Download Jefferson and His Time - Virginia Symphony Orchestra

Jefferson and His Time
PROGRAM Notes for Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Classics #3 - - 3-5 November, 2011 - Jefferson and his Time
By Laurie Shulman ©2011
First North American Serial Rights Only
Thomas Jefferson: leading member of the Continental Congress, primary author of the
Declaration of Independence, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President under John
Adams and, from 1801 to 1809,our nation’s third President. Jefferson died in 1826. That date, a
quarter of a century into the nineteenth century and more than a decade after the end of the War
of 1812, may surprise those not up on their American history. It casts a different light on the
theme of this weekend’s program, ‘Jefferson and his Time.’ In terms of music, Jefferson’s time
embraces not only the entire classical era, but also the first forays into romanticism.
This concert explores Jefferson’s world, not only through music he could well have
heard, but also in a new work by Virginia-based composer Judith Shatin, inspired by Jefferson’s
speeches and writings.
Maestro Rous opens with Haydn’s Symphony No.83 in G minor, known as ‘La Poule’ [The
Hen]. It takes its nickname from the chirpy second theme in the opening movement, which has
been likened to the clucking of hens in the barnyard. That theme follows a stormy opening that
has prompted comparison to Haydn’s earlier Sturm und Drang [‘storm and stress’] symphonies
of the late 1760s and early 1770s. By the mid-1780s, however, Haydn was generally in a more
benign mood, and the tumult of the symphony’s opening soon yields to a lighter atmosphere. The
first movement ends in G major, and the last two movements are also in G major.
‘La Poule’ is one of the six ‘Paris’ symphonies, thus labeled because they were all commissioned
by a French Count for a Parisian series at the Loge Olympique, a Masonic lodge in the French
capital. Haydn had never traveled to France, and the commission reflects how widely known and
admired his music had become. Jefferson could well have heard this work during one of his trips
to France on behalf of the young American nation.
Jefferson, in his own Words is UVA Professor Judith Shatin’s third composition based on
Jeffersonia, extending back to 1993. This most recent work is a consortium commission shared
among the VSO, Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, and
Illinois Symphony. The premiere took place in Bloomington, Illinois in March 2010. Most
recently, the River Concert Series in St. Mary’s City, Maryland presented Jefferson, in his own
Words as part of its 2011 Fourth of July celebration.
Ms. Shatin is an acclaimed composer whose music has been extensively commissioned by
groups such as the Ashlawn Opera, Barlow Foundation, Cassatt and Kronos Quartets, Fromm
Foundation, Library of Congress, and the National Symphony. A timbral explorer, her music
extends from the concert hall to installations, multimedia and film. Her inspirations range from
current politics to the sounding world that surrounds us. Ms. Shatin is currently William R.
Kenan, Jr. Professor of music at the University of Virginia, where she founded the Virginia
Center for Computer Music.
“Jefferson, in his Own Words gives an intimate view of Jefferson as both a public servant and
private citizen,” Ms. Shatin has written. “He wrote on subjects as mundane as the purchase of
seeds and shoes, and as telling as religious freedom and the national debt.” Each of her four
movements for narrator and orchestra focuses on a different aspect of his character and life.
Beethoven composed his iconic Violin Concerto in D major, Op.61 in the early years of the
19th century. The premiere took place in Vienna 1806. It is unlikely that Jefferson heard this
work, which had a hard time making friends for many years after its initial performance.
Certainly Jefferson knew some of Beethoven’s other music, and one would like to imagine that a
man of Jefferson’s cultural sophistication would have reacted better to Beethoven’s concerto
than that first Viennese audience.
Posterity has viewed this work with reverence. Many violinists consider it to be the greatest
concerto for violin. Only rarely does a concerto anchor the second half of an orchestral program.
Our excellent concertmaster Vahn Armstrong is the soloist in this middle period masterpiece. It
is monumental in size, heavenly in its beauty, and joyous. Certainly it has influenced many great
composers who have ventured into this genre. Surprisingly, the violin actually has very little of
its own thematic material. Beethoven allows the orchestra to sing, with the violin contributing
nobility, grace, and dignity. It adds up to divine music, altogether appropriate to this Jeffersonian
tribute.
More extensive notes by Laurie Shulman, as well as Ms. Shatin’s biography and her complete
note on Jefferson, in his Own Words, are available on the VSO web site.
Symphony No. 83 in G minor, Hob. I:83 ("La Poule")
Franz Joseph Haydn
Born 31 March, 1732 in Rohrau, Lower Austria
Died 31 May, 1809, in Vienna
Approximate duration 24 minutes
Slow growth to a continental reputation
Haydn spent most of his career in service to the Hungarian princely house of Esterházy.
He was first engaged by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy in 1761 and eventually served under three
other Esterházy princes, the most important of whom was Paul Anton’s younger brother
Nikolaus. Although Haydn spent the greater part of each year at the remote princely estates of
Eisenstadt and Esterháza, his music was performed in many other countries, spreading his
reputation. By the 1780s, Haydn was the most famous and popular composer in Europe, with
connections to publishing houses in many European countries outside Austria and Hungary,
including faraway places such as Spain and England. Late in 1784, an enterprising young
French noble named Claude François-Marie Rigoley, Comte d'Ogny, offered Haydn a
commission for six new symphonies. The Count was a backer of the prestigious Concert de la
Loge 'Olympique' in Paris, a city famed at the time for its excellent orchestras and burgeoning
public concert life. The compensation was generous: 25 louis d'or for each symphony, with an
additional 5 louis d'or for the publication rights to each new work. For the era, these were
staggering sums.
Paris, a city with larger orchestras
At Esterháza, Haydn oversaw an orchestra of about 28 players, who performed for a
smaller audience at the Princely court. By contrast, Paris had a strong orchestral tradition and a
larger public. The Parisian commission afforded Haydn the opportunity to write for a large
orchestra , one with upwards of 40 violins and ten basses, that would perform for a broader
French audience. Initially, Concert de la Loge 'Olympique' performances took place in the
Masonic Lodge from which the series took its name. Concerts gained in popularity, necessitating
a move to the Guard Room at the Palais des Tuileries, a larger facility that could accommodate
the growing audience.
Resemblance to “storm and stress” works – and to a clucking hen
The six symphonies that Haydn composed for Comte d'Ogny in 1785-86 have become
known as the "Paris" Symphonies. No. 83 in G-minor dates from 1785, and may have been the
first of the set. It is the only one in a minor key.,Its turbulent first movement bears a strong
resemblance to the passionate works of the late 1760s and early 1770s, Haydn's so-called Sturm
und Drang [Storm and stress] period.
The nickname "La poule" ("The hen") comes from the second subject, a chirping motive
in the violins whose repetition adds barnyard clucking, in dotted rhythm, from the oboe. This
delightful idea is worlds apart from the opening theme, with its accents, dramatic silences, and
jerky stop/start feel. Haydn provides us with maximum contrast in these two musical ideas:
serious vs. comic, full orchestra as opposed to thin scoring, worldly and fierce music followed by
domesticity and intimacy. Haydn's development of his two principal musical ideas, and his
ultimate resolution of their differences, makes this movement one of the finest examples of
classical symphonic structure.
Metric games
The slow movement is a jewel: another sonata structure, this time in E-flat major. Haydn
casts it in stately triple time, with chromaticism and expressivity that reflect the influence of his
young friend Wolfgang Mozart. Pulsing eighth notes and sudden outbursts add dramatic weight.
For the minuet/trio and finale, Haydn sheds the serious garb of the symphony's first half, moving
to the parallel major, G major, in both movements. He plays games with meter in the minuet,
shifting accents to odd places. The finale is a rollicking romp in 12/8 with the atmosphere of the
hunt.
Haydn composed his six "Paris" Symphonies, Nos. 82-87, in 1785 and 1786. All six
received their first performances in Paris on the Concert de la Loge 'Olympique' series. The score
to "La poule" calls for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings.
Jefferson, In His Own Words for narrator and orchestra
Judith Shatin
Born 21 November 1949 in Boston, Massachusetts
Currently residing in Charlottesville
Approximate duration 20 minutes
Three hours west of Hampton Roads, Charlottesville and its environs are the heart of
Jefferson country. The intellectual, political, and architectural legacy of our nation’s third
President resonate with particular depth at UVA, the university Jefferson founded. Historians and
scholars of Jeffersonia gravitate to the community, but UVA Professor Judith Shatin’s
experience has been unique. Jefferson, In His Own Words is her third Jefferson composition.
The first was We Hold These Truths, a setting of part of the Declaration of Independence
for chorus, brass quintet, and timpani that UVA commissioned her to write in 1993. “It was
premiered on the lawn for an audience of 10,000 after Mikhail Gorbachev delivered his keynote
address,” she recalls. Then, last year, she completed a collaboration with filmmaker Robert
Arnold on Rotunda, a 15-minute film based on a year of images captured from a camera affixed
to UVA’s Old Cabell Hall, facing the lawn and the Rotunda. “I crafted the music from sounds I
recorded in and around the Rotunda and excerpts from unscripted interviews,” says Shatin.
This latest piece takes, once again, a completely different approach: it is a large-scale,
four-movement work for narrator and orchestra. “Choosing texts was difficult because Jefferson
was astonishingly prolific,” the composer observes. “I started by looking at collections of letters
and of his political writings. I wanted to address not only his amazing political insights and ideas,
but also something more personal that reflected some of the complications he grappled with. At
the same time, I had to ensure that the text was musically suggestive to me and that it had a
certain flow. It was very helpful to have collaborative input from poet Barbara Goldberg.”
Writing for narrator with orchestra requires a composer to balance the spoken word with
the massed sound of a large ensemble. Ms. Shatin explains that her challenge lay in handling the
orchestra in ways so that the text is intelligible and the narrator is not fighting to be heard. At the
same time, she did not want to overwhelm the piece with too much text. Her composer’s note in
the score provides an overview of the piece.
Based entirely on the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson in his Own Words gives an
intimate view of Jefferson as both a public servant and a private citizen. Throughout his life,
Jefferson maintained a daily practice of correspondence with an enormous variety of people –
from a carpenter to heads of state; from his granddaughter to John Adams. He wrote on subjects
as mundane as the purchase of seeds and shoes and as telling as religious freedom and the
national debt. The narrative, drawn from his voluminous letters and Farm Book, unfolds in four
movements, each focusing on different aspects of his life: 1. Political Passions 2. Head and
Heart 3. Justice Will Not Sleep 4. The Freedom of Reason. I fashioned the narrative in
collaboration with noted poet Barbara Goldberg, whose own poetry I have set several times.
Jefferson was himself an accomplished musician, and my music includes references to Corelli’s
La follia and to the Broom of the Cowdenknowes, a Scottish air, two Jefferson favorites. In
addition, I have recast a phrase from the early spiritual We Will March Through the Valley in the
third movement.
Jefferson, In His Own Words was a co-commission of the Charlottesville and University
Symphony Orchestra and the Illinois, Richmond, and Virginia Symphonies. It is dedicated to Mr.
Gerald Morgan, a dear friend, staunch supporter of music both new and traditional, and a
descendant of Thomas Jefferson.
I would like to thank Lucia Stanton, Shannon Senior Historian at Monticello; Jack
Robertson, Foundation Librarian at the Jefferson Library; Peter Onuf, UVA Professor of History;
Erin Mayhood, UVA Music Librarian; multi-instrumentalist Pete Vigour, and the University of
Virginia Rare Books Collection for their research assistance.
– Judith Shatin
Each movement has its own character, with occasional examples of text painting. Ms.
Shatin adapted the atmosphere of the music from what she perceived Jefferson’s emotional or
internal state might have been when he was speaking or writing. “You can pick up a lot from
someone’s words,” she points out.
The quotation from La follia occurs as a woodwind trio at the opening of “Head and
Heart.” The spiritual is embedded into “Justice cannot sleep,” Jefferson’s musings on the
injustice of slavery. “This movement counterpoises his abolitionist sentiments with the slaveowning facts of his farm book. He was very conflicted,” says Shatin. The Scottish air opens the
finale. These conscious references veered the composer toward a tonal anchor and a more
traditional neo-romantic color palette.
“I wanted to refer to music that Jefferson loved,” she adds. “It really depends on the
listener’s musical interpretation. I imagine some people will think of certain sections as more
romantic, for example the section about Maria Cosway. The “Justice Cannot Sleep” movement is
far more dissonant. Throughout Jefferson, In His Own Words, I was trying to communicate and
amplify the meaning of the text at hand.”
The score calls for two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling
English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass tuba,
timpani, a large percussion battery (crotales and bow, two timbales, snare drum, maracas,
slapstick, vibraslap, small metal wind chimes, medium tam-tam, triangle, vibraphone, three tomtoms, five temple blocks, high and low wood blocks, tambourine, high and low suspended
cymbals and bow, and crash cymbals), narrator, and strings.
Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 61
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born 16 December, 1770 in Bonn Germany
Died 26 March, 1827 in Vienna, Austria
Approximate duration 42 minutes
Five gentle taps on the timpani open Beethoven’s sublime Violin Concerto. From them
spring the entire first movement: its leisurely, unhurried page, its emphasis on internal
examination rather than external show, and of course the motivic substance from which the
music is constructed, in Beethoven’s incomparable fashion. These five beats are a stable foil to
the woodwind theme, marked dolce [sweetly], that answers them and eventually emerges as the
principal melody of the movement. The same five strokes, understated yet inexorable, firmly
anchor the Allegro, ma non troppo in the tonic key of D major. They are a welcome homing
point in light of the disorienting and unexpected D-sharps (significantly, repeating the same
rhythm of the opening timpani strokes) that the first violins interject as early as the tenth
measure.
A cornerstone of the solo violin literature, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is so familiar that
listening to it becomes a special experience. Our ears are finely tuned for detail, because we
recognize, or think we recognize, everything we hear. We are at once greeting an old friend, and
learning something remarkable and new about that friend, something that never surfaced in an
earlier conversation. Part of Beethoven’s genius lies in the fact that his music continues to speak
to us even after repeated hearings. If anything, our perception and appreciation of its message
and communicative power increases with greater acquaintance.
Thus it is doubly astonishing to think that, after the Violin Concerto’s premiere in 1806,
it only received one additional documented performance in Beethoven’s lifetime, and that was in
Berlin rather than Beethoven’s adopted city of Vienna. According to Beethoven’s biographer
Boris Schwarz:
As late as 1855, the eminent Louis Spohr – who rejected the late works of Beethoven while
enthusiastically approving Richard Wagner, said to [Joseph] Joachim after a performance of the
Beethoven Concerto, “This is all very nice, but now I’d like to hear you play a real violin piece.
Why did this concerto take so long to win friends?
For one thing, it is not a flashy vehicle that focuses on the soloist’s brilliant technique. A
pianist who played some violin, Beethoven studied repertoire of prominent contemporary
violinist-composers such as Viotti, Kreutzer, and Rode, in order to become more conversant with
the technical possibilities of the violin. Display for its own sake never eclipses the broader
musical architecture of this mighty work. In this realm, Brahms was Beethoven’s most
distinguished emulator. Among Beethoven’s own compositions, the Violin Concerto’s closest
spiritual sibling is the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op.58. The two works share serenity,
absolute conviction in an inherent balance, and a lack of need for overt display. It is surely no
accident that these two works are contemporary.
About the music
Several factors contribute to the length of the Violin Concerto’s opening Allegro ma non
troppo: a full double exposition, the addition of an extra episode during the development section,
a full recapitulation without truncation, plus solo cadenza and coda. (One of the concerto’s
surprising features is that Beethoven never awards the cantabile second theme to his soloist until
the coda.)
Beethoven’s Larghetto, built on variation principles, is sheer embroidery. Only muted
strings and pairs of clarinets, bassoons, and horns accompany the soloist. The eminent British
writer Donald Francis Tovey observed:
Beethoven uses variation form in order to express a sublime inaction in his slow movements. In
the Violin Concerto, the theme is a single strain with an echo, and the inaction is the more
impressive by reason of two episodic themes which intervene between the later variations, and
which are even more confined to the home tonic than the theme itself.
The recurrent, descending bass line relates the movement to the Baroque chaconne. Beethoven’s
quasi-archaic orchestral approach allows the soloist an extravagance of embellishments. Whereas
the Fourth Piano Concerto’s slow movement dialogue is rhetorical, dramatic, even combative, in
the Violin Concerto the mood is comfortable, even friendly. Beethoven’s geniality carries
through to the Rondo finale, whose double-stopped episodes are the only such instances in the
concerto. Taking unusual and beguiling advantage of the violin’s high register, the finale
provides wonderful opportunities for the soloist to display discerning taste and polished
execution.
For these performances, Mr. Armstrong plays the cadenza by Fritz Kreisler.
The score calls for flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani,
solo violin and strings.