Justin Gore

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Publication Date

2-26-2006

Year of Release

2006

Note(s)

Justin Gore, clarinet

Mila Markun, piano

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Performance. Mr. Gore is a student in the clarinet studio of Dr. Ann Marie Bingham.

Notes

Ralph Vaughan Williams was a key figure in the twentieth century revival of English music. All of his mature works are influenced by his love of early English music and folksong. He was a late bloomer as a composer; he didn't make composing a career until his early thirties. Vaughan Williams came from a well lo-do English family. His financial security allowed him to compose without the pressures of having to make a living. Vaughan Williams's interests in English folksong and Tudor music helped him to find his own compositional style. Through research Vaughan Williams helped to rekindle public interest in the music of Purcell and the Tudor Era composers and in English folksongs as well.

One of a handful of Vaughan Williams's chamber works, The Six Studies in English Folksong were composed for the cellist May Mukle in 1926. There are alternate versions of this work for violin, viola, clarinet, bassoon, tuba, and baritone with piano. Vaughan Williams believed folksongs should be treated with care, and so these are. Each movement is skillfully and beautifully composed to reveal the charm of the original song. The melodies quoted in the movements performed today are Lovely on the Water (movement 1), Spurn Point (movement 2), The Lady and the Dragoon (movement 5) and As I Walked over London Bridge (movement 6).

Johannes Brahms is possibly the most influential composer of the nineteenth century to write chamber music for the clarinet. He was an accomplished performer as well as a composer and easily transferred his performing experience to his compositions. Brahms's clarinet sonatas, written in 1894, were among his last chamber works.

The first movement of the Sonata in F minor presents a serious mood that is first created with a dark descending line in the piano. The clarinet Lakes over with an ascending line featuring large jumps of tenths over the break of the instrument, highlighting the technical difficulty of overcoming the natural resistance between registers of the clarinet. The use of hemiola in the first movement, a trademark of Brahms's compositional style, is frequent.

The second movement is clearly a tribute to Brahms's love for the clarinet. This Andante in A flat major is completely different from the first movement. The clarinet has long singing lines that accentuate its richness of tone. The movement is rhapsodic in character.

In writing the third movement, Brahms was influenced by the folk music he remembered from the pubs of his childhood. He spent a good deal of his early life in Hamburg playing in pubs where the locals went to drink and sing folk songs.

The fourth movement is in rondo form. It requires the clarinet player to display the range and control of the instrument as in the first two movements, while demanding extreme clarity of articulation as well. Elements of all the themes in this movement combine in the coda to create a brilliant and conclusive finish.

Early in his career Arron Copland adopted a writing style utilizing elements of jazz in order to sound more American. During the 1930s, Copland found other ways of creating an American sound, mostly through the use of folk songs in his popular ballets, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring. He returned quite naturally to his jazz writing style when composing a piece for the great jazz musician and clarinetist Benny Goodman. After Goodman made his mark in jazz, he began to take an interest in classical music, playing the Mozart Concerto and other standard works for the clarinet. When Goodman began commissioning classical repertoire, Copland immediately came to mind.

Copland worked on the concerto in 1947 - 1948, taking a break in 1948 after completing its first movement to work on the film score for The Red Pony. When the concerto was finished in 1948, some revisions suggested by Goodman were incorporated into the score. The clarinetist premiered the work on November 6, 1950 over a radio broadcast with the NBC Symphony, conducted by Fritz Reiner. Goodman's phenomenal performance quickly established the concerto as a popular favorite.

Structurally, the work is simple. There are two movements, slow then fast, linked by a lengthy cadenza and performed without a break. The first movement of the work is in 3/4 time and is lyrical. The main theme is structured ABA. The linking cadenza is written out note for note. Usually the performer plays a cadenza freely but Copland expected the orchestra and Goodman to play exactly what he had written. Copland's reason for this is that the cadenza not only showcases the performer's technique and articulation, but also introduces fragments of melodic material that will appear in the second movement. Further, the technical difficulty of the cadenza foreshadows what is to come.

Copland's inspiration for the second movement came from North and South American popular music, evoking the flavors of Charleston rhythms, boogie-woogie, and Brazilian folk tunes. Cast in rondo form, it contrasts extremely in sound and style with the first movement

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents a Senior Recital, Justin Gore, clarinet

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