I’ll be talking about Jerry Goldsmith’s music for the 1968 classic “Planet of the Apes” as a brief intro to a screening of the ultimate sci-fi switcheroo at Princeton Garden Theatre tomorrow night at 7:00.
My appearance ties in with the Garden’s ongoing series, “Keeping the Score,” lovingly curated to highlight the artistry of the great film composers and their indispensable contributions to enduring audience favorites.
Philadelphia composer Romeo Cascarino wrote “Epitaph for a Soldier” in 1942-43, when he was around 20-years-old and serving in the U.S. Army.
The recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, Cascarino taught for many years at the now-defunct Combs College of Music. His opera, “William Penn,” was given its world premiere at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and most of his orchestral works were recorded by JoAnn Falletta for the Naxos label.
This one, however, fell through the cracks.
According to his widow, soprano Dolores Ferraro, “It’s never been performed, just was among the scores in the basement. Romeo never talked much about the war and I was remiss in [not] asking him more about this piece, though I have my ideas. …[I]t’s stunning; dark with angst, thunder and lightning; yet lyrical and hopeful, too.
“We all know a work of Romeo’s would be beautiful, masterfully written and orchestrated, and it is, but different. Of course, the subject matter calls for this. It’s upsetting, moving and exciting! …What a thrill it gave me to hear what a 20-year-old Romeo composed! How painful to think of what he was feeling during that time….”
The impetus for its composition was the death of a friend, who had been killed on a mission.
I posted about the work’s rediscovery last year, after listening to a computer realization of the piece made by Cascarino’s pupil, Joe Nocella. You’ll find a biographical profile of the composer beneath the audio file at the link.
Cascarino’s “Blades of Grass,” for English horn and string orchestra, seems to have become his most-frequently encountered work, after perhaps the Bassoon Sonata and maybe some of the songs. The piece, which has been recorded twice, has, in addition to its other qualities, brevity on its side (at approximately nine minutes), so it gets the most radio air play. The work was inspired by a well-known poem of Carl Sandburg, “Grass,” a somber reflection on the nature of conflict and the futility of war, which makes it a good fit for any Memorial Day concert or radio show. (I myself included it on yesterday’s broadcast of “The Lost Chord.”)
In 2023, “Blades of Grass” came to the notice of the U.S. Marine Band. Interesting that it was the Marines and not the Army that revived the work!
“Epitaph for a Soldier” is a valuable addition to the composer’s catalogue and another piece wholly suitable for Memorial Day performance. Is there anyone out there in a position to give it its world premiere?
PHOTO: Cascarino (left) with Army buddy Sol Schoenbach, for whom he composed his Bassoon Sonata in 1947. They recorded it in 1962. Schoenbach was principal bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1937 to 1957.
Never mind May the 4th be with you! “Star Wars” opened on May 25, 1977. If you weren’t a kid in the summer of ’77, there’s no way you could possibly understand how good life could be. Long lines, sold-out theaters, enthusiastic audiences, eyepopping special effects, strange worlds, high adventure, and a dynamite soundtrack with the power to change lives. Although I was conscious of movie music well before “Star Wars” (I was a film junkie from the time I could watch TV), it was “Star Wars” that really introduced me to the power of the symphony orchestra. The rest, as they say, is history. Happy Orthodox Star Wars Day!
For many, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, as people take advantage of the three-day weekend, and the hopefully mild weather, to celebrate.
Of course, Memorial Day itself is a rather solemn holiday, as we’re meant to honor the sacrifice of those who laid down their lives in defense of our country.
That said, this morning on “Sweetness and Light,” since there’s little “sweet” or “light” about war, I figured rather we’d take the hour to enjoy a little Memorial Day picnic, if you will.
I hope you’ll join me for an outdoor overture, a barbecue divertimento, a carousel waltz, some gazebo dances, a pickle-and-pepper rag, a teddy bear’s picnic, and, yes, even a musical moment of reflection for the fallen.
The first of the summer’s patriotic holidays is upon us. Wrap yourself in the flag and everything else in bacon, this morning on “Sweetness and Light.” The three-legged races and pie-eating contests commence at 11:00 EDT/8:00 EDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Carl Sandburg was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry, and a third for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. He was also known for his 1927 anthology “The American Songbag,” espousing our native folk song and anticipating the folk song revivals the 1940s and ‘60s. On top of everything else, he was awarded a Grammy for his recording of Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” When Sandburg died in 1967, at the age of 89, Lyndon Johnson observed that “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He WAS America.”
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear music inspired by this popular – and populist – figure, with two works especially appropriate for Memorial Day and, in between, a piece after a poem evocative of the American heartland.
Philadelphia composer Romeo Cascarino (1922-2002), who had served in the U.S. Army, composed a plaintive elegy, “Blades of Grass,” in 1945, just after World War II. He expressed a preference, on several occasions, that Sandburg’s poem “Grass” be read before performances. You’re probably familiar with it:
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) was born in Grand Rapids, MI, and spent much of his career in the Midwest. Sometimes referred to as the “Dean of American church music,” he was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1946 for his cantata, “The Canticle of the Sun.”
The published score of his symphonic poem after Sandburg, titled “Prairie,” from 1929, bears the following lines:
“Have you seen a red sunset drip over one of my cornfields, the shore of night stars, the wave lines of dawn up a wheat valley?
“Have you heard my threshing crews yelling in the chaff of a strawpile and the running wheat of the wagonboards, my cornhuskers, my harvest hands hauling crops, singing dreams of women, worlds, horizons?”
Last, but certainly not least, Roy Harris, who shared Lincoln’s birthday (though born 89 years later), was reared in a log cabin in Lincoln County, OK, only adding to his sense of destiny. Indeed, he went on to become one of America’s greatest composers.
Harris’ Symphony No. 6 is subtitled “Gettysburg.” It’s one of a number of works the composer wrote with a Lincoln connection. Each movement of the symphony bears a superscription taken from the Gettysburg Address: the first, “Awakening (‘Fourscore and seven years ago…’);” the second, “Conflict (‘Now we are engaged in a great civil war…’);” the third, “Dedication (‘We are met on a great battlefield of that war…’);” and the fourth, “Affirmation (‘…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…’).”
Prior to composing the work, Harris read – you guessed it – Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln.
I hope you’ll join me for “Lincoln Logger,” an hour of music inspired by Carl Sandburg, on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
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