Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Even if we limit the term “American Music” to the United States, it covers an
incredible variety of sounds, the result of the myriad cultural exchanges that define our
immigrant culture. If we take all of the “Americas” into account, the variety is truly
bewildering. With composers from the U.S., Argentina, and Brazil, tonight’s concert
offers a rich buffet of music from several continents. In each of these works, the
bringing the European art music tradition into conversation with folk and popular styles
such as jazz, boogie woogie, cowboy songs, bossa nova, and tango. In the spirit of the
New World, the results are joyous and exuberant, but balanced with the mood of the
blues, both the North American form and its South American counterpart known as
saudade.
Two of the three South American Songs for flute and guitar come from the Suite
Buenos Aires by Argentinean guitarist and composer Máximo Diego Pujol. Born in
1957, Pujol has followed the lead of Astor Piazzolla, who revolutionized the traditional
tango with advanced harmonies borrowed from jazz and art music, more complex forms,
areas of the Argentinean capital. “Palermo” is a bittersweet love song with a wistfully
falling melodic line; a sunnier middle section brightens the mood but the minor key
returns. “San Telmo” is a festive dance with a rumba beat that combines rhythmic groups
of three and two and features percussive effects on the guitar. The third song is the
performers’ arrangement of El Quitapesares (The Consolation), a traditional folk song
Best known for his weekly radio show, Schickele Mix, and his groundbreaking
“discovery” of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele also composes serious music, or at least
music that’s supposed to be taken seriously. Plenty of humor shines through in his
Serenade for Three, composed in 1993 for the Verdehr Trio, which has commissioned
more than 130 works for the unusual ensemble of clarinet, violin, and piano. Schickele
writes about the work, “My brother started studying violin when he was nine, and I
started playing clarinet and piano when I was a young teenager, so perhaps one of the
reasons I was so delighted by the commission that resulted in Serenade for Three is that
the piece recalls (in much more sophisticated form, I feel safe in saying) the sounds that
wafted through 1354 N. 12th St., Fargo, North Dakota, during the late Forties.” In the
first movement, the Schickele brothers seem to be practicing Mozart, boogie woogie, and
Klezmer music simultaneously; the composer leavens this exuberance with quiet sections
with the three instruments in rapid canons that circle around until the next outburst. The
second movement evokes the repeating note of Chopin’s “raindrop” prelude, clothed in a
blissfully calm melody. The third movement is based on a beloved aria from P.D.Q.
Bach’s dramatic oratorio, Oedipus Tex. This may explain the charming mixture of
Classical passagework, Western-swing fiddling, boogie woogie piano, and cowboy song,
for which the original words are: “Howdy, there! I’m Oedipus Tex/You may’ve heard of
my brother Rex/I’m Oedipus Tex–that’s what I said/But my friends just call me Oed.”
Pianist and composer Mel Powell (1923-98) earned a fine reputation in jazz,
playing with such greats as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Django Reinhart, before
Powell’s early works such as the Divertimento (1957) reflect the witty, jazz-influenced
followed the trend towards serialism and electronic composition. He was chair of
composition at Yale and the dean of the school of music at the California Institute of the
Arts. Powell scored Divertimento for the typical woodwind quintet, except that he
substituted trumpet for horn. Complex, jazzy rhythms and precise, dry articulation
balance lyrical melodies for each instrument. The harmony is far from traditional tonality
but Powell finds many pleasing combinations arising from contrapuntal lines. The
second and fourth movements in particular sweep forward with tremendous energy, while
In the Coraçao Apaixondo (Passionate Heart) Suite, jazz trumpeter and composer
Jamie Simmons chose to arrange works by two favorite composers, Brazilian Antonio
Carlos Jobim and Argentinean Astor Piazzolla. In the 1960s, Jobim and João Gilberto
led the revolution in Brazilian popular music known as bossa nova, which combined
traditional Brazilian music with cool jazz from the U.S. and a progressive political
agenda. With Jobim’s hits, Desafinado and The Girl from Ipanema, bossa nova became
the rage for a time in the U.S., as everyone from Frank Sinatra to Eydie Gorme got into
the act. João Gilberto’s recording of Chega da saudade (No More Blues) in 1958 is often
credited as the first example of bossa nova, and it shows the jazz influence in swinging
licks for the ensemble and solos for individual instruments. Luiza is a typical bossa nova
ballad, as the guitar evokes the feeling of smiling through tears. Piazzolla’s Primavera
porteña (Spring in Buenos Aires) comes from his Four Seasons in Buenos Aires, a
Primavera,” Piazzolla’s spring tango has the dark mood of a rainy day in April.
– Matthew Baumer