9 minute read
Program Notes
from MSO new proof
by Missoulian
By Joe Nickell
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A world of sounds can be heard in the music of Gabriela Lena Frank. Born in California in 1972 to a Peruvian/Spanish/Chinese mother and a Lithuanian/Jewish father, Frank grew up immersed in a rich stew of cultural influences. “Our early days were filled with Oriental stirfry cuisine, Andean nursery songs, and frequent visits from our New York-bred Jewish cousins,” she recalls. “As a young piano student, my repertoire included not only my own compositions that carried overtones from Peruvian folk music but also rags of Scott Joplin and minuets by the sons of Bach.”
Today, the world is discovering the sounds of Frank’s music. Her work has been commissioned by renowned musicians and ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, the Cleveland Orchestra and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. She’s been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Latin Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. She’s been twice profiled in documentaries on PBS. The list goes on.
Much of her renown traces back to her first composition for orchestra, Elegía Andina, which she composed in 2000 while she was a doctoral student at the University of Michigan. Dedicated to her older brother, Marcos Gabriel Frank, the eleven-minute piece provides a colorful reflection of the influences that saturate her music.
“It is probably inevitable then that as a composer and pianist today, I continue to thrive on multiculturalism,” she wrote. “Elegía Andina is one of my first written-down compositions to explore what it means to be of several ethnic persuasions, of several minds. It uses stylistic elements of Peruvian arca/ira zampoña panpipes (double-row panpipes, each row with its own tuning) to paint an elegiac picture of my questions. The flute part was particularly conceived with this in mind but was also inspired by the technical and musical mastery of Floyd Hebert, principal flutist of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. … I can think of none better to dedicate this work to than to ‘Babo,’ my big brother—for whom Perú still waits.”
Though his music isn’t widely performed today even in his homeland, Franz Doppler was one of the most prominent musicians of his time. Born in 1821 in the city now known as Lvov, Ukraine, Doppler showed precocious talent as a flutist, making his Vienna concert debut at the age of just 13. By then, he had a younger brother, Karl, who likewise took up the flute. Within a few years, the Doppler “doppelgangers” were touring Europe, performing together at some of the most prominent concert halls of the day. Both brothers eventually began composing music as well, often working together on pieces written for two flutes and piano.
Franz’s Concerto for D minor was, of course, written for the brothers to perform together; indeed, the two solo parts are characterized by an almost sibling-like interplay, with the leading role passed back and forth repeatedly between them. The concerto begins with a series of excited flourishes from the orchestra. The two flutes enter, their melodies twisting together in a delightful tangle. After briefly settling to a peaceful mood the soloists launch into a dashing duet punctuated by interjections from the orchestra. The orchestra takes over the tune, driving forward to a brass fanfare that concludes the movement.
The second movement begins without pause and brings contrasting mood, with the flutes playing against a lighter backdrop of instruments— at times just the harp. The brief, lovely interlude gives way—again, without pause—to a third movement that brings back the animated character and fuller orchestration of the first movement. Here the soloists finally get
Maurice Duruflé—Requiem
The name of Maurice Duruflé is not widely known even among regular classical music listeners. In his lifetime the French composer only published a handful of works. The most famous is undoubtedly his Requiem; yet even this work is most often encountered as a kind of “B-side,” paired with recordings of the celebrated Requiem penned by Duruflé’s elder countryman Gabriel Fauré. But as you will hear in this concert, this is one of the great works of the 20th century — a brilliant and moving ode to the dead, expertly woven from the threads of ancient Gregorian chant and 20th century harmonies, timeless in its haunting, meditative beauty.
For the composer, this music wasn’t just an inspired mash-up. It was the material that framed his life. At the age of 10, Duruflé was taken by his father to the famed Cathedral at Rouen. The boy thought it was just a visit; but when they arrived, he learned that his father had enrolled him in the boy choir school. Thus Maurice Duruflé found himself, at that pivotal stage of adolescence, steeped in one of Europe’s most famous schools of Gregorian chant.
It proved a pivotal influence in Duruflé’s life. He was a strong student, and eventually was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire, where he became acquainted with the music of early 20th century French masters — notably Fauré as well as Debussy and Ravel. At the Conservatoire Duruflé was taught by the widely respected composer and music critic Paul Dukas (known today primarily for his colorful work, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice).
Duruflé inherited Dukas’ luminescent style of orchestration — and also his meticulous, slow approach to composition and revision. Throughout his life Duruflé continually returned to his earlier works, editing and rewriting (and sometimes discarding works entirely). He came to view himself, ultimately, as a composer of limited range. “I am incapable of adding anything significant to the piano repertoire, view the string quartet with apprehension, and envisage with terror the idea of composing a song after the finished examples of Schubert, Fauré and Debussy,” he claimed.
In 1947, Duruflé decided to write a Requiem to memorialize those who had perished in World War II. Like Fauré before him, Duruflé rejected the Romantic-era conception of the Requiem as a quasi-operatic drama of death, hell and redemption. He instead chose to craft a musical rumination on rest and peace built on melodies from ancient Gregorian chant — melodies that, for the composer, were as familiar as breath and life itself.
The opening “Introit” begins with the voices floating above undulating strings. The music of this burial chant is imbued with a simultaneous sense of profound warmth and ever-shifting rootlessness — both harmonically and rhythmically. This latter characteristic continues more or less throughout the Requiem and is, in ways, the most notable structural influence of the style of Gregorian chant that Duruflé encountered at Rouen, where chant was taught as an essentially free succession of short groups of notes, each given roughly equal value.
The “Domine Jesu Christe” begins mysteriously, almost operatically, with low instruments building a foundation upon which rises a remarkable swell of emotion. The “Sanctus” that follows propels ever forward in a mood of suppressed elation before erupting in a glorious musical frenzy; the mood then settles into restful bliss.
This leads to the spiritual centerpiece of Duruflé’s Requiem, the “Pie Jesu.” This brief stanza of liturgy is typically included as the final lines of the “Dies irae” (“Day of Wrath”) in most Requiems. However, Duruflé felt that the fire and brimstone of the longer text had no place in his Requiem: The world had lately seen too much of that. To him, the important part
was where that text led: to a plea to the Lord, asking that He grant eternal rest to those who had perished.
The “Libera Me” begins with a stern trumpet call; there follows an increasingly chaotic musical section as the choir begs for salvation on Judgment Day. Finally, the “In Paradisum” arrives and the angels welcome the dead to heaven. Here especially, the floating character of the music seems to transcend time; the music ends with a fading fermata that perfectly evokes the eternal rest promised by redemption.
Clef Notes
Frank—Elegía Andina
Penned in 2000, this colorful 11-minute piece reflects the multicultural influences that have made Frank one of today’s most distinctive and celebrated composers.
Composed as a showcase for the talents of the composer and his brother—both renowned flutists during their lives—this Romantic-era concerto features virtuosic solo parts set against a luxurious orchestral backdrop.
Duruflé—Requiem
Written in honor of those who perished in World War II, this remarkable work chorus and orchestra weaves together threads of ancient Gregorian chant and 20th century harmonies.
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I. Introit
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. exaudi orationem meam. ad te omnis caro veniet; Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
III. Domine Jesu Christe
Domine, Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu. Libera eas de ore leonis ne absorbeat eas tartarus ne cadant in obscurum. Sed signifier sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus. Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus, Tu suscipe pro animabus illis quarum hodie memoriam facimus. fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.
You are worthy of praise,
God, in Zion and to you will be made a vow in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer.
To you all flesh will come;
IV. Sanctus
Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus, qui venit in nominee Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.
Lord, Jesus Christ, king of glory, deliver the souls of the dead from infernal punishments, and the deep pit. Deliver them from the mouth of the lion so they are not swallowed in the abyss and do not fall into darkness. but let the standard bearer Saint Michael lead them into the holy light, which you promised to Abraham and his heirs.
Sacrifices and prayers, Lord, with praise we offer to you, accept them on behalf of those souls whom we remember today.
Let them, Lord, pass over from death to life, as you promised to Abraham and his heirs.
Holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
V. Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu Domine. Dona eis requiem sempiternam. Merciful Lord Jesus, give them rest. give them rest everlasting.
VIII. Libera Me
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira; quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Deliver me, Lord, from death eternal on that terrible day when the heavens will be shaken, and the earth, while you come to judge the world with fire. I quake with fear and tremble, till your judgment comes upon us; when the heavens will be shaken, and the earth, That day, day of wrath, of calamity and misery, the day of great and exceeding bitterness Rest eternal give them, Lord, and light forever shine on them. Deliver me, Lord, from death eternal, on that terrible day when the heavens will be shaken, and the earth, when you come to when you come to to judge the world with fire.
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