How many times a summer do we hear Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music?”
Well, I ask you, then – in whose tomb would you have Grant buried? What color should we paint the White House? It’s summer! Honor your appointment with the Barber, already.
Barber wrote his wind quintet on a commission from the Chamber Music Society of the Detroit Institute for the Arts in 1953. Unusually, in lieu of a commissioning fee, the composer agreed to accept donations from the audience, with the Chamber Music Society guaranteeing the difference up to $2000. The work is set in one continuous movement, with three subsections discernible within the neoclassical whole.
On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll hear “Summer Music” performed at the 1981 Marlboro Music Festival, by flutist Susan Rotholz, oboist Elaine Douvas, clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas, bassoonist Stefanie Przybylska, and hornist Robin Graham.
Then we’ll turn our attention to American Moravian composer John Antes. Antes, born in Frederick, Montgomery County, PA, in 1740, is credited with being one the first composers born on American soil to write chamber music, and as the creator of perhaps the earliest surviving bowed string instrument made in the American colonies. Antes’ violin, made in 1759, is housed in the Museum of the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, PA. A viola, made by Antes in 1764 (again believed to be the earliest surviving of American origin), is housed in the Lititz Moravian Congregation Collection in Lancaster County. Antes created at least seven such instruments.
In 1752, Antes attended school in Bethlehem, PA. In 1760, he was admitted into the Single Brethren’s choir there. From Bethlehem, he traveled to Herrnhut, Germany, the international center of the Moravians, to prepare for a career as a missionary. In the meantime, he also took up watchmaking. He was ordained a minister in 1769, then set out for Egypt. There, he served as a missionary to the Coptic Church in Grand Cairo. After a largely uneventful decade, he was captured and tortured by followers of Osman Bey.
During his convalescence, he occupied himself with the composition of three string trios. He also sent a copy of six quartets to Benjamin Franklin, whom he had known in America. The quartets are lost (nice job, Ben), but the trios survive. We’ll hear Antes’ Trio in D minor, from the 1976 Marlboro Music Festival, with violinists Isadore Cohen and Kathleen Lenski, and cellist Timothy Eddy performing.
We’ll round out the hour with Aaron Copland’s beloved and evergreen Pulitzer Prize winning ballet “Appalachian Spring,” from 1944, in its rarely-heard original version for chamber orchestra, performed by 13 Marlboro musicians in 2006.
“Appalachian Spring” will be heard this Saturday at 8 p.m., during the fourth weekend of this year’s Marlboro Music Festival – held, as always, on the campus of Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT – alongside works by Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten, and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. Beethoven, Britten, and Dvořák will be performed on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. For details, look online at marlboromusic.org.
It’s American music for two seasons, and all seasons – with a Moravian palate cleanser from the 18th century – on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
PHOTO: Music by Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber will be heard on this week’s “Music from Marlboro”
