10.22.23 Mary Schlanger, Horn

Student Recital Series Sara M. Snell Music Theater

2023 – 2024 Season Sunday, October 22nd at 5:35 PM

Mary Schlanger, Horn Dr. Keilor Kastella, piano Concerto for Horn (1957)

Jiri Pauer (1919-2007)

A Door into the Dark (2014)

Peter Askim (b. 1971) Intermission

Songs to the Dark Virgin (1941)

Florence B Price (1887-1953) Transcribed by Mary Schlanger

Enchanted Forest (2013) 1. In the Woods 2. Whispers in the Wind 3. Enchanted Forest

Karen Tanaka (b. 1961)

Saga for Horn and Mixed Media (2017)

James Naigus (b. 1987)

Mary Schlanger is from the studio of Lauren Becker.

This program is presented to fulfill the masters recital requirement for the Masters of Music degree in Performance.

Program Notes Jiri Pauer’s Horn Concerto written in 1957 was first premiered by horn player Miroslav Stefek in 1858. Written to demonstrate the virtuosic ability and wide range of timbres of the horn, the concerto starts with a powerful opening call that was influenced by the composers such as Richard Strauss, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Richard Wagner. Tonally and metrically ambiguous throughout this piece provides a programmatic journey by utilizing repetitious motifs with slight variations as well as contrasting rhythmic figures.

A Door in the Dark by Peter Askim is based on the poem The Forge by Seamus Heany and depicts metal working qualities with strikes in rhythmic patterns and articulations throughout. The piece utilizes asymmetric repeated passages to reflect the passages in the poem such as the “unpredictable fantail of sparks”, while also using repeated notes to symbolize the repeated strikes on the iron. This piece was commissioned by Denise Tryon to be featured on her album So Low. All I know is a door into the dark.

Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting; Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring, The unpredictable fantail of sparks Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.

The anvil must be somewhere in the centre, Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square, Set there immoveable: an altar Where he expends himself in shape and music.

Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose, He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows; Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.

Songs to the Dark Virgin was a poem by Langston Hughes that was set to song by Florence Price in 1941. Price uses unexpected chord changes to reflect the connotation of the poem. For example, over the words “might fall at thy feet”, Price has an ascending D Flat major seventh arpeggio leading to the dominant. This sets

up for a cadence over the words “Thou dark one”, and while the words of the poem might imply that the dark one is to be hidden, the chord empowers her. Transcribing this work for horn showcases Price’s ability to write simple yet profound melodic lines.

Would That I were a jewel A shattered jewel That all my shining brilliants Might fall at thy feet Thou dark one Would That I were a garment A shimmering, silken garment That all my folds Might wrap about thy body Absorb thy body Hold and hide thy body Thou dark one Would That I were a flame But one sharp, leaping flame To annihilate thy body Thou dark one Enchanted Forest Enchanted Forest consists of three pieces: 1. In the Woods 2. Whispers in the Wind 3. Enchanted Forest A beautifully atmospheric textured piece, Tanaka’s Enchanted Forest illustrates the grandeur of the forest and the woods with long sweeping melodic lines that utilize the full register of the horn. The sweeping of the trees can be felt with the changing compound meter. When asked about this piece Tanaka states:

I have always been fascinated by ancient instruments, such as horns and harps.

In ancient times, blowing horns served various purposes, from heralding celebrations to identifying different groups. When I was composing, my mind evoked colors and shades of an imaginary forest, sunlight filtering through leaves, ethereal echoes, softly whispering winds, and mythical creatures. My intention was to capture the essence of this magical, enchanted forest through the sounds produced by an ancient horn and a piano resembling a harp.

K.T James Naigus’s Saga for Horn and Mixed Media is an epic journey through many landscapes displayed by changing meters and rhythmic figures. The mixed media accompaniment provides both atmospheric qualities as well as programmatic developments. Dr. Naigus being a horn player is brilliant at creating melodic lines that are programmatic as well showcasing the strengths of the instrument. He also employs a repeated hemiola throughout that adds to the feeling of strife in the hero’s journey. Reaching out to Dr. Naigus, this is his thoughts on the piece: With program notes I most prefer reading what the piece means to the performer and what they are trying to convey.

That said, my goal was to write a very cinematic backtrack - one that could be musically viable on its own. The solo part is purposefully lacking written dynamics - this is to allow you the freedom to interpret the piece as you wish, and to dial in the balance between the solo and the accompaniment.

One note regarding that: the way I perform the piece is not always having the horn be sonically 'on top' of the sound. Rather, there are many moments where the two halves are equal, and some moments when the accompaniment can even be more present than the solo horn.

Have fun!

-Dr. N

Composer Biographies Jiri Pauer was born in Prague, Czech Republic in 1919. He studied composition at the Prague Conservatory in his early thirties with Otakar Sin. He went on to teach at the Prague School of Music and be involved in the ministry of education as an advocate for music education. Pauer was also a prominent conductor working with the Czechoslovak Radio, Czech Philharmonic, and National Theater. In the later years of his life, he taught composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. During this time period the Czech Republic was experiencing the transition away from communism which Pauer struggled with. Due to his political beliefs, he was asked to leave the National theater in 1990. The political tension was at the height at that time due to the Velvet Revolution which had taken place at the end of the previous year. The Velvet revolution was initiated eight days after the fall of the Berlin wall by students as a non-violent protest toward the communist ideals.

Following Pauer’s resignation from the National Theater he went into seclusion writing his memoirs until his passing in 2007.

Peter Askim is an active American composer, conductor, and performer. Currently he is the director of orchestral studies at North Carolina State University, Conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Askim is the founder and artistic director of the The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, a summer festival for living composers and promoting new music. As a composer, Dr. Askim has been commissioned by groups such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, Cantus Ansambl Zagreb, and the American Viola Society.

Florence Beatrice Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887. She was valedictorian for her graduating class at fourteen years old. After graduating high school early, she went to the New England Conservatory in Boston. There she majored in piano and organ performance, she graduated with honors and top of her class. Her musical training started far before NEC due to her mother being a violinist and pianist. Florence’s first piano performance was at the young age of four and her first composition at eleven. Until winning the Wanamaker prize in 1932 with her first symphony, Florence struggled with getting her works publicized or performed. She made money where she could, including silent films, church performances, and accompanying. During her lifetime Florence composed over 200 known pieces, most of which remain unpublished.

Karen Tanaka’s works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brodsky Quartet and Gothic Voices. She studied composition with Tristan Murali and Luciano Berio, and studied computer music at IRCAM. She was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize in the Netherlands in 1987. She has received numerous commissions, notably from the Juilliard School, the Royal Academy of Music in London, Radio France, the Canada Council, the Arts Council of England, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012, she was a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab for feature film and mentored by Hollywood’s leading composers. In 2016, she served as an orchestrator for the BBC's TV series Planet Earth II. She scored the animated film Sister, which was nominated for the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. Her music is published by Chester Music in London and Schott Music in New York (PSNY). Karen Tanaka lives in Los Angeles and teaches composition at California Institute of the Arts James Naigus currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Georgia. As an extremely active performer and composer Dr. Naigus has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, and many others. With more than sixty published works, Dr. Naigus’s compositions have been performed across the world with enthusiastic reception as well receiving awards from the International Horn Society.

Additionally, Dr. Naigus teaches at the Kendall Betts Horn Camp.

Poet Biographies Seamus Heaney the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature winner was born in County Derry, Ireland in 1939. Heavily influenced by the violent conflicts between Northern Ireland and England his poems speak on the blue-collar life of the Irish during that time. He is well known for his “presenting a coherent vision of Ireland, past and present”. Heany studied literature at the Queen’s University at Belfast. He taught at Harvard University from 1981 to 1997, while simultaneously acting as the professor of poetry at oxford from 1989 to 1994.After winning the Nobel prize, in 1996 he was made a commander de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Langston Hughes was a poet that was part of the Harlem Renaissance, which resulted from the black diaspora of people from Jim Crow south to the northern metropolitan areas to escape from segregation, violence, and incarceration.

“Arguably one of the most significant writers in United States history, Hughes has left an indelible mark, culturally and politically, on American society. Hailed in his lifetime mainly as the “Poet Laureate of the African American community,” he is now generally embraced as one of the important poets speaking to, and behalf of, all Americans.” Florence herself met Langston after moving to Chicago in 1927.

She too was involved in the mass migration to the north after a man by the name of John Carter was lynched outside of Dr. Thomas Price’s (Florence’s husband) office.

John Carter was accused of assaulting a white woman and with no trial was hung from a tree by a group of white activists.