If, like me, you’re of the opinion that Dvořák never wrote a bad note, or if you are a particular fan of the “New World” Symphony, you might be interested to tune in this week to hear the “Hiawatha Melodrama.”
Dvořák composed what is now commonly numbered his Symphony No. 9 (for decades it was known as the Symphony No. 5) in 1893, while he was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. The work was influenced by Native American music and African American spirituals. The composer intimated that certain sections were inspired by his reading of “The Song of Hiawatha.” In fact, he intended the famous Largo as a sketch for a later opera or cantata on the theme, and the third movement scherzo was suggested by a dance at Hiawatha’s wedding feast.
Beginning in the early 1990s, cultural historian Joseph Horowitz and Dvořák scholar Michael Beckerman began experimenting with presentations involving portions of Longfellow’s text with music from Dvořák’s symphony. These developed into a 35-minute work, which achieved its final form in 2013. (In musical terms, a melodrama is the marriage of music with spoken word.) The arrangers also lifted passages from Native American-influenced music from Dvořák’s Sonatina, Op. 100 (the composer sketched the theme for the Larghetto on his starched cuff during a visit to Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota), and his “American Suite.”
We’ll hear the world premiere recording, on the Naxos label, featuring as the narrator bass-baritone Kevin Deas.
To round out the hour, I’ve programmed selections from “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” one of three cantatas that comprise “Scenes from the Song of Hiawatha,” by the English composer of African descent Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Coleridge-Taylor composed the work five years after Dvořák completed his “New World” Symphony.
“Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast,” became a cultural phenomenon. By the time it was taken up by Sir Malcolm Sargent, it was given annually, from 1928 to 1939, in a costumed, semi-ballet version, featuring close to a thousand performers. Unfortunately, this was among the works the composer had sold outright, his heirs thereby missing out on the royalties. By the time of Sargent’s advocacy, the short-lived Coleridge-Taylor had already been dead for 16 years.
The recording, released on the Argo label back in 1991, is one of the earliest of rising star Bryn Terfel.
I hope you’ll join me for “Indian Summer” – works inspired by Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha” – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
PHOTO: “Hiawatha and Minnehaha” by Jacob Fjelde, Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
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