Program Notes for “Full Circle,” April 25, 2009

 

String Circle (2005)
by Kenji Bunch (b. Portland, OR, 1973)

For whatever reason, entertainment has become something of a dirty word among the classical crowd. Even so, I have a great deal of respect for it as a goal, and I would be honored to know I entertained a listener with my music. I think it’s a generous act to strive for. - Kenji Bunch

It is also a goal that Kenji Bunch has achieved brilliantly with a rapidly growing catalog of works that is performed and recorded with increasing frequency in this country and abroad. Bunch, an active violist and a former member of the Flux String Quartet, also plays fiddle in the group Citigrass. The New York-based artist composed the present work as a viola quintet for himself and the Harrington String Quartet, with whom he gave the first performance in Amarillo, Texas, in 2005.

In String Circle, Bunch adds some strong vernacular accents to a venerable classical genre. The five movements integrate jazz, rock and bluegrass influences in a way that “entertains” in the sense of keeping you on the edge of your seat wondering what combination of sounds the composer is going to come up with next, and how he will make familiar melodic and rhythmic elements appear as though you’ve never heard them before. The slow third movement is modelled on a traditional ballad, while the fourth-movement scherzo contains an accompaniment figure for the second viola marked “quasi ukulele.” The last movement is a study in mesmerizing ostinatos that culminate in a rhythmic explosion at the end of the piece.

 

Nonet for Strings (1960)
by Aaron Copland (Brooklyn, 1900 - North Tarrytown, NY, 1990)

Some people like to say that there were two Aaron Coplands-the popular composer of Americana like Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring, and the austere avant-gardist of the Short Symphony and the Variations. That there is no contradiction between these two aspects of Copland is shown most clearly in a work such as the Nonet for Strings, a one-movement composition of 18 minutes’ length that is harmonically adventurous yet also tender and lyrical-or forceful and animated, as the case may be.

The Nonet was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Bliss for their 50th wedding anniversary. Bliss was a former U.S. ambassador to Argentina; his wife Mildred was one of the most prominent arts patrons in Washington, D.C., once known as the “Queen of Georgetown.” Twenty years earlier, for their 30th anniversary, they had commissioned Igor Stravinsky, no less, to write what became known as the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, named after the Blisses’ estate that they eventually donated to Harvard University. (After the war, it was the site of the international conference out of which grew the United Nations.)

Copland’s “Dumbarton Oaks” piece begins with what the composer described as “a series of rather darkly colored three-voiced chords,” played by the cellos. Both the tempo and the dynamics gradually increase as the violas enter, followed by the violins. At length the lyrical song gives way to a lively dance in an irregular meter, culminating in a section where the entire ensemble plays in triple forte, con tutta forza (“with all their power”). Afterwards, the opening slow section returns in varied form, ending the work on an introspective note.

 

Capriccio for oboe and 11 strings (1965)
by Krzysztof Penderecki (b. Debica, Poland, 1933)

In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Krzysztof Penderecki established his reputation as one of the leading European avant-gardists; his style in those years was characterized by an extensive use of tone-clusters, percussive use of the string instruments, non-coordination of the individual parts, and other unconventional techniques. (His most famous composition from that period is Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima of 1959.) The Oboe Capriccio contains many of these elements and more (such as playing on the tailpiece of the string instruments), in addition to a fiendishly difficult oboe part which explores the extremes of the instrument’s range and features declamatory note repeats as well as “wailing” glissandos. The work was written for one of the greatest oboists of our time, Heinz Holliger (also an outstanding composer and conductor), who premiered it at the Lucerne Festival in 1965.

 

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major (1717?)
by Johann Sebastian Bach (Eisenach, 1685 - Leipzig, 1750)

J.S. Bach learned concerto-writing from Italian models, but then he transformed those models almost beyond recognition, enriching the concerto form to a degree never seen before. His six concertos, known as the “Brandenburgs” because they were dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg, exude a spirit of cheerfulness and joy, suggesting that the composer had supreme fun writing them. At the same time, they represent a most serious effort on Bach’s part to increase the level of musical sophistication.

The third concerto belongs to the type of concerto grosso, in which there are no prominent solo instruments; instead, the various sections of the orchestra are contrasted in ever-changing combinations. Some instruments (and groups) will temporarily emerge as soloists, then make way for others.

One of the most prominent characteristic of this music is a strong rhythmic unity in all voices. This uniformity translates into a feeling of high energy and optimism, though it doesn’t exclude moments of relative instability. The tonality temporarily shifts to the minor, daring dissonances appear, and the instruments go their separate ways for a while until they are reunited by the periodic returns of the opening melody. There is no written-out second movement; in its place, Bach merely notated two chords, evidently expecting the performers to improvise over them. The last movement, then, is a perpetuum mobile in which two rhythmic figures (eighth-notes and sixteenths) are passed back and forth like balls in a game.

 

— Peter Laki