PROGRAM NOTES

Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972)
LEYENDAS: AN ANDEAN WALKABOUT

Frank paints a picture vivid with Andean legends (“leyendas”). Walking about, following the Andes (the longest continental mountain range on this earth) would take you across several borders, those of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. But the borders that concern Frank are more complex to navigate, those between cultures and races.

She has said of her work: “Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout draws inspiration from the idea of mestizaje [those of mixed race] as envisioned by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas, where cultures can coexist without the subjugation of one by the other. As such, this piece mixes elements from the western classical and Andean folk music traditions.” Frank herself is the daughter of a Chinese/Peruvian mother and a Lithuanian/Jewish father. Her tapestry of sound, woven together from far-flung threads and patterns, speaks with a foreign – and yet familiar – accent.

Frank’s program note follows:

“Toyos” depicts one of the most recognizable instruments of the Andes, the panpipe. One of the largest kinds is the breathy toyo which requires great stamina and lung power, and is often played in parallel fourths or fifths.

“Tarqueada” is a forceful and fast number featuring the tarka, a heavy wooden duct flute that is blown harshly in order to split the tone. Tarka ensembles typically also play in fourths and fifths.

“Himno de Zampoñas” features a particular type of panpipe ensemble that divides up melodies through a technique known as hocketing. The characteristic sound of the zampoña panpipe is that of a fundamental tone blown fatly so that overtones ring out on top, hence the unusual scoring of double stops in this movement.

“Chasqui” depicts a legendary figure from the Inca period, the chasqui runner, who sprinted great distances to deliver messages between towns separated from one another by the Andean peaks. The chasqui needed to travel light. Hence, I take artistic license to imagine his choice of instruments to be the charango, a high-pitched cousin of the guitar, and the lightweight bamboo quena flute, both of which are featured in this movement.

“Canto de Velorio” portrays another well-known Andean personality, a professional crying woman known as the llorona. Hired to render funeral rituals even sadder, the llorona is accompanied here by a second llorona and an additional chorus of mourning women (coro de mujeres). The chant Dies Irae is quoted as a reflection of the comfortable mix of Quechua Indian religious rites with those from Catholicism.

“Coqueteos” is a flirtatious love song sung by gallant men known as romanceros. As such, it is direct in its harmonic expression, bold, and festive. The romanceros sing in harmony with one another against a backdrop of guitars which I think of as a vendaval de guitarras (“storm of guitars”).

Jacqueline Nova Sondag (1935-1975)
DOCE MÓVILES PARA CONJUNTO DE CAMARA

In the 1950s, composers began to expand the possibilities of using electronics to make music. A decade later, “New York Minimalists” of the 1960s were creating works for magnetic tape, experimenting with phasing it between the two reels, looping in and out of sync. Most of the individuals popularly associated with this burst of experimental music are men, but during this same time in Bogotá, Colombia, Jacqueline Nova was exploring new techniques of her own. She matriculated at the Bogotá Conservatory, graduating with a degree in composition, and would later go on to study with Alberto Ginastera and Luigi Nono. Eventually she would be hailed as “one of the finest Colombian composers of the 20th century and a progressive exponent of trends that dominated contemporary music in the 1960, including aleatory and electronic techniques.” 

While she was an active proponent of electronic music through her writing and lectures, she also found new ways to experience sound through acoustic means. Written during her student days, Nova’s Doce Móviles (12 Mobiles) plays with configurations of 12: There are 12 instruments playing 12 parts built on a 12-tone series of notes. As the title alludes, just as a mobile is built of individual parts interacting with physical space in movement, the spacing of the instrumental parts also plays a role in the overall sonic experience of the listener.

João Luiz Rezende (b. 1979)
“RECIFE” CONCERTO FOR HARP, STRINGS AND PERCUSSION

Brazilian guitar virtuoso and composer João Luiz Rezende is equally at home in a variety of genres and has collaborated with composers and performers such as Paquito D’Rivera and Yo-Yo Ma. Here, he has partnered with harpist Bridget Kibbey, whose own musical journey traverses everything from the European repertoire standards to music of the Middle East and South America. 

The work pairs elements of Baroque structure with Brazilian elements, and revels in the vibrancy of Carnaval in the city of Recife. It channels the exuberant atmosphere and dance rhythms of the festivities through extended techniques such as utilizing the harp frame, itself, as an additional percussive instrument.

Rezende’s note follows:

When I first heard Bridget Kibbey performing Bach’s French Suite n. 5 in G major, I was very touched and inspired by her great interpretation and ability to present Bach’s counterpoint with clarity. In the same program, Bridget played Brazilian music, something that she does as if she were born in Brazil. When Bridget requested a new concerto to be paired with her own version of Bach’s F-Minor Harpsichord Concerto, I thought about creating a piece with similar formal structure, mixing Bach’s counterpoint with the Brazilian rhythms that I grew up playing and listening to.

Brazilian music is naturally polyphonic. Counterpoint and polyrhythms can be heard in genres such as choro, samba, frevo and maracatú. In my concerto I bring these characteristics to the foreground where polyrhythms and counterpoint take priority over melody and tonality, with harmony being subordinate to counterpoint. The first movement, Cortejo (procession) is the opening act of the Carnival festivities in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The basis for this movement is the Maracatú, a rhythm I consider to be the most complex of all Brazilian rhythms. Maracatú is in 4/4 time signature, but here appears mostly in 3/4. Mar Calmo (calm waters) is a song. This movement evokes the transcendental beauty of Brazil’s northeastern coast. The melodic material is inspired by the modal songs from the same region. The concerto’s final movement Acrobático (acrobatic) is a virtuosic dance that challenges both soloist and orchestra. This movement uses the northeastern uptempo dance Frevo. The interplay between the instruments and many of the rhythmic gestures have its inspiration on the dancers’ movements and their acrobatics style. In this movement, the harp’s fugue in the first cadenza, and the piece’s final chord in F-minor are both a direct link to the music of J.S.Bach.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
CHÔROS NO. 5 “ALMA BRASILEIRA,” ARR. ANDREW ROITSTEIN

Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos grew up during a remarkable transitional moment, when the arts exited the late romantic era and entered into the modern. For context, when Villa-Lobos was born, Johannes Brahms was still alive, and the year after he died the Beatles formed. Largely self-taught with ample guidance provided by his father, who was a librarian and amateur musician, Villa-Lobos was well-versed in the classical European style, popular music, and rich folk traditions. The amalgamation of this broad range of influences is immediately recognizable as a hallmark of Villa-Lobos’ works. 

In recognition of his talent, Villa-Lobos was invited to participate in the Semana de Arte Moderna de 1922 (Modern Art Week of 1922) held in São Paulo, and was awarded a grant from the government the following year to fly to Paris to represent and promote Brazilian composers. It was also during this decade, from 1920-1929, that Villa-Lobos wrote his Chôros series. Comprised of 12 chôros (nos. 13 and 14 were lost) written for a variety of instrumentations, it is one of two famous sets of his oeuvre, the other being the 9 Bachianas Brasileiras of the 1930s. 

Chôros takes its name from a style performed by Brazilian street musicians, one that enchanted Villa-Lobos from a very young age. (In translation, chôros means, “I cry,” and the performers are chorões or “weepers/criers”.) Villa-Lobos explained, “These chôros are popular music. Chôros in Brazil…are always made by musicians playing together, good or bad musicians making music for their own pleasure, often at night, improvising, and the musician demonstrates his skill and his technique. And it is always very sentimental. This is important.” He went on to note about No. 5, originally written for solo piano and subtitled “Alma Brasileira” (Brazilian Soul): “The most interesting aspect of this chôros are the irregular rhythmic and melodic formulas, giving an impression of rubato, or a melody with ritardando, which gives the impression of delay and pause.”



Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993)
CONCERTO FOR STRINGS AND PERCUSSION

Born to a father who was a massive opera fan, Guarnieri and his brothers were all given names of famous 18th and 19th century composers. M. Camargo was Mozart (when he began his own career as a composer, he supplanted his first name with his mother’s maiden name, Camargo), and his brothers were Rossine, Verdi and Bellini. Showing musical promise at an early age, and by the time he was just 20 years old, he was appointed as a member of the piano faculty at the São Paulo Conservatory, and by his late twenties was appointed by the São Paulo Department of Culture for choral and orchestral conducting. In 1938 a fellowship allowed him to travel to Paris to study composition and conducting, during which time he also met with the great Nadia Boulanger before war forced him to leave the city and return to Brazil. Guarnieri’s works also found an audience in the United States, with performances in New York, at the Chamber Music Guild of Washington, D.C., and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with the composer doubling as conductor (on more than one occasion). His vibrant career established him as one of the most important composers in his country, with a large catalog of works including seven symphonies and over 200 songs, though his legacy was slightly overshadowed by his contemporary Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Written in 1972, Guarnieri’s Concerto for Strings and Percussion is one of only a handful of works written for such an instrumental configuration (the most famous similarly orchestrated work is Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta). It is scored for strings, timpani and two snare drums. Structurally, the work is divided traditionally into three movements played without a pause to create a sustained sonic experience, though the mood shifts significantly with each section. Unlike a conventional concerto format where the soloist(s) and orchestra contrast with each other, this piece functions almost more like a Baroque concerto grosso, with the two groups of musicians playing both with and off-of each other in turns. After the energetic opening movement, a melancholic lyricism acts as a memorial to Guarnieri’s mother in the second. High spirits return in the final movement that is punctuated by syncopated rhythms and periodic spotlights on the timpani and snare drums, as well as a brief cadenza-like violin solo that recalls the violin solo of the first movement, bringing the piece full circle.

Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot is a pianist/harpsichordist, musicologist, music and cultural critic, and freelance writer. A graduate of New England Conservatory, she writes program annotations for ensembles nationwide.