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8 Tuesday july 8 PM RISING STAR SERIES donald sinta saxophone quartet Dan Graser, soprano saxophone Zach Stern, alto saxophone Joe Girard, tenor saxophone Danny Hawthorne-Foss, baritone saxophone “THEN AND NOW” QUARTETTSATZ IN C MINOR (1820) Franz Schubert (1797-1828)/arr. Dan Graser PHANTOMS (2012) Natalie Moller (b. 1990) ADAGIO FOR STRINGS, FROM STRING QUARTET, OP. 11 (1938) Samuel Barber (1910-1981)/Arr. Michael Warner RECITATION BOOK, V: FANFARE/VARIATIONS ON “DURCH ADAMS FALL” (2006) David Maslanka (b. 1943) :: intermission :: QUATUOR POUR SAXOPHONES, OP. 109 (1932) Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) Première partie: Allegro—Più mosso Canzone variée Thema: Andante Variation I: Même movement Variation II: Con anima Variation III: À la Schumann: Grave Variation IV: À la Chopin: Allegretto Variation V: Scherzo: Presto Finale: Allegro moderato—Più mosso SUITE (1993) Michael Nyman (b. 1944) Here to There (arr. Graser) The Promise (arr. Graser) Songs for Tony SPEED METAL ORGANUM BLUES (2004) Gregory Wanamaker (b. 1968) First Prize winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is represented by Concert Artists Guild. concertartists.org 33RD SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 77 WEEK 5 the program Notes on the program by Sandra Hyslop QUARTETTSATZ IN C MINOR Franz Schubert (b. Himmelpfortgrund, Vienna, January 21, 1797; d. Vienna, November 19, 1828)/arr. Dan Graser Composed 1820; 9 minutes Franz Schubert began to compose a new string quartet in C minor in 1820. He completed the stunning first movement and finished 41 bars of an Andante movement before he inexplicably left off and never returned to the work. It was discovered among the scores that came to light after his death in 1828. The manuscript eventually came into the possession of Johannes Brahms, who edited the work for its publication in 1867 as Quartettsatz (quartet movement). Its first public performance took place in Vienna on March 1, 1867. Donald Graser, the soprano saxophonist of the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet, arranged Schubert’s Quartettsatz for the ensemble. A member of the faculty of Grand Valley State University, Graser frequently gives masterclasses and clinics at universities and conservatories in the U.S. and abroad. PHANTOMS Natalie Moller (b. 1990) Composed 2012; 7 minutes Composer Natalie Moller was a candidate for a master’s degree in composition at the University of Michigan when she was named a winner of the Donald Sinta Quartet 2013 National Composition Competition. The Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet performed the premiere of Moller’s competition-winning composition, Phantoms, in France at the Versailles Conservatory, on April 4, 2013, followed by performances in Paris on April 5 and 8. A week later, April 16, the U.S. premiere took place at the University of Michigan. Donald Sinta Donald Sinta, the Arthur F. Thurnau and Earl V. Moore Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has earned an international reputation for his many achievements. In 1969 he was the first elected chair of the World Saxophone Congress. An avid supporter of new music, he has premiered more than 40 works by American composers, and his recording American Music for the Saxophone is a classic. Before joining the UM School of Music, he was on the faculties of the Hartt School of Music and Ithaca College. He is currently director of the All-State Program at Interlochen and the Michigan Youth Ensembles. On April 11, 2014, the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet took part in a concert staged by the University of Michigan Symphony Band, an evening of musical celebration honoring Professor Sinta. 78 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Phantoms begins with quiet clusters of tones in a lower register, from which soft melodic fragments emerge. A fluttering of tremolos leads to increasingly agitated activity, as the four instruments separate into their respective voices. Their elaborated plaints, led by the soprano, culminate in a defiant final wail at the extremes of their ranges on an open fifth. ADAGIO FOR STRINGS FROM STRING QUARTET, OP. 11 Samuel Barber (b. Pennsylvania, 1910; d. New York City, 1981) Composed 1938; 9 minutes The revered conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), who rarely performed works by American composers, met Samuel Barber in Italy in 1933, and after getting to know the young composer expressed an interest in his music. It took Barber several years to create scores that he considered suitable for the Maestro’s review. In the spring of 1938, Barber submitted to Toscanini his newly completed Essay for Orchestra along with the Adagio for Strings, Barber’s own adaptation for five-part string orchestra (adding double basses) of the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Toscanini’s decision to perform both the works signaled a major new chapter in Barber’s career. On November 5, 1938, Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a radio broadcast from Rockefeller Center featuring both the Essay and the Adagio. That single performance brought Barber instant renown. In addition, Toscanini took Barber’s music on an international tour and the Adagio for Strings has been constantly in the public ear ever since. Many composers and arrangers have adapted the Adagio for Strings for other instruments (Barber himself created a choral piece based on it, setting it to the text of the Agnus Dei from the Latin mass). In 1997 the trumpet player Michael Warner, founding director of the Spokane British Brass Band, created this arrangement for saxophone quartet. RECITATION BOOK, V: FANFARE/VARIATIONS ON “DURCH ADAMS FALL” David Maslanka (b. New Bedford, Massachusetts, August 20, 1943) Composed 2006; 11 minutes The composer David Maslanka has written more than 130 works for a wide variety of instruments and voices in many genres. Particularly known for his compositions for wind instruments, he has written a number of works for solo winds, four wind quintets and five saxophone quartets. About his 2006 composition Recitation Book, Maslanka writes: A recitation book is a collection of writings, often of a sacred nature, used for readings by a community. The music of this piece draws on old sources for each movement— Bach Chorales, a Gesualdo madrigal, Gregorian chant. A number of old variation techniques are employed throughout the piece. Recitation Book was composed for, and premiered and first recorded by, the Masato Kumoi Saxophone Quartet of Tokyo. David Maslanka Maslanka based the last of the Recitation Book’s five movements, Fanfare/Variations on “Durch Adams Fall,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chorale in D minor, BWV 637, from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book). Although the entire Recitation Book has earned a devoted following, the Movement V has acquired a particularly prominent place in the concert repertoire as a stand-alone piece, challenging to performers and popular with audiences. The complete title of Bach’s chorale hymn, “Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt menschlich Natur und Wesen,” translates as “Through Adam’s fall human nature and essence are thoroughly corrupted.” Saxophones de la Garde Républicaine QUATUOR POUR SAXOPHONES, OP. 109 Alexander Glazunov (b. Saint Petersburg, August 10, 1865; d. Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, March 21, 1936) Composed 1932; 22 minutes In 1928 the prominent Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, director of the Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg) Conservatory, left his homeland for a tour; his brief visit turned into permanent exile and he spent the last eight years of his life in Paris. The Communist authorities in the Soviet Union, suspicious of his connections to Western influences, effectively erased him from its rolls of composers, particularly when it became clear that he was composing for that bourgeois instrument—the saxophone. Glazunov became enamored with the saxophone through a quartet of soloists in the military concert band of the “Garde Républicaine,” whose principal soprano saxophonist was Marcel Mule, whom Glazunov particularly admired. On March 21, 1932, Glazunov wrote to his friend Maximilian Oseevich Steinberg, “I have an idea to write a quartet for saxophones….There 33RD SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 79 are great saxophone soloists in the band of the National Guard.” On June 2 he wrote again to Steinberg: Notes I have completed the composition for four saxophones…Movement I, Allegro B-flat major in 3/4 with rhythm: a bit of American! Movement II, Canzone Variée. The theme is built only on harmony; the first two variations are strict classical medieval style. Next follows a variation with trills à la Schumann (akin to his Symphonic Etudes), a variation à la Chopin, and Scherzo. The Finale is in a fairly playful style. on the program by Sandra Hyslop I am afraid that this composition will fatigue performers due to its length. I talked to one of them, and he assured me. In December Glazunov looked forward to a run-through of the Quartet: “I still worry about how matters will stand with ‘breathing,’ because the number of rests are few, and I wish to achieve full consonance.” The Quartet, published as Op. 109 and bearing the dedication “To the Artists of the Quatuor des Saxophones de la Garde Républicaine,” was premiered in April 1933. Glazunov wrote to Steinberg: “The performers are such virtuosi that it is impossible to imagine that they play the same instruments as we hear in jazzes [sic]. What really strikes me is their breathing and indefatigability, light sound, and clear intonation.” Thus inspired, Glazunov wrote his Saxophone Concerto for Marcel Mule the following year. SUITE Michael Nyman (b. Stratford, London, March 23, 1944) A 1948 portrait of Marcel Mule (1901-2001), the French saxophonist so admired by Alexander Glazunov Composed 1993; 8 minutes The British composer and pianist Michael Nyman, who has written prolifically in many genres of music, is widely known beyond the concert hall for his film scores. His music for Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano has been particularly successful. Dan Graser created saxophone quartet arrangements of two of the score’s tracks, “Here to There” and “The Promise.” Nyman has written about “Songs for Tony:” I began writing a saxophone quartet on New Year’s Eve 1992. In the early afternoon of January 5, 1993, I was informed that my friend and business manager, Tony Simmons, had died after a long and heroic fight against cancer….The first song is a transcription of an actual song, “Mozart on Mortality,” which I wrote for the Composers Ensemble in the spring of 1992.…The second song is adapted from the music for The Piano. This film was the last major deal that Tony negotiated on my behalf. The third song, a soprano sax solo, is based on a tune I composed some years ago, but was saving for a special occasion. SPEED METAL ORGANUM BLUES Gregory Wanamaker (b. 1968) Composed 2004; 1 minute, 4 seconds Gregory Wanamaker, professor of composition at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, has wide-ranging music interests. He says of himself that he studies sounds from around the world, “to draw from a variety of musics,” to inform his continually evolving voice. Speed Metal Organum Blues was commissioned by the Prism Saxophone Quartet in honor of the group’s 20th anniversary. According to Wanamaker, “The title refers to the fast-paced succession of open fifth ‘power chords’ found in speed metal music—and the strange notion that this music may have actually evolved from 13th-century organum (doubtful, but funny to think about: Monks on speed!).” 80 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM