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Publication Date

4-8-2018

Year of Release

2018

Note(s)

Kaitlyn Fulks, violin

Assisted by

Johan Botes, piano

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Music Performance. Ms. Fulks is a violin student in the studio of Dr. Elizabeth Reed Smith.

PROGRAM NOTES

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001: Adagio

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) laid the brickwork for harmony and counterpoint in the Baroque period that set the foundation of contrapuntal music for centuries to come. The skills and techniques involved in the performance of his partitas and sonatas surpassed those once considered revolutionary. He wrote his Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin around the same time as the Six Suites for Violoncello. Generations to follow viewed these works as studies for developing technique. In the Adagio from his first sonata for unaccompanied violin a chord progression supports an improvisatory-like pseudo-melody. At the time, many composers notated only chords, leaving the performer to improvise after each chord. Bach, however, composed exactly what he intended the performer to play.

Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 40

French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) wrote his second violin sonata in 1917. He began studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1909, exploring the techniques of polytonality, or many harmonies being sounded at one time. As World War I was on the horizon, he could not join the armed forces due to medical reasons but found a job to aid Belgian refugees. An old friend, Paul Claudel, newly appointed minster to Brazil, offered him a job in Brazil as an ambassador of propaganda. Eager to leave his past behind and to mourn the loss of a close friend from the turmoil of war, he accepted. Traveling to Brazil, his main job was to translate coded messages with Claudel, but he also worked in aiding the Red Cross by organizing lectures and concerts. Sounds of Brazilian popular music from the people of Rio de Janeiro and the tropical forest filled his later compositions and enhanced his polytonality. His second violin sonata begins with a strolling melody in the first movement and soon the rhythm changes from slow and song-like to quick and transitionary, but the main melody still emerges from the melodic/accompanimental structure. In the second movement, the violin and piano have contrasting themes at different times during this fast-paced scherzo, movement. The third movement is a calming break from the second, while the final movement integrates the polytonality and eccentric rhythms from the streets of Rio.

Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major K.218: Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed Violin Concerto no. 4 in October of 1775 at the age of 19, the same year he composed all five of his violin concertos. Concertos No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 are his most famous. He was a prodigy on the violin and his works display his early compositional virtuosity. At this point in his career, he was living in Salzburg and composing mainly instrumental music. His early compositions (notably the first movements of concertos) were strict in classical concerto-style form (exposition, development, recapitulation, cadenza, coda), but he experimented with harmonic progressions and emphasized the soloist's importance. The first movement, Allegro, is lively and adheres to the rules of sonata form with the exception that Theme I is not included in the recapitulation. The soloist ends with a cadenza, an unaccompanied virtuosic solo with themes from the movement written for a specific concerto. The cadenza performed this afternoon was composed by Joseph Joachim, a Romantic era composer, who also wrote concertos and other substantial works for the violin.

Sonata "F.A.E."

The F.A.E. Sonata was written by a combination of composers: Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and one of Schumann's students, Albert Dietrich. It was written for and gifted to Joseph Joachim, a renowned violinist and composer. The title "F.A.E." means "Frei aber einsam" or "free but lonely" which was Joachim's motto. The movements can be performed separately, or "free," or together as a full sonata. Joachim, violin, and Clara Schumann, piano premiered the piece in October 1853. Dietrich composed the first movement, Allegro; Schumann composed the melodic and singing second movement, Intermezzo; Brahms composed the Scherzo, the fiery third movement of the sonata; and Schumann composed the Finale.

Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20

Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was a Spanish violinist and composer. He began playing the violin at age five. At age 12, he was sent to the Paris Conservatoire to study violin, and was later given a Stradivarius violin by Queen Isabella. He composed numerous showpieces, each with a dance-like influence. His virtuosic composition, Zigeunerweisen, also known as the Gypsy Airs, features many Hungarian folk elements throughout the work. Typically writing Spanish dances, he composed this work to appease the Germans for their obsession with Eastern music, also known as exoticism. In music, exoticism is the utilization of non-Western harmonic textures and melodies. The first section of the piece is commanding and challenging in both technique and mood. The performer tests the limits of what the instrument can achieve with trills, glissandos, pizzicatos, and harmonics. The second half closes the piece with a lively, brilliant dance.

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Department of Music Presents a Senior Recital, Kaitlyn Fulks, violin

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