Series Concert IV
Tuesday, September 16
Jessie Montgomery | Duo for violin and cello
This piece was written for my friend and cellist Adrienne Taylor. The piece is meant as an ode to friendship with movements characterizing laughter, compasssion, adventure, and sometimes silliness.
~ Jessie Montgomery
Below is more information from a video interview with Montgomery by Beth Helgeson (Director of Artistic Planning and Administration, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center) that Ms. Montgomery’s publicist offered more information on this piece:
Jessie mentions that Adrienne Taylor is a wonderful friend and this piece was written for her and Montgomery to play together for a special community concert. While it was written with Taylor in mind, Montgomery adds, “I have so many friends that are cellists.... I thought this would be a good piece to have in my back pocket for any violin cello duo moment that could arise.”
It contains elements of “play and seriousness, and expressing deep connection, confidence,... intimate sides of friendship, of sharing, trust, all the wonderful things.” The movement titles, added later, are “antics, in confidence, and serious fun.” Montgomery adds, “Serious fun is [a] comment I would get from a chamber music coach of mine when I was a kid named Mary Jo Pagano - that we were doing something that required so much of our attention and focus but that ultimately there was a joy that we were going to get for all that hard work.”
Later in the interview, Montgomery confirms the Americana style present in the first and third movements, and a Hungarian inspiration in the second movement, citing Hungarian music as an early and frequent influence throughout her musical career; including works by Béla Bartók & Zoltán Kodály. She also confirms that she was inspired by Ravel, Martinů and Milhaud when writing this piece.
To hear more about Montgomery’s life and career, view the full interview here.
Thomas Adès | Alchymia for clarinet and strings
I. A Sea-Change (...those are pearls...)
II. The Woods So Wild
III. Lachrymae
IV. Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round
The clarinet quintet Alchymia is woven from four threads leading out of the alchemical world of Elizabethan London.
The movement titles refer to:
I.William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611) - the king’s eyes transformed by the sea into pearls.
II.The Woods So Wild (1612) - Tudor popular song transformed by William Byrd into keyboard divisions (variations).
III.Lachrymae (1600) - (Tears) - John Dowland’s lute-song, which he transformed into viol consort Fantasias.
IV.Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round - variations on the playwright Frank Wedekind’s Lautenlied (lute-song), which is played by clarinet, imitating a barrel-organ in the London street, in the final scene of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu.
~Thomas Adès, reprinted with permission
Antonín Dvořák | Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, Dumky
Dvořák wrote reams of incredible chamber music in all forms. His combination of natural lyricism, clear texture, vivid color, rhythmic vitality and a sure sense of dramatic development place him among the composer gods, with a noticeable affinity for Schubert, who was undoubtedly a strong influence. After the “American” Quartet, The “Dumky” Trio is probably Dvořák’s most celebrated chamber work, neck and neck with the Piano Quintet in A Major. If the American Quartet is a possible mirror of indigenous American folk music, the Dumky Trio is pure Bohemian and Czech, an even more convincing reflection of a national folk tradition, this time in Dvořák’s own mother tongue. He composed the Dumky, his fourth and final piano trio, in 1891 at the age of 50, just prior to his legendary trip to America.
The word dumky is the plural for dumka, a Czech and Ukrainian term that, in summary, means “ballad”, “elegy” or “lament.” A dumka was a kind of poetic ballad or tribute, often told about a heroic saga, a tragic historical event or the plea of a subjugated people. It fostered a musical genre of single-movement pieces that mix slow somber melancholy with fast, wild exuberance, almost like two stages of grief. Dvořák wrote a number of dumky scattered throughout his work, and each one is a showcase of passionate Czech folk music in a sort of idealized classical realization. The Dumky Trio is essentially a suite of six dumky, each of the six movements a complete dumka exhibiting a dichotomy of slow and fast, dour and bright, with masterful contrast of character, rhythm, tempo and color. Since the first three dumky are played in sequence, without pause, some have commented that the Dumky Trio coalesces into a kind of classical three- or four-movement design. A nearly unbroken tapestry of sectional contrasts spans the movements, making for a compelling, continuous narrative. The fourth movement reverses the dichotomy by starting out fast and lively rather than slow and deep, and the last dumka is perfectly placed as the finale. It seems certain that Dvořák arranged and possibly composed the suite with a layered conception of flow, unity and dramatic shape as a series of heroic tales and epic laments, a
book of fairytales, a suite of songs in a prevailing national style, each singular, exotic species in a common thread. Dvořák wrote other such collections such as his breakthrough Slavonic Dances and the set of string quartet “songs” known as The “Cypresses”.
Dvořák was a master of color in all of his music, whether written for a full orchestral palette or, nearly the opposite, a string quartet. But his chamber music with piano is a particularly rich vein of color. With Dvořák, the very term “color” becomes slippery and ambiguous. The constantly changing sonorities in his music involve instrumental techniques and carefully chosen ensemble configurations, but the color seems likewise inseparable from the essential elements of music more fundamental than this: the melody and rhythm. All these elements are melded together, creating vivid expressions and impressions in what is the
brilliant signature style of Dvořák himself. But witness here how masterfully he deploys the piano trio, discovering ranges of sonic expression hitherto unknown (except perhaps to Schubert).
The clear, earthy, emotionally full and broadly accessible aspects of Dvořák’s most famous music span his entire career. The American Quartet often serves as the poster child of this lovely trend in Dvořák’s music and therefore it may often become entangled with a notion that it was unique to his American works or to a specific quest for a folk music inspiration in the New World. But the “Dumky” Trio and the Terzetto for 2 violins and viola of a few years prior both pre-date Dvořák’s American sojourn, and yet they exhibit many of the same qualities, including the spare, open harmonies, rustic rhythms and pentatonic folk scales.
One might say that one set of works has a slight Bohemian accent, the other that of the American Midwest, both sharing underlying traits of world folk traditions. But really what they share is Dvořák’s own innate musical personality, a proclivity for direct and bountiful expression with robust, passionate vitality from a generous and gifted sensibility.
© Kai Christiansen, founder of the chamber music exploratorium at earsense.org. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This piece was written for my friend and cellist Adrienne Taylor. The piece is meant as an ode to friendship with movements characterizing laughter, compasssion, adventure, and sometimes silliness.
~ Jessie Montgomery
Below is more information from a video interview with Montgomery by Beth Helgeson (Director of Artistic Planning and Administration, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center) that Ms. Montgomery’s publicist offered more information on this piece:
Jessie mentions that Adrienne Taylor is a wonderful friend and this piece was written for her and Montgomery to play together for a special community concert. While it was written with Taylor in mind, Montgomery adds, “I have so many friends that are cellists.... I thought this would be a good piece to have in my back pocket for any violin cello duo moment that could arise.”
It contains elements of “play and seriousness, and expressing deep connection, confidence,... intimate sides of friendship, of sharing, trust, all the wonderful things.” The movement titles, added later, are “antics, in confidence, and serious fun.” Montgomery adds, “Serious fun is [a] comment I would get from a chamber music coach of mine when I was a kid named Mary Jo Pagano - that we were doing something that required so much of our attention and focus but that ultimately there was a joy that we were going to get for all that hard work.”
Later in the interview, Montgomery confirms the Americana style present in the first and third movements, and a Hungarian inspiration in the second movement, citing Hungarian music as an early and frequent influence throughout her musical career; including works by Béla Bartók & Zoltán Kodály. She also confirms that she was inspired by Ravel, Martinů and Milhaud when writing this piece.
To hear more about Montgomery’s life and career, view the full interview here.
Thomas Adès | Alchymia for clarinet and strings
I. A Sea-Change (...those are pearls...)
II. The Woods So Wild
III. Lachrymae
IV. Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round
The clarinet quintet Alchymia is woven from four threads leading out of the alchemical world of Elizabethan London.
The movement titles refer to:
I.William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611) - the king’s eyes transformed by the sea into pearls.
II.The Woods So Wild (1612) - Tudor popular song transformed by William Byrd into keyboard divisions (variations).
III.Lachrymae (1600) - (Tears) - John Dowland’s lute-song, which he transformed into viol consort Fantasias.
IV.Divisions on a Lute-song: Wedekind’s Round - variations on the playwright Frank Wedekind’s Lautenlied (lute-song), which is played by clarinet, imitating a barrel-organ in the London street, in the final scene of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu.
~Thomas Adès, reprinted with permission
Antonín Dvořák | Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, Dumky
Dvořák wrote reams of incredible chamber music in all forms. His combination of natural lyricism, clear texture, vivid color, rhythmic vitality and a sure sense of dramatic development place him among the composer gods, with a noticeable affinity for Schubert, who was undoubtedly a strong influence. After the “American” Quartet, The “Dumky” Trio is probably Dvořák’s most celebrated chamber work, neck and neck with the Piano Quintet in A Major. If the American Quartet is a possible mirror of indigenous American folk music, the Dumky Trio is pure Bohemian and Czech, an even more convincing reflection of a national folk tradition, this time in Dvořák’s own mother tongue. He composed the Dumky, his fourth and final piano trio, in 1891 at the age of 50, just prior to his legendary trip to America.
The word dumky is the plural for dumka, a Czech and Ukrainian term that, in summary, means “ballad”, “elegy” or “lament.” A dumka was a kind of poetic ballad or tribute, often told about a heroic saga, a tragic historical event or the plea of a subjugated people. It fostered a musical genre of single-movement pieces that mix slow somber melancholy with fast, wild exuberance, almost like two stages of grief. Dvořák wrote a number of dumky scattered throughout his work, and each one is a showcase of passionate Czech folk music in a sort of idealized classical realization. The Dumky Trio is essentially a suite of six dumky, each of the six movements a complete dumka exhibiting a dichotomy of slow and fast, dour and bright, with masterful contrast of character, rhythm, tempo and color. Since the first three dumky are played in sequence, without pause, some have commented that the Dumky Trio coalesces into a kind of classical three- or four-movement design. A nearly unbroken tapestry of sectional contrasts spans the movements, making for a compelling, continuous narrative. The fourth movement reverses the dichotomy by starting out fast and lively rather than slow and deep, and the last dumka is perfectly placed as the finale. It seems certain that Dvořák arranged and possibly composed the suite with a layered conception of flow, unity and dramatic shape as a series of heroic tales and epic laments, a
book of fairytales, a suite of songs in a prevailing national style, each singular, exotic species in a common thread. Dvořák wrote other such collections such as his breakthrough Slavonic Dances and the set of string quartet “songs” known as The “Cypresses”.
Dvořák was a master of color in all of his music, whether written for a full orchestral palette or, nearly the opposite, a string quartet. But his chamber music with piano is a particularly rich vein of color. With Dvořák, the very term “color” becomes slippery and ambiguous. The constantly changing sonorities in his music involve instrumental techniques and carefully chosen ensemble configurations, but the color seems likewise inseparable from the essential elements of music more fundamental than this: the melody and rhythm. All these elements are melded together, creating vivid expressions and impressions in what is the
brilliant signature style of Dvořák himself. But witness here how masterfully he deploys the piano trio, discovering ranges of sonic expression hitherto unknown (except perhaps to Schubert).
The clear, earthy, emotionally full and broadly accessible aspects of Dvořák’s most famous music span his entire career. The American Quartet often serves as the poster child of this lovely trend in Dvořák’s music and therefore it may often become entangled with a notion that it was unique to his American works or to a specific quest for a folk music inspiration in the New World. But the “Dumky” Trio and the Terzetto for 2 violins and viola of a few years prior both pre-date Dvořák’s American sojourn, and yet they exhibit many of the same qualities, including the spare, open harmonies, rustic rhythms and pentatonic folk scales.
One might say that one set of works has a slight Bohemian accent, the other that of the American Midwest, both sharing underlying traits of world folk traditions. But really what they share is Dvořák’s own innate musical personality, a proclivity for direct and bountiful expression with robust, passionate vitality from a generous and gifted sensibility.
© Kai Christiansen, founder of the chamber music exploratorium at earsense.org. Used by permission. All rights reserved.