Download PROMISE OF THE NEW WORLD

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
BY LAURIE SHULMAN, ©2013
PROMISE OF THE NEW WORLD
These opening concerts of the NJSO’s 2013–14 season commemorate the 50th anniversary of
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered in
Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Each of the four compositions we hear has a connection
to the program’s overriding theme: Promise of the New World.
ELLINGTON: Three Black Kings
EDWARD KENNEDY (“DUKE”) ELLINGTON
Born: April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C.
Died: May 24, 1974, in New York City, New York
Composed: 1973; completed in 1974 by Mercer Ellington and Luther Henderson
Symphonic orchestration by Maurice Peress
Premiered: July 7, 1976, by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and jazz orchestra in New
York City.
First NJSO performance: These performances are the NJSO premiere.
Duration: 15 minutes
The idea had its roots, in part, in last year’s opening concerts, which included Duke Ellington’s
Harlem and music by George Gershwin. Following those performances, Lacombe began
considering some of Ellington’s other symphonic works. “When we decided to focus on the
50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech, Ellington’s Three Black Kings was a natural
choice because its third movement is dedicated to Martin Luther King.”
Each movement of Three Black Kings focuses on a different king of African origin. The first
movement, “King of the Magi,” refers to Balthasar, who paid tribute to the newborn Christ in
Bethlehem. Ellington’s score blends African rhythms with jazz and blues. “King Solomon”
evokes a sensuous harem scene, alluding to Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines in the
Book of Kings.
The finale is unusual for Ellington in that it adopts a gospel style, tinged with blues. Ellington
met the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and the two became friends. The movement is a
tribute to his slain friend, suggesting the fervor of King’s preaching, the nobility of his vision and
the tragedy of his murder.
Instrumentation: two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two
bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion, harp, piano and strings.
ALLEN: Stone and Streams
WORLD PREMIERE
GERI ALLEN
Born: June 12, 1957, in Pontiac, Michigan
Currently residing in Montclair, New Jersey
Composed: 2013
Orchestrated by Rev. Dwight Andrews, Ph.D., with assistance from Jordan Clawson
Premiered: These NJSO performances are the world premiere.
Duration: 9 minutes
Aware that Allen is also a distinguished composer and, of course, a New Jersey resident,
Lacombe had the idea of expanding her role in the program with an original composition. “I
asked whether any material she had written—something that also addressed the message of
Dr. King—could be expanded for orchestra. When I explained the context of the concert, she
took that idea and made it her own. She connected her piece to the program.”
The result is Allen’s Stone and Streams for piano, chorus and orchestra, which receives its world
premiere performances this weekend and inaugurates this season’s New Jersey Roots Project.
The piece takes its impetus from the spiritual “O Freedom,” from imagery in King’s famous
speech and from Allen’s unique gifts as composer and improviser. In his introductory narrative
about Stone and Streams, Rev. Dwight Andrews observes:
The title of this work is drawn from two powerful images in Dr. King’s speech.
The stone refers to the unforgettable phrase, “With this faith we will be able to
hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” With this faith we will be
able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony
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of brotherhood. The stream image makes use of Dr. King’s evocation of Amos
5:24: “[B]ut let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty
stream.” Stone and Streams weaves the spirituals and the blues, jazz and
improvisation into a revelatory contemporary artistic expression, a musical
tapestry that blazes a new trail of possibilities much like Dr. King’s speech invited
our nation to dream new possibilities more than fifty years ago.
Instrumentation: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
three trumpets, three trombones, two bass trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings,
chorus, narrator and solo piano.
ELLINGTON: New World A-Comin’
DUKE ELLINGTON
Composed: 1943
Premiered: December 11, 1943, at Carnegie Hall in New York
First NJSO performance: These performances are the NJSO premiere.
Duration: 10 minutes
Ellington’s inspiration for New World a Comin’ was the first book by the African-American
journalist Roi Ottley. Published in 1943, Ottley’s New World A-Comin: Inside Black America
addressed historical challenges for African-American people in the United States, but it also set
forth an optimistic vision for the role African-Americans might play in post-World War II
America. It became a best seller, and Ellington adopted its title for a new concert piece for the
Ellington big band.
New World A-Comin’ features a prominent solo piano part, originally played by the Duke. For
these NJSO performances, Lacombe immediately thought to invite Montclair-based jazz pianist
and composer Geri Allen as soloist: “I have known Geri Allen for quite some time and I have a
lot of respect for her work. I have heard her amazing piano playing several times.”
Instrumentation: two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet,
two bassoons, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp,
strings and solo piano.
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DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”)
(Performed with spirituals between movements)
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Born: September 8, 1841, in Mühlhausen, Bohemia
Died: May 1, 1904, in Prague, Czechoslovakia
Composed: 1893
Premiered: December 16, 1893, by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York.
First NJSO performance: 1929–30 season; Rene Pollain conducted.
Duration: 45 minutes, including spirituals.
As the NJSO’s Promise of the New World program evolved, it acquired a more global message.
Lacombe says: “It’s all about finding new ways of living together, all kinds of aspirations. I
thought it would be interesting to combine the Ellington and Geri Allen works with Dvořák’s
New World symphony. Here was a famous, well-established 19th-century European composer
discovering a new country, a new culture, a new continent so full of promise. His symphony was
inspired, in part, by the music that he discovered in North America.”
Lacombe has always been fascinated by traces of spirituals in the symphony. For these
performances, he incorporates performances of spirituals alternating with Dvořák’s music.
“One of them is ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’ which is a clear quotation as one of the themes in
the opening movement,” he points out. “Thus we are including it after the first movement, to
make that connection.
“It’s a powerful thing to perform Dvořák’s music intertwined with spirituals. This specifically
American music provided so much of his original inspiration. Our combination of old and new
worlds will be artistically stimulating. From the purely political aspect, it connects two ideas,
bringing them closer together. Ultimately this goes back to Martin Luther King’s message and
reinforces it.”
Instrumentation: two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes (second doubling English
horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani,
percussion and strings.