Classic Ross Amico

Vaughan Williams Buried a Commoner Honored

by

Ross Amico

September 19, 2023

in Daily Dispatch

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65 years ago today, the foremost English composer of his time, and one of the great composers of the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams was interred in Westminster Abbey. He was the first commoner to be so honored in almost 300 years – since the death of Henry Purcell, in fact.

Rightly or wrongly, England’s musical reputation had taken a nosedive in the interim (the country’s cultural standing was derided in Germany as “Das Land ohne Musik”), with most of its musical luminaries imports (especially Handel and Mendelssohn), until the nation reclaimed its own with Sir Edward Elgar and his contemporaries around the turn of the 20th century. But Vaughan Williams did more than anyone for the development of an English national sound. What’s more, he was deeply committed to making music with and for his compatriots. He had a generous heart, and by all accounts he was a kind man. It was near Purcell, in Westminster’s north choir aisle, that his ashes were laid to rest.

Vaughan Williams requested that two of his works be included in the service: his anthem “O taste and see” and his setting of the hymn “All people that on earth do dwell” (OLD 100TH), both written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II – which took place at the Abbey five years earlier, in 1953. Vaughan Williams’ hymn “Come down, o love divine” (DOWN AMPNEY) accompanied his funeral procession. The composer’s great champion, Sir Adrian Boult, conducted “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus” and selections from “Job,” along with Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, for a commemoration, held immediately prior to the funeral service.

The funeral was broadcast live on the BBC. Here’s a very brief extract:

And a copy of the complete program:

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/media/12534/ralph-vaughan-williams-funeral-1958.pdf

Vaughan Williams remains, alas, one of the most underappreciated of the great composers. His body of work, for anyone who cares to look beyond the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and “The Lark Ascending,” is stunning. The most common image we hold is of a rustic artist who perfected slovenly chic. Yet he was perhaps unsuspectedly cosmopolitan, uncommonly energetic, and uncannily productive. In reading Eric Saylor’s recent biography of the composer (“Ralph Vaughan Williams,” Oxford University Press, 2022), I was astounded to realize that, once he found his mature voice, he basically churned out one masterpiece after another, in quick succession, for decades. Alas, outside the UK, it’s as if Vaughan Williams sleeps undisturbed with all his treasures in the Valley of the Kings. Mark my words, someday they will be rediscovered!

“O taste and see,” at Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022

“All people that on earth do dwell,” at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012
The Shofar in Classical Music and Film

by

Ross Amico

September 18, 2023

in Daily Dispatch

3 responses

The other day, for Rosh Hashanah, I posted a photo of Leonard Bernstein playing the shofar at a rehearsal for his “Mass” at the Kennedy Center in 1971. A lot of Bernstein’s concert music grapples with a crisis of faith in the modern world, so it’s hardly surprising that, in composing, he would often recall and incorporate into his mature works reminiscences of the synagogue and the traditions of his youth and apply them in addressing more universal humanistic concerns.

The shofar, typically fashioned from a ram’s horn, is especially significant during the Jewish High Holy Days, ten days of awe and repentance, as it is sounded on Rosh Hashanah to welcome the new year and again to conclude Yom Kippur services, marking the end of a day of fasting and prayer.

More broadly, anyone with a passing familiarity with the Judeo-Christian tradition, even if merely through the viewing of Hollywood biblical epics, likely has had some exposure to the instrument. Generally speaking, whenever you see “trumpet” or “horn” mentioned in an English translation of the Bible, what’s meant is the shofar. The instrument is often associated with the voice of God, the end of the world, or the raising of the dead. Its clarion blast accompanies celebratory or cataclysmic events. Its presence is noted to enhance a sensation of awe in the face of the sublime.

The opening of Bernstein’s “West Side Story” evokes the call of the shofar – which makes sense when you consider that the show was originally conceived as “East Side Story,” with the clashing factions Jews and Irish Catholics in Lower East Side Manhattan. To bring it more in line with contemporary urban gang warfare of the 1950s, the setting was moved uptown to San Juan Hill (Lincoln Square), and the rival gang membership reimagined as white American and Puerto Rican immigrant.

Less obvious is the reason Bernstein emulates the shofar in “Candide!”

Bernstein was far from the only one to recognize the shofar’s expressive potential. The ram’s horn has been embraced by many composers, whether employing the actual instrument or suggesting it, as Bernstein did, in their orchestrations.

Not surprisingly, some seized upon the shofar when treating biblical subjects. Sir Edward Elgar, a Roman Catholic, employs one in his oratorio “The Apostles” – though the part is usually taken by a flugelhorn.

Sir William Walton’s cantata “Belshazzar’s Feast” opens with a suggestion of the shofar on the trombones.

In his Requiem, Hector Berlioz, an atheist, conceived of four spatially separated brass bands to convey the effect of blaring shofars at the end of the world.

“The Gates of Justice,” David Brubeck’s plea for racial harmony, includes a part for shofar. However, in performance, the part is often taken by a French horn.

Of course, Elmer Bernstein employed the shofar in his film score for “The Ten Commandments.” John Williams paid homage when he gave Bernstein’s shofar calls to the Ewoks in “Return of the Jedi.”

Jerry Goldsmith included the instrument in his music for “Planet of the Apes” and “Alien.”

Another film composer, Franz Waxman, emulates the shofar in his oratorio “Joshua,” during the siege of Jericho.

Then there’s a whole genre of shofar concerto, explored by a number of contemporary composers, among them Ofer Ben-Amots, Miguel Kertsman, and Meira Warshauer.

Composers Herman Berlinski, Alvin Curran, and Matthew H. Fields have used the shofar, or suggested the shofar, in their works for their own expressive ends.

Yes, yes, shofar so good. The instrument’s range may be comparatively limited, but it more than makes up for the fact through its powerful associations.
Battlestar Galactica Camp David Interrupted

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Ross Amico

September 17, 2023

in Daily Dispatch

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45 years ago today, the hotly-anticipated three-hour debut of “Battlestar Galactica” was interrupted by an interminable news break as, after twelve days of secret negotiations, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords at the White House, overseen by President Carter. A big deal, to be sure, but what 12-year-old cared about peace in the Middle East? We wanted our “Battlestar Galactica!”

Tonight, on a special edition of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner,” we’ll do what we can to bring harmony to the galaxy with an amicable conversation about human annihilation and studio lawsuits.

You have to hand it to creator Glen A. Larson. Every penny of this $8 million “Star Wars” cash-grab made it on screen, with special effects by “Star Wars” exile John Dykstra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic enlisted to perform Stu Phillips’ score, Lorne Greene lured from the Ponderosa, supporting parts for Oscar winners Ray Milland and Lew Ayres, and the voice of none other than Mr. Steed himself, Patrick Macnee.

It was 10:30 p.m. at the time of the news flash, and the Cylons were closing in! There were a lot of bleary-eyed children in homeroom the next day, I can assure you, as it would have been the rare parent indeed that could have coerced their child to bed with a half hour left of “Battlestar Galactica.”

So was it as good as “Star Wars?” No way! But it was a game attempt to meld the tropes of George Lucas’ space opera with the planet-of-the-week approach of “Star Trek.” Like “Star Wars,” the series is full of archetypal, religious, and mythological symbolism, but a lot of it never seems to gel. We have Moses. We have Iago. We have a primal fear of bugs. And the fighter pilots all wear Egyptian pharaoh helmets.

As Macnee states in the weekly show’s opening voice over, “There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans, who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians or the Toltecs or the Mayans.” So basically, he’s telling us it’s a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Also, remember, Erich von Däniken was a very big deal at the time, with “Chariots of the Gods” prominently displayed among the literary offerings of supermarkets everywhere. And the show is apparently loaded with LDS themes. (Larson was Mormon.)

Of course, whatever resonance “Galactica” was aiming for was undermined completely by a follow-up series, “Galactica 1980,” really a badly-compromised, bargain basement second season, in which representatives of the fleet have very lame and very cheap adventures on (then) present-day earth. But it’s best not to linger on that agony.

Roy and I will cut through the felgerarb, with a discussion of “Battlestar Galactica,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Bring your cubits to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., THIS SUNDAY EVENING AT 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

Friday got away from me, so I was unable to promote Roy’s conversation with Dominic Stefano and Dave Rash to mark the 60th anniversary of “The Outer Limits” (1963). Dominic is the son of series creator Joseph Stefano. Stefano and Rash have collaborated on several “Outer Limits” projects. Friday’s show, which is prefaced by an update with Jeffrey Morris on his upcoming “Space: 1999” documentary, “The Eagle Has Landed,” has been archived here:

Lending to our unbearable excitement: Frank Frazetta artwork in TV Guide!
Casals & His Composer Friends on The Lost Chord

by

Ross Amico

September 16, 2023

in Daily Dispatch

2 responses

He put his career on hold to stand up to Franco. He rediscovered the Bach cello suites. He played for Queen Victoria and John F. Kennedy. He founded the Prades Festival. He established the Puerto Rico Symphony and Conservatory. He gave master classes, conducted and recorded at Marlboro. He was even a talented composer.

Pablo Casals was a giant of an artist and of a man. Is it any wonder so many of his colleagues were moved to write music for him?

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear works dedicated to Casals by three of his composer friends and colleagues.

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his seldom-heard “Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes” around the time he was at work on his Piano Concerto and “Job: A Masque for Dancing.” Casals performed the piece in 1930. It was not heard again until 1983, the year of its world-premiere recording (featuring Julian Lloyd Webber). The composer later undertook a full-scale concerto for Casals. It was never completed, but the sketches for its slow movement were realized for a 2010 performance at the BBC Proms, under the title “Dark Pastoral.”

Donald Francis Tovey, who would achieve fame as a musicologist, composed quite a lot of music himself, most of it now forgotten. In 1935, he wrote a concerto for Casals. At nearly an hour in length, the work may be the longest cello concerto ever written.

In 1912, Tovey was a houseguest of Casals and cellist Guilhermina Suggia, at their summer home at Playa San Salvador on the Mediterranean coast. There, he played tennis, swam, and performed chamber music with the likes of Enrique Granados and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. He also made great strides on his opera, “The Bride of Dionysus.” As a show of thanks, he composed for his hosts a Sonata for Two Cellos in G major, which became part of the evenings’ entertainments. The work’s second movement is a set of variations on a Catalan folk song. We’ll hear it performed by Marcy Rosen and Frances Rowell, from a Bridge Records, Inc. release.

Finally, Arnold Schoenberg, himself an amateur cellist, had done editorial work on three pieces by the 18th century composer Georg Matthias Monn, for inclusion in the publication “Monuments of Music in Austria.” When Casals invited Schoenberg to conduct his orchestra in Barcelona, the composer set about arranging a “new” concerto, based upon a harpsichord work by Monn, written in 1746. We’ll hear Schoenberg’s transformation of the piece performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Pau takes a bow! I hope you’ll join me for “Casals’ Pals” – music written for Pablo Casals by notable composer friends and colleagues – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Nadia Boulanger: Celebrating the Legendary Teacher

by

Ross Amico

September 16, 2023

in Daily Dispatch

4 responses

Nadia Boulanger, the grande dame of 20th century music, was born on this date in 1887.

Widely considered to have been the greatest musical pedagogue who ever lived, she was especially instrumental to the development of American composition. Hopefuls flocked to the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, where she accepted applicants from all backgrounds. Her only stipulation was that they be determined to learn. It was Virgil Thomson who quipped, “She was a one-woman graduate school, so powerful and permeating that legend credits every United States town with two things: a five and dime and a Boulanger pupil.” The five and dimes may have faded, but not so the legacy of the “Boulangerie.”

Beneath those grey hairs and pince-nez lurked an iron will that brooked no nonsense, yet Boulanger was surprisingly accepting, astonishingly objective, and generally dead-on in her assessments.

Her students included everyone from Dinu Lipatti to Igor Markevitch, from Aaron Copland to Elliott Carter, from Astor Piazzolla to Philip Glass, from Michel Legrand to Quincy Jones, from Leonard Bernstein (unofficially) to “What Makes It Great?” radio host Rob Kapilow.

Here’s what a few of those who benefited from her tutelage have to say about their experiences with her.

Quincy Jones

Harold Shapero

Elliot Carter

Elliot Carter and Ned Rorem

Fascinating documentary, including first-hand accounts, historical footage, and terrific insights. Leonard Bernstein is interviewed in French, beginning around the 7-minute mark:

There’s a live recording of Mme Boulanger conducting the Requiem of her teacher, Gabriel Fauré, from 1968 that’s circulated on various labels, with the BBC Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra. However, this performance too, with the Choral Art Society and the New York Philharmonic, is quite lovely, captured in Carnegie Hall in 1962.

Nadia’s early ambition was to become a composer herself. However, she soon acknowledged that her sister, Lili, was the true talent in this regard and devoted her life to teaching. Sadly, Lili died of Crohn’s Disease at the age of only 24.

Here’s Nadia’s own “Fantaisie variée” for piano and orchestra from 1912, written when she was 25.

And an earlier work, “Cantique” from 1909

Boulanger died in 1979 at the age of 92.

Joyeux anniversaire… et merci!