Music for a Sunday Afternoon January 15, 2012
Georges Bizet 1838–1875 Jeux d’enfants, op. 22
BLIND MAN’S BUFF
BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS
Souvenirs from Childhood
Generously sponsored by
Delta Bessborough, 2:30 pm
Bizet wrote the Jeux d’Enfants as a piano duet in 1871. It consists of 12 short movements, each based on a different children’s game. Five of the most popular movements were orchestrated as the “Petite Suite”. Bizet’s natural melodic charm shines through here as it does in all of his works, and Gordon Davies’ arrangement for wind quintet is also very successful in maintaining the daintiness and delicacy characteristic of these pieces.
Saskatoon Symphony Chamber Ensemble
Bizet
Jeux d’Enfants arranged by Gordon Davies
Trompette et tambour (Trumpet and drum)– Marche Petit mari, petite femme (Little husband, little wife) – Duo La toupie (The top)– Impromptu La poupée (The doll) - Berceuse Le bal (The ball) - Galop
Jaroch
Detska Suite (Children’s Suite)
Tanacek (Little Dance) — Ukolebavka (Lullaby) — Hra na honenou (Blind Man’s Buff)
Jiri Jaroch 1920–1986
intermission
Ravel
Deak
Born in Paris into a musical family, Georges Bizet was French composer of the Romantic era. His father was a voice teacher and his mother played the piano. As with so many great composers Bizet’s talents were obvious at a very young age. He was able to read and write music at age four, and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at age nine. His biggest body of work was written for the opera stage (approximately 30 in all) with Carmen being by far the most famous. It was premiered just three months before his death at age 37. As well as being a composer Bizet was a gifted pianist. His playing drew the admiration of Liszt who considered him to be one of the three finest pianists in Europe at the time.
Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Suite) arranged by Willard Elliot Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant – Lent (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty) Petit Poucet – Très modéré (Little Tom Thumb) Laidernonette, Impératrice des Pagodes – Mouvt. de Marche (Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas) Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête – Mouvt. de Valse modéré (Conversation of Beauty and the Beast) Le Jardin féerique (The Fairy Garden) – Lent et grave
The Bremen Town Musicians
detska SUITE (children’s suite) Jiri Jaroch, a Czech composer, studied at the Prague Conservatory and The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. As well as studying composition he also studied viola with the famous Czech violinist Ladislav Cerny. He played in the orchestra at the Smetana Theatre in Prague till its closing in 1947, after which he worked as a broadcaster for Czech Radio. Jaroch’s compositional output includes 15 orchestral works, among which are three
Enjoy a coffee and tea service during intermission at this event. inTune 38
symphonies. He also wrote a number of chamber music works including 2 string quartets. The Detska Suite is one of two nonets, and was written in 1952. It is his most frequently played chamber music work. He is sensitive to the attention span of children in the length of each movement and the style of composition. The piece is both serene and playful in mood. It is enjoyable for both children and adults alike.
Maurice Ravel 1875–1937 MA Mère l’oye (Mother goose suite) Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France close to the Spanish border. His mother was of Basque origin, and his father was a Swiss inventor and engineer. Ravel began his piano studies at an early age, and eventually entered the Paris Conservatoire, studying both piano and composition. During his time there from 1889–1895 his compositional style was not well received so he left. However, he returned in 1897 to study with Gabriel Fauré, who become a great champion of his work. Ravel is now viewed as one of the most influential composers of the early 20th century and is often linked with Debussy in his musical expressionism. He had a love of a broad variety of styles including French Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Spanish folk traditions and American jazz and blues. These influences can be found throughout his music. His skill in orchestration is unsurpassed. The Mother Goose Suite was originally written in 1908 as a piano duet for the children of Ciba Godebski, a friend of Ravel. In 1910 he transcribed it for solo piano, and in 1911 it was orchestrated for full orchestra. Another transcription followed in 1911 for ballet, for which two more movements and some interludes were added. The original five movements illustrate fairy tales, most written by French authors. The first two movements are based on tales by inTune 39
Charles Perrault, and the third movement is based on a tale by Madame d’Aulnoy. Beauty and the Beast comes from a story by Meanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaument. The Fairy Garden in of unknown origin. Ravel’s elegant style and luxurious textures are also evident in this arrangement for nonet. The mood is whimsical but with a hint of sadness thought to come from Ravel’s attachment to the bygone days of his happy childhood.
Jon Deak 1943– THE BREMEN TOWN MUSICIANS Jon Deak, double bassist and composer, was born in Hammond, Indiana, to artists from Hungary. He was educated at Oberlin College, the Julliard School of Music, the University of Illinois and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Conservatorio de Santa Cecilia in Rome. He was Associate Principal double bass of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, and also a Creative Education Associate for the orchestra. Deak recently completed a 3 year appointment as Composer-inResidence with the Colorado Symphony which included affiliations with the Colorado Children’s Chorale and the Denver Public Schools. His passion for the creative education of children led to the founding of the Very Young Composers in 1995, a program whereby public school children age nine to 13 completely composed and orchestrated their own music for the New York Philharmonic and the Colorado Symphony. In 1985 Deak wrote The Bremen Town Musicians for the New York Woodwind Quintet. He uses “performance art” techniques which expand the performer’s usual roles of playing notes on a page. The performers take on the roles of their characters with words and actions as well. Here is a description from Jon Deak: “I have always loved fairy tales with their wild flights of fancy and their directness
of expression. I distinctly remember my mother reading “The Bremen Town Musicians” to me at age five or six. I loved its absurdity and felt so sad—then excited—for the four animals who, being cast out by their masters, decided to band together as musicians and wind up driving a den of thieves from their hideout. How, then, to convey this story by five musicians on a stage? I wanted to do more than just “set” a text to the accompaniment of music. Just as common speech contains music—pitch, dynamics, articulation, rhythm—so music conveys meaning, even literal meaning. I love to mix up the two—to embed one into the other, as it were. Thus the musicians and their instruments tell the story, and conversely, the rhythm of the story’s text on all its various levels, becomes the music.” Program notes prepared by Margaret Wilson, principal clarinet, Saskatoon Symphony. © 2011
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