WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Philip Baldwin, conductor
FESTIVAL, ELEGY & IDYLL
WHITWORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Philip Baldwin, conductor
FESTIVAL, ELEGY & IDYLL Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 3 p.m. Cowles Auditorium PROGRAM Festive Overture
Dmitri Shostakovich 1906-75
Elegy for the Greatest Generation Idyll
Linda Robbins Coleman b. 1954 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1875-1912
— INTERMISSION — Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 1. Andante sostenuto-Allegro vivo 2. Andante marziale, quasi moderato 3. Scherzo 4. Finale
Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky 1840-93
We ask that you refrain from using cameras or recording devices during the program. Please turn off any electronic beeping devices (watches, pagers, cellphones).
THE WHITWORTH ORCHESTRA The Whitworth Symphony Orchestra performs the standard orchestral repertoire as well as modern and commissioned works, including a recent premiere of Gwyneth Walker’s Let America Be America Again. The orchestra also performs with guest soloists and winners of its annual concerto competition, and has enjoyed side-by-side concerts with the Coeur d’Alene Symphony. The orchestra has previously performed at the WMEA regional and All-Northwest conferences, and was the featured collegiate orchestra in 2022. As part of its outreach, recruiting and cultural exchange goals, the orchestra tours biannually, most recently in Italy in 2019. Previous tours have included Hawaii, New York City, San Francisco and Salt Lake City. The orchestra is open to all qualified string musicians, regardless of major. The top wind and brass musicians of the Whitworth Wind Symphony are selected for membership in the Whitworth Orchestra. Our students benefit from outstanding opportunities including performance classes, chamber music, master classes (from such notable teachers and violinists as James Buswell and Charles Castleman), and clinics with principal players of the Spokane Symphony. The string quartets and the string chamber orchestra provide additional opportunities for the most ambitious players.
Whitworth Symphony Orchestra Personnel FLUTE Chloe Wulffert ’24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Valley Nevaeh Gariepy ’25. . . . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Colville OBOE Hope Noranbrock ’25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nine Mile Falls Jill Cathey, guest artist CLARINET Robert Weener ’24. . . . . . . . . . . Applied Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . Sherwood, Ore. Bar Rozenhaimer ’27. . . . . . . . . . .History/Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . West Linn, Ore. BASSOON Conor O’Brien ’24. . . . . .Psychology/Criminology & Criminal Justice. . Mountlake Terrace Zoë Johnson ’27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane HORN Isaac Crawford-Heim ’26 . . . . . . . . . Health Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Hannah Marcoe ’27. . . . . . . . . . . Secondary Education. . . . . . . . . . Moscow, Idaho Andrew Angelos, guest artist Jennifer Brummett, guest artist TRUMPET Joshua Weigelt ’24. . . . . . . . . . . .Music Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Julia Maher ’26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . . . Whidbey Island TROMBONE Conor Waller ’25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Composition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane William Strauch ’27. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane
TUBA Michael Perry ’27 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Music Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richland PERCUSSION Mary Brown ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . Frenchtown, Mont. Aster Fues ’26. . . . . . . Music Composition/Elementary Education . . . . . . . . Seattle Loren Lehne ’27. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Music Performance. . . . . . . . . . . Damascus, Ore. Nevaeh Meyer ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . . . Brookings, Ore. VIOLIN 1 Elizabeth Stubblefield ’26. . . . . . . .Music Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Miriam Hamstra ’25. . . . . . . . . . .Elementary Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Everett Lily Iverson ’24 . . . . . . . . . . Music/Business Administration . . . . . . . . . Oak Harbor Melody Gray ’24. . . . . . . . . . Music Education/Performance . . . . . . . Glendale, Ariz. Jin Yue Trousil ’26 . . . . . . . . . . . Applied Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . Juneau, Alaska Samarra Salcido ’26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Gabrielle Ukrainetz ’25. . . . . . . . . . Music Education. . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Valley Mu Mu Dun ’25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biochemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kennewick VIOLIN 2 Samarah Heggestad ’27. . . . . . . Environmental Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Lori Petroske ’27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biochemistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Spokane Maddy Butler ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Missoula, Mont. Jacob Luciano ’26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Political Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Josh Rivera ’26. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Computer Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . Liberty Lake Garrett Daviscourt ’25. . . . . . . . . . Computer Science. . . . . . . . . . . . Austin, Texas Halley Walter ’27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liberty Lake VIOLA Shellbe Nelson ’26 . . . . . . . . . . Business Administration . . . . . . . . . Spokane Valley Sadie Simpson ’26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Bailie Janson ’25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richland Jacob Ojennus ’25 . . . . . . . . . . . Applied Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane CELLO Ava Kerst ’24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elementary Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Owen Foster ’24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Computer Science. . . . . . . .Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Emma Carsey ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane Jacob Janzen ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bioinformatics . . . . . . . . .Coeur d’Alene, Idaho BASS Cole Hunt ’24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . West Richland Nate Moody ’26. . . . . . . . . . . . . Music Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . Medical Lake Hope Hocutt, guest artist HARP Abigail Wooster ’24 . . . . . . . . . Communication/Spanish. . . . . . . . . . .Maple Valley Hunter Koss ’26. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Music Composition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spokane
PROGRAM NOTES Dmitri Shostakovich, Festive Overture Like Brahms’ genial, happy, Academic Festival Overture, Shostakovich’s overture is equal evidence of the lighter side of a serious, introspective artist. And, like Brahms’ work, Shostakovich’s overture was commissioned for a specific, festive occasion – in this case, a concert by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, celebrating the anniversary of the October 1917 Revolution. Apparently, the conductor had not prepared adequately for the occasion, and he found himself in the unenviable position of not having a suitable opening, celebratory work. The concert (Nov. 6, 1954) was only three days away when Vasili Nebol’sin, the conductor, made a visit to the composer – probably with his hat in his hand. To his surprise, Shostakovich agreed to compose a suitable opener on the fly. He had a reputation for fast work, and this occasion demanded it. Working like a Mozart, sending pages still wet with ink to the copyists at the theater, Shostakovich knocked out a masterpiece in record time. After opening with a dramatic, imposing fanfare in the brass, the tempo changes to breakneck speed, with a main theme of cascading notes. It’s literally a driving gallop, carrying the sparkling ocean of notes before it. A lyrical second theme soon appears in the solo horn, but still driven ahead. Soon, a Tchaikovskian pizzicato section leads us back to the main theme. Both themes are then combined, followed by a recap of the brilliant fanfare and a mad dash to the end. Whence this tour de force of frenetic optimism from one of the century’s most serioso composers? Well, all great artists are capable of infinite varieties of expression. But, perhaps there is something in the piece of relief at the recent death of the century’s greatest criminal, and Shostakovich’s personal nemesis, Josef Stalin. Shostakovich was innately subtle and ambiguous in his artistic expression. So are the joyful implications of Festive Overture. – William E. Runyan, copyright 2016
Linda Robbins Coleman, Elegy for the Greatest Generation Elegy For The Greatest Generation opens with a sense of dawn, foggy and mystical. The sound of a horn beginning Taps is heard, echoed by a trumpet. It is reminiscent of a distant, almost forgotten battlefield. The horn then answers with my secular hymn, I Will Meet You In The Music. The cello responds, providing a tender accompaniment. Touches of melancholy and faint dissonance appear at times to haunt the melody, just as sadness touches our happy memories of departed friends. However, a thread of optimism runs throughout, much like the current of a river. As with any memorial, the grief is combined with laughter, lighter memories, and hopes that we will be reunited in a better place at another time. The structure of the piece forms an arc, like the sun’s path from horizon to horizon. My tone poem ends with a recapitulation, bringing the music full circle – resembling the last faint colors in the sky as dusk settles over the land. – Linda Robbins Coleman
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Idyll, Op. 44 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor received his music education at London’s Royal Conservatory of Music and was trained, along with classmates Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and John Ireland, by Charles Villiers Stanford. ColeridgeTaylor absorbed the most salient aspects of Brahms and Dvorak, whom he greatly admired. His earliest choral works were published by Novello, which became his fulltime publisher, and he enjoyed similar commercial success throughout his lifetime. His most famous compositions are the orchestral composition Song of Hiawatha and his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which was second in popularity only to Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Though he never achieved the wealth and fame he deserved, Coleridge-Taylor succeeded in transcending the boundaries of racial prejudice, which while significant, were less pronounced in Victorian and Edwardian England than they were in the United States. According to his biographer, “Coleridge-Taylor saw it as his mission in life to establish the dignity of the black man. He was greatly influenced by the black American poet P. L. Dunbar..., W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and others, whose works he studied zealously.” The Idyll for orchestra was originally composed as the second movement of his First Symphony, Op. 8, written while a student at the Royal Conservatory. As his fame and popularity grew, he was invited by Edward Elgar to conduct some of his pieces at the Gloucester Festival in September 1901. For that event, he composed a new work titled Ballade (Op. 33) and reworked the Idyll with a new structure and harmonies and added parts for tuba and harp. While the Ballade was well received, The Musical Times review of the Idyll’s premiere was not very favorable: Mr. S. Coleridge-Taylor’s contribution… is of very modest proportions. It takes the form of an orchestral piece bearing the simple title “Idyll”. The principal theme is of quite reposeful character; it is, however, a real theme, not a short phrase or mere figure to be afterwards twisted and tortured by cunning devices. A middle section offers variety of key and character. The first theme is again presented, and in somewhat impassioned form, and then in a coda of delicate structure the music softly dies away. Perhaps what audiences did not appreciate was the way in which Coleridge-Taylor (like Dvorak) excelled at a variety of orchestrations, and melodic and harmonic transformations to simple melodies that result in a kaleidoscope of colors. Indeed, Coleridge-Taylor puts the principal melody on a journey through a long list of modulations beginning in C major and exploring E-flat, B-flat, B-natural, and G before returning to the home key of C. The piece ends with a final quiet statement of the theme, dissolving into a wistful harp arpeggio. Owing to the fact that the parts were never engraved and were published only recently, this lovely work has received very little attention in the past century. – Philip Baldwin, DMA
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 Tchaikovsky composed six symphonies, all of which are played today, but the last three are decidedly the most popular. However, there is much value and enjoyment in the first three, all of which deserve to be heard more frequently. Tchaikovsky’s second symphony was composed during the summer of 1872, while the composer was vacationing in the Ukraine at his sister’s country home. His second symphony, with its usage of folksong, is clearly the high water mark of his employment of the approaches of the nationalistic, folksong group – often called the “Russian Five” [incorrectly], or the “Mighty Handful.” It was given its premiere in January of 1873 in Moscow, and unlike the piano concerto from two years later, met with a “mighty” approval and rave enthusiasm – especially from that group. Accolades came, as well, from the villain of the initial piano concerto reception, our friend, Nikolai Rubenstein, who conducted the first performance of the symphony. There are a few, but charming, eccentricities in the symphony, starting right at the beginning. The slow introduction starts with a horn solo, which lays out the melancholy first theme, a Ukrainian folksong. It is taken up by various parts of the orchestra, as the introduction gradually gains in intensity and implied motion. Snatches of it will be heard again in the middle of the movement, and more completely at the end. After a brief segue in the trombones, followed by the horns, the second theme may be heard first in the clarinets – this is the material that will dominate the movement, and is the chief reason some pundits like to compare it with the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5: both are in C minor, and there is some similarity between the rhythm and outline of the two composer’s respective themes. You’ll hear Tchaikovsky’s “second theme” everywhere in this movement. A bit later, there is a third theme, in the woodwinds, that is decidedly lyrical and less threatening – characterized by a pleasant little movement upwards, but Tchaikovsky uses it sparingly and when in need of contrast. At the end of the movement we again hear the solo horn playing as at the beginning, and the whole affair – notwithstanding the overall intensity of the movement – ends softly. The second movement is a short one, and is not the usual slow one, rather it is a quirky little processional march that was more or less “left over” from an early, aborted opera of Tchaikovsky’s. Lightly scored, the march returns periodically after some diversions into other material, including, yes, another Ukrainian folksong. A last return of the march heralds the end, and gossamer-like, gently fades out of sight and sound. The third movement, a scherzo, partakes of much of the same Midsummer Night’s Dream atmosphere – but is suitably vigorous. The obligatory contrasting mood in the middle, introduced by a “village band” in the woodwind section, changes the usual rhythm from three to two to a bar. A return to the opening scherzo scampers along to a conclusion that would make Berlioz proud. The last movement starts off with a grandiose tune in the whole ensemble
that many have compared with a little “Great Gate of Kiev.” It’s is a well-known Ukrainian folksong, The Crane, which legend has it was first sung to the composer by a servant in the house in which he was staying. The strings take up the tune, and this “first theme” is worked through a long series of variations that bear the inimitable hallmark of the composer’s mastery of orchestration. It’s easy to follow this vigorous dance tune as he puts both it and the orchestra through their paces. Tchaikovsky is a master of what seems to be an infinity of color combinations and rhythmic ideas. After what surely is the end, the composer finally introduces the contrasting idea – one of his own devising – heard first in the strings. It’s a graceful, nostalgic little salon tune that provides a useful foil to the ruckus of the main idea. Tchaikovsky goes on to develop them together in the ensuing section, but it’s really the boisterous The Crane that dominates all, here. It doesn’t take long for one to sense the inevitable Tchaikovskian steamroller to the end. It teases and builds slowly, but you know that it’s coming, as woodwinds, strings, and brass – all with their own ideas – interact in a cascade of sound. The Crane and the little salon tune each get their due, but after a grand pause proceeded by stentorian low brass and a tam tam crash, the breathtaking dash to the end ensues. The excitement is an absolute peer to all the finales that we love so much from the more familiar symphonies, and makes us all the more glad that we now know this one, as well. – William E. Runyan, copyright 2015
SPECIAL THANKS Ben Brody, Whitworth Music Department Chair Scott McQuilkin, President Whitworth Music Faculty Melissa Halverson, Whitworth Music Department Program Coordinator Tamara Burkhead, Graphic Designer Guest Artists Maria Sorce and the Cowles Staff and Stage Crew Whitworth Symphony Orchestra Leadership President: Bailie Jansons Vice-President: Garrett Daviscourt Chaplains: Jin Yue Trousil, Shellbe Nelson, Naveah Garipy Social Committee: Hunter Koss, Chloe Wulffert, Robert Weener
MUSIC AT WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY The Whitworth University Music Department, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, provides superb training in music as well as a thorough introduction to this essential element of the liberal arts. Whitworth music majors have gone on to prestigious graduate schools, fulfilling performance careers and successful teaching positions. Also, many non-music majors participate in the university’s renowned touring ensembles and enroll in private lessons through the music department. Whitworth University offers bachelor of arts degrees in music ministry, composition, instrumental performance, jazz performance, piano performance, piano pedagogy, vocal performance and music education. Music scholarships are available to both music majors and non-majors. For more information about the music program or scholarship auditions, please contact us: Music Department Whitworth University Spokane, WA 99251 509.777.3280 whitworth.edu/music
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