The first half of tonight’s concert presents a variety of works by four American composers spanning just under 100 years. The range and diversity of their offerings is telling. The 20th century saw American artists move out of the shadow of the European masters and begin sharing unique and original music from the new world.
We start with Aaron Copland, a composer who peers and critics alike referred to as the “Dean of American Composers.” Born in Brooklyn in 1900, Copland got his first formal lessons in composition from Rubin Goldmark, studying with him privately between 1917 and 1921. Copland said of his teacher, “This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching.” Goldmark had very conservative tastes and, for this reason, young Copland did not show him any of the daring and original pieces he was writing. For a graduation piece, he produced his Piano Sonata (No. 1) in G Major, a work in a solidly romantic style.
In May of 1921 Copland traveled to France to enroll at the newly established American Conservatory at Fontainebleau. There he attended harmony classes with Nadia Boulanger and began studying composition with her that October. Years later Copland wrote of his experience: “It was wonderful for me to find a teacher with such openness of mind, while at the same time she held firm ideas of right and wrong in musical matters. The confidence she had in my talents and her belief in me were at the very least flattering and more—they were crucial to my development at this time of my career.” A plan to study abroad for one year turned into three.
In 1926 Copland returned to Paris with a pair of violin pieces to present on an all-American program at one of Boulanger’s famous afternoon teas. These events were quite prestigious and drew an interesting mix of artists; James Joyce was present to hear the Nocturne receive its premiere. The violinist for the occasion was the American soloist Samuel Dushkin, with Copland at the piano.
Jerome Kern was born in New York City in 1885. His father was a successful merchant and his mother a professional keyboardist and teacher. In 1897 the family moved to Newark, NJ. In high school Kern began writing songs for school theatrical productions and for amateur theatrical events. He decided to leave school before graduating and, after failing miserably at working for his father, was allowed to pursue his study of music.
In 1902 Kern spent a year at the New York College of Music before heading off to Heidelberg, Germany. He spent two years there studying privately before returning to New York in 1905 by way of London. His career took off when he secured a contract to write material to be inserted into Broadway productions of West End shows. His first full score was for Broadway’s The Red Petticoat in 1912.
In 1925 Kern met Oscar Hammerstein II, who became a close friend and collaborator. On the strength of the success of their first collaboration, Sunny, Flo Ziegfeld agreed to produce Show Boat in 1927. By 1929 Kern was working in Hollywood, contributing to many of the greatest musicals of that era. Kern died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in New York in 1945. He was about to start work on the musical Annie Get Your Gun.
The song arrangements we present tonight were done by Kern himself and then transcribed for string Quartet by his assistant Charles Miller. These were recorded in 1949 but never became part of the familiar quartet repertoire. For those who think of Kern as a simple tunesmith, these works are a wonderful surprise for their sophistication and emotional range.
Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland has written music that has been performed across the country and around the world. He has been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras, including Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Philadelphia.
Bailey is currently the dean of the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, and serves as the Kay Davis Professor of Music at Northwestern University. He has served on the faculty of Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Curtis Institute of Music, and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Holland holds a Bachelor of Music from Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied composition with Ned Rorem, and a Ph.D from Harvard University, where he studied with Bernard Rands, Mario Davidovsky, Andrew Imbrie, and Yehudi Wyner.
The Intimacy of Harmony is from 2013. Its textures range through dense and static chords, driving assertions, and shimmering arpeggios. It takes the listener deep into the tensions and releases of dissonant and consonant tonal combinations.
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, MA in 1918. He took piano lessons as a boy and went on to study music at Harvard University. After graduating in 1939 he moved on to study piano, composition, and conduct at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1940 he attended the newly opened Tanglewood Music Institute where he studied with Serge Koussevitzky. He would serve in many capacities at the Institute, from heading the conducting department to holding legendary masterclasses in his later years.
Bernstein’s worldwide reputation as a conductor was established overnight in 1943. As the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, he replaced an ailing Bruno Walter in a Carnegie Hall concert that was being broadcast nationally. He served as Music Director of the orchestra from 1958 to 1969.
Bernstein contributed greatly to Broadway between 1944 through 1976. He wrote numerous ballets, choral and symphonic works. In 1958 he began a televised series of Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic that ran for 14 seasons and introduced classical treasures to millions.
In 1941 a newly graduated and unemployed Bernstein was anticipating the entrance of the US into war and awaiting a draft notice while vacationing in Key West (he ended up being classified as 4F due to asthma). Here he listened regularly to broadcasts from Radio Havana and absorbed Cuban musical elements that would emerge in future works such as “America” from West Side Story. He began writing his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano there in September and finished it in Boston in February 1942.
Bernstein wrote very few instrumental chamber works. His choice to write for the clarinet could reflect how popular the instrument had become because of players such as Benny Goodman. The piece is in two movements; the first is quite restrained and the second full of interesting quirks, including a distinct Cuban flair.
At the beginning of this season we performed Brahms’ 2nd piano trio. By the time it was written in 1880 Brahms was recognized world-wide as a leading figure in classical music. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees. Ten years later, in 1890, he declared he was retiring, telling friends, “I have worked enough; now let the young folks take over.” That all changed when Brahms traveled to the court of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, to hear a private concert featuring musicians of the exceptional court orchestra. One in particular, clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, deeply impressed Brahms, to the point that the two became dear friends. Mühlfeld’s playing so inspired Brahms that he took himself out of retirement to compose for the clarinet. In a flurry of inspiration, beginning in 1890, he would write four great works for the instrument: the Clarinet Trio in a minor, op. 114 (1891), the Clarinet Quintet in b minor, op. 115 (1891), and the two Sonatas for clarinet and piano, op. 120 (1894).
The combination of clarinet and string quartet was not common when Brahms tackled his quintet. Mozart’s masterpiece for the ensemble had been written in 1789, and over the next 100 years only a handful appeared. A glance through a current catalog of clarinet quintets shows a steady increase in works written for the grouping all through the 20th and into the 21st centuries. The combination of late 19th century improvements in the instrument’s design, the great musicianship and skill of players like Mühlfeld, and Brahms’s beautiful compositions appears to have inspired many and opened the floodgates.
The first movement of Brahms’s quintet begins as if in a daydream. There is an intensity that is delivered with a quiet reserve before drifting to a close. The second movement begins with a wistful quality before building to gypsy-like flourishes. The strings are muted throughout, offering a gentle underpinning for the lyrical clarinet melody before erupting with tremolos to create an effect like a Hungarian cimbalom band. This movement also closes out quietly. The third movement is where we expect a fast, lighthearted contrast to the intensity of the previous movement. It doesn’t seem like that is going to happen but, nested in the middle of this lilting Andantino (a little faster than an easy pace), is music marked Presto non assai, ma con sentimento (very quick, but not too quick, and with feeling), which offers an energetic release. The final movement is a theme and variations; the same form Mozart had used in his quintet.