SoNA Evoking Folklore 2022-23 Program Notes

SoNA

Symphony of Northwest Arkansas

Evoking Folklore April 29, 2023 Walton Arts Center Paul Haas, conductor

Chokfi’ (2018)

number of compositions that incorporated

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate

native musical elements.

b July 25, 1968, Norman, OK Composers such as Farwell were outsiders to those native cultures. It has been only recently that works truly reflecting Native American music has long suffered

those cultures have been composed by

from an exceedingly low profile on the

Native American, rather than Eurocentric,

concert stage. Attempted remedies have

composers. Among those we find Jerod

been sporadic and typically short-lived.

Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, born in Norman,

A laudable but ultimately ineffective

Oklahoma and a citizen of the Chickasaw

movement in the late 19th century sought

Nation. Both pianist and composer, Tate

to research, notate, and publish the music

has received commissions from orchestras

of various native peoples. Led by American

nationwide, has written for film and

composer Arthur Farwell, the so-called

television, and has received numerous

“Indianist” movement produced a fair

awards including a regional Emmy award.

Chokfi’ is the Chickasaw word for the trickster rabbit, an animal spirit of a penchant for gettting into mild trouble

Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1915)

along the lines of gluttony or carelessness,

Manuel de Falla

although he is capable of considerably

b November 23, 1876 in Cádiz, Spain

more complex and even frightening

d November 14, 1946 in Alta Gracia,

behavior. He’s also a bit of a folk hero,

Argentina

typically lighthearted demeanor with a

such as in the tale of “Rabbit and Big Man Eater” in which he employs his clever wiles to defeat a man-eating monster.

It was once an article of faith that the Tate’s Chokfi’ resulted from a commission

French wrote the best Spanish music—

from the Oklahoma Youth Orchestras.

think Bizet’s Carmen, think Debussy’s

“I decided to create a character sketch

Iberia—but Manuel de Falla sought

that would be both fun and challenging

to reclaim Iberian music for native

for the kids,” says Tate. “Different string

composers. A protégé of composer-

and percussion techniques and colors

teacher Felipe Pedrell, tireless champion

represent the complicated and diabolical

of indigenous Spanish music, de Falla

personality of this rabbit person.” The

created a variegated catalog of works that

piece is divided into three large parts—

celebrate the manifold musical idioms

the outer sections being propulsive and

of Iberia.

energetic, while the middle section takes a more introspective tone in which we

Although de Falla spent part of his

can perhaps hear chokfi’ planning some

formative years (1907–1914) in France,

new tricks.

where he was influenced by Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas, he never allowed French idioms to dominate his style. From first to last he protected his Spanish heritage, and with the outbreak of the First World War he returned to Spain, where he would have remained permanently but for Franco and the Spanish Civil War. He exiled himself to Argentina in 1939, where he died in 1946.

His remains were returned to Spain, where they were interred in Cádiz Cathedral.

Nights in the Gardens of Spain started out as a set of three nocturnes for solo piano, but shortly after returning to Spain

Symphony No. 3 (1946)

in 1915 de Falla re-fashioned the suite

Aaron Copland

for piano and orchestra. It’s fine to refer to

b November 14, 1900 in Brooklyn, NY

Nights as a concerto, given the heightened

d December 2, 1990 in Sleepy Hollow, NY

and exposed role of the solo piano, but de Falla’s own description as “symphonic impressions” suggests that it’s more a three-movement tone

It is a testimony to the richness of the

poem with an unusually prominent

American melting pot that one of our

solo instrument.

supreme musical voices was the Frenchtrained son of Polish and Lithuanian

Each of the Nights portrays one of

immigrants. Aaron Copland was born in

Spain’s most cherished formal gardens.

New York, but his intense musical talent

“At the Generalife” takes us first to

dictated that he would study overseas:

the magnificent Moorish Alhambra

early 20th-century America might have

Palace in Granada, in a portrait that,

been the land of opportunity but it was a

despite occasional moments of crisp

bleak wasteland for ambitious composers

rhythm, generally retains a hushed and

of concert music. From 1921 to 1925 he

atmospheric demeanor. The second-place

studied in France, broadening his musical

“Distant Dance” celebrates the flamenco

horizons and acquiring a rock-solid

song known as a malagueña, filled with

compositional technique.

the sound of strumming guitars. To conclude, “In the Gardens of the Sierra de

Upon returning to his homeland Copland

Córdoba” makes skilled use of the copla,

became a prime mover in the creation

an Andalusian poetic form that resembles

of a vibrant American musical voice, as

a musical rondo, in which a cyclic refrain

he developed a vivid personal style that

alternates with contrasting passages.

blended the sophisticated European modernism he acquired in France with native jazz and folk music. One sometimes hears that there were two Coplands—one modernist, the other populist—but it is more accurate to say that his language was flexible enough to serve a wide spectrum of

compositions, from sparse contemporary

distinctly ‘American’ qualities are relatively

statements to nostalgic evocations of an

sparse, in that it incorporates neither folk

archetypal America.

music nor jazz elements. However, it does make spectacular use of Copland’s own

Copland’s Third Symphony has a musical

Fanfare for the Common Man, written for

godfather by way of the inimitable Serge

the Cincinnati Symphony in 1942. Not only

Koussevitzky, long-time music director

does an expanded version of the Fanfare

of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,

open the symphony’s last movement, but

Tanglewood Festival founder, and

its characteristically angular contours and

indefatiguable champion of modern

noble demeanor permeate the entire work.

music. Posterity may thank Koussevitzky for Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms,

Copland’s elegant lyrical muse is fully

Messiaens’ Turangalîla Symphony,

present in the expansive first movement,

Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and a

where, as is Copland’s typical practice, the

host of other modern masterpieces, not to

movement’s three themes are presented

mention Ravel’s wonderful orchestration

in plain guise, without unnecessary

of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

decoration or sonic clutter. For the second

Copland had been sketching ideas for a

movement, Copland provides a scherzo—

new symphony since 1944, and the arrival

i.e., a jolly uptempo affair shot through

of Koussevitzky’s commission energized

with dance rhythms, even in its contrasting

him to “focus my ideas and arrange

slower middle section.

the material I had collected into some semblance of order.”

The finale, opening with Fanfare for the Common Man, is an expansive expression

That “semblance of order” had its

of nobility, gleaming with with heroism and

premiere by Koussevitzky and the Boston

grandeur, downright lavish in its thematic

Symphony on October 18, 1946 and was

content. Eventually the Fanfare re-appears

immediately hailed as a masterpiece

to bring the symphony to an appropriately

of symphonic art. Neither abstract

imposing conclusion.

modernism nor populist Americana, its

Program notes by Scott Foglesong, copyright 2023 First North American Serial Rights Only