March 12 Program Notes
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, D. 804 (Op. 29) “Rosamunde”
Schubert certainly did not lead a stable existence in his short life. The 12th of 18 known children of his schoolmaster/cellist father, he was educated in the family home, which was also his father’s school building. He received a respectable academic education with coaching in piano and violin. Many siblings had musical talent, so a family string quartet (father included) formed and performed in Vienna. Franz moved on to become a student of Antonio Salieri, by which time he had composed his first six string quartets (another six quartets soon after). His existence from about 1816 on was unsettled but occupied with music. After a gap of eight years, he resumed work on the string quartet genre in 1824, with three works: quartets in A minor (played here), D minor (“Death and the Maiden”) and G major. These were mature works, inspired by the existence of the famous Viennese violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whose quartet premiered this piece. Its first performance was in March, 1824, and it was published that September, the only one of Schubert’s chamber compositions to be published in his lifetime. Altogether he wrote 15 complete (existing) quartets, with fragments of others.
At the time of the composition of this work, Schubert was in poor health, mental and physical, and a mood of tragedy and despair permeates the quartet. The first movement derives from the spinning motif of his song “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” one of the most famous of his 600 songs. The gentle second movement uses a portion of a work from 1823, in which Schubert composed incidental music for a four-act play entitled “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus.” The theme also appears in the third of Schubert’s four impromptus, appearing later. A frustrated opera composer, Schubert had high hopes for the play, but it failed; nonetheless the incidental music has become a staple of the repertoire. Continuing to borrow from himself, he introduced the despairing third movement Menuetto with a portion from an 1819 song, “The Gods of Greece.” There is a short, contrasting, uplifting trio section in this movement. The final movement finds Schubert emerging from his gloomy atmosphere, with a jolly atmosphere resembling the finale of his “Trout Quintet.”
Schubert’s health problems continued until his death in 1828. Actually this quartet was one of his later works, as his health interfered with his composition efforts. Nevertheless, this quartet is a good example of his mature creative output.
By Roberta Mielke Go to: March 12 program
Bela Bartok, 44 Duos for Two Violins
Bela Bartok found the unique features of Hungarian folk music, with its fusion of both European and Oriental strains, a rich fund of inspiration for his own music and a natural liberating force from the prevailing Germanic domination of music of his time. As a musician of great integrity, he eventually achieved a synthesis of style that was his alone, which he neither taught nor wrote about, and which has only begun to be fully understood in recent times. As one of last century’s great ethnomusicologists, he found folk music to be “a phenomenon of nature. Its formations developed as spontaneously as other living natural organisms: flowers, animals, etc.” (from his 1925 essay, The Sources of Folk Music).
Bartok’s 44 Duos are less known than some of his work, yet their importance should not be underestimated. The Duos appeared immediately after the second piano concerto, a work that announces the beginning of his late, greatest period. Their epigrammatic character stands in utter contrast to the powerful Cantata Profana (1930), the second concerto, and his Fifth String Quartet. Although composed originally as teaching pieces, progressing in graduated technical difficulty, Bartok envisioned concert performances of the 44 Duos. They were first heard publicly in January 1932 in Budapest. As published, they fall into four volumes.
The Duos draw their material, nearly all peasant songs, from a wide geographical range in Central Europe. Volume 1 covers the original areas of Old Hungary; Volume 2 is a sturdier set leaning more toward Russia; Volume 3 introduces some Caucasian and military themes; and Volume 4 touches on Ukrainian, Transylvanian, and Armenian folk songs along with some purely abstract pieces.
There is a quite astonishing range of texture and timbre, of rhythmic vitality and subtlety, of harmonic language and of melodic contour - all expressed within the necessarily restricted demands of the technical aspect being addressed. Each of these characteristics makes the 44 Duos a highly fascinating set of pieces whose cumulative effect is impressive on many levels.
By Robert Molison Go to: March 12 program
Paul Hindemith, Duo For Viola And Cello (1934)
(This commentary is taken from remarks about the work by Patrick Jankowski for Chamber Music Northwest.)
Hindemith’s Duo for Viola and Cello dates from around the same time as his great opera “Mathis der Maler”, based on the life of the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald. In that opera the composer juxtaposes elements of simple folk-related styles and modernism, signifying Grunewald’s own determination to continue to work in the traditional medieval painting style against the rising tide of Renaissance art. Hindemith himself toed the line between classicism and radicalism throughout his life. Although it is on a much smaller scale than an opera, this compact duet likewise invokes both traditional folk styles and more avant-garde experiments. At surprising moments amid the complex counterpoint, the composer recalls the rustic drone of the medieval hurdy-gurdy. If at times the capricious work seems unsettled, it is no mistake: though the pulse and tempo remain essentially constant, Hindemith playfully manipulates metrical groupings. Duple and triple seem in constant struggle, until a resolution that seems humorously simple by comparison to the earlier opposition. Paul Hindemith and Emmanuel Feuermann recorded the work in 1934. Go to: March 12 program
Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen, Duetto #1 in Eb for two violins
Lombardi Sirmen was born in Venice in 1745 and raised in an orphanage that was also a music academy. She received musical instruction in the violin. Ambitious to become a professional, she was sent to Padua to receive lessons from the greatest violinist of the era, Giuseppe Tartini. In 1767, at age 21, she married the renowned violinist Ludovico Sirmen (also spelled Syrmen). The two began touring together that same year, but the marriage and touring ended a few years later. Her first compositions to be published, in 1769, were six string quartets. She continued touring and ended up in London for three seasons, her debut being a solo concert in 1771, for which she was hailed as a violin virtuosa. She composed numerous sonatas, duets, trios, quartets, and concertos for the violin, mostly before she was 30 years old. Like her contemporary Haydn, she contributed to the development of the early classical style. Maddalena had maintained control of her finances throughout her career and was by now quite wealthy. She retired from performing and returned to Venice, where she lived with her long-time friend Giuseppe Terzi, who had been her companion throughout her touring career. They adopted a daughter, Angela Maddalena, around 1795. Maddalena died in Venice in 1818.
The work on our program is the first of six duets from a facsimile of the first published edition. The notation is archaic and therefore subject to interpretation. The work in Eb Major consists of an Allegro Moderato and a Minuetto. The Allegro Moderato will be reprised to finish out the work.
By David Barone and Erik Peterson Go to: March 12 program
Jessie Montgomery, Strum
Jessie Montgomery grew up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980’s, a time when that neighborhood was a center of vital cultural activity. Her father, a musician, and mother, an actress, were heavily involved in the activities, and they often brought Jessie to rallies, performances and parties in the area. She grew up to be a violinist, composer and music educator.
Her violin studies began at the Third Street Music School Settlement and she moved on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Juilliard. She then joined two string quartets, acting as a strong advocate for classical music. She is affiliated with the Sphinx Organization, supporting the efforts of young African-American and Latino string players. She is composer-in-residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductor-less string orchestra. In 2012 she completed a graduate degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University. This led to many commissions for her most recent works, including one from the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and one from the Albany Symphony. She is also working on a new ballet for the Dance Theater of Harlem and Virginia Arts Festival, under a commission. In the current season she is a collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble. Her list of works includes works for orchestra, voice, chamber music and film music. She received a grant to assist in the recording of her debut album “Strum: Music for Strings” released in October 2015 and featuring many of her compositions. She currently gives workshops in the U.S.A. and abroad.
Strum is the result of numerous revisions of a work for cello quintet written in 2006 for her Providence String Quartet with some added guests. In 2008 she revised it for string quartet. In 2012 the final version appeared with changed introduction and ending, written for the Catalyst Quartet in a performance celebrating the 15h annual Sphinx Competition. The original and current versions endeavor to allow the voicing to be covered by all members of the group, yielding an expansive sound. Montgomery says “Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinato that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece.” The work utilizes the spirit of dance and movement and American folk idioms, starting with a nostalgic atmosphere and ending with an ecstatic celebration.
By Robert Mielke Go to: March 12 program
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, D. 804 (Op. 29) “Rosamunde”
Schubert certainly did not lead a stable existence in his short life. The 12th of 18 known children of his schoolmaster/cellist father, he was educated in the family home, which was also his father’s school building. He received a respectable academic education with coaching in piano and violin. Many siblings had musical talent, so a family string quartet (father included) formed and performed in Vienna. Franz moved on to become a student of Antonio Salieri, by which time he had composed his first six string quartets (another six quartets soon after). His existence from about 1816 on was unsettled but occupied with music. After a gap of eight years, he resumed work on the string quartet genre in 1824, with three works: quartets in A minor (played here), D minor (“Death and the Maiden”) and G major. These were mature works, inspired by the existence of the famous Viennese violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, whose quartet premiered this piece. Its first performance was in March, 1824, and it was published that September, the only one of Schubert’s chamber compositions to be published in his lifetime. Altogether he wrote 15 complete (existing) quartets, with fragments of others.
At the time of the composition of this work, Schubert was in poor health, mental and physical, and a mood of tragedy and despair permeates the quartet. The first movement derives from the spinning motif of his song “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” one of the most famous of his 600 songs. The gentle second movement uses a portion of a work from 1823, in which Schubert composed incidental music for a four-act play entitled “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus.” The theme also appears in the third of Schubert’s four impromptus, appearing later. A frustrated opera composer, Schubert had high hopes for the play, but it failed; nonetheless the incidental music has become a staple of the repertoire. Continuing to borrow from himself, he introduced the despairing third movement Menuetto with a portion from an 1819 song, “The Gods of Greece.” There is a short, contrasting, uplifting trio section in this movement. The final movement finds Schubert emerging from his gloomy atmosphere, with a jolly atmosphere resembling the finale of his “Trout Quintet.”
Schubert’s health problems continued until his death in 1828. Actually this quartet was one of his later works, as his health interfered with his composition efforts. Nevertheless, this quartet is a good example of his mature creative output.
By Roberta Mielke Go to: March 12 program
Bela Bartok, 44 Duos for Two Violins
Bela Bartok found the unique features of Hungarian folk music, with its fusion of both European and Oriental strains, a rich fund of inspiration for his own music and a natural liberating force from the prevailing Germanic domination of music of his time. As a musician of great integrity, he eventually achieved a synthesis of style that was his alone, which he neither taught nor wrote about, and which has only begun to be fully understood in recent times. As one of last century’s great ethnomusicologists, he found folk music to be “a phenomenon of nature. Its formations developed as spontaneously as other living natural organisms: flowers, animals, etc.” (from his 1925 essay, The Sources of Folk Music).
Bartok’s 44 Duos are less known than some of his work, yet their importance should not be underestimated. The Duos appeared immediately after the second piano concerto, a work that announces the beginning of his late, greatest period. Their epigrammatic character stands in utter contrast to the powerful Cantata Profana (1930), the second concerto, and his Fifth String Quartet. Although composed originally as teaching pieces, progressing in graduated technical difficulty, Bartok envisioned concert performances of the 44 Duos. They were first heard publicly in January 1932 in Budapest. As published, they fall into four volumes.
The Duos draw their material, nearly all peasant songs, from a wide geographical range in Central Europe. Volume 1 covers the original areas of Old Hungary; Volume 2 is a sturdier set leaning more toward Russia; Volume 3 introduces some Caucasian and military themes; and Volume 4 touches on Ukrainian, Transylvanian, and Armenian folk songs along with some purely abstract pieces.
There is a quite astonishing range of texture and timbre, of rhythmic vitality and subtlety, of harmonic language and of melodic contour - all expressed within the necessarily restricted demands of the technical aspect being addressed. Each of these characteristics makes the 44 Duos a highly fascinating set of pieces whose cumulative effect is impressive on many levels.
By Robert Molison Go to: March 12 program
Paul Hindemith, Duo For Viola And Cello (1934)
(This commentary is taken from remarks about the work by Patrick Jankowski for Chamber Music Northwest.)
Hindemith’s Duo for Viola and Cello dates from around the same time as his great opera “Mathis der Maler”, based on the life of the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald. In that opera the composer juxtaposes elements of simple folk-related styles and modernism, signifying Grunewald’s own determination to continue to work in the traditional medieval painting style against the rising tide of Renaissance art. Hindemith himself toed the line between classicism and radicalism throughout his life. Although it is on a much smaller scale than an opera, this compact duet likewise invokes both traditional folk styles and more avant-garde experiments. At surprising moments amid the complex counterpoint, the composer recalls the rustic drone of the medieval hurdy-gurdy. If at times the capricious work seems unsettled, it is no mistake: though the pulse and tempo remain essentially constant, Hindemith playfully manipulates metrical groupings. Duple and triple seem in constant struggle, until a resolution that seems humorously simple by comparison to the earlier opposition. Paul Hindemith and Emmanuel Feuermann recorded the work in 1934. Go to: March 12 program
Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen, Duetto #1 in Eb for two violins
Lombardi Sirmen was born in Venice in 1745 and raised in an orphanage that was also a music academy. She received musical instruction in the violin. Ambitious to become a professional, she was sent to Padua to receive lessons from the greatest violinist of the era, Giuseppe Tartini. In 1767, at age 21, she married the renowned violinist Ludovico Sirmen (also spelled Syrmen). The two began touring together that same year, but the marriage and touring ended a few years later. Her first compositions to be published, in 1769, were six string quartets. She continued touring and ended up in London for three seasons, her debut being a solo concert in 1771, for which she was hailed as a violin virtuosa. She composed numerous sonatas, duets, trios, quartets, and concertos for the violin, mostly before she was 30 years old. Like her contemporary Haydn, she contributed to the development of the early classical style. Maddalena had maintained control of her finances throughout her career and was by now quite wealthy. She retired from performing and returned to Venice, where she lived with her long-time friend Giuseppe Terzi, who had been her companion throughout her touring career. They adopted a daughter, Angela Maddalena, around 1795. Maddalena died in Venice in 1818.
The work on our program is the first of six duets from a facsimile of the first published edition. The notation is archaic and therefore subject to interpretation. The work in Eb Major consists of an Allegro Moderato and a Minuetto. The Allegro Moderato will be reprised to finish out the work.
By David Barone and Erik Peterson Go to: March 12 program
Jessie Montgomery, Strum
Jessie Montgomery grew up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980’s, a time when that neighborhood was a center of vital cultural activity. Her father, a musician, and mother, an actress, were heavily involved in the activities, and they often brought Jessie to rallies, performances and parties in the area. She grew up to be a violinist, composer and music educator.
Her violin studies began at the Third Street Music School Settlement and she moved on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Juilliard. She then joined two string quartets, acting as a strong advocate for classical music. She is affiliated with the Sphinx Organization, supporting the efforts of young African-American and Latino string players. She is composer-in-residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductor-less string orchestra. In 2012 she completed a graduate degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University. This led to many commissions for her most recent works, including one from the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and one from the Albany Symphony. She is also working on a new ballet for the Dance Theater of Harlem and Virginia Arts Festival, under a commission. In the current season she is a collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble. Her list of works includes works for orchestra, voice, chamber music and film music. She received a grant to assist in the recording of her debut album “Strum: Music for Strings” released in October 2015 and featuring many of her compositions. She currently gives workshops in the U.S.A. and abroad.
Strum is the result of numerous revisions of a work for cello quintet written in 2006 for her Providence String Quartet with some added guests. In 2008 she revised it for string quartet. In 2012 the final version appeared with changed introduction and ending, written for the Catalyst Quartet in a performance celebrating the 15h annual Sphinx Competition. The original and current versions endeavor to allow the voicing to be covered by all members of the group, yielding an expansive sound. Montgomery says “Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinato that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece.” The work utilizes the spirit of dance and movement and American folk idioms, starting with a nostalgic atmosphere and ending with an ecstatic celebration.
By Robert Mielke Go to: March 12 program
