Download Overture to Candide - New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Overture to Candide
Leonard Bernstein
(1918-1990)
During Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts of the early 1950s, which
particularly targeted artists, writers and musicians, Leonard Bernstein and playwright Lillian
Hellman decided to use Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide as a vehicle to make a political
statement. According to Hellman, the novel attacks “all rigid thinking...all isms.” Bernstein
thought that the charges made by Voltaire against his own society’s puritanical snobbery,
false morality and inquisitorial attacks on individuals were identical to those that beset
American society.
After Hellman and Bernstein spent two years of intermittent cooperative work, the play
opened in the fall of 1956. It failed – that is, all but the overture. In its orphaned state, the
Overture became a staple of the orchestral repertoire and one of Bernstein’s most frequently
performed works. It reflects the breakneck pacing of Voltaire’s satire with its worldwide
adventures and buffoonery, interspersed in places by mock-tender moments.
In 1974, equipped with a new libretto that concentrated on madcap humor rather than a
political and social message, Candide was successfully revived. The musical saw 741 packed
performances in the Broadway Theater, but Bernstein was still not satisfied. Two operatic
versions followed in 1982 and 1989, and a CD of the final version, one of Bernstein’s last
recordings, became a bestseller.
Concerto No. 1 for Bass Trombone and Orchestra
Chris Brubeck
b.1952
When we come across a musical dynasty – the Bachs, Mozarts and Couperins – the question
always arises whether musical talent is in the DNA, learned or some magical combination of
genes and environment. The third musical son of celebrated jazz musician Dave Brubeck,
Chris Brubeck first distinguished himself as a jazz musician, performing and recording with
his father, but in 1987 he began composing for symphony orchestra as well. He is also a
lyricist, orchestral arranger, music educator and performer who plays bass, bass trombone,
guitar and piano. He enjoys an active and diverse career, equally at home playing Jazz, rock,
folk, funk and classical music. He learned from his father’s compositions – from pop and
jazz music to cantatas – that serious music can be accessible without being dumbed down.
Brubeck composed the Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra in 1991-92 at the request
of the Greater Bridgeport (CT) Youth Orchestra. The composer writes: “Having spent many
years of my adolescence playing in youth orchestras, counting endless measures, playing
trombone for only a few passages, and then frustratingly having to count more measures of
rest yet again, … I used to have musical nightmares about not being able to contain myself
any longer, and would visualize myself jumping up from the back of the orchestra to unleash
improvisations much to the conductor's horror. So imagine how my wheels began turning
when I was approached … to compose a work utilizing high-school students.
“I couldn't resist the chance to compose for these forces. My goal was to write a challenging
work that would keep all sections of the orchestra on their toes, expose them to odd time
signatures, polytonality, and above all, remind them that music was supposed to be joyous,
energetic, beautiful, adventurous, powerful, and even humorous!”
Brubeck explains the titles of the three movements: “The 1st Movement, Paradise Utopia, is
sizzling with American expansionist energy. I imagine a Donald Trump-like figure
maniacally rebuilding the New York skyline. Jazz elements were inescapable and, realizing
my old nightmare/dream, quite a bit of the trombone solo is meant to be improvised.” The
movement evokes Times Square on a Saturday night and recalls Gershwin’s An American in
Paris and the ubiquitous open harmonies of Aaron Copland.
“The 2nd Movement, Sorrow Floats, is a reflective Adagio; I must admit I was inspired to
name the movement after a chapter title from one of my favorite novels by John Irving (The
Hotel New Hampshire). The name of the 3rd Movement, James Brown in The Twilight
Zone, … refers to dual compositional elements used throughout; 2 bars from the "turnaround" of the Godfather of Soul's "I Feel Good," and an ascending chromatic passage
(originating in the piano and pizzicato strings) which is reminiscent of the music used in Rod
Serling's innovative TV anthology [Twilight Zone] In addition to these very American
cultural influences, the Gulf war was being waged and Middle Eastern threads started to
weave through the music.”
The River Suite
Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington
(1899-1974)
Orchestrated by Ron Collier
Among the great Big-band leaders, Duke Ellington was the only one who could be
everything: composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader. Born in Washington, DC, where his
father was a butler, he began playing the piano at age seven, making his professional debut as
a ragtime pianist at 17. Ellington moved to New York in 1923 to join Elmer Snowden’s
Washington Band. In 1930 his composition Mood Indigo catapulted him to world fame.
He was one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance and a symbol of the Big
Band jazz era. He composed over 2000 works, many of them three-minute pieces,
constrained by the limitations of the old 78 rpm records. Every member of his band was a
virtuoso, and Ellington incorporated their original riffs as part of his compositional process.
He composed in many genres, including film music (Anatomy of a Murder) and, towards the
end of his life, liturgical music.
In 1969 Ellington received the Presidential Medal of Honor and in 1970 was elected to the
exclusive National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also the first jazz musician to be
named a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music.
In 1970, the American Ballet Theatre commissioned Ellington to compose a ballet for
choreographer Alvin Ailey. The River, according to Ailey in a 1983 interview, “[The River]
was to be all water music, and it was to follow the course of this stream through various
stages: through a meander, a falls, a whirlpool, and then gurgling rapids. I fell in love with
the idea.” Ellington combined the European classical tradition with jazz, the blues and swing
harmonies and rhythms, creating an American jazz incarnation of Smetana’s Vlatava (The
Moldau). Ellington was deep into liturgical music, and he saw the river as an allegory to birth
and rebirth. The ballet comprised 12 movements arranged for piano and big band;
Trombonist, composer and arranger Ron Collier (1930-2003), who worked with Ellington,
orchestrated seven of them for symphony orchestra.
The history of this work – as with most of Ellington’s music – raises as many unanswered
questions as the thorniest problems of authentic attribution and performance practice in
Baroque scholarship. First of all, there is no definitive score; once liberated from the
constraints of choreography, every performance was different as the composer modified the
music with new riffs for particular players, or simply re-composed the music according to the
improvisatory nature of jazz. The leads into the main tunes are especially open to a flexible
approach in all interpretations of Ellington’s compositions. He did, however, work with
arrangers such as Collier, to commit a version to paper. Exactly what the original ballet score
sounded like we will probably never know.
Ansel Adams: America
Christopher Brubeck
b.1952
Dave Brubeck
(1920-2012)
Since 1987 Christopher Brubeck has composed many symphonic works. He says that he
learned from his father’s compositions – both the pop music and the complex but singable,
cantatas – that serious music can be accessible without being dumbed downed. In
collaboration with Dave he has even brought the visual arts into the convergence with their
2009 orchestral work, Ansel Adams: America, accompanying 100 of photographer Ansel
Adams’ majestic images projected above the orchestra.
The project Ansel Adams: America offered a different set of challenges. Chris writes: “The
key ingredient for the whole project would be to get permission from the Ansel Adams Trust
to allow us to project his photographs and to create music that would enhance the visual
experience. We respect the compositional integrity of Ansel Adams’ art, and project the full
and complete images without close-ups, panning or any other video techniques.
“The merging of music and photography made perfect sense when we discovered that Ansel
Adams was well on his way to becoming a serious concert pianist until he was seduced by
the beauty of Yosemite and succumbed to the lure of photography. …In Ansel’s
autobiography, I was impressed with his philosophical views, beautiful writing, and keen
analysis and comparison of musical and photographic techniques. He wrote: "Photographers
are in a sense composers, and the negatives are their scores." He was an artist and thinker
whose experiences were as monumental as El Capitan. Growing up in San Francisco, Ansel
Adams experienced a variety of historic events that would influence his art -- the Great
Earthquake of 1906; the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 (which he
experienced as part of his unique home-schooling, his father requiring him to go to the Expo
every day for a year!), to the building of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. I thought his
story was so interesting that I didn't want to simply project his photographs, but wanted to
present a glimpse of his remarkable story to the audience.
“Ansel Adams evolved in the expansive currents of 20th Century America. His lifelong
dedication to the Sierra Club along with his powerful photographs of the American landscape
helped shape the environmental movement in our country. Because of his talent, hard work,
and good fortune, he became a pioneer and icon of an emerging new art form. I couldn't help
but think of my father, who grew up as a cowboy in the foothills of California near Stockton.
Even there, he felt the artistic influences of a booming San Francisco. These changes in the
mid-20th century affected both Ansel and Dave, propelling them and their respective art
forms, photography and jazz, into the new frontiers of American culture. Recognizing their
similar histories spurred me to ask Dave to join me in this compositional endeavor. We had
collaborated before and I enjoyed the process immensely. At age 88, Dave was reluctant to
commit to such a big project. I gave my father and my mother, Iola, the Ansel Adams
autobiography to read, and they were hooked!
“Dave began to write a piano score that was driven in style by Bach and Chopin, immortal
music learned and played by Adams as a young man. This music was also part of Dave’s
unusual environment, growing up on a ranch where his father was a cowboy, and his mother
was a Classical pianist who often played Bach and Chopin. Dave's own style (in part inspired
by his studies with Darius Milhaud after World War II at Mills College) evolved to be both
polytonal and ‘jazzy.’ This heritage has naturally influenced my compositional language as
well. Because the architecture of some of Adams’ photographs was so like the complex
structure of a Fugue, I suggested to my father that he write one to be the heart of this new
composition. Dave’s enthusiasm and creativity inspired him far beyond the Fugue. He
devised many wonderful themes and ideas, which we expanded and polished together. Once
the piano score was complete, my wife Tish and I began to select additional images to be
shown throughout the developing score. I continued to compose and reshape the piece and
orchestrate more specifically to exact images.
“The beauty of Ansel Adams’ photography inspired Dave and me to create this music. We
hope you’ll enjoy his breathtaking photographs and the way our new composition surrounds
these images.”
Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
[email protected]
www.wordprosmusic.com