Josh Richardson

Download

Download Full Text (1.5 MB)

Publication Date

12-1-2007

Year of Release

2007

Note(s)

Josh Richardson, trumpet

Ray Martin, piano

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education. Mr. Richardson is a student in the trumpet studio of Mr. Martin Saunders.

Program Notes

Molter, Concerto No. 1 in D Major

Johann Melchior Molter was a German violinist and composer, and the son of the schoolmaster and cantor Valentin Molter. He attended the Gymnasium in Eisenach where Johann Sebastian Bach had earlier been a student. Molter came into contact with the Eisenach court orchestra made famous by Georg Phillip Telemann. As a violinist, he entered the service of the Margrave Karl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe, and was appointed Hofkapellmeister five years later. Molter studied the Italian style in Venice and Rome, where he may have come into contact with artists like Vivaldi, Albinoni, the Marcello brothers, Tartini, and Alessandro Scarlatti. He also held posts as Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Wilhelm Heinrich of Sachsen-Eisenach, and again at Karlsruhe under Margrave Karl Friedrich (Karl Wilhelm's grandson).

Molter composed in many different genres including oratorios, cantatas, orchestral works, chamber music, and perhaps even operas. His favorite genre was the concerto for solo instrument and orchestra: over forty of them have survived. Molter wrote three concertos for trumpet; and five concertos for two trumpets. This work, Concerto No. 1 in D Major, was written in the galant style around 1750. The scoring of the trumpet part indicates that Molter had a profound knowledge of trumpet techniques, and also demonstrates the unusual virtuosity of Carl Pfeiffer, for whom the concertos were written. This concerto is written in a homophonic style with simple and clear melodies. The trumpet has a larger part in the first two movements, while having shorter solo passages in the third. Originally written for the clarino trumpet (a valveless trumpet), performers must demonstrate great facility in the upper register of the instrument, especially in the slow, lyrical second movement.

Ropartz, Andante et Allegro

Joseph Guy Ropartz was a French composer and conductor. He attended the Jesuit College in Vannes, France, where he played various instruments in the school orchestra and studied law. In 1885, he moved to Paris and enrolled at the Conservatoire. There he studied with Theodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, and César Franck. Ropartz held positions as the director of the Conservatoire and Concerts Symphoniques of Nancy and as the head of the Strasbourg Conservatoire. He retired in 1929, but continued to compose until 1950. He was highly regarded by contemporaries such as Paul Dukas, Florent Schmitt, Gabriel Faure, and Arthur Honegger.

Andante et Allegro is comprised of two main, contrasting sections. The first is a solemn and lyrical section and written in C minor. The second section is joyful and lively and written in the relative major key of E-flat. This section contains many fanfare-like figures and driving melodies in both the trumpet and piano parts. There is a slight interruption with a return of the Andante material, followed by a quick, modulated return of the fanfare figures in C major. This piece ends with a quick, arpeggiated fanfare that culminates the excitement of the Allegro section.

Tomasi, Triptyque

Henri Tomasi was a French composer and conductor. He studied with Phillipe Gaubert and others at the Paris Conservatoire, and was- winner of the Prix de Rome in 1927 and the Grand Prix de la Musique Française in 1952: both are prizes for music composition awarded by the French government. Alongside Sergei Prokofiev, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Honegger, he was one of the founders of the contemporary music group, "Triton." He wrote many concertos for solo instruments and orchestra, as well as chamber music, operas, ballets and other stage works.

The movements of Triptyque were originally from a set of six etudes published in 1955. The piano accompaniment was added later and published in the present form in 1958. Triptyque (or Triptych) literally means "three-fold." In art, it is a painting, or carved panels, that is divided into three sections. The center panel is usually the most important one, and is flanked on either side by two lesser, but related paintings. This piece is a brief three-movement work. The movements are labeled "Scherzo, Largo, Saltarelle." Scherzo means "to joke" in Italian. This is quite fitting due to this movement's bouncy rhythms and frequent meter changes. The second movement, Largo, is a slow and elegant movement with long flowing melodies. At times, the piano echoes the trumpet and creates an intricate dialogue between the two instruments. The third movement is based loosely on the Spanish and Italian saltarello: a fast jumping dance in triple meter, and features a chromatic, almost non-stop melody with many leaps and jumps.

Song Cycle: "Flowers"

It is a little known fact that one of my favorite summertime hobbies is gardening. However, if you live on the bill that I do in Dunbar, you are likely to recognize the house with all the flowers (as people like to call it). On average, I plant around 120 flowers of different varieties every spring and care for them until they die in late autumn. This is a relaxing and creative hobby for me, and it also gives me material for another hobby of mine, photography.

The first year I did any gardening, I had a few daisy plants, among others. The daisy is a rather simple flower and easy to take care of. Samuel Barber must have had this simplicity in mind when he wrote The Daisies. The text, written by James Stephens, is about two loved ones wandering happily to and fro in a field of daisies. In this brief song, Barber seems to capture the simplicity and elegance that the daisy offers all summer long.

Though I have never grown any, the lotus is a beautiful flower with intriguing characteristics and symbolism. The flower, which is usually white or pink, grows from the mud at the bottom of ponds and streams. At night, it closes up and sinks below the surface of the water, then at dawn, it rises and opens again. It symbolizes the purity of heart and mind and represents long life, health, honor, and good luck. Although the characteristics of the flower contradict the song text (written by Heinrich Heine), Robert Schumann seems to evoke the sense of purity in the score of Die Lotosblume (The Lotus Flower). The melody of this song is quite pure and elegant, and is complimented by the simple chordal accompaniment of the piano. The listener can almost imagine the flower rising out of the water, which is depicted by crescendos and an accelerando.

I always get sad at the end of the season when my flowers start to return to the ground from which they grew. What is especially sad is when that last petal falls off the stem. Before long, though, the whole cycle begins again with the planting of tulip and lily bulbs that will come up in the spring. Roses are especially pretty when they are in full bloom and are a symbol of friendship, grace, admiration, and, most commonly, love. 'Tis the Last Rose of Summer, an Irish poem by Thomas Moore, depicts the last rose on the bush, left blooming alone. All her companions have faded and gone: they have gone to seep before her lying scentless and dead on the garden bed. The gardener (the point of view that the poem is written) asks the last rose to join them, and she (or he) will scatter her leaves among her mates.

Stevens, Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1956)

Halsey Stevens was an American composer, musicologist, and teacher. He studied composition at Syracuse University with William Berwald, and at the University of California at Berkeley with Ernest Bloch. Stevens taught at Syracuse University, Dakota Wesleyan University, the College of Music at Bradley Polytechnic Institute, the University of Redlands, and at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. He was a visiting professor at Yale University and at Williams College. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1964 and 1971, and received many awards and commissions for his music. Stevens is also a noted authority on the music of Béla Bartók, of whom he wrote the standard critical biography in English in 1953.

Stevens was a prolific composer and wrote for a great variety of instrumental and vocal combinations. Common characteristics of his music are vigorous rhythm, firm tonal centers, supple melodic contours, and command of timbral relations. The Sonata for Trumpet and Piano is no exception. The first movement combines frequent meter changes with rhythmic variety that creates an intricate dialogue between the trumpet and piano. Contrasting lyrical sections create a quiet climate within the movement. Slightly dissonant chords in the piano help to set the mood of the second movement. The trumpet enters with expressive, lyrical lines and distant, muted calls that interrupt the solemnity the piano has established. The final movement makes use of frequent meter changes in a playful, dance-like manner that is reminiscent of the music of Aaron Copland.

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents a Senior Recital, Josh Richardson, trumpet, accompanied by, Ray Martin, piano

Share

COinS