Program Notes
Composer’s Note: Two American Portraits
- Gabriela Lena Frank
Born September 26, 1972, in Berkeley California
I. Frank’s Alborada a homage to Frank Mancini 
II. Old Modesto
Two American Portraits, dedicated to the past and present inhabitants of Modesto,California, was made possible through the gracious support of the American ComposersForum’s Continental Harmony project. This project has a marvelous mission -- No lessthan the creation of musical work that is specifically inspired by a local community’sculture and history. In this case, I was honored to be treated to a yearlong residency to become acquainted with Modesto. Although I grew up and presently reside in the SanFrancisco Bay area, I was delighted and impressed with the embarrassment of riches thatpresented itself to me — It was indeed a difficult job to decide what of the manyexperiences I had would find its musical reflection in my new composition. Ultimately, Idecided that what ended up on the cutting room floor would undoubtedly find its wayinto future pieces…
In Two American Portraits, I take composer’s artistic license to re-imagine and reassemble certain elements from Modesto’s past. The first movement, Frank’s
Alborada, is in tribute to Frank Mancini, the clarinet player originally from Italy who wasan active freelancer in the San Francisco Bay area before becoming an important music teacher in the San Joaquin Valley. Culturally important, he also founded the Modesto Symphony Orchestra. As indeed a tribute, this movement is scored predominantly for just two clarinets who perform a quiet but lyrical alborada, a traditional “dawn” song ofwelcome originally from Spain that migrated to the Americas.
The second movement, Old Modesto, is unlike the first movement in that it features the entire orchestra, and is bold and festive, infused with strong dance rhythms. Here, I drew inspiration from my visits to the McHenry Museum, the Oakdale Cowboy Museum, and the steer ranch Ranchería del Río Estanislaus under the direction of Bob Brunker, Sr. to try and capture the spirit of the men and women who worked the land of the valley as miners, agriculturalists, and horsemen.
Old American Songs
- Aaron Copland
Born November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, New York
Died December 2, 1990 in North Tarrytown, New York
The first performance of Set I, in its original version for voice and piano, was on January 28, 1951, in New York, with bass William Warfield. Set II was first heard dates from the following year. Copland orchestrated both sets in 1954. They are scored for piccolo, flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, trombone, harp, and strings.
In 1949 Aaron Copland participated in the World Peace Conference in Paris. Several right-wing members of Congress perceived this as a clear signal that this most American of composers had ties to the Communist Party. Compounded by the fact that he had encountered American socialism through colleagues in the early 1920s, he faced the wrath of anti-communist smear campaigns. Despite his denial of these accusations, his Lincoln Portrait was removed from a gala concert for President Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953. The same year, he was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (as were dozens of others) in an attempt to defend himself against the hypocritical witch-hunt of Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin). The accusations were not proven and Copland’s career was unscathed. However, history remembers McCarthy as a shameless accuser who ruined the careers of many talented men and women in an attempt to advance his own.
Not surprisingly, Copland’s musical activity between the 1949 World Peace Conference and the Congressional hearings produced some of his most undeniably American works – the opera The Tender Land, his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, and the two sets of Old American Songs. Divided into two sets, the Old American Songs look backward to a simpler time. Copland retained the melodies and texts of the nineteenth-century originals, but cast them against a colorful canvas of descriptive accompaniment. The first set of five songs, composed in 1950, proved to be so successful that he wrote an additional set in 1954. Demand for performances was great, forcing Copland to orchestrate the first set in 1954, followed by an arrangement of the second set in 1957.
Set I includes the most popular of the Old American Songs. It opens with “The Boatmen’s Dance,” a minstrel song by Daniel Emmett, the composer of Dixie. Dating from 1843, the jaunty song tells of life on the river, with a banjo-like accompaniment. “The Dodger” dates from the 1883 presidential campaign of Grover Cleveland, providing a timeless glimpse of political mudslinging. The sentimental ballad “Long Time Ago” is a poignant piece of 1837 nostalgia for a deceased sweetheart. Dating from 1848, “Simple Gifts” is a Shaker hymn about the eternal search for virtuous life on earth. The final song, “I Bought Me a Cat,” is a hilarious barnyard song, complete with animal sounds.
Set II begins with “The Little Horses,” a Southern lullaby. One of Copland’s favorite melodies, “Zion’s Walls” is a revivalist song that was also used in his opera, The Tender Land. “The Golden Willow Tree” comes from a field recording made by ethnomusicologists Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in 1937. The poignant hymn “At the River” follows in an especially touching setting. Set II closes with the minstrel song “Ching-A-Ring Chaw.”
Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, “From the New World”
- Antonin Dvorak
Born September 8, 1841, in Mühlhausen, Bohemia
Died May 1, 1904, in Prague
Dvorak’s New World Symphony was premiered on December 16, 1893 by the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall. Anton Seidl conducted. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, trumpet, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings.
Antonin Dvorak had a strong affinity for the music of common people. He collected and studied folk music, but, paradoxically, seldom incorporated authentic indigenous music into his works. Drawn to the simple beauty of African-American spirituals and Native-American songs, Dvorak boldly suggested that American composers needed to cultivate a national identity in their music.
Dvorak’s suggestion came on the heels of his 1892 appointment as director of the American Conservatory of Music in New York. He would spend the next summer in the small Czech community of Spillville, Iowa, where he would complete his “American” string quartet and quintet. After only a few months in this country and before his summer trip, he began an experiment – a symphony blending stylized folk elements of his native Czech land with those of his temporary American home.
In the December 15, 1893, edition of the New York Herald – the day before the premiere of the symphony – Dvorak published an essay on national identity in music. He stated that American composers should be aware of all indigenous music. The composer had heard many spirituals from his student Harry T. Burleigh and found them to be beautifully expressive. Native-American melodies were familiar to him from transcriptions and a visit to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in New York. In the essay, Dvorak wrote of the similarity of the melodies of both cultures and suggested that there must be some way to incorporate such truly American music in new compositions. [In the following decade, a small musical ripple arose from the “Indianist” composers, led by Arthur Farwell, who adopted Dvorak’s technique of creating stylized exotic melodies as well as transcribing many authentic Native American songs.]
Dvorak’s own Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” incorporates some of these elements but retains a Czech identity throughout. It seems somewhat like a postcard to his fellow Czech citizens from an extended vacation in America – there is an American flavor at times but the result is purely Czech. As for quotations of American music in the symphony, there are none. Many have pointed to the second theme of the first movement as resembling “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” but it stops there as merely a resemblance. The main theme of the slow movement, often called “Going Home,” is reminiscent of a spiritual but is not an original African-American melody. In short, Dvorak’s melodic materials offer mere indications of American-ness but are the inspired work of a master composer in taking new melodic contours and assimilating them to his needs.
©2007 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
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