Classical Connections 2

THE SOLDIER’S TALE + MORE

Saturday,March 12, 2022 | 7:30 PM Destin High School Auditorium

Sinfonia Assistant Conductor Aaron King Vaughn leads the orchestra in this concert of riveting repertoire including Igor Stravinsky’s The Solider’s Tale complete with theatrical narration and W.A. Mozart’s whimsically charming Symphony no. 29 in A Major. The perfect classical concert for the entire family.

Danzas De Panama William Grant Still

L’histoire du Soldat Igor Stravinsky

Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Presenting Sponsor:

William Grant Still (1895 - 1978)

Danzas De Panama

1. Tamborito 2. Mejorana 3. Punto 4. Cumbia y Congo

Danzas De Panama dates from 1948 and are based on a collection of Panamanian folk tunes which were collected by Elizabeth Waldo in the 1920's. Although there are only four dances presented, each movement has at least two and sometimes three separate dances within it. The opening movement Tamborito immediately captures the listener's attention with the instrumentalists percussively striking the sides of their instruments, creating the rhythm for this highly chromatic introduction which immediately leads to a sadder and slower dance that is also quite chromatic. For the rest of the movement, Still ingeniously juxtaposes these two dances, one after the other seamlessly. When the faster dance returns, it is in two sections, the first fast and up-beat the second more melancholy and sounding like a close relative of the tango. The movement ends surprisingly on a soft glissando. Next comes Mejorana which sounds like a carefree Panamanian waltz. The forceful middle section is a somewhat ominous dance in two. The slowish third movement, Punto, has a gentle and very familiar Mexican sound to it. It is the kind of thing one hears in the movies when Mexican cowboys return to their hacienda at the end of a day's work. The middle section in 6/8 is in the minor and more robust. The last movement, Cumbia y Congo begins again with a percussive hand-pounding to a high-spirited and fast dance. At first it sounds purely African but very quickly a heavy dose of Latin melody is added to the mix. The coda is brilliant and exciting.

William Grant Still was one of the most important African American composers of the 20th century. Although classical music was his first love, he also wrote for radio and television. Still's orchestral works have been widely performed, at least in the United States, but his chamber music is not well known. He was sent to college by his mother to study medicine but in the end studied composition with Edgar Varese at Oberlin and later with George Chadwick at the New England Conservatory.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)

L’histoire du Soldat

1. Tamborito 2. Mejorana 3. Punto 4. Cumbia y Congo L’histoire du Soldat was first performed in 1918. It was indeed a great success and was supposed to go on an extravagant tour around the world, but it was cancelled due to a flu epidemic (sound familiar?). The Soldier's Tale is a Faustian tale of a soldier who makes a sneaky deal with the Devil! I believe Jane Vial Jaffe tells the short story best…

“Organized as a series of tableaux, the action takes place during the dance and mime scenes, which the narration connects. Part One begins with a jaunty introductory march as the Soldier heads home on leave The Soldier’s March. In Scene One, the Soldier stops to rest by a brook and plays a fiddle tune Little Tunes Beside the Brook, based on a Russian street song fashioned into one of Stravinsky’s signature ostinatos (repeating patterns).

The Devil, disguised as an old man with a butterfly net, sneaks up on the Soldier and convinces him to trade his fiddle for a magic book that foretells the future. When the Devil finds he can’t play the fiddle, he tempts the Soldier with images of luxury to come home and teach him. After three days, the Devil magically whisks the Soldier back to his home village.

A reprise of the Soldier’s March introduces Scene Two, in which the Soldier comes to the eerie realization that he has been gone three years, not three days—even his mother thinks he’s a ghost, and his fiancée is now married with two children. He berates himself and wonders what to do Pastorale. The Devil, now dressed as a cattle merchant, reappears to remind the Soldier that he can make a fortune by using the magic book Closing Music.

Scene Three begins as the Soldier, having accumulated great wealth but finding it meaningless, throws the book aside. Disguised as an old woman, the Devil sells him back his fiddle, but the Soldier can’t make it sound and hurls it into the wings. To a reprise of Little Tunes Beside the Brook, he tears the book into pieces.

A modified reprise of the Soldier’s March opens Part Two as the Soldier trudges along aimlessly. He finds himself in another country, where a king has promised his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who can cure her illness. Arriving at the palace—accompanied by the Royal March, replete with Spanish flavor—the Soldier meets the Devil, dressed as a virtuoso violinist. While waiting to see the Princess, the Soldier purposely loses his money to the Devil in a card game (Scene Five), all the while plying him with drink until he falls unconscious. The Soldier recovers his fiddle and plays the triumphant Little Concert over the Devil’s insensible form.

In the Princess’s chamber, the Soldier plays three dances—Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime—to which she dances as she is restored to health (Scene Six). The Devil enters undisguised, and the Soldier makes him dance to exhaustion The Devil’s Dance. The Soldier and the

Princess drag him off, then embrace to the music of the Little Chorale, based on that most famous of Lutheran chorales, “A Mighty Fortress.” The Devil interrupts with a dire warning in The Devil’s Song that the Soldier must not cross the border to his native village or he will be reclaimed—much like Orpheus. The Great Chorale, accompanying the Narrator’s moralizing, completes Stravinsky’s “Mighty Fortress” parody, which imparts a sense of mock grandness with its delightful sprinkling of dissonance.

Eventually the Soldier and the Princess decide to visit his native village. As they cross the border, the Devil, again in possession of the fiddle, repossesses the Soldier, who follows him unresisting as the Triumphal March of the Devil resounds.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201

1. Allegro moderato 2. Andante 3. Minuetto: Allegretto - Trio 4. Allegro con spirito

Symphony No. 29 is a fine specimen of gallant writing: well bred, charming, polite and faithful to the Viennese classical model. Its light-hearted charm and elegance intends a work which is truly meant to entertain and delight. For this purpose, Mozart chose to score the work modestly. Aside from the basic string component, only a pair of oboes and pair of horns are required. The economy of means in no way limits or impedes its symphonic character.

The first movement, allegro moderato, begins softly introducing the first main theme immediately. The tune is catchy, marked by an octave drop and pulsing repeated notes. That opening idea rises sequentially by step, as if making certain that we do not miss the point. Horns and oboes later join with an expanded repetition. A lyrical second theme is sung by the violins. The very small development (approximately thirty measures) follows before a standard, literal recapitulation with a coda finishes the movement.

An elegant Andante concerns itself with a delicate theme spun by muted violins. Edward Downs commented, “It is full of eighteenth century clichés and turns that were used a hundred times before and after by other composers, but here they are so spontaneous and lovely that each phrase bears repeating and repeating. And still the movement seems too short.” The form is tri-partite with the opening theme returning in the last part with increased violin embroidery.

The third movement is a minuet. However, Mozart now moves to a slightly more aggressive style than polite convention would have expected. Neal Zaslaw has astutely characterized the music as more symphonic than dancelike.

The fourth movement recalls the first theme of the first movement with its distinctive octave-drop profile. Another theme is typically galant, filled with decorative trills and grace notes. Mozart creates an informal fun-loving atmosphere (complete with hunting calls), spending more time on the development than in the first movement, thereby adding more weight to this final section. Overall, the music remains elegant and cheerful until the close.

A symphonic silence after Symphony 29 led to a significant change when Mozart returned to the genre: a much broader canvas, scope and emotion would infuse the later works. Symphony No. 29 summarized a world and a style which was young and fresh, but not quite different from the maturity and content of Mozart’s future style. ©Marianne Williams Tobias, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, 2016.

ased in Florida, Aaron King Vaughn is the assistant conductor of Sinfonia Gulf Coast B and Music Director for the Sinfonia Youth Orchestras. Notably, Vaughn is also completing his second year as a Chicago Sinfonietta Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow. Vaughn is a passionate advocate for underrepresented composers, community building, and music education. Over the past year Vaughn has participated in many virtual lectures and masterclasses with Mei-Ann Chen, Marin Alsop, Teddy Abrams, Joann Fallata, Glenn Dictorow, Alex Kerr, and many more. In the summer of 2021 Vaughn competed in the International Lliria City of Music conducting competition and placed in the Semifinals round.

He has been invited to the PRISMA Conducting Fellowship, the International Institute for Conductors, and was an assistant conductor finalist for the National Repertory Orchestra. Vaughn gained extensive experience working with collegiate orchestras while earning his Masters in Orchestral Conducting (2017 - 2019) at The Florida State University College of Music, under the direction of Alexander Jiménez. Working with Youth Orchestras has been a monumental part of Vaughn’s development as he has worked with Tallahassee Youth Orchestras, Sarasota Youth Orchestras, and Sinfonia Youth Orchestras.

Vaughn is also an experienced teacher and held the position of Orchestra Director at Manatee High School from 2015 - 2017. As an active violinist Vaughn has played principal positions with Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Bradenton Symphony Orchestra, Panama City Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfonia Gulf Coast. Some of his hobbies include traveling, reading, and playing chess.

Aaron King Vaughn