PROGRAM NOTES

JESSIE MONTGOMERY Banner

Composer: born December 8, 1981, New York City

Work composed: 2014, rev. 2017. Commissioned by the Joyce Foundation of Detroit and The Sphinx Organization

World premiere: The Sphinx Virtuosi and Catalyst String Quartet gave the world premiere on October 29, 2014, at Carnegie Hall in New York City

Jessie Montgomery’s music combines classical idioms with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, spoken language, and social justice. The result has earned Montgomery rave reviews for her “vibrantly inventive original works for strings” (ClassicsToday.com) and numerous awards, including the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award. In May 2021, Montgomery began her three-year appointment as the Mead Composer-inResidence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“Banner is a tribute to the 200th Anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s ‘StarSpangled Banner,’ which was officially declared the American National Anthem in 1814,” Montgomery writes. “Scored for solo string quartet and string orchestra, Banner is a rhapsody on the theme of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.’ Drawing on musical and historical sources from various patriotic songs, I’ve made an attempt to answer the question: ‘What does an anthem for the 21st century sound like in today’s multicultural environment?’

“Banner expands on my 2009 composition Anthem: A tribute to the historical election of Barack Obama. In both works I’ve included several references to African American musical traditions, such as marching band styles that contain several strains, or contrasting sections. I have also drawn on the drum line chorus as a source for the rhythmic underpinning of the finale. A variety of other cultural anthems, American folk songs, and popular idioms interact to form different textures in the finale. The string quartet functions as an individual voice working both with and against the orchestra.

“The ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ is an ideal subject for exploring contradictions. For most Americans, the song represents a paradigm of liberty and solidarity against fierce odds, but for others it implies a contradiction between the ideals of freedom and the realities of injustice and oppression. As a culture, it is my opinion that we Americans are perpetually in search of ways to express and celebrate our ideals of freedom – a way to proclaim ‘We’ve made it!’ as if saying it aloud makes it so. Through work songs and spirituals, enslaved Africans sought a way out, enduring the most abominable treatment for the eventual promise of a free life. Immigrants from Europe, Central America, and the Pacific came to America in the hope of safe haven.

Though they met with the trials of building a multi-cultured democracy, they put down roots in our nation and continue to make significant contributions to our cultural landscape. In the 21st century, a tribute to the U.S. National Anthem means acknowledging the contradictions and milestones that allow us to celebrate and maintain the traditions of our ideals.”

Anton N Dvo K

Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104

Composer: Born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, near Kralupy (now the Czech Republic); died May 1, 1904, Prague

Work composed: 1894-5 and dedicated to Dvořák’s friend, cellist Hanuš Wihan

World premiere: Dvořák conducting the London Philharmonic Society in London with cellist Leo Stern on March 19, 1896

“I have … written a cello-concerto, but am sorry to this day I did so, and I never intend to write another,” said Antonín Dvořák to one of his composition students. “The cello is a beautiful instrument, but its place is in the orchestra and in chamber music. As a solo instrument it isn’t much good.” These comments are surprising, since Dvořák’s cello concerto is considered a masterpiece, and the standard by which all subsequent cello concertos have been measured.

It was composer and cellist Victor Herbert (Babes in Toyland) who challenged Dvořák’s low opinion of the cello as a solo instrument. After hearing Herbert perform his own cello concerto in March 1894, Dvořákk was inspired to write one of his own. Herbert, then principal cellist for the Metropolitan Opera, recalled, “After I had played my [2nd] Cello-Concerto in one of the [New York Philharmonic] Concerts – Dr. Dvořák…threw his arms around me, saying before many members of the orchestra: ‘famos! [splendid] famos! ganz famos!’”

Although the Cello Concerto, like Dvořák’s New World Symphony, was written while Dvořák lived in America, it contains no obvious American references. Instead of the New World’s extroverted American energy, the Cello Concerto is a deeply personal Slavic work, full of wistful, lyrical melodies.

Of particular interest is the Adagio ma non troppo, in which Dvořák quotes from a Czech song, “Kéž duch můj sám,” (Leave me alone) Years earlier, Dvořák fell in love with Josefina Čermáková; this song was among her