About the Music. A Note from Colin Jacobsen As I write this, hope is blooming along with spring in New York: hope that life is returning to a semblance of normal; hope that we will indeed be back in our favorite garden of musical and horticultural delights with you in person! We were grateful that several months before the pandemic, we were able to record audio and video of J.S. Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in the Music Room at Caramoor. Our version features an arrangement of Paul Simon’s American Tune as the second movement (instead of the two cadential chords that hint at an improvised cadenza at the very least, if not a full movement that Bach himself might have inserted). Coming at perhaps “the age’s most uncertain hour” (lyric from American Tune), we were thankful that it was possible to share it last year in the dark spring of 2020. Bach’s music, long lauded for its balance of head, heart, and spirit, gives a sense that joy, suffering, life, and death all have their place in the universe. It is these themes that may have drawn Paul Simon to borrow from Bach’s setting of a Lutheran hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded for his meditation on the American experience. Simon’s American Tune was written in 1973, in a deeply divided nation, in the midst of the tail end of the Vietnam War and the Nixon impeachment proceedings. American Tune is sung by the multitalented and courageous Knights’ violinist Christina Courtin — in this performance you’ll see her Caramoor
holding down one of the virtuoso violin parts, and then stepping forth to the front of the group and singing Simon’s song before retreating back into the circle for the joyous conclusion of Bach’s concerto. Encoded in the song itself (born as a Lutheran hymn, to Bach chorale, to American folk/pop song) is a typical American story of inspiration, assimilation, and transformation. Simon sensed the power of the melody to console; its sense of resignation mixed with hope, and his lyrics reflect those themes. It’s wonderful to finally be able to play this live at Caramoor for you today! One of the more memorable moments of the last year for The Knights was our livestream from the Music Room at Caramoor, where we were able to give the world premiere of composer Anna Clyne’s Shorthand. That piece, written for and performed by the wonderful Knights cellist Karen Ouzounian last summer, continues a longstanding relationship between The Knights and Anna. Today we bring you her double concerto for two violins and strings, Prince of Clouds, featuring Alex Gonzalez and myself on the solo parts. Another fruit of The Knights’ work during the pandemic was a virtual audio and video recording of Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst. Jessie is a long-time friend of many Knights musicians and has played with the group herself numerous times (she’s a wonderful violinist as well as Summer 2021 III composer). Our recording of a new version of Starburst for winds, piano, and strings was originally
