At a time when immigration seems to be such a divisive issue, it’s instructive to look back to political cartoons of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when bomb-toting Bolsheviks seemed poised to take down our democracy, the Chinese were inscrutable back-stabbers, the Jews were bearers of poverty and disease, and the Irish were simian-faced hooligans and drunks. Anxiety about outsiders has always been with us, yet somehow we got over each successive alien group, and the country has plugged along just fine.
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll get a little perspective, courtesy of composer Peter Boyer. From 1892 to 1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island in search of a better life. More than 40 percent of the U.S. population – over 100 million Americans – can trace its roots to someone who came to this country along that route.
Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” incorporates texts from testimonials archived as part of the Ellis Island Oral History Project. They are real words of real people telling their own stories. The work is performed by actors, rather than speakers or narrators, who deliver their monologues in the first person. In a powerful epilogue, each of them comes together to recite a stanza from Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus.” It’s so effective – and affecting – I get a little choked up just thinking about it.
You will, too, if you join me for “Spirits of Independence,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
——-
BONUS: The hour will open with Jerry Goldsmith’s “Fireworks.” Happy 4th!
Category: The Lost Chord
-
Spirits of Independence on “The Lost Chord”
-
“Balanced Czechs” on “The Lost Chord”
Neoclassicism in music was a reaction against what was perceived as the garish effusiveness and gooey excesses of late Romanticism.
Contemporary composers, in search of a new lucidity, turned their attention to the 18th century, revisiting its musical processes, though reinterpreting them through a distinctly 20th century prism. Stravinsky was the master, but neoclassicism swept the world.
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have three cheery examples of Czech neoclassicism, including works by Ilja Hurník (his “Sonata da Camera”), Iša Krejči (his “Serenade for Orchestra,” conducted by Karel Ančerl) and Bohuslav Martinů (his Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra).
These composers – well, Krejči and Martinů, anyway – manage to balance the clarity of the Enlightenment with an unmistakably Czech national sound.
Hurník’s work is perhaps the purest, in terms of looking back. The term “Sonata da Camera” recalls music of the Baroque and Classical eras, as does the clarity of its instrumentation, involving flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord. Each movement begins as if it were ripped from the pages of history and then gradually squeezed like a lemon, leaving a tangy, contemporary aftertaste.
All of this music is calculated to lift your spirits. I do hope you’ll join me for “Balanced Czechs,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
——-
Tightrope walker by Jiří Sliva -
“Day of the Dad” on “The Lost Chord”
It is the eve of Father’s Day. Both my folks are gone, and I had a rather complex relationship with my biological father, who died of cancer in 2018. Still, toward the end, I visited him a lot, and we kind of became friends. At least I developed a better, or more rounded, understanding of him, though we still had a few adventures that reminded me of why it was probably a good thing that my mother herded us out of the nest when she did.
My old man could be an amusing personality if he were a work of fiction, or if he could be taken in at a safe remove. Also, in his way, he had a kind heart. His circle included a remarkable number of outsiders and societal cast-offs, and he managed to take care of many of them, after his fashion. But he was not one to be bound by rules or, more strictly speaking, the law. At best, he could be considered a bit of a scapegrace; at worst, he was an ardent hellraiser, especially in his prime.
But spending time with him later in life, it was fascinating to discover that, whether he knew it or not, he did live by a kind of code. Also, given his nature, I learned that a lot of what the rest of us had resented all these years was probably not entirely his fault. He just wasn’t cut out to raise a family. You can’t really fault a striped hyena for not being able to fly.
I could tell you stories about my dad that would make you howl with laughter or make your blood curdle, but instead I’ll just tie this in with my program today on “The Lost Chord,” which will consist of two pieces by American composers, written in loving memory of their fathers – with perhaps just a transitional bit of advice to get to know your parents, for better or worse, while there’s still time.
In 1999, composer Eric Ewazen was commissioned by an oboist-friend, Linda Strommen, who had recently lost her father, to write a new work as a kind of memorial tribute. Having recently experienced the death of his own father, the composer embarked on the project with a special sense of poignancy. He recollected that the day his father passed – Christmas Day, 1997 – an essay had appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, by Richard Feagler. It consisted of funny, heartfelt stories of relatives and parents, long since departed. Near the end of the essay, titled “Christmas Past Comes Alive at Aunt Ida’s,” Feagler describes those beloved souls, “moving, though they can’t feel the current, down a river of time.”
Ewazen borrowed this image for the title of his concerto, “Down a River of Time,” a contemplation of that inexorable, rushing river – the first movement influenced by its ebbs and flows, hopes and dreams; the second attempting to convey emotions felt during times of loss, sorrow, resignation, tenderness, and peace in remembrance of happier, distant times. In the final movement, happier memories prevail, and feelings of strength and determination dominate.
Ewazen studied at, among other places, the Eastman School of Music. Howard Hanson had been director there for some 40 years. Along with the opera “Merry Mount,” Hanson came to regard his Symphony No. 4 as a personal favorite, a purely orchestral requiem, dedicated to the memory of his father. It falls into four movements, each bearing a Latin subtitle – “Kyrie,” “Requiescat,” “Dies Irae,” and “Lux Aeterna.” The work was given its first performance in 1943, with the composer conducting the Boston Symphony. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944.
It sure as hell beats another necktie. Spare a thought for the Old Man, and then join me for “Day of the Dad,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
——-PHOTO: Father knows beast
-
Lars-Erik Larsson’s Poetic Suites for Radio on “The Lost Chord”
During his time with the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (1937-1944), Lars-Erik Larsson provided music for everything from cantatas to radio plays to brief vignettes to accompany the recitation of poetry.
Material from these projects would frequently find its way into the composer’s concert works. Most notably, three of the six movements of “Hours the Day,” from 1938, were organized into what went on to become the composer’s most famous piece, the “Pastoral Suite.”
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear the world premiere recording, from 1994, of the complete, original, six-movement work, alongside another one of Larsson’s poetic suites for radio, “God in Disguise,” from 1940.
Larsson had been asked as early as 1930 if he would be interested in setting to music Hjalmar Gullberg’s cycle of poems. Gullberg, then the head of Swedish Radio’s drama division, took as his starting point Euripides’ “Alcestis,” in which the god Apollo, temporarily exiled from Olympus, acts as servant and shepherd to King Admetus of Thessaly.
It would be a full decade before the project was realized, in part due to the scale of the undertaking. By then, neighboring Denmark and Norway were under Nazi occupation. Gullberg wrote additional text to mold the work into a protest against violence in the world. In spite – or perhaps because – of the harsh reality of the times, “God in Disguise” retains an optimistic and indeed a determinedly pastoral outlook.
This too will be heard in a world premiere recording, from 1956, featuring speaker Lars Ekborg, soprano Elisabeth Söderström, and the orchestra and chorus conducted by Stig Westerberg.
Brush up on your Swedish, as we celebrate all that is worthy and simple. I hope you’ll join me for “Best at Verse” – Lars-Erik Larsson’s poetic suites for radio – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu -
Italian Dressing on “The Lost Chord”
It seems as if it was only a matter of time before any Baroque musician of merit would become embroiled in a musical duel.
In the case of Domenico Scarlatti, he was challenged by none other than George Frideric Handel, in Rome. The resulting contest led to Handel being judged superior to his rival on the organ; however, on the harpsichord Scarlatti was deemed to be supreme. In fact, Scarlatti’s unusual facility at the keyboard has had artists “keyed up” for centuries.
Born in Naples in 1685 – the same year as Handel and Bach – Scarlatti spent much of his career in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He wrote 555 keyboard sonatas, which have been admired by composer-performers from Frederic Chopin to Marc-André Hamelin.
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll enjoy several works written in tribute to this Baroque master.
Charles Avison, whose life overlapped Scarlatti’s own (he was born in 1709, when Scarlatti was 23 years-old), arranged a number of his elder colleague’s keyboard works into a set of 12 concerti grossi. We’ll sample one of those, Avison’s Concerto No. 10 in D.
Then we’ll turn to American composer Norman Dello Joio. Dello Joio was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1957 for his “Meditations on Ecclesiastes.” From 1979, we’ll hear his four-movement piano work, “Salute to Scarlatti.”
Dmitri Shostakovich arranged two of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas for small wind ensemble and percussion. We’ll enjoy performances of these by members of the former USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Finally, Alfredo Casella’s 1926 suite for piano and orchestra, “Scarlattiana,” draws its inspiration from dozens of Scarlatti sonatas. Though unquestionably high-spirited, it was not originally intended for the dance – but since it unabashedly recalls Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” it is hardly surprising that some clown decided to choreograph it.
I hope you’ll join me for a mixed salad of Scarlatti tributes, on “Italian Dressing,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
——-
PHOTO: Wladimir Skouratoff (levitating) and Jacqueline Moreau in a 1954 production of “Scarlattiana”
Tag Cloud
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (129) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (192) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (103) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (144) Mozart (88) Opera (206) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (108) Radio (88) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)