Stones River Program Notes – Music of the Americas

Even if we limit the term “American Music” to the United States, it covers an

incredible variety of sounds, the result of the myriad cultural exchanges that define our

immigrant culture. If we take all of the “Americas” into account, the variety is truly

bewildering. With composers from the U.S., Argentina, and Brazil, tonight’s concert

offers a rich buffet of music from several continents. In each of these works, the

composer or arranger has acknowledged the musical diversity of the Americas by

bringing the European art music tradition into conversation with folk and popular styles

such as jazz, boogie woogie, cowboy songs, bossa nova, and tango. In the spirit of the

New World, the results are joyous and exuberant, but balanced with the mood of the

blues, both the North American form and its South American counterpart known as

saudade.

Two of the three South American Songs for flute and guitar come from the Suite

Buenos Aires by Argentinean guitarist and composer Máximo Diego Pujol. Born in

1957, Pujol has followed the lead of Astor Piazzolla, who revolutionized the traditional

tango with advanced harmonies borrowed from jazz and art music, more complex forms,

and adventurous instrumentation. Pujol’s Suite includes movements devoted to different

areas of the Argentinean capital. “Palermo” is a bittersweet love song with a wistfully

falling melodic line; a sunnier middle section brightens the mood but the minor key

returns. “San Telmo” is a festive dance with a rumba beat that combines rhythmic groups

of three and two and features percussive effects on the guitar. The third song is the
performers’ arrangement of El Quitapesares (The Consolation), a traditional folk song

based on the joropo, a Venezuelan dance that preserves African polyrhythms.

Best known for his weekly radio show, Schickele Mix, and his groundbreaking

“discovery” of P.D.Q. Bach, Peter Schickele also composes serious music, or at least

music that’s supposed to be taken seriously. Plenty of humor shines through in his

Serenade for Three, composed in 1993 for the Verdehr Trio, which has commissioned

more than 130 works for the unusual ensemble of clarinet, violin, and piano. Schickele

writes about the work, “My brother started studying violin when he was nine, and I

started playing clarinet and piano when I was a young teenager, so perhaps one of the

reasons I was so delighted by the commission that resulted in Serenade for Three is that

the piece recalls (in much more sophisticated form, I feel safe in saying) the sounds that

wafted through 1354 N. 12th St., Fargo, North Dakota, during the late Forties.” In the

first movement, the Schickele brothers seem to be practicing Mozart, boogie woogie, and

Klezmer music simultaneously; the composer leavens this exuberance with quiet sections

with the three instruments in rapid canons that circle around until the next outburst. The

second movement evokes the repeating note of Chopin’s “raindrop” prelude, clothed in a

blissfully calm melody. The third movement is based on a beloved aria from P.D.Q.

Bach’s dramatic oratorio, Oedipus Tex. This may explain the charming mixture of

Classical passagework, Western-swing fiddling, boogie woogie piano, and cowboy song,

for which the original words are: “Howdy, there! I’m Oedipus Tex/You may’ve heard of

my brother Rex/I’m Oedipus Tex–that’s what I said/But my friends just call me Oed.”
 Pianist and composer Mel Powell (1923-98) earned a fine reputation in jazz,

playing with such greats as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Django Reinhart, before

turning to classical composition in the 1950s. A student of Paul Hindemith at Yale,

Powell’s early works such as the Divertimento (1957) reflect the witty, jazz-influenced

neo-classicism of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Poulenc, and Prokofiev, but in 1958 Powell

followed the trend towards serialism and electronic composition. He was chair of

composition at Yale and the dean of the school of music at the California Institute of the

Arts. Powell scored Divertimento for the typical woodwind quintet, except that he

substituted trumpet for horn. Complex, jazzy rhythms and precise, dry articulation

balance lyrical melodies for each instrument. The harmony is far from traditional tonality

but Powell finds many pleasing combinations arising from contrapuntal lines. The

second and fourth movements in particular sweep forward with tremendous energy, while

the third movement captures the spirit of a jazz ballad.

In the Coraçao Apaixondo (Passionate Heart) Suite, jazz trumpeter and composer

Jamie Simmons chose to arrange works by two favorite composers, Brazilian Antonio

Carlos Jobim and Argentinean Astor Piazzolla. In the 1960s, Jobim and João Gilberto

led the revolution in Brazilian popular music known as bossa nova, which combined

traditional Brazilian music with cool jazz from the U.S. and a progressive political

agenda. With Jobim’s hits, Desafinado and The Girl from Ipanema, bossa nova became

the rage for a time in the U.S., as everyone from Frank Sinatra to Eydie Gorme got into

the act. João Gilberto’s recording of Chega da saudade (No More Blues) in 1958 is often

credited as the first example of bossa nova, and it shows the jazz influence in swinging
licks for the ensemble and solos for individual instruments. Luiza is a typical bossa nova

ballad, as the guitar evokes the feeling of smiling through tears. Piazzolla’s Primavera

porteña (Spring in Buenos Aires) comes from his Four Seasons in Buenos Aires, a

counterpart to Vivaldi’s well-known Four Seasons. Unlike Vivaldi’s cheery “La

Primavera,” Piazzolla’s spring tango has the dark mood of a rainy day in April.

– Matthew Baumer