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foniettatta Hymns and Herbert

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love is all around

thic 22 July 2010

7pm

The Forum

Air, for strings Della Joio

Introit, for strings, op.96 Persichetti

Holocaust suite: Elegy Gould

Hymn-tune Prelude on “Song 13” Vaughan Williams, arr.Glatz

original tune by Orlando Gibbons

Serenade, for strings, op.12 Herbert

1. Aufzug, tempo di marcia
2. Polonaise, tempo moderato
3. Liebes-Scene, langsam—andante amoroso
4. Canzonetta, allegretto
5. Finale, molto vivace

Pamela Purpus
U founder
artistic director
conductor

violin viola cello bass program notes inside

Wendy Mattson Lucy Giraldo Susy Watt Beth Emmelman
Ro Haycox Julia Keller-Welter Jen Weber Frank Watson
Diane Smith Don Smith
Tara Shaw
Kathy Holmes
Heidi Holmer
Joie Kipka
Jerry Allen

Interested in booking Play Ethic?

Please contact Pamela Purpus at 317-295-0648 or playethic@comcast.net to inquire about open dates.
Interested in joining Play Ethic?
Please call or email about open seats.

The music of friends

 reading between the lines Prior to the Renaissance, church music typically comprised motets
(polyphonic settings of religious texts—that is, multi-voiced settings of traditional doctrine, always sung
in the original language). Hymns, or folksy sacred songs set in the local language and requiring congrega-
tional participation, represented an effort to popularize, even democratize, the church—although some
hymnologists felt the need to delineate between emotional and spiritual (can’t make church too common),
quoting Thomas Aquinas, Hymnus est laus Dei cum cantico; canticum autem exultatio mentis de aeternis habita,
prorumpens in vocem. Translation: A hymn is the praise of God with song, whereas a song is the bursting
forth in voice the exultation of the mind as contemplating the eternal—or, one must not hum one’s hymns,
lest one focus on body not spirit.
For modern instrumentalists, however, hymns take many forms, much as 21st-century gender roles
bend to the power of new ideas and desires. Once an anthem in praise of gods or heroes, the hymn today is
as much a love song—an ode celebrating nature, philosophy, community, or even the erotic. In tonight’s
concert, Play Ethic offers hymns that tug at the heartstrings.
Dello Joio: Air — After a brief call-and-response (a musical dimming
of the lights), Norman Dello Joio’s gorgeous violin melody saunters to
Love is in the Air
centerstage; the strain’s straightforward simplicity is a hallmark of all airs
agape
(sometimes called ayres or arias). After a quick interlude, signaled by a
amor modal change while the sections trade scalar riffs, the violins lovingly replay
the tune against a bass line featuring insistent, pulsing eighths—a subtle
‫( אהבה‬ahava) intensity that foreshadows a forceful B section. Building off the low voices’
philia
beautiful art thou! agitation, Dello Joio momentarily disrupts his serene panorama with bold,
excited isometric strokes—forceful hallelujahs—before the violins and
eros cellos echo vows of fidelity. As Air unwinds to its conclusion, the basses offer
a pointed proclamation, the violins express relief with a beautiful four-part
chord, and the violas sigh their approval with a quasi echo.
Persichetti: Introit — In a Catholic mass, the introit is an antipho-
nal psalm in neumatic style (that is, like a Gregorian chant, where each
syllable takes five or six notes); always the first item of the proper mass, the Love is in the Air
introit accompanies the celebrant’s procession to the altar. Where Vincent agape
Persichetti’s introspective Introit obviously pays homage to the Gregorians, amor
it rejects mindless reverence. And tonally it is eerily reminiscent of the
(ahava)
William Billings canon When Jesus Wept, whose philosophic and poetic text ‫אהבה‬
philia
(“when Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound”) suits beautiful art thou!
Persichetti’s music as easily as a decades-old hymnal falls open in the hands
of even the most lapsed Catholic. Fittingly, the Introit’s signature moment eros
is both earnest and satirical: a startling series of ensemble pizzicatos (that
is, plucks) paves the way for plaintive soli cellos under muted violins play-
ing glissed harmonics. The effect is both somber and spooky: Persichetti’s pain is resoundingly clear. Not
surprisingly, the work’s final two chords, a decidedly atraditional cadence, hammer away at any remnant of
tranquility.
Gould: Elegy — After Morton Gould composed the soundtrack for the
1978 miniseries Holocaust (which won eight Emmys, including Meryl Streep
Love is in the Air
as lead actress), he wrote Elegy as a postlude. While the work obviously
agape
bares the composer’s mourning over the horrific, it also unburdens his
amor grieving over a dissolved marriage. Yet Gould tempers any inclination to
weep and wail with an oddly optimistic musical direction: tenderly. In turn,
‫( אהבה‬ahava) his haunting, heart-wrenching theme is simultaneously sad and hopeful. To
philia
beautiful art thou! reinforce the complicated emotional balance, Gould couples rhythms that
require metronomic precision with a lyrical melody that begs for rubato
eros (literally, stolen time). The net effect is powerful: although the music is made
more transparent via a constant tempo, Gould enables any given listener to
absorb the work with a personal spin.
Vaughan Williams/Glatz: Hymn Tune Prelude — In the end,
hymns are communal property. To wit, the Hymn Tune Prelude is Helen
Glatz’s arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ piano solo based on
Love is in the Air
Orlando Gibbons’ early-17th-century soprano-and-bass-voices setting of
agape
Song 13, whose text (“Oh, my love! how comely now, and how beautiful art amor
thou!”) is paraphrased from Song of Songs (a k a Canticles or Song of Solo-
mon). Vaughan Williams drew inspiration from composers as wide-ranging ‫( אהבה‬ahava)
philia
as Bach and Chopin to construct an “evocative miniature”; at the same time, beautiful art thou!
he borrowed elements of liturgical organ improvisation, especially when
relaying the hymn tune in half time amid more florid counterpoints. eros
love is all around Play Ethic concludes tonight’s concert by reading Victor
Herbert’s Serenade, an orchestral “script” that shows off the composer’s desire to balance serious classic ro-
manticism with popular theatrics. Over his career, this effort to combine the symphonic with the “theat‑ah”
led to an impressive catalog of operettas, including Babes in Toyland and Naughty Marietta.
Herbert opens the work with a march, Aufzug (appropriately, a German word that means both parade
and raising of the curtain). From the outset, thanks to a delicate cello/bass pianississimo (ppp) that evokes the
bottled energy of a timpani roll, Herbert’s writing inspires an expectant thrill—”and a hush comes over the
crowd”—though of course the concept of marching strings is a phenomenon worth the price of admis-
sion in any context. The merry main theme hinges on a grazioso (graceful) triplet melody, but pay special
attention as the maestra asks the strings to punch their fortes, thereby providing the dynamic contrast that
propels all marches. In the trio, a sweet-but-sprightly violin melody trips forward before homorhythmic
violins and violas flex their muscles a la the low brass in Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. The inevitable big
finish—marked strepitoso—is suitably boisterous and even a bit impetuous.
The second movement, Polonaise, has a distinct ballet flavor; it’s easy to hear Tchaikovsky amid the
eastern European tonality. For a time the gypsy strings are content to merely twirl along mincingly, but a
powerful contrabass rumble inspires the high strings to a sweeping, lush, full-throated refrain.
Liebes-Scene (literally, love scene) puts love under the
microscope. The movement’s main theme, introduced by the
violins, detachedly exposes love’s obvious shortcoming: from afar,
it’s clear suffering outlasts pleasure. And when Herbert turns the Love is in the Air
scope inward—the violas and cellos angrily grab the melody— love
the pain is searing. Still, through a contemplative middle section amor
featuring soaring cellos under shimmering violin sextuplets, ‫( אהבה‬ahava)
Herbert notes how the memory of love occasionally outshines memory
the reality. But the relief is momentary. An agitato back and forth beautiful art thou!
between violins and violas unveils the inevitable heartbreaking
agony that follows any attempt at love: the violins cry, “why me?” heartbreak
Coming full circle, Herbert returns to the scene’s main theme;
focusing on the theoretical dulls the pain.
Canzonetta is a concise song that again invokes Tchaikovsky (Sugar Plum Fairy, anyone?). Doll-like
violins call to mind a ballerina, while the lyrical cello evokes the danseur.
In the Finale, skipping first violins introduce the movement’s cute central theme (the people gather).
After the cellos elegantly propel a quick tranquillo (heroes step forward), the ensemble dramatically lands on
the same note (royalty emerges). The subsequent majestic espressivo theme is grandiose, even celebratory,
until Herbert ushers in poignant violas that remind us love and happiness are fleeting. A series of cascading
motifs leads to a grand pause (that is, a moment of silence; a k a conductor solo!). A recap of the tranquillo
quickly gives way to a march, hearkening back to the Aufzug. And with that glance back, the end is suddenly
nigh: the coda is passionate, the final chords triumphant.