Program notes by Richard M. Kesner
Kimberly Archer, Fanfare Politeia
Kimberly K. Archer (1973 - ) currently serves as Professor of Composition at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois. She teaches composition, orchestration, analysis, counterpoint, and music theory. Dr. Archer holds a Bachelor of Music Education from The Florida State University, a Master of Music in Composition from Syracuse University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from The University of Texas at Austin. Her teachers have included David Maslanka, David Gillingham, Andrew Waggoner, Donald Grantham, and Charlie Carter. A specialist in music for winds and percussion, Dr. Archer has been commissioned by organizations such as “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and The United States Air Force Band of Mid-America. Her music has been performed widely throughout the United States and has been recognized by numerous national and regional musical and educational organizations.
Written in 2021, Fanfare Politeia is an homage to the origins of our democracy, and to the ancient sources that Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Adams drew upon in their conceiving and writing of our Constitution. Politeia is a Greek word derived from polis (city). Aristotle used the term to represent concepts such as citizens’ rights and constitutional government, while Plato’s examination of justice – a book which we now call The Republic, in English – was actually entitled Politeia in the original Greek. Commissioned by “The President's Own” United States Marine Band for the 59th Presidential Inauguration (Joseph R. Biden’s inauguration), Fanfare Politeia celebrates our traditions of a free and fair election, and of a peaceful transfer of power.
Percy Aldridge Grainger, Marching Song for Democracy
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career, he wrote works of great originality and vitality, drawing on folk and popular idioms. In the early years of the 20th century, he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music. Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914, he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer, and collector of original folk melodies. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he travelled widely in Europe and in Australia
The origins of Grainger’s composition, Marching Song for Democracy, are best captured in his own words from his journals:
“When in Paris during the Exhibition of 1900, I happened unexpectedly upon the public statue of George Washington while trolling about the streets one day, and somehow or other this random occurrence galvanized in me a definite desire to typify the buoyant on-march of optimistic humanitarian democracy in a musical composition in which a forward-striding host of comradely affectionate humanity might be heard, ‘chanting the great pride of man in himself.’ My original plan was to write my Marching Song of Democracy for voices and whistlers only (no instruments) and have it performed by a chorus of men, women and children, singing and whistling to the rhythmic accompani-ment of their tramping feet as they marched along in the open air; but a later realization of the need for instrumental color inherent in the character of the music from the first ultimately led me to score it for the concert hall.”
The musical material dates from the summer of 1901 (when Grainger was working in Germany), December, 1908 (when Grainger was in Australia) and the summer of 1915 (when Grainger was back in New York City, U.S.A.). The final scoring of the original version for chorus, orchestra and organ was made in the summer of 1915, the spring and summer of 1916, and the spring of 1917 (New York City). The work was also inspired by In a Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads (prose epilogue to Leaves of Grass) by Walt Whitman which speaks of democratic values. Grainger’s work carries the following dedication: “For my darling mother, united with her in loving adoration of Walt Whitman.” The band version of Marching Song of Democracy, created for the Goldman Band in 1948, was not published until 1991. Grainger integrated the vocal lines into the texture of the wind band in this version, marking the work purely instrumental.
Aaron Copland / trans. Walter Beeler, Lincoln Portrait
Speaker: Joy Arcolano
Often referred to as the “Dean of American composers,” Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was a composer, critic, writer, music educator, pianist, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as “populist,” including the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Rodeo, his Fanfare for the Common Man and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores.
After some initial studies with composer Rubin Goldmark, Copland traveled to Paris, where he first studied with Isidor Philipp and Paul Vidal, then with noted pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied three years with Boulanger, whose eclectic approach to music inspired his own broad but nonetheless academic/modernistic musical taste. It is noteworthy that in the mid-1930s Copland shifted to a less abstract/more accessible musical style which mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik (“music for use”), music that could serve utilitarian and artistic purposes. During the Depression years, he traveled extensively to Europe, Africa, and Mexico, formed an important friendship with Mexican composer Carlos Chávez and began composing his signature works. From the 1960s onward, Copland's activities turned more from composing to conducting. He became a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the U.S. and the UK and made a series of recordings of his music, primarily for Columbia Records.
Conductor Andre Kostelanetz commissioned Copland to write a musical portrait of an “eminent American” for the New York Philharmonic. Copland chose President Abraham Lincoln, and used material from speeches and letters of Lincoln, as well as original folk songs of the period, including: Camptown Races and On Springfield Mountain. Copland finished Lincoln Portrait in April 1942, providing a rich musical palette for the framing of Lincoln’s own words and a few independent observations about this U.S. president. The first performance was by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on 14 May 1942, with William Adams as the narrator. Because of his leftist views, Copland was blacklisted and Lincoln Portrait withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The work opens with music that sounds familiar to our ears and reminiscent of Copland’s most popular works. Together with some descriptive comments on Lincoln (e.g. “Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a melancholy man”), the work contains the following excerpts from Lincoln’s speeches:
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.” (Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.” (Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)
“It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says ‘you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.” (Lincoln–Douglas debates, October 15, 1858)
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” (Definition of Democracy, August 1, 1858)
“That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” (Gettysburg Address)
Our narrator for the Lincoln Portrait, Joy Lamberton Arcolano, joined the Boston Conservatory in 2015 and is an assistant professor of theater, specializing in voice and speech. In 2014, Arcolano was profiled in American Theatre Magazine for her work as chief creative arts officer and founder of Playhouse Education, a teaching and consulting company. Since 2004, Playhouse Education has served over 15,000 Massachusetts students through more than 60 collaborations with public, private, and independent schools, as well as nonprofit organizations and theaters. As a voice actor, she has recorded over 100 children’s books for Scholastic, many regional and national commercials for radio and television, industrials and documentaries, and new media animation. Arcolano holds a Master of Education in arts in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she worked with Augusto Boal, Howard Gardner, Jessica Hoffmann Davis, and Steve Seidel. Additionally, she trained and worked at Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts) and studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and history from Russell Sage College.
Adam Schoenberg, Symphony No. 2: “Migration”
Emmy Award-winning and Grammy®-nominated Adam Schoenberg (1980 - ) has twice been named among the top 10 most performed living composers by orchestras in the United States. His works have received performances and premieres at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Hollywood Bowl. Schoenberg has received commissions from several major American orchestras, including: the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Aspen Music Festival and School. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Schoenberg earned his Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano. He is currently a professor at Occidental College, where he runs the composition and film scoring programs. He makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife, screenwriter Janine Salinas Schoenberg, and their two sons.
Completed by Schoenberg in 2022, Symphony No. 2: Migration was commissioned by the Wind Ensemble at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music and Performing Arts at The University of Texas in Austin and is dedicated to Jerry Junkin. The origins and nature of this work are best described by the composer himself:
“In the weeks following the November 8th [2016] election, I have been thinking a lot about immigration. It’s a controversial and divisive issue. It is also one of the foundations of our great country. I myself am a fourth-generation American. My ancestors immigrated from Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. I grew up in a town of 750 people in rural Massachusetts. It was a pretty typical American childhood. Carefree and idyllic. I never really thought about how my family had gotten here, or what it had taken to make that journey.
“The narrative behind Migration is inspired by my wife, and her family’s journey to America. As she likes to say, ‘No one leaves where they’re from unless they believe that something better awaits them.’ While writing this piece she and I talked at length about the emotional journey that many immigrants experience. If you don’t push yourself to dream about what awaits you, then how do you have the courage to leave behind all that you know? If you don’t envision a new home where all of your hopes and dreams can be achieved, then how do you survive in a completely unfamiliar place?”
Migration is in five movements:
I. March is the catalyst for change. Whether personal or political, it represents the conflict that is taking place within the country of origin.
II. Dreaming is the vision of what awaits. It is the inspiration that allows one to take the leap and begin the journey.
III. Escape represents the uprooting. Whether crossing illegally, going through Ellis Island, etc. It embodies the anxiety, hope, and fear of leaving everything behind.
IV. Crossing captures the feelings associated with leaving your homeland and entering a completely unfamiliar place.
V. Beginning represents the culmination of the journey. It is the start of a new life where anything is possible.
The composer instructs us to perform movements I-II, and then IV-V without a pause. Taken together the visions of Schoenberg’s Symphony No. 2 are on one hand riveting and disturbing and on the other hopeful. Enjoy the concert!