Caleb Trezise, piano
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Caleb Trezise has obtained two undergraduate degrees in both Music Education and Bible from Cairn University where he studied piano under Ken Borrmann. During his studies, he performed several collaborative and solo recitals along with a piano and orchestra arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Caleb now teaches chorus and general music at William Penn Middle School of the Pennsbury School District in Bucks County, PA. Tonight’s performance is the culmination of his studies under Dr. Carl Cranmer at West Chester University. He has elsewhere studied with Dr. Steven Spooner and Dr. Rebekah Stiles.
Felix Mendelssohn wrote numerous songs without words. Many classical piano melodies cannot be sung because they are too complicated, or they are not in the right range for the human voice. Mendelssohn wrote this and many other piano songs like it to be “singable” so that you could hum along with the tune.
Among his more famous concert etudes, Liszt’s Un Sospiro focuses on two techniques: (1) arpeggios, or rapidly ascending and descending chords and (2) the “cross-hand” technique in which the right and left hands cross over one another to play the various notes of the melody.
The violinist and composer, Paganini, originally wrote La Campanella for solo violin and orchestra, and Liszt later transcribed it for solo piano. In Paganini’s original, the triangle percussion instrument played almost constantly throughout the music to represent “the bell” accompanying the violin’s virtuosic melody. To embody this relationship, Liszt makes the piano play a high D# throughout the entire piece while playing an increasingly complicated repeated melody underneath.
Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 13 K. 333 brings the listener through the well-known sonata form. The first movement begins by playing two themes. Then the music journeys off into a section called the “development” in which the thematic material is tossed up and down the keyboard into uncharted tonal territory. After this wild ride, the theme returns in strength in its original key at the “recapitulation” to finish out the movement with a bang. This second movement settles into a simpler parallel form to that of sonata form. It can be diagrammed as “A-B-A”. The “A” section plays the theme and its related content before varying it in the “B” section. Later the “A” section returns with only slight alterations to the original theme before a soft landing. Finally, the third movement opens with an important theme lasting just over 10 seconds, which continues to return in pairs throughout the piece. Count how many times it is played, and listen for it to be played in a different range or key.
Like Liszt’s La Campanella, this Turkish March is a transcription. By musical standards of his day, Mozart wrote it to be a rather exciting piece with contrasting moods and textures, and Volodos updated the piece to implement loud virtuosic material while preserving the melodic content. The piece begins with an excerpt from Mozart’s original Turkish March before Volodos interrupts with his revised version which since its debut in 1997 has captivated audiences and pianists alike.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my wife, Grace, who has heard these pieces played quite often. Thank you to Dr. Cranmer for your countless hours invested in my piano studies. Thank you to my family, both immediate and extended, for supporting my musical pursuits. Thank you God for music, for disciplined practice, and for giving me the ability and means to improve.
“What do you have that you did not receive?” - 1 Corinthians 4:7 “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” - Romans 11:36