THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC Presents
THE UNIVERSITY PHILHARMONIA Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor Nathan Haines, Associate Conductor
Friday, March 19, 2021 Seven-thirty in the Evening Ruby Diamond Concert Hall Live: wfsu.org/fsumusic
PROGRAM English Folk Song Suite I. March (“Seventeen come Sunday”) II. Intermezzo (“My Bonny Boy”) III. March (“Folk Songs from Somerset”)
Starburst for String Orchestra
Ralph Vaughan-Williams (1872–1958) arr. Gordan Jacob (1895–1984)
Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)
Four Novelletten for String Orchestra, Op. 52 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1. Allegro moderato (1875–1912) 2. Larghetto 3. Andante con moto 4. Allegro molto Nathan Haines, associate conductor
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 I. Adagio molto-Allegro con brio II. Andante cantabile con moto III. Menuetto: allegro molto e vivace IV. Adagio-Allegro molto e vivace
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members. Thank you for your cooperation.
MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR Alexander Jiménez serves as Professor of Conducting, Director of Orchestral Activities, and String Area Coordinator at the Florida State University College of Music. He has served on the faculties of San Francisco State University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has degrees from Baylor University (BM) and the Florida State University (MM, MME, and DM). Jiménez studied with Phillip Spurgeon, Michael Haithcock, and the late Anton Guadagno. As a former percussionist and timpanist, he studied with Gary Werdesheim, Larry Vanlandingham, Keiko Abe, and Cloyd Duff. Under his direction the FSU Orchestras have continued their long tradition of excellence. Both the undergraduate University Philharmonia and the University Symphony Orchestra under Dr. Jiménez have championed new music and collaborated with such composers as Krzysztof Penderecki, Martin Bresnick, Anthony Iannaconne, Christopher Theofanidis, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Ladislav Kubik. In 2007 the USO was featured in the PBS special Peanuts Gallery® which was awarded Best Performance of 2007 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Jiménez has recorded with the Mark, CBC/Ovation, Col Legno, Neos, and Naxos labels. In 2016 the USO was chosen as the featured orchestra at the National Conference of the American String Teachers Association. Jiménez is active as a guest conductor, teacher, and adjudicator throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, where he has appeared in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Israel. Since 2009 he has served on the international jury panel of the European Festival of Music for Young People in Neerpelt, Belgium, and in 2013 was named International Festival Ambassador. Dr. Jiménez is in demand conducting honor and all-state orchestras throughout the U.S. and is conductor of the Blue Lake Arts Camp Festival Orchestra. In Tallahassee, he appears regularly as guest conductor of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and served as the music director of the Tallahassee Youth Orchestras from 2000-2017. Dr. Jiménez is a past president of the College Orchestra Directors Association. He holds memberships in the College Orchestra Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Florida Orchestra Association, and the League of American Orchestras.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Vaughan Williams: English Folk Song Suite As well as appreciating British landscapes and heritage, Ralph Vaughan Williams was also sentimental about Britain’s musical history. Military bands were on the rise again, and thus in 1923, Vaughan Williams composed his English Folk Song Suite for them. Although popular in most wind orchestras, it’s the fully orchestrated version by Gordon Jacob that we mainly hear in concert halls today (please note this blog will be exploring the orchestral version of this work). The original military band version was published under the title “Folk Song Suite,” and was premiered on 4th July 1923 at Kneller Hall. 1924 saw Vaughan Williams’ student Gordon Jacob assemble the orchestral version, which was published under the title “English Folk Song Suite.” In 1956, Frank Wright published a version for brass band under the title “English Folk Songs Suite.” All three versions were published by Boosey & Hawkes. Although all published under slightly differing names, the music remains consistent throughout. Consisting of three movements, each of which are based on a main folk tune, each movement explores some of the most quintessential British folk tunes of the time. In Vaughan Williams’ original score there was a fourth movement called “Sea Songs” which was performed as the second movement, however this was removed after the premiere performance. Vaughan Williams then worked on the discarded movement and published it as a stand alone piece some years later. – Alex Burns Montgomery: Starburst for String Orchestra Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Since 1999, Montgomery has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. About Starburst, she says:
This brief one-movement work for string orchestra is a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors. Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape. A common definition of a starburst: “the rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly” lends itself almost literally to the nature of the performing ensemble who premieres the work, The Sphinx Virtuosi, and I wrote the piece with their dynamic in mind. – from www.jessiemontgomery.com Coleridge-Taylor: Four Novelletten for String Orchestra Samuel Coleridge-Taylor honored his pan-African heritage with ever-mellifluous compositions that increasingly embraced syncopation. African American elites of the Gilded Age cherished him. The chance to be among them was significant, as Coleridge-Taylor’s father was a descendant of enslaved African Americans who fought in the American Revolution. These Black Loyalists fought George Washington’s army in exchange for manumission and land ownership, primarily in Nova Scotia or Sierra Leone. Samuel’s father—Daniel Taylor, born in 1849 in Freetown, Sierra Leone—moved to England, where he became a physician. Samuel’s mother—Alice Marten of Castle Place, Dover—raised him in Croydon, as his father returned to Africa. In 1890, Coleridge-Taylor matriculated at the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. Sir Edward Elgar encouraged Coleridge-Taylor, and a friendship with the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar marked a turn in the composer’s life. Dunbar revealed for him the many ways to explore the beauty of his father’s race. Coleridge-Taylor attended the first Pan-African Congress in London in 1900, where he met noteworthy African Americans, including W. E. B. DuBois. In 1904, The Coleridge-Taylor Society invited him to Washington, D.C., to conduct his Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast (1898). There, he met Theodore Roosevelt, and this initiated the first of three tours of the United States. These experiences encouraged him to emphasize musical sounds that would signal regard for his people. Rhythm—too frequently conjuring stereotypes of blackness—was one musical element that Coleridge-Taylor engaged with greater intentionality. Four Novelettes for String Orchestra premiered in 1902 at the Croydon Conservatoire.
Though Coleridge-Taylor has been called the “Black Mahler,” there are more apt musical analogies. One writer encounters in Four Novelettes a continuation of the “stylistic tradition of [Niels] Gade and Dvořák,” adding that it “excels in a great variety of motifs.” Another hears “touches of Brahms and the blues.” Similarly, one could listen to the dotted rhythms that introduce the first movement and find echoes of Handel, who used them to pronounce the regality in his oratorio Messiah. Coleridge-Taylor may have used them to foreground the mark of older and dignified musical expressions of time and the legacy of a noble people, out of the silence. – Whitney Slaten Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 By the mid-1790s, Beethoven had participated in all the important instrumental genres of the period except for the string quartet and the symphony. It is entirely possible that the young composer was exercising an abundance of caution before treading into areas that were dominated by his teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn. But the dawn of a new century saw Beethoven’s first contribution within the genre that would eventually define his legacy. It now seems ironic that the man whose symphonic legacy dissuaded a generation of great composers from writing symphonies was himself fearful of his work garnering comparisons. Completed in 1800, the Symphony No. 1 in C Major was dedicated to Baron Gottfried Van Swieten upon its publication. Van Swieten was an influential aficionado of music (especially so-called ‘ancient music’) and Court Librarian who became an early patron of Beethoven. He deserves far more credit than he receives in the annals of music history. He was responsible for introducing the music of both J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel to Mozart in the 1770s—an act that significantly altered Mozart’s approach to composition—as well as providing translations of source material for Haydn’s great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. In short, Van Swieten substantially affected the high-classical style that surrounded Beethoven during his formative years. The opening bars of the first movement immediately signal that this work was, in some way, a break with tradition. The central tonality of the work, C major, is delayed by six measures in which Beethoven teases the audience with a series of cadences that resolve in unexpected ways. Beethoven’s critics, while mostly positive, cited this particular instance as being “unsuitable for the opening of a grand concert.” History, of course, would reveal that Beethoven had much more to say regarding violations of symphonic conventions. The allegro section of the opening movement includes a bright theme for strings which then leads to a second
theme primarily voiced by the winds but which still retains the accompaniment of the first theme. Mozart would surely have smirked if he had heard his trademark of wind-dominated second themes employed, and Haydn doubtlessly approved of the economical treatment of the accompaniment. The second movement, Andante cantabile con moto, displays hints of van Swieten’s influence via a somewhat learned, Bach-like, fugal treatment of the courtly theme presented by the second violins. The third movement is a Minuetto only in name, as the lightning quick tempo is more indicative of Beethoven’s proclivity for a scherzo. The finale begins with a slow introduction which perhaps displays Haydn’s wit. The opening, forte chords are followed by the violins eking their way up a scale, one note at a time. When the string eventually make their final, eightnote run at the scale the movement bursts open in a sunny, exciting Allegro motlo e vivace that brings the work to a satisfying conclusion. – Matthew Bishop
University Philharmonia Personnel
Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor Nathan Haines, Associate Conductor Violin I Alyssa Orantes‡ Abbie Ringdahl Alexa Lang César Paredes Elliott Weeks Samantha Satizabal-Prieto Rebeca Masalles Violin II Mackenzie Nies* Tyler Tran Max Warren Max van Hoeij Michael Mesa Alyssa Albert Sean Hartman Alan Le Viola Marina Akamatsu* Francesca Tavano Joshua Singletary Amelia Lohman Alejandra Irizarry Anna Laldin
Cello Tiffany Peterson* Daniel Aviles Correa Mary Katherine Gelasco Jenna Bachmann Clare Bevensee Grace Lege Alison Greenhill Natalie Gonzalez
Oboe Jennifer McHenry* Abigail Kothera
Trombone Will Roberts* Marcus Larson
Clarinet Renzo DeCarlo** Hunter Robertson** Cody Kight Charlotte MacDonald
Timpani Ashlee Allaire Ross Hussong
Bass Alex Gay* Alejandro Bermudez Allen Cadet-Civil Payton Liebe Chase Rowe Christian Maldonado
Bassoon Harrison Cody ** Emmalee Odom**
Flute Brenna Miller* Savannah Bell
Trumpet James Popper** Thum Rangsiyawaranon**
Horn Alex Garcia** JP Collins**
Percussion Ross Hussong Sam LaConte Orchestra Manager Amanda Frampton Librarians Nathan Haines Kyara Nelsen Administrative Assistant Willow Larson
‡ Concertmaster * Principal ** Co-Principal
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL ASSOCIATES 2019-2021 Drs. Charles and Sharon Aronovitch * Tom Denmark Avon and Louie Doll Patrick and Kathy Dunnigan Maximilian and Gale Etschmaier Kevin and Suzanne Fenton Fred and Linda Hester Glenn Hosken
Gold Circle Jelks Family Foundation * Emory and Dorothy Johnson * Bob Parker Jerry and Ann Price * Charles and Persis Rockwood Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Francis and Karen Skilling Bret Whissel
Benefactors * Tom and Cathy Bishop Michael and Judy Sheridan Karen Bradley Dr. James C. and Elizabeth Smith * Jimmie and Donna Callaway Michael and Jennifer Thrasher DeLos F. DeTar Bill and Sally Wendt Richard Dusenbury and Kathi Jaschke * Teresa Beazley Widmer John and Mary Geringer Marilynn Wills COL Reid Jaffe and Ms. Susan Z. Cornwell Kathy D. Wright Claire Kelly Lifetime Members Les and Ruth Ruggles Akers Sally and Fred Kreimer John and Willa Almlof Beverly Locke-Ewald Florence Helen Ashby Ralph and Sue Mancuso Mrs. Reubin Askew Meredith and Elsa L. McKinney Nancy Bivins Ermine M. Owenby Ramona D. Bowman Mike and Judy Pate André and Eleanor Connan Jane Quinton Russell and Janis Courson David D. Redfield * Ginny Densmore Laura and Sam Rogers, Jr. Nancy Smith Fichter and Robert W. Fichter Connie Sauer-Adams and Len Adams Stan and Carole Fiore Jean T. Souter Patricia J. Flowers Drs. Louis and Julia St. Petery Jane E. Hughes Sharon Stone Hilda Hunter Elaine Swain Julio Jiménez Catherine Tharpe Kirby W. and Margaret-Ray Kemper Brig. Gen. and Mrs. William B. Webb Patsy Kickliter Rick and Joan West Anthony M. and Mallen E. Komlyn John L. and Linda M. Williams
Corporate Sponsors Beethoven & Company Peter Boulware Toyota
Business Sponsors WFSU Public Broadcast Center
Sustainers Kathryn M. Beggs * Marc and Kathryn Hebda James and Rochelle Davis Greg and Margo Jones Floyd Deterding and Kelley Lang Annelise Leysieffer Diane and Jack Dowling * Lisa and John Rutledge Grady Enlow and June Dollar Dr. Gayle and Dr. Douglass Seaton William Fredrickson and Suzanne Rita Byrnes Denise Von Glahn and Michael Broyles Larry Gerber
Sponsors Joyce Andrews Tom and Christine Ballinger Patricia and Buddy Barker Marty Beech Greg and Karen Boebinger John and Eileen Boutelle Kathryn Karrh Cashin Pete and Bonnie Chamlis Causseaux-Young Robert and Linda Clickner Malcolm Craig Jim and Sandy Dafoe Margaret and Russ Dancy Joy and James Frank Bryan and Nancy Goff John and Pat Goldinger Marylee and Tina Haddon Louis V. and Kathryn T. Hajos Ocie and JoElla Harris Myron and Judy Hayden Dottie and Jon Hinkle Todd Hinkle Jonathan Jackson and Greg Springer
Alexander and Dawn Jiménez Alan R. Kagan, MD Howard Kessler and Anne Van Meter Dennis G. King, Esq. Jeff and Nancy Lickson Linda and Bob Lovins William and Gayle Manley Helen and Tom Martineau Robert and Patricia McDonald Frank and Francesca Melichar Walter and Marian Moore Ann W. Parramore Robert and Caryl Pierce JoAnne and David Rasmussen Stephen and Elizabeth Richardson Dottie Roberts and Doug Bruce Ken and JR Saginario Annelise Sapp Bill and Ma’Su Sweeney Susan and Stephen Turner David and Jane Watson Michael and Patricia Wilhoit Candy and Barbara Williams
Don Beeckler Norma T. Benton Mary S. Bert Carl and Marcia Bjerregaard Paul and Alice Blackhall Kip and Joan Carpenter Adele Cunningham Mrs. Joseph C. D’Annunzio Pamala J. Doffek John S. and Linda H. Fleming Nicole Folkert Dr. Fred Frank L. Kathryn Funchess Bruce and Luisa Gillander Ruth Godfrey-Sigler Julie Griffith Jerry and Bobbi Hill Anne R. Hodges Sally and Lincoln Jarrett Judith H. Jolly J.F. and Barbara Jones Frances Kratt / Judith Flanigan John and Marty Larson Donna Legare and Jody Walthall Joan Macmillan Alan and Marilyn Marshall Emoryette McDonald Michael and Joanne Mendez Mike and Pat Meredith
Patrons Ann and Don Morrow Drs. William C. Murray and Toni Kirkwood-Tucker Albert and Darlene Oosterhof Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Palmer Chris and Cyndi Panzarino Ann E. Parker Karalee Poschman and Jana Sterling Gloria Priest Penny Ralston and Chester Davis Amy Recht Edward Reid Nancy Stone Ross John and Carol Ryor Paula S. Saunders Jeanette Sickel Carey Smith Pat St. Angelo Richard Stevens Lee and Ramona Stewart Judy and Mike Stone James Streem George and Jackie Sweat Marjorie Turnbull Dr. Ralph V. Turner Paul Van Der Mark Sylvia B. Walford Geoffrey and Simone Watts Art Wiedinger
Associates Sam and Norma Adams Jayme Agee Victoria Alberton Patricia Applegate Jim and Kitty Ball Karl and Melissa Barton Hillman and Lin Brannon Harriet R. Chase Margaret A. Chase David and Mary Coburn Carla Connors and Timothy Hoekman Joan and Dave Custis Dr. Bob Cutlip * J. W. Richard Davis David Dickel John Dozier and Martha Paradeis Sena and Jody Finklea Betty Foltz Gigi Foster and Betty Serow Dr. Nancy Fowler Mildred L. Fryman and W. V. McConnell Jean Fuller Debbie Gibson Laura L. Glenn Deborah W. Glotzbach Harvey and Judy Goldman Sue Graham Margarita H. Grant Mary Anne Gray and Marcia Humphress Brenda Grindstaff and Steven Ferst Miriam R. Gurniak Mary Stuart Hartmann Donna H. Heald Madeleine Hirsiger-Carr Karolyn Holmes O. Dean Kindley Joseph Kraus Sylvia and John Labie Charles and Dian LaTour
Ellen Lauricella William and Debora Lee John D. Lucasse Daniel and Arlene MacDonald Jerry and Terri Mast Jerry V. McBee Lealand and Kathleen McCharen Mr. and Mrs. Joe McGlothlin Leo L. Minasian, Jr. Marjorie M. Morgan Deborah Morningstar and Max Thompson The National Orchestral Association Karen Randolph Robert Reardon / Janet Lenz David Reed Mark and Cynthia Repasky George Riordan and Karen Clarke Sanford Safron Drs. David and Winnie Schmeling Gerry Shubrick Sudarat Songsiridej and Mary Schaad Alice Spirakis Ted and Andréa Stanley Rick and Carole Stewart Joyce and Joe Toman Park and Linda Trammell C. Richard and Phrieda L. Tuten Steve Urse Vic and Mary Helen Venos Stephan von Molnár Scott and LaDonna Wagers Tom and Janie Weis Karen Wensing Erin Werner Adelaide Whitaker Barbara Wood Jeff Wright Doug Wussler
*University Musical Associates Executive Committee
The University Musical Associates is the community support organization for the FSU College of Music. The primary purposes of the group are to develop audiences for College of Music performances, to assist outstanding students in enriching their musical education and careers, and to support quality education and cultural activities for the Tallahassee community. If you would like information about joining the University Musical Associates, please contact Kim Shively, Director of Special Programs, at kshively@fsu.edu or 644-4744.
The Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five business days prior to a musical event if accommodation for disability or publication in alternative format is needed.