Composers Datebook

On today’s date in 2004, the Utah Symphony and conductor Keith Lockhart premiered Three Latin-American Dances by American composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Just a few days later, the same forces recorded Frank’s music for a release, to be sandwiched between Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

Frank’s first dance, Jungle Jaunt opens with what she calls “an unabashed tribute” to the urban jungle evoked in Bernstein’s West Side Story. Her second dance, Highland Harawi, is more melancholy, perhaps a nod to that strain in Rachmaninoff’s music, and evokes the sounds of the bamboo quena flute of the Andes.

Her third dance, The Mestizo Waltz, is a pun on the famous Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt. As Frank explained: “This final [dance] is a lighthearted tribute to the mestizo or mixed-race music of the South American Pacific coast. It evokes the romancero tradition of popular songs and dances that mix influences from indigenous Indian cultures, African slave cultures, and western brass bands.”

Frank is of mixed Peruvian and Jewish background. When asked about how her heritage affects her music, she replied, “Sometimes the Latin influences are quite evident, and sometimes they are quite subtle. And of course, ‘Latin’ can mean so many different things. There is no one single Latin identity, as any Latino/Latinoamericano would tell you.”

Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972): Three Latin American Dances; Utah Symphony; Keith Lockhart, conductor; Reference Recording 105

Today is Earth Day — an annual event started in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin as an environmental teach-in.

Senator Nelson wasn’t the only one concerned back then, either: Czech-born composer Karel Husa had noticed dead fish floating on a lake located near a power plant. “The plant was producing hot thermal pollution which in turn killed all those fish,” he recalled. “In addition, I noticed more beer cans in the water and algae in greater quantities.”

A wind band commission provided Husa with an opportunity to create Apotheosis of this Earth. In explaining its title, he wrote:

“Man’s brutal possession and misuse of nature’s beauty — if continued at today’s reckless speed — can only lead to catastrophe. The composer hopes that the destruction of this beautiful earth can be stopped, so that the tragedy of destruction — musically projected here in the second movement — and the desolation of its aftermath – the ‘postscript’ of this work — can exist only as fantasy, never to become reality.”

Apotheosis of this Earth was commissioned by the Michigan School Band and Orchestral Association, and its premiere performance took place on April 1, 1970, with Husa conducting the University of Michigan Symphony Band at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. It proved a powerful piece of music.

“As the postscript finished, I saw that the students in the band were somehow moved — there were even some tears,” the composer recalled.

Karel Husa (1921-2016): Apotheosis of this Earth; Ithaca College Wind Ensemble; Rodney Winther, conductor; Mark 3170

On today’s date in 1937, one of Aaron Copland’s least known work had its premiere performance. The Second Hurricane was an opera written for high school students, New York’s Henry Street Settlement Music School, to be exact.

In his memoirs, Copland recalled that at the time he wrote it, he was living at the Empire Hotel in Midtown Manhattan for $8.50 a week, and that he wrote the score in a studio he rented, located at what is now the site of Lincoln Center. To direct the premiere of his school opera, Copland hired young actor-director Orson Welles. Copland’s score also called for some adult performers, including one professional actor, Joseph Cotton, who was paid $10 for his performance.

“The newspapers seem to enjoy the idea that a dyed-in-the wool modernist was writing an opera for schoolchildren, so they gave a great deal of attention to every step along the way, particularly the casting,” Copland recalled. “Those kids must have gotten a kick out of seeing their names in the Times and Tribune! The idea of an opera for high school performers appealed to the press, I suppose, for the same reason it appealed to me. My motives were not all unselfish, either: the usual run of symphony audiences submitted to new music when it was played at them, but never showed signs of really wanting it. The atmosphere had become deadening. Yet the composer must compose. A school opera seemed a good momentary solution for one composer, at any rate.”

Aaron Copland (1900-1990): The Second Hurricane; High School of Music and Art; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; Sony 60560

Religious music, like the religious experience itself, comes in all shapes, forms, moods, and colors.

On today’s date in 2002, for example, this setting of the Song of Isaiah had its premiere performance at the Milwaukee Art Museum during a concert by the Present Music ensemble. The composer of the new setting was Milwaukee native Michael Torke, who wrote:

“I have always considered that a central religious experience is one of uplifting joy, as opposed to other spiritual expressions of pleading, suffering, atonement or wrath. It is that state of joy and thanksgiving I am trying to express.”

Song of Isaiah was commissioned for Present Music’s 20th anniversary, and to honor the Archbishop Rembert Weakland. The piece is scored for a singer, clarinet, bass clarinet, string quintet, piano, vibraphone and a percussionist who plays the rhythmic underpinning with a tambourine, claves and in the center of the piece, a triangle.

“This spirited rhythm embodies slower embedded forms that are etched out melodically by the clarinets in octaves, and also by the strings and piano in octaves,” Torke wrote. “In essence, there are no climaxes, as I wish the music to be a meditation, though the feeling is quite lively. Nine sections of the piece serve as episodic variations, and explore different small chunks of text from the Book of Isaiah. The form is a mirror: the first and ninth sections relate, as do the second and eighth, and so on; the fifth section (using the triangle) is in the exact center.”

Michael Torke (b. 1961): Song of Isaiah; Present Music; innova 590

In the 19th century, Richard Wagner composed The Ring of the Nibelungen, a cycle of four operas lasting 16 hours in performance. In the 20th century, another German composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, wrote a cycle of seven, collectively titled Light, which runs about 29 hours. Not to be outdone, for several decades a 21st-century American composer has been working on Trillium, a cycle of twelve operas, which, if completed, will probably last much longer.

This composer’s name might not be familiar to opera fans, since MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Anthony Braxton is better known in jazz circles. As a saxophonist, he has made over a hundred recordings, sometimes with jazz greats like Dave Brubeck or Chick Corea. Braxton resists being labeled, however, stating, “Even though I have been saying I'm not a jazz musician for the last 25 years, in the final analysis, an African-American with a saxophone? Ahh, he’s jazz!”

The sixth opera in the cycle, Trillium J, or The Non-Unconfessionable, had its first complete performance at Roulette in Brooklyn on today’s date in 2014. To the question “Why write operas?” Braxton said, “I believe the medium of opera is directly relevant to cultural alignment and evolution.” Time will tell if Trillium unfolds a culturally relevant message to rival Wagner and Stockhausen’s, or simply acts as a framework for the wide-ranging moods and colors of Braxon’s music.

Anthony Braxton (b. 1945): excerpt from Act 2 of Trillium J; soloists and ensemble; Anthony Braxton, conductor; New Braxton House 906

On today’s date in 1942, Warner Brothers released the film King’s Row, which included in its cast a 31-year-old actor named Ronald Reagan, who claimed the film “made me a star.” The film’s musical score was by someone already a star — Austrian-born composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, famous for his earlier work for Hollywood swashbucklers like Captain Blood and Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn.

Korngold’s music for King’s Row proved unusually popular, and Warner Brothers prepared a form letter politely declining inquiries for sheet music or recordings. Back then, film score recordings were not common, and the big studios were jealously protective of anything — including music — that they owned. It wasn’t until 1979 — 37 years after the release of the movie — that a full soundtrack recording of King’s Row was released, produced by the composer’s son, George, who was responsible for a major revival of interest in his father’s work.

In fact, Korngold’s main title music from King’s Row may have provided the model for American composer John Williams when he wrote his main title music for the 1977 sci-fi swashbuckler Star Wars. It’s also curious to note that the main title music for King’s Row was requested by the White House in 1981 for use at the inauguration of President Reagan, who, you may recall, later promoted a ballistic missile defense shield nicknamed by its critics — wait for it — Star Wars.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957): Main Title, from King’s Row; National Philharmonic; Charles Gerhardt, conductor; RCA LSC-3330 (LP) & 7890-2-RG (CD)

British composer Gustav Holst lived and worked in a West London neighborhood called Hammersmith for many years — and in 1930, Holst gave that name to a work for wind band he wrote on commission from the BBC.

Hammersmith opens with a prelude representing the river Thames, which, Holst said, “goes on its way unnoticed and unconcerned.” A scherzo section represents the hustle and bustle of Hammersmith’s market, exemplified, according to Holst’s daughter, by a large woman at a fruit stand who always called her father “dearie” when he bought oranges for their Sunday picnics.

In 1931, Hammersmith was first performed in England in the composer’s orchestral arrangement by the BBC Symphony led by Adrian Boult — and the piece was booed. Holst’s bad luck continued the following year: He was scheduled to conduct the premiere of the band version of Hammersmith on today’s date at the 1932 American Bandmasters Association Convention in Washington, D.C., but had to cancel his trip due to illness. The D.C. premiere took place as scheduled, but with the U.S. Marine Band led by Taylor Branson, rather than the composer.

For the next 22 years, the original wind band version of Hammersmith remained neglected until Robert Cantrick and the Carnegie Institute of Technology Kiltie Band in Pittsburgh gave what they thought was its world premiere performance in 1954. It seems even Holst’s publisher had forgotten all about its 1932 American premiere.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934): Hammersmith; Dallas Wind Symphony; Howard Dunn, conductor; Reference Recordings 39

In the years following the end of World War II, the “baby boom” led to a dramatic rise in the number of high school and college music programs across the country. By the mid-1950s, a number of well-known American composers started receiving commissions from these schools for new works for wind band.

In the past half-century, the Symphony for Band, by American composer Vincent Persichetti, has been one of the most frequently performed. It was commissioned by the Washington University Chamber Band, and received its first performance by the ensemble in St. Louis, Missouri, on today’s date in 1956.

In keeping with this tradition, in the late 1990s the American Composers Forum started commissioning major composers to write new works for middle school bands. The series was dubbed BandQuest, and in addition to new scores by composers like Chen Yi, Michael Colgrass, Libby Larsen, Robert X. Rodriguez and Alvin Singleton, the series offers music teachers interactive content, which places each piece of music in a wider cultural and historical context.

This music is from Alegre, by Cuban-born composer Tania León. “Alegre” is a Spanish word meaning “joy,” and Leon’s piece is meant to demonstrate the link in Latin culture between music and dance. That’s something the New York-based León knows more than a little about — she was a founding member and the first music director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. A music educator as well as a composer, she also set up the theater’s music school and orchestra.

Vincent Pershichetti (1915-1987): Symphony No. 6 (Symphony for Band); Eastman Wind Ensemble; Frederick Fennell, conductor; Mercury 432 754

Tania León (b. 1943): Alegre; American Composers Forum Bandquest CD-ROM; Hal Leonard

A few years back, when RCA records issued a boxed set of 100 favorite Boston Pops recordings made by Arthur Fiedler, they included Handel’s celebrated Largo.

Over a hundred years earlier, the Theodore Thomas Orchestra had established this melody as a favorite with 19th century American audiences. Back then, Handel was best known for his sacred oratorios, and his Largo acquired a kind of honorary “halo” by association. Also, the Italian text for the melody began “Ombra mai fui,” and since “ombra” meant shade, many music lovers probably assumed it had something to do with the dear departed shade or spirit of a loved one — hence its melancholic solemnity.

In fact, this melody originated in a decidedly secular, downright whimsical context: as the opening aria of an opera by Handel that premiered in London on today’s date in 1738. The opera, Xerxes, dealt with the real-life Persian King who invaded ancient Greece. In the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes is depicted as an all-powerful despot, whose every whim became law. As evidence of the irrational effect of absolute power, Herodotus tells of Xerxes’ fondness for a certain plane tree that he ordered decorated with gold ornaments and put under perpetual military guard as a sign of royal favor. In Handel’s opera, the famous Largo is actually Xerxes’s dreamy song to this famous tree — and the “shade” referred to is the sort to be found under its gold-bedecked branches.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759): Largo, from Xerxes; Boston Pops; Arthur Fiedler, conductor; BMG 62698

A number of the quintessentially French operas are set in other lands. Bizet’s Carmen is set in Spain and Gounod’s Faust is in Germany, to cite just two examples. But Spain and Germany were familiar next-door neighbors for 19th century Frenchmen, and in that colonizing age, Parisian audiences also enjoyed traveling to much more exotic corners, all the while safely ensconced in their plush balcony seats, of course. One of the grandest of French grand operas, Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, has as its eponymous heroine the African Queen of an imaginary East Indian isle, with none other than European Vasco da Gama as her love interest.

Another famous French opera set in the mysterious East had its premiere performance on today’s date in 1883, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. This was Lakmé by Leo Delibes. In this one, the title heroine is an East Indian priestess of Brahma whose taboo love for an English Colonial officer leads to tragedy and death — but not before lots of gorgeous singing.

The popular Flower Duet from Lakmé achieved a particularly late 20th-century brand of fame when it was used as the soundtrack to a British Airways TV commercial.

Léo Delibes (1836-1891): Flower Duet, from Lakmé; BBC Concert Orchestra; Barry Wordsworth, conductor; London 473 371

Léo Delibes: Flower Duet, from Lakmé; Natalie Dessay and Delphine Haidan, sopranos; Toulouse Capitole Orchestra; Michel Plasson, conductor; EMI 67830