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Publication Date

9-18-2005

Year of Release

2005

Note(s)

Ann Marie Bingham, clarinet

Leslie Petteys, piano

Ben Miller, percussion

Martin Saunders, trumpet

Paul Hindemith was one of the most significant and prolific composers of the twentieth century. A native German, he lost his position as professor of composition at the Music Academy in Berlin after being branded by the Nazi regime as an artistic radical. He immigrated to Switzerland, and then to the United States where he taught composition and directed the Collegium Musicum, a group dedicated to the performance of early music, at Yale University.

Hindemith valued craftsmanship in composition above all and believed that composers should gain practical experience with the instruments they compose for. He believed that composers should involve themselves in making music as well as writing it so that they do not lose sight of the realities of performance. He was a tonal composer and stated in his philosophical treatise, A Composer's World, that "tonality is as inevitable as the laws of gravity and attempts to ignore it result in chaos".

Hindemith's clarinet concerto was written for the eminent jazz clarinetist, Benny Goodman, but unlike works composed for Goodman by other "classical" composers, Hindemith's concerto lacks jazz elements. The concerto is primarily melodic and expressive, particularly the first and third movements. In the first movement the clarinet functions as one of many 1uelodic voices while in movement three it assumes a more soloistic character. The second movement is a brief exercise in intricate counterpoint. The counterpoint occurs against the ostinato figure that is presented throughout the movement in the piano part but is presented momentarily by the clarinet in the B section. The fourth movement is a sparkling finale that evokes in this performer's mind the delightful character of the third movement of Mozart's clarinet concerto.

Norbert Burgmueller's life was brief and his career as a pianist and composer was inauspicious. He nevertheless made enough of an impression on his contemporaries that Mendelssolm felt compelled to write a funeral march for him and Schumann lamented his demise as the gravest blow to the musical establishment since the death of Schubert. The Duo, Op. 15 is a rounded binary form with a D section that can stand alone as a separate movement. The A section demonstrates some Jack of understanding of composing for a wind instrument in its continual lines; nevertheless, the piece is well worth the attention of clarinetists due to its clarity and its beautiful melodies.

Roberto Sierra's musical style is a synthesis of classical training and the Latin folk elements of his homeland. He made the following statement regarding his compositions:

Because l am Puerto Rican, my m.usic is Puerto Rican. Always. The wealth of images l have in mind refers to that place where I grew up, to the sounds, the colors, the sunshine, the Puerto Rican sky. Even the more abstract music has an accent that points to where I was born. Then again, Puerto Rico is par! Of the world, and like the rest of the world, it eventually merges into something larger.

The brief Cinco Bocetos are lively images of Puerto Rico. The Prelude is based on salsa rhythms and County Song and Mountain Song are derived from folk tunes. Nocturnal Interlude allows the listener to imagine the night sounds he might experience in a tropical setting, including the call of the little tree frog (coqui) that makes its appearance as a melodic major seventh throughout the movement. The finale intersperses rhythmic figures that develop in range throughout the course of the piece from a minor second to over two octaves with quotations from a Catalonian folk melody, Song of the Birds.

Paul Bowles was acquainted with a remarkable number of the great artistic figures of the twentieth century, including Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Tennessee Williams and Gertrude Stein. A native New Yorker, Bowles is acclaimed both as a writer of fiction and as a composer of music. His fiction generally features Americans traveling abroad and finding themselves in dire situations, facing terrifying diseases or other disasters. His music on the other band typically is cheerful and bright.

In 1938 Bowles collaborated with Orson Welles on a film called Too Much Johnson. It was based on a stage play written in the 1890's by actor William Gillette. Welles' version is not a film version of the entire play but is a series of excerpts derived from it. The film is silent and the score that Bowles provided to accompany it, Music for a Farce, is a series of brief pieces cast in various styles and tempos to accommodate the action depicted in the scenes of the film

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents the Chamber 10 and More!, present a, Faculty Recital, Ann Marie Bingham, clarinet, Leslie Petteys, piano

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