Julianna Meneses
Huey Chan, piano
Stella Mahnke, guitar, voice
Saturday, February 22, 2025
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
FEBRUARY 22, 2025, 7:30 PM
L'Éléphant (The Elephant) (1886)
Huey Chan, piano
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Concerto No. 2 (1762)
Allegro moderato
Carl Diters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799)
Huey Chan, piano
Throw It Away (1980)
Abbey Lincoln (1930-2010)
arr. Esperanza Spalding trans. Julianna Meneses
Bard (2025) 4'
Stella Mahnke, guitar, voice
Julianna Meneses (b. 2003)
Meditation on a Homecoming (2025) 10'
Meneses
PROGRAM NOTES
Notes by Julianna Meneses
Saint-Saëns: L'Éléphant (The Elephant)
In my experience, The Elephant is such an iconic piece of double bass repertoire that it feels like a rite of passage for all double bassists. Listen for the elephant’s characteristics and duality: cute and clumsy, gentle yet a force to be reckoned with.
Dittersdorf: Concerto No. 2
Dittersdorf’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2 was originally composed in E major for the three-stringed Viennese eighteenth century double bass. To accommodate for modern double basses, now the concerto is often played in D major on a four-string bass in standard tuning.
Lincoln/Spalding/Meneses: Throw It Away
This version of Throw It Away by Abbey Lincoln is inspired by a live performance by Esperanza Spalding at the Bing Lounge in Portland, Oregon. I picked this song for its message and the way that the music lends itself to bass and voice.
Meneses: Bard
Bard isn’t about any individual in particular—not even myself—but it is inspired by my experiences throughout my education and the people that I have interacted with. Each of these interactions are memorable, whether they are a fleeting moment or a long-lasting friendship. There are a few themes that I tried to touch on through the lyrics. First, there is the idea that being a musician is performative: you possess the power to heal and uplift others with your music, yet at the same time you must persevere to perform even when you aren’t feeling your best. The lyrics also talk about education—it seems like there is a one-way prescribed path for education: graduate on time, don’t drop out, get a well-paying and stable job. In reality, this path isn’t sustainable for everyone and is rather debilitating to one’s emotional state. I’m grateful for my family and friends who have been here during my educational journey to remind me that “life is a marathon, not a race,” and that there is no such thing as the “correct” order to do things. The last theme is about what it means to be a daughter
PROGRAM NOTES
and to be born a woman: there is an expectation to be strong yet nurturing so that you can be someone’s shoulder to cry on. It’s a strange duality.
Meneses: Meditation on a Homecoming
In the summer of 2024, I had the privilege to “go home” to my mom’s province in the Philippines through the Pacific Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and conduct eight weeks of fieldwork research about the preservation of Tinggian cultural music and dance. I recorded several hours of video footage, much of which was the ambiance of the village and the surrounding countryside. From the videos that I selected for Meditation on a Homecoming, you will see and hear chickens clucking, flowing rivers, rain falling, and other scenes. Within the improvisation, I quote the melody of the chant Uggayam, an important chant performed by an elder at social functions. I also quote one of many salidummay melodies with the church bells, as the salidummay singing tradition is used in the local Catholic mass. There are some “lyrics,” like “Do you want to go swimming in the river?” followed by “Mommy, I can’t swim,” symbolizing a feeling of beauty and awe for the river but a simultaneous fear of what lays beneath the surface. The river seems beautiful and inviting just like the culture, but at the same time I am truly not capable (at this point in my life) of knowing the depth of the river and the depth of the culture. Meditation on a Homecoming aims to capture the feeling of being of a culture, place, or people, but not being truly from it. I would like to thank Dr. Kathryn Schulmeister for teaching me improvisation techniques, Joanna Mattrey for helping me figure out what I want to say, Dr. Kumiko Uyeda for giving me feedback on the video production, and most importantly, my family for supporting me and guiding me throughout my research.
Lincoln/Spalding/Meneses: Throw It Away
I think about the life I live
A figure made of clay
And think about the things I lost
The things I gave away
And when I'm in a certain mood
I search the house and look
One night I found these magic words
In a magic book
Throw it away
Throw it away
Give your love, live your life
Each and every day
And keep your hand wide open
And let the sun shine through
'Cause you can never lose a thing
If it belongs to you
There's a hand to rock the cradle
And a hand to help us stand
With a gentle kind of motion
As it moves across the land
And the hand's unclenched and open
Gifts of life and love it brings
So keep your hand wide open
If you're needing anything
Throw it away
Throw it away
Give your love, live your life
Each and every day
And keep your hand wide open
And let the sun shine through
'Cause you can never lose a thing
If it belongs to you
There's a natural obligation
To what we own and claim
Possessing and belonging to
Acknowledging a name
So keep your hand wide open
If you're needing love today
'Cause you can't lose it
Even if you throw it all away
Throw it away
You can throw it away
Give your love, live your life
Each and every day
And keep your hand wide open
And let the sun shine through
'Cause you can never lose a thing
If it belongs to you
You can never lose a thing
If it belongs to you
You can never lose a thing
If it belongs to you
You can never, ever lose a thing
If it belongs to you
—Abbey Lincoln
Meneses: Bard
You married a beautiful woman, your wife
And entered a beautiful daughter in your life
You taught her to love and be the world’s light
You sang to her like doves, and she never learned to fight
She became a bard in the tavern at night
Where strange men would sing along to the stories of their plight
Oh sing again, dear lady, wash away my pain
Before I go home again and wake up in vain
I ask, I ask, I ask of you
With your gentle fingers, play that tune that makes me blue
She went far abound to the medicine school
She found herself wound in the books and the tools
She prayed and sang and cried, all to no avail
She packed the things that had died while the sky fell with hail
She became a bard in the tavern at night
Where strange men would sing along to the stories of their plight
Oh sing again, dear lady, wash away my pain
Before I go home again and wake up in vain
I ask, I ask, I ask of you
With your gentle fingers, play that tune that makes me blue
You opened your door, surprised to see her there
“Don’t you have three months more?” you asked as she stared “I’m tired and I miss home,” she said as you embraced “You’ll never be alone,” tears dancing from her face
She became a bard in the tavern at night
Where strange men would sing along to the stories of their plight
Oh sing again, dear lady, wash away my pain
So I can go home again and find what remains I ask, I ask, I ask of you
With your gentle fingers, play that tune you always do
—Julianna Meneses
Meneses: Meditation on a Homecoming
Do you want to go swimming (in the river)? Mommy, I can’t swim.
Dong dong ay sidong ilay in sali-salidummay
—Julianna Meneses
Julianna Meneses is pursuing a Bachelor of Art in music at University of the Pacific. She started double bass in sixth grade with Eric Price. She joined Oakland-based youth orchestra Young People’s Symphony Orchestra in high school. At Pacific, Meneses has studied with Thomas Derthick and Kathryn Schulmeister. Guided by Professor Kumiko Uyeda, she received Pacific’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Undergraduate Research Award in 2024. After graduation, Meneses will perform Philippine folkdance and music with Parangal Dance Company in San Francisco, then pursue ethnomusicology.
