Program Notes

By Joe Nickell

Jessie Montgomery—Strum

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult time for many musicians and ensembles. But for Jessie Montgomery, this time of global upheaval has simultaneously been a time of personal transformation. Suddenly, her music is seemingly everywhere—and everywhere it’s heard, she is making new fans. It would appear that “going viral” can still be a good thing.

It’s not like she came out of nowhere. In 2014, her composition Banner—a response to the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner—was hailed by the New York Times for “daringly transform[ing] the anthem, folding it into a teeming score that draws upon American folk and protest songs, and anthems from around the world…to create a musical melting pot.”

That description could apply to much of what Montgomery writes— and what inspires her. “I’ve always been interested in trying to find the intersection between different types of music,” she has said. “I imagine that music is a meeting place at which all people can converse about their unique differences and common stories.”

Despite her accessible style and growing acclaim, it wasn’t until the 2019-2020 season that Montgomery’s music suddenly seemed to be everywhere. The famed Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed a newly commissioned work from her. Two other works were performed by the Chicago Symphony. And the New York Philharmonic chose her as a featured composer for its Project 19, a celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted women’s suffrage. Since that breakout year, her reputation has only continued to flourish, with numerous performances of her works happening around the country.

Strum was originally penned for string quartet in 2006, and then revised in 2012. The title refers to the guitar-like plucking and strumming of strings that open the piece and that propel the music at various points throughout. American folk music is evoked through the use of solo instrumental flourishes over repeating rhythmic patterns and familiar harmonies; yet the music constantly dances slightly off kilter, from its quirky and nostalgic opening to its ecstatic ending.

Samuel Barber — Violin Concerto

In 1939, Samuel Barber was suddenly the talk of American arts. The year prior, his Adagio for Strings—written when the composer was just 26 years old—had been premiered under the baton of legendary conductor and tastemaker Arturo Toscanini. The short piece would soon become one of the most widely performed American works for orchestra, and Barber was riding high.

That’s when the young composer was approached by Samuel Fels, a wealthy soap magnate from Philadelphia. Fels commissioned Barber to write a Violin Concerto, with the intent that the new work would be premiered by Fels’ adopted son, Iso Briselli.

Barber penned the first two movements over the summer and presented them to Briselli, who initially received them enthusiastically. But when the violinist showed the music to his coach, the teacher was irate, saying that the solo parts were not showy enough. The problems only amplified when Barber delivered the third movement, which Briselli and his coach rejected as unplayably difficult and stylistically disconnected from the first two movements. Barber ultimately refunded half of Fels’ commission fee, and the concerto was premiered by a different violinist in 1941.

It has since become Barber’s most oft-performed work next to the

Adagio for Strings, and one of the core staples of the concerto repertoire.

Barber sets a serene mood from the concerto’s first notes, with the soloist playing a melody that will carry forward as a theme throughout the first movement. The composer’s youthful preference for Romanticstyle lushness is on full display here and carries over into the second movement—a gorgeous, slow piece in which a lyrical oboe solo gives way to a contrasting solo for the violin that rises to powerful heights before settling back into tranquility.

Then comes that “unplayable” third movement—a racing, swirling piece in which the violinist barely stops for breath from first note to last. The orchestra urges the soloist on with splashy interjections until it all concludes with a final punch on an exuberant A-minor chord.

William Grant Still—Afro-American Symphony

Much like Jessie Montgomery, William Grant Still saw his career as a composer blossom during one of the most difficult times in American history. In Still’s case, it was the Great Depression that propelled him to unlikely acclaim as the so-called “Dean of Afro-American music.”

For years prior to the Depression, Still had earned his living as a musical jack-of-all-trades. He performed as an oboist in the pit orchestra for the groundbreaking Eubie Blake and Noble Sissie musical Shuffle Along, the first all-Black hit Broadway show; that show has since been credited for launching the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s and 30s. He also served as recording director for the short-lived but acclaimed label Black Swan and was a well-regarded arranger of popular music for radio shows such as Paul Whiteman’s Old Gold Show.

But outside of those popular idioms, Still had struggled to find a foothold. Despite Antonin Dvorak’s famous 1893 proclamation that “the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the negro melodies,” no Black composer—or Black conductor, for that matter—had yet broken through into the orchestra or opera halls of America.

Still had studied at the Oberlin College of Music, and later furthered his classical education under the tutelage of the celebrated French composer Edgard Varèse and American composer George Whitefield Chadwick. His talents were well known, and Varèse in particular had advocated on Still’s behalf; yet, aside from participating in some smallscale composer showcases in the 1920s, Still had not found a path into the world of so-called “serious” music.

Then 1929 came along, bringing the most cataclysmic financial crash in US history. The shock impacted every industry, including the music industry: Between 1927 and 1932, record sales dropped by more than 90%. “It was not until the Depression struck,” Still explained, “that I went jobless long enough to let the Symphony take shape. In 1930 I rented a room in a quiet building not far from my home in New York and began to work.”

In just three months, Still produced what is now recognized as his concert masterpiece: the Afro-American Symphony. For inspiration, Still turned to familiar material: The blues music that he had heard, played, arranged and recorded so many times. The composer recognized that this could doom the symphony’s public fate from the outset: At the time, blues and jazz music was often derided in elite white culture as immoral and “the Devil’s music.”

Still saw it much differently. “The blues were not immoral or trivial,” he wrote, “but instead an expression of the hopes and yearnings of a lowly people, wanting a better life.” In the journal that contained his sketches for the symphony, Still connected that belief to the music he set out to write and the culture he sought to celebrate: “I seek in the ‘AfroAmerican Symphony’ to portray not the higher type of colored American, but the sons of the soil, who still retain so many of the traits peculiar to their African forebears; who have not responded completely to the

transforming effect of progress.”

This vision caught the imagination of Howard Hanson, the conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, who had previously been introduced to Still by Edgard Varèse. Hanson programmed the Afro-American Symphony in 1931 as part of his American Composers’ Concerts. That performance marked the first time that a major American orchestra played a work by a Black composer…but it would not be the last: In its first 20 years, the Afro-American Symphony was performed by 38 orchestras in the US and Europe, making it the most popular symphony composed by any American until that time.

The first movement, titled “Longings,” begins with a wistful snippet of melody played on the English horn; a lurching blues ditty played on muted trumpet follows. A second melody, passed back and forth between flute and oboe, brings a more serene and wistful mood. Those two melodies, transposed into different textures and instrumental combinations, make up the core material of the seven-minute first movement.

The second movement, “Sorrows,” shifts to a more melancholy mood, with searching melodies played against one another against a generally sparse backdrop. That mood is decisively broken at the outset of the third movement, “Humor,” which skips along in a joyful mood punctuated by numerous asides and playful outbursts. The symphony concludes with the emotional fourth movement, “Aspirations,” in which lush string writing contrasts with poignant quietude before giving way to an exciting coda.

“With humble thanks to God, the source of inspiration” -William Grant Still I. Moderato assai

“All my life long twell de night has pas’ Let de wo’k come ez it will, So dat I fin’ you, my honey, at last’, Somewhaih des ovah de hill.” Paul Laurence Dunbar

II. Adagio

“It’s moughty tiahsome layin’ ‘roun’ Dis sorrer-laden earfly groun’ An’ oftentimes I thinks, thinks, I ‘Twould be a sweet t’ing des to die An’ go ‘long home.” Paul Laurence Dunbar

III. Animato

“An’ we’ll shout ouah halleluyahs, On dat mighty reck’nin’ day.” Paul Laurence Dunbar

IV. Lento, con risoluzione

“Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul. Thy name is writ on Glory’s scroll In characters of fire. High mid the clouds of Fame’s bright sky Thy banner’s blazoned folds no fly, And truth shall lift them higher.” Paul Laurence Dunbar

He who develops his God-given gifts with view to aiding humanity, manifests truths.

Clef Notes

Montgomery — Strum

Featuring expansive voicing, rhythmic vitality, colorful textures and folk-style melodies, this eight-minute piece showcases why Montgomery has lately emerged as a fast-rising star in American classical music.

Barber — Violin Concerto

This popular concerto was a turning point in Barber’s stylistic development. Its first two movements echo his youthful Romantic style of composition, while the finale points to his later evolution toward modernism.

Still — Afro-American Symphony

The first work by a Black composer ever performed by a major American orchestra, this four-movement symphony has become an enduring favorite due to its colorful mix of blues, jazz and classical idioms.

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