Download Gamelan D`Drum Stewart Copeland

Gamelan D’Drum
Stewart Copeland (1952–)
Written: 2008–2011
Movements: Three
Style: Contemporary
Duration: 35 minutes
Stewart Copeland’s name is familiar among a diverse group of audiences. For pop music lovers he
is famous as the founder and drummer of The Police. For moviegoers, he is known as the
composer for Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street,” Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish, and Bruno
Barreto’s Four Days in September. Dedicated opera lovers know him as the composer of two
operas based on Edgar Allan Poe—The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart—as well as
Holy Blood and Crescent Moon for the Cleveland Opera. Then there are his ballets Lear and Prey.
He even wrote some ringtones for the Blackberry!
The son of a CIA officer and an archeologist, Stewart Copeland describes himself as a
“diplo-brat.” He spent most of his childhood in Beirut, Lebanon, and began playing the drums
when he was twelve. He spent his high school years at a boarding school in England, and his
college years in California. Back in England, he became a “roadie” for some rock bands, and
eventually joined the band Curved Air as the drummer. He then joined guitarist Henry Padovani
and bassist Sting to form The Police. (The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 2003).
During the final years of The Police, Copeland started working on the soundtrack for Coppola’s
film Rumble Fish which garnered a Golden Globe nomination in 1984. In an interview by David
Brensilver for NewMusicBox.org, Copeland described the music education he got by scoring for
films:
You are forced to learn things and go places that you would never go on your own accord.
The professional film composer has had to deal with more types of music, more kinds of
orchestration, a wider range of emotion, period, than any serious composer . . . .
By the turn of the century, Copeland’s stature as a composer had grown to the point that the
distinguished music publisher Schirmer could confidently suggest him as a composer for a
commission in 2008 for the Dallas Symphony and the percussion group D’Drum.
As Copeland described it to Lauren Vogel Weiss for an article in Percussive Notes, he began by
deciding which of the vast number of percussion instruments in the D’Drum collection he could
use. “I went around and filmed every single bar, bell, or object with a little video camera and got an
audio recording of what each of them did so I knew what pitches were available to me to compose
around,” he said. After settling on the instruments of the gamelan—the classical Indonesian
orchestra made up primarily of gongs and bells and xylophone-like instruments—he claims that,
“much of the piece was comprised of finding ‘cool tricks’ that they could do.” As the piece
developed, instruments from other cultures such as Africa and Hungary crept in. The final result is
a visual and aural world-music feast.
The premiere of Gamelan D’Drum in Dallas, 2011, almost didn’t happen. Scheduled for the same
weekend as Super Bowl XLV, the entire Dallas area was hit by a massive winter storm. Ice forced
the cancellation of three rehearsals and two performances. The Dallas Symphony and D’Drum
managed to give a single performance after only two rehearsals. There have been subsequent
performances in Cleveland and Corpus Christi, but these performances by the San Antonio
Symphony will be the first time Gamelan D’Drum will be performed twice in a row. Dare to
Drum, a film about the whole process surrounding the composition and premiere of Gamelan
D’Drum was featured at the Dallas International Film Festival last April.
©2015 John P. Varineau
Daphnis et Chloé
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Written: 1909-11
Style: Impressionistism
Duration: 58 minutes
We have a ballet impresario—who Stravinsky likened to a “circus ringmaster”—to thank for many
of the monuments of early 20th century music. In the space of only ten years—from 1910 to
1920—Serge Diaghilev set the course of new music with his company, the Ballets Russes. He
commissioned leading composers such as Stravinsky, Debussy, Satie, Falla, and Prokofiev;
choreographers such as Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchine; and artists such as Bakst and
Picasso, to collaborate on his ballet productions. The result: Stravinsky’s Firebird, Petrushka, The
Rite of Spring, The Nightingale, and Pulcinella; Debussy’s Jeux; Satie’s Parade; Prokofiev’s The
Prodigal Son; Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, and many more.
Diaghilev heard Ravel’s music during the Ballets Russes’ first season in Paris. Shortly after that,
he hired him to write the music for Fokine’s setting of the Greek legend of Daphnis and Chloé. It
was not an easy production. Ravel took three full years to compose the work, and still Diaghilev
wasn’t satisfied with it. He threatened to cancel the whole production. The choreographer, Fokine,
and the great dancer, Nijinsky, came to blows over the choreography. The corps de ballet had lots
of trouble with Ravel’s rhythm, (eventually overcoming one section in a five-beat meter by
chanting the five syllables Ser-ge-Dia-ghi-lev).The final rehearsals were full of acrimony. Finally,
after a major blow-up between Diaghilev and Fokine, the premiere happened.
You may not have much opportunity to see Daphnis et Chloé with the original choreography by
Fokine and designs by Bakst, but the music has become a mainstay of the virtuoso orchestral
repertoire. Ravel divided the ballet into two suites for concert use; the second suite is the one most
often performed on orchestra concerts. Tonight you will hear the entire ballet.
The first part of the ballet introduces Daphnis and Chloé, two orphans raised by shepherds. In spite
of flirtations with others, the two fall in love. Daphnis teaches Chloé how to play the panpipes.
Pirates abduct Chloé, and Daphnis appeals to Pan for help. The pirates bring Chloé to their camp
and order her to dance. As she dances, she tries to escape. Pan enters the camp and rescues Chloé.
The final part of the ballet begins with rapidly undulating woodwind figures depicting the murmur
of forest streams. It is dawn and Daphnis is asleep. Violins and woodwinds mimic the sound of
birds awakening. A shepherd wanders into the scene, playing his pipe (here represented by the
piccolo clarinet). Gradually the sun rises in a great orchestral crescendo. Chloé appears, and the
two lovers rush into each other’s arms. They mime the ancient story of Pan and Syrinx: Syrinx
rejects the declared love of Pan. In desperation, Pan fashions a flute from a reed. While he plays,
Syrinx dances. (Of course, Ravel uses a real flute in the orchestra for this scene—it is one of the
greatest and most demanding flute solos in the repertoire.) Eventually, Syrinx (Chloé) falls into the
arms of Daphnis. Young maidens enter the scene and a wild bacchanale ensues.
In spite of an all-star cast of dancers, choreographer, set designer and composer, the premiere of
Daphnis was not a great success. The music—Ravel’s longest work—remains as some of the most
beautiful and evocative of the 20th century.
©2015 John P. Varineau