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Program Notes for Friday, 9/12/12

The (Electronic) Playground John Bacon (b.1963)

While The (Electronic) Playground was composed in 2007 for a sound improviser/performer, who may also be a percussionist, it may also be performed by more than one artist, as in the case of this performance by the Fredonia Faculty Percussion Quartet. The score is a colored time grid, with the colors corresponding to the construction of the instrument, or means of sound production. The musical ideas that are played on the instruments are the performers' choice. The piece is titled The 'Electronic' Playground, if electronic sounds or electronic manipulation of the sounds are used in a particular performance.

Five Songs for Contralto and Piano on texts by e.e. cummings John Cage (1912-1992)

This year marks the centennial of the birth of the iconoclastic American composer John Cage, a genuinely original voice in the history of music, whose influence has only continued to grow since his death. Cage composed his Five Songs in 1938 while living in Seattle, Washington, and he has described these brief, whimsically titled songs, based on the poetry of e.e cummings, another unique voice in the culture of 20th century America, as "chromatic songs employing unorthodox uses of twelve-tone composing means".

Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine André Caplet (1878-1925)

French composer André Caplet is best remembered today for his orchestrations of piano works by his more famous contemporary, Claude Debussy. In 1901 he won the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious French musical award, ahead of Maurice Ravel. Caplet's effervescent 1919 work Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine is a setting of texts by the French Renaissance fabulist Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695).

Four Dances John Cage (1912-1992)

Four Dances was originally titled "What So Proudly We Hail: Music for the dances of Hanya Holm". Cage composed the work in 1942 and he later re-titled it Suite of Four Dances, but it was eventually published under the title Four Dances. The work received its premiere in 1943 at what on the surface sounds like an unlikely venue: the Central High School of Needle Trades in New York City. This rare performance of Four Dances, originally written for wordless tenor voice, prepared piano, handclap and percussion, features mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang, along with an original choreographic interpretation by members of the LehrerDance Company.

Souvenirs of Childhood Oskar Morawetz (1917-2007)

Czech-born Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz's 1984 work, Souvenirs of Childhood, is based on poetry from Robert Louis Stevenson's beloved collection "A Child's Garden of Verses". Morawetz was a traditionalist composer, immune to the all the avant-garde styles of 20th century classical music: "Ever since I was a child", he said, "music has meant for me something terribly emotional, and I still believe there has to be some kind of melodic line." These charming tonal song settings have been described as having "consistent chromatic inflections that are reminiscent of Prokofiev's harmonic world combined with a Debussy-like aural gloss."

Edward Lear 1812-1888: This year marks the 200th anniversary of Lear's birth.
Lear is primarily known as a whimsical nonsense verse writer who has delighted children and adults ever since he first published his Book of Nonsense in 1846. Lear was fascinated with language and enjoyed making up playful, yet meaningful, words, such as "Amblongus," "Crumbobblious" and "Gosky."

The "Nonsense Cookery" performed today appeared in August 1870; the verses are a particular favorite of Julia Bentley. There are three receipts: "Amblongus Pie," "Crumbobblious Cutlets," and "Gosky Patties." Because Lear did not illustrate these receipts, selections from his drawings for other nonsense verses are projected during the performance. They capture Lear's playful and kinetic view of the world. In addition, Lear's self-deprecatory, yet humorous, caricatures of himself have also been selected.

Lear was far more, though, than simply a writer of nonsense. As a young man, he was a much sought-after natural history illustrator. At the height of his career as a serious natural history artist, though, he decided to become a landscape painter and sketched while traveling through Egypt, Greece, Corfu, Corsica, Albania, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Italy, and India. He also wrote and illustrated seven travel books. Later in his life, Lear illustrated Alfred Tennyson's poems and even set many of them to music. A majority of Edward Lear's papers and sketches are housed at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.