DCYO CONCERTS

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Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Symphonie Fantastique, op. 14

The Symphonie Fantastique was premiered by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra on December 5, 1830. Berlioz (pronounced Berli-ohz) provided elaborate program notes for this work. These were not only appended to the score but were also handed out to be read by audience members, so essential did Berlioz consider these to the understanding of the work. These are, then, his notes for this five-movement work, as they appear in the Eulenberg miniature edition:

A young musician of great sensibility and plentiful imagination, in deep despair because of hopeless love, has poisoned himself with opium. The drug is not strong enough to kill him but puts him into deep sleep with strange dreams. His sensations, emotions and memories, as they filter through his fevered brain, are transformed into musical images and ideas. The beloved one herself becomes to him a tune, a recurring theme (the idée fixe) which continually haunts him.

I. Largo-Allegro Agitato (Reveries and Passions):

First he remembers the weariness of the soul, that indefinable longing, that somber melancholia and those objectless joys which he experienced before meeting his beloved. Then the explosive love which immediately inspired him, his delirious suffering, his return to tenderness, his religious consolations.

II. Valse Allegro non troppo (A Ball): At a ball, in the middle of a noisy brilliant fete, he finds his beloved again.

III. Adagio (Country Scenes): On a summer evening in the country, he hears two shepherds calling each other with their folk melodies. The pastoral duet in such surroundings, the gentle rustle of the trees swayed by the wind, some reasons for hope which had come to his knowledge recently--all unite to fill his heart with a unique tranquility and lend brighter colours to his fancies. But his beloved appears anew, spasms contract his heart, and he is filled with dark premonition. What if she proved faithless? Only one of the shepherds resumes his rustic tune. The sun sets. Far away there is a rumble of thunder-solitude-silence.

IV. Allegretto non troppo (March to the Scaffold): He dreams he has killed his loved one, that he is condemned to death and led to his execution. A march, now gloomy yet ferocious, now solemn yet brilliant, accompanies the procession. Noisy outbursts are followed without pause by the heavy sound of marching footsteps. Finally, like a last thought of love, the idée fixe briefly appears, to be cut off by the fall of an axe.

V. Larghetto-Allegro assai (Witch’s Sabbath): He sees himself at a Witches’ Sabbath, surrounded by a fearful crowd of specters, sorcerers, and monsters of every kind, united for his burial. Unearthly sounds, groans, shrieks of laughter, distant cries, to which others seem to respond! The melody of his beloved is heard, but it has lost its character of nobility and reserve. It is now an ignoble dance tune, trivial and grotesque. It is she who comes to the Sabbath! A shout of joy greets her arrival. She joins the diabolical orgy. The funeral knell, burlesque of the Dies Irae. Dance of the Witches. The dance and the Dies Irae combine.

--Marilyn Lutz

(Some material for this note was taken from Robert Clarson-Leach’s book, Berlioz, His Life and Times, and Famous Individual Symphonies In Score, Albert Wier, editor.)

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
El Salon Mexico

Aaron Copland began work on El Salon Mexico in 1932, following a visit to a dance hall of the same name in Mexico City, and completed it in 1936.  Its first performance was by the Mexico Symphony Orchestra in 1937 under the direction of his friend, the conductor and composer Carlos Chavez; it was premiered in the U.S. in 1938.

In this symphonic composition, Copland makes use of nine Mexican folk melodies to create a musical mélange that would convey his impression of the Mexican people. He describes the work’s genesis and inspiration in his autobiography:

        Perhaps my piece might never have been written if it hadn’t been for the existence of the Salon Mexico.  I remember reading about it for the first time in a tourist guide book: “Harlem-type nightclub for the peepul (sic), grand Cuban orchestra.  Three halls: one for people dressed in your way, one for people dressed in overalls but shod, and one for the barefoot.”  When I got there, I also found a sign on the wall which said: “Please don’t throw lighted cigarette butts on the floor so the ladies don’t burn their feet.”

          …In some inexplicable way, while milling about in those crowded halls, one really felt live contact with the Mexican people – the electric sense one sometimes gets in far-off places of suddenly knowing the essence of a people – their humanity, their separate shyness, their dignity and unique charm.

Listeners familiar with Copland’s later works such as Rodeo and Appalachian Spring will recognize this technique of using simple melodies based on folk tunes to find a broad audience for contemporary music.  In this case, he borrowed from collections of folk tunes he received on his Mexican trip.   Tunes include “La Jesusita,” El Mosco,” “El Malacate,” and “El Palo Verde,” the latter being the basis for the powerful refrain that recurs in the piece. The careful listener may discern an introduction and four major segments, but the composer himself wrote, “I present the folk tunes simultaneously in their original keys and rhythms.  The result is a kind of polytonality that achieves the frenetic whirl I had in mind before the end, when all is resolved with a plain unadorned triad.”

--Virginia Wood

Dana Wilson (1946 - )
Shortcut Home

    Born in 1946, Dana Wilson holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music.  He is currently Charles A. Dana Professor of Music in the School of Music at Ithaca College where he teaches music theory, history, and composition. He also holds degrees from the University of Connecticut and Bowdoin College. His works have been performed by such diverse ensembles as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Detroit Winds and Strings, Buffalo Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony, Washington Military Bands, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Syracuse Symphony, and Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Solo works have been written for hornist Gail Williams, clarinetist Larry Combs, trumpeters James Thompson and Rex Richardson, and oboist David Weiss.

    Shortcut Home was originally scored for band in 1998. One could perhaps gauge its integrity in musical terms by the fact that the composer was urged to write an arrangement for orchestra, an unusual reversal of events and perhaps a testimony to the incredible evolution of the scope of wind instruments in modern music.

    Minimalist in nature, Shortcut Home is primarily defined by its intricate and repeated syncopated rhythms. It requires fairly extensive set-ups in the percussion section and fully engages each player. An unusual shaker instrument known as an afushi is called for.  At the time of this writing Dr. Brad Smith was debating whether to include it or not. Perhaps you the reader can determine the result!

    The listener should also take note of the many nuances displayed by the brass section through an extensive selection of mutes, including the plunger mute, which lends a distinct jazz flavor to the piece.  In the strings, many of the violin riffs are borrowed from alto sax lines. The piece demands much from its wind players, with a lot of unison writing and fast sixteenth-note passages grouped into threes against staccato punctuations from the brass.

    The decision to program this piece was multi-faceted. First of all, it is relatively short yet ties in nicely with the energy and mood of El Salon Mexico by Copland and Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.  It also would not overly detract from rehearsal time on the program's featured pieces.  Dr. Smith was eager to program the work of a living composer and hopefully make such programming part of the DCYO tradition. In short, Shortcut Home is simply upbeat and refreshing.

    “A shortcut may be the shortest way to get somewhere,” wrote the composer, “but it often requires giving up the smooth road for a route that encounters puddles and fences. So it is with this piece. Drawing upon various jazz styles, the music proclaims and cascades, always driving toward the C-major ‘home’ of the final chord.”

--Catherine Selin

Material for this note was taken from an interview with Dr. Brad Smith and from the following two websites: www.ithaca.edu and www.rcreader.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11758&Itemid=48