February Concert, 1998

Symphony Pro Musica - February Concert, 1998

Program Notes

Margery Zeigler Goldstein

A New Year’s Overture

A New Year’s Overture is a brief, fast-paced "curtain-raiser" intended for a medium-sized community or school orchestra. The rhythm of the main theme comes from the phrase "This is not the time for a symphony." Written with that idea in mind, the music is anti-heroic; whenever it approaches Romanticism, it backs quickly away. Like many late-20^th century pieces, this work depends as much on rhythm as on melody and progresses largely through the repetition of short phrases.

Margery Ziegler Goldstein is a New Jersey native who came to Massachusetts to attend Wellesley College and settled in Hudson more than 20 years ago. Her compositions include chamber music, orchestral pieces, solo songs, and choral works. Most have been written for or performed by local performing organizations, although one was commissioned by a West Coast musician for a performance at the International Conference of Jewish Women in Kiev, Ukraine. She is currently writing a choral work commissioned by a local chorus and is finishing up a musical play for children and a set of student pieces for string quartet.

SPM premiered her Hudson Fanfares for trumpet and orchestra in 1991 and has presented several of her song arrangements with SPM Youth Chorus, which has also performed a number of her original songs.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Divertimento for Orchestra

Sennets and Tuckets

Waltz

Mazurka

Samba

Turkey Trot

Sphinxes

Blues

In Memoriam -- March: "The BSO Forever"

Leonard Bernstein's Divertimento for Orchestra is an expression of his love affair with the city of his youth and its symphony orchestra, for whose centennial celebration in 1980 the work was written. It is a nostalgic album filled with affectionate memories of musical growing up in Boston, particularly his hearing live symphonic music for the first time in Symphony Hall under the direction of Arthur Fiedler, the late beloved conductor of the Boston Pops (the music has a witty, irreverent style which would no doubt have delighted the great man). And, lest any Lawrentians are feeling slighted, we should point that Bernstein was actually from Lawrence.

"Lenny" was formally trained in piano and composition, both at the New England Conservatory and at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. In 1943, he was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, during which time he made his famous debut as a last-moment stand-in. In the next few years, he held various appointments, finally returning to the NY Phil in ’57, becoming its Music Director the following year, a post he held until 1969. He was constantly active though until just a few days before his death in 1990.

The divertimento was a mainstay of the music of the 18^th and 19^th centuries -- a light entertainment generally shorter and not of any predetermined form such as a suite or symphony. This divertimento is a series of vignettes based on two notes: B, for Boston, and C for centennial. This tiniest of musical seeds germinates all of the thematic ideas. Most of these give rise to brief dances of varying character, from wistful to swaggering, from dodecaphonic [twelve-tone] to pure diatonic [major/minor keys].

The music bursts forth with Sennets and Tuckets (a Shakespearean stage direction for fanfares), which was originally to have been the entire composition, but such an abundance of fun-filled transformation flowing from the B-C motif suggested themselves to the composer that he found himself with an embarrassment of riches. Nevertheless, the dimensions of the separate pieces are as modest as the motif itself; and while there are eight of them, each lasts only a minute or two.

The work was completed in August 1980, and the orchestration was ready only just in time for the premiere on September 25^th, Seiji Ozawa conducting. The score calls for a normal (20^th century) orchestra, featuring various soloists and small groups: the Waltz is for strings alone; the Mazurka is for double-reeds and harp; the Blues for brass and percussion, etc. The music is full of allusions to the repertoire with which Bernstein grew up in Symphony Hall, some obvious, some well disguised. The introduction to the final March is a quiet meditation for three flutes, marked in the score In Memoriam, recalling the conductors and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra no longer with us.

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

Cuban Overture

It’s hard to believe that George Gershwin was born 100 years ago! Like Bernstein, his parents were Russian Jews who had emigrated not long before. Unlike Bernstein, Gershwin had no formal musical training, but was such a natural musician that he was able to develop his own compositional skills, learning particularly from Ferde Grofé, who orchestrated his Rhapsody in Blue. The Cuban Overture (originally entitled "Rhumba") was the product of a visit to Havana in 1932. Gershwin became fascinated with Cuban instruments and rhythms, including the maraca, bondo, gourd and Cuban stick. After the introduction, there are three main sections, in the fairly standard fast-slow-fast outline. The Cuban flavor is richly developed, including the use of local rhythms and many of the percussion instruments mentioned above. There are also aspects of the music which were obviously inspired by the French impressionists, particularly Debussy and Ravel. The overture has never achieved the popularity of his other major orchestral works, but this is a pity as it is a very enjoyable, well-written work with fascinating rhythmic interest.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No. 2

Pavane pour une infante défunte

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes of pre-WWI Paris commissioned several new works which, through their staging, choreography and music added a new dimension to the genre. Gone was the tight bond between the dance steps and the music, where the instruments’ primary function was to keep a constant, melodic rhythm for the dancers. Instead, the music became almost another art form, like the scenery – harmonizing with the action, not simply driving it. The music could now include passages of unlimited ingenuity, allowing free rein to the development of complex rhythms, harmonies and counterpoint. In short, the production could achieve a much more sensuous overall effect. The two most outstanding works which resulted from this collaboration were Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (1913), [SPM, May 1994] and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (1912), of which we play the second suite (or series) which is essentially the third and final scene of the ballet, but without the chorus.

Maurice Ravel was born at his mother’s home in the French part of the Basque country (essentially the area around the western end of the Pyrénées mountain range). The Spanish influence which he inherited from his mother perhaps explains his affinity with Spanish musical forms that later resulted, for example, in the Rapsodie espagnole, and Bolero. His father was a Swiss engineer and, as soon as they could travel, the family made their home in Paris, where Ravel resided for the rest of his life. He entered the Paris Conservatoire and was immediately recognized by many as a brilliant student. However, there were also those in authority who felt that his music was too derivative of Debussy, 13 years his senior. Within a few years, though, he was completely vindicated and recognized in his own time as a great composer with a highly individual style. Ravel was a fan of Jazz and during his visit to Boston and other U.S. Cities in 1927, he met the much-younger Gershwin, whom he greatly admired. Both men died just ten years later as the result of unsuccessful brain surgery.

There are many composers who are best know for what are probably their greatest achievements, Beethoven and his 9^th Symphony, for instance. There are also others who, for reasons of historical accident or whatever, are best known for works which they themselves did not consider among their best. A case in point arguably is Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture and Nutcracker). Another is Ravel himself who’s best-known works include Bolero (a work written for a specific dancer/occasion and essentially a musical experiment), Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) which Ravel himself only orchestrated (albeit brilliantly) and our other selection for this concert: Pavane pour une infante défunte, an early student work. In fact, many musicians will argue that Daphnis is Ravel’s great masterpiece, even though it is less well known among the public at large.

The Pavane for a dead infanta (princess) was originally written (1899) for piano (four hands) but it is his own exquisite orchestration that really sets this piece above the ordinary. It is scored for a small orchestra (double woodwinds, two horns, harp and strings) and opens with a sad melody played by the horn. The pavane is a slow stately dance in duple time with elaborate costumes and originated in 16^th century Italy. The name comes from the Latin pavo (peacock) and the dance presumably imitates the slow courtship ritual of the peacock and peahen.

The scenario of Daphnis was by Fokine (the choreographer) and is set in the Sicily of Greek mythology [details of the scenario were the cause of many disputes between Ravel and the ballet company and contributed to the two-year delay of the premiere]. Daphnis, a shepherd on the slopes of Mt. Etna, is the son of the god Hermes and one of the nymphs [the story is similar to that of Handel’s Acis and Galatea]. The following appeared in the published score for the second series:

No sound but the murmur of rivulets fed by the dew that trickles from the rocks. Daphnis lies stretched before the grotto of the nymphs. Little by little the day dawns. The songs of birds are heard. A far-off shepherd leads his flock Another shepherd crosses the back of the stage. Herdsmen enter, seeking Daphnis and Chloé. She appears, at last, encircled by shepherdesses. The two rush into each other’s arms. Daphnis observes Chloé’s crown. His dream was a prophetic vision; the intervention of Pan is manifest. The old shepherd, Lammon, explains that Pan saved Chloé in remembrance of the nymph, Syrinx, whom the god loved. Daphnis and Chloé mime the story of Pan and Syrinx. Chloé impersonates the young nymph wandering over the meadow. Daphnis appears as Pan, and declares his love for her. The nymph repulses him; the god becomes more insistent. She disappears among the reeds [in the classic story, she is changed into a reed after a prayer to her father, the river-god]. In desperation he plucks some stalks, fashions a flute ["Pan-pipes"] and plays on it a melancholy tune. Chloé comes out and imitates by her dance the accents of the flute. The dance becomes more and more animated. In mad whirlings Chloé falls into the arms of Daphnis. Before the altar of the nymphs he sears on two sheep his fidelity. Young girls enter; they are dressed as bacchantes, and shake their tambourines. Daphnis and Chloé embrace tenderly. A group of young men come on the stage. Joyous tumult. A general dance. Daphnis and Chloé.

References include:

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The Miton Cross New Encyclopedia of the Great Composers, vol. 2 (Doubleday)

Index of On-line SPM Program Notes

Please send comments to Robin Hillyard