works.
Daugherty’s work Trail of Tears (2010) for flute and orchestra portrays a profound event in American history - the removal of nearly 125,000 Native Americans who lived in the southeastern United States in the 1830s. Daugherty manages to transform this difficult and deadly journey into a story woven through the interaction between the solo flute and the orchestra. Daugherty’s use of the flute and the extended techniques the piece requires for that instrument evoke not only the sounds of native flutes, but also create the imagery of the open plains, wild winds, and the sighs of those who travelled far and experienced this tragedy.
The composer offers the following regarding the inspiration for the work:
One of the tragedies of human history is the forced removal of peoples from their homeland for political, economic, racial, religious, or cultural reasons. In America, the forced removal of all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River began with the passage of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830. In 1838, 15,000 Cherokee men, women, and children were forcefully taken from their homes by the U.S Army and placed in stockades and camps in Tennessee. From November 1838 to March 1839, the Cherokee, with scant clothing and many without shoes, were forced to make an 800-mile march for relocation in Oklahoma during the bitter cold of winter. Suffering from exposure, disease, and starvation, nearly 4,000 Cherokee died during the five-month march known as the “Trail of Tears.”
My flute concerto is a musical journey into how the human spirit discovers ways to deal with upheaval, adversity and adapting to a new environment. The first movement reflects on meaningful memories of things past, inspired by a quotation from the Native American leader, Geronimo (1829-1909): “I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun.” The second movement, entitled “incantation,” meditates on the passing of loved ones and the hope for a better life in the world beyond. The third and final movement, “sun dance,” evokes the most spectacular and important religious dance ceremony of the Plains Indians of 19th-century North America. Banned for a century by the U.S. government, the dance is now practiced again today. I have composed a fiery musical dance to suggest how reconnecting with rituals of the past might create a path to a new and brighter future.
Louise Farrenc (b. March 31, 1804 in Paris, France - d. September 15, 1875 in Paris, France)
Symphony No. 3 (1847)
There are composers who enjoyed rightful praise during their careers but whose music seemingly disappears after their death. Unfortunately, this happens far too often with women composers. But the French composer Louise Farrenc deserves to be celebrated and her music known. Farrenc (née Dumont) showed talent as a pianist early on and by the age of 15 she began studying composition and orchestration at the Paris Conservatoire. She married the music publisher Aristide Farrenc in 1821 and together they ran a successful music publishing business.
Farrenc’s earliest published compositions for piano appeared intermittently between 1825 and 1839; all were issued by her husband and several were published in London and Bonn. Receiving special praise from composer Robert Schumann and the French critic Maurice Bourge, her piano pieces soon became established piano repertoire. In 1842 the Paris Conservatoire appointed Farrenc professor of piano, a post she retained until her retirement in 1873. She was the only woman musician at the Conservatoire in the 19th century to hold a permanent chair of this rank and importance.
Although there were well-known female composers in the 19th century, they often thrived because they were fortunate enough to share a last name with an already recognizable composer, e.g. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn. Both were talented in their own rights, but their familial connections gave them visibility that someone like Farrenc lacked. Her success built steadily over time: she focused on piano compositions before expanding to writing orchestral and chamber works, including her three symphonies. Symphonic writing belonged to the Germans in the 19th century and Farrenc faced an uphill battle finding success with orchestral compositions in France where opera reigned supreme. Systemic problems in French musical life led to a lack of orchestras for hire; composers had to put together an ensemble at their own expense or hope their composition was chosen for performance by the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Fortunately, this society did premiere Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in G Minor in 1849.
Farrenc’s Third Symphony’s first movement opens with a short adagio presented by hesitant woodwinds and trembling strings, as if the music is sneaking onto the stage. But what follows is a confident and dramatic Allegro that releases the pent-up energy present in the opening Adagio. The Allegro is rather Beethoven-esque in its urgency and grandiosity. Perhaps Farrenc is paying homage to the German master.
The second movement lives up to its “cantabile” descriptor: it begins its songlike melody with the clarinet who is joined by the strings who share in the elegant dialog throughout the movement. The timpani provides a steady yet emotional heartbeat that underpins the melodies. The third movement is a lively Scherzo. Farrenc manages to introduce each of the instruments (particularly the winds) in their dizzying motives before bringing them all together in their shared frenzy. There is a spirited joy reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s scherzo movements, but I dare say Farrenc outdoes Mendelssohn with her whirling, flighty gossamer of motives that dance around the orchestra.
The final movement, a wild Finale - Allegro, releases any restraint she may have shown in any of the previous movements. It opens with a memorable unison tune before the melody oscillates with frenetic wonder around the orchestra. The movement is full of false endings, but they all build up into a dark and uncompromising minor-key coda (her last left turn!) before the thrilling, cohesive, and ultimate final cadence.
We may hear references to the 19th-century German symphonic masters, but the culmination of each of her compositional devices results in works that are distinctively her own. Farrenc shows sensational mastery of her sparkling orchestration, dramatic formal processes, and long-range harmonic planning. She has a distinguishably expressive and significant voice that deserves to be heard.
Broadmoor Community Church and First Christian Church are following the El Paso County Health Department recommendation regarding masking in public settings. El Paso County Health Department is strongly recommending wearing a mask in public indoor settings regardless of your vaccination status.
