New Music New Haven

Christopher Theofanidis 路 Artistic Director

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN

NOVEMBER 15 Morse Recital Hall 路 Thursday, 8 pm Featured Composer George Crumb Yale Graduate Composers Michael Gilbertson B谩lint Karosi Benjamin Wallace

Robert Blocker, Dean

Christopher Theofanidis 路 Artistic Director

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN Benjamin Wallace b. 1989

Tick Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor Victor Fournelle-Blain, violin Yuan Ma, violin Alan Ohkubo, cello James Jeonghwan Kim, cello Kyeong Hoon Seung, flute Bo Hee Kim, flute

B谩lint Karosi b. 1979

Four Temperaments: Phlegmatic Jonathan Brandani, conductor Sun Kyung Liz Ban, violin Hyeree Yu, viola Samuel Suggs, bass Isabel Gleicher, flute Jacob Mende-Fridikis, flute Jeffrey Reinhardt, oboe Eric Anderson, clarinet Ashley Smith, bass clarinet Michael Zuber, bassoon

Michael Gilbertson b. 1987

Wai Lau, clarinet David Perry, bass clarinet Mari Yoshinaga, percussion Garrett Arney, percussion Oliver Jia, piano Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano

Robert Moser, trumpet Kevin Drombrowski, trombone Doug Perry, percussion Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez, percussion Antoine Malette-Chenier, harp Melody Quah, piano Brendon Randall-Myers, electric guitar

Who Remembers Day Michael Gilbertson, conductor Virginia Warnken, soprano Shawn Moore, violin Hye Jin Koh, violin Dashiel Nesbitt, viola Jurrian Van Der Zanden, cello Gregory Vartian-Foss, bass Cho-Long Kang, flute Caroline Ross, oboe

Igal Levin, clarinet Tianyu Zhang, clarinet Craig Hubbard, horn John Ehrenburg, trumpet John Allen, trumpet William Dietz, tuba Jonathan Allen, percussion Victor Caccese, percussion Paul Kerekes, piano

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

intermission

George Crumb b. 1929

Vox Balaenae Vocalise (... for the beginning of time) Variations on Sea-Time Sea Theme Archeozoic [Var. I] Proterozoic [Var. II] Paleozoic [Var. III] Mesozoic [Var. IV] Cenozoic [Var. V] Sea-Nocturne (... for the end of time) Ginevra Petrucci, amplified flute Qizhen Liu, amplified cello Daniel Schlosberg, amplified piano

American Songbook III Poor Wayfaring Stranger The Riddle Ev’ry Night When the Sun Goes In Appalachian Epiphany: A Psalm for Sunset and Dusk (Instrumental Interlude) Down in the Valley/Hush Little Baby All the Pretty Little Horses (An Appalachian Lullaby) Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor Janna Baty,* soprano Larry Weng, piano Doug Perry, percussion Garrett Arney, percussion Victor Caccese, percussion Jonathan Allen, percussion

*faculty artist

Poor Wayfaring Stranger I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger A-trav’ling through this world of woe But there’s no sickness, toil, or danger, In this bright world to which I go.

I’m going there to see my father, I’m going there no more to roam.

I’m just a-going over Jordan, I’m just a-going over home.

I know dark clouds will gather round me, I know my way is rough and steep.

Yet beauteous fields lie just before me, Where God’s redeemed their vigils keep.

I’m going there to see my mother, She said she’d meet me when I come.

I’m only going over Jordan, I’m only going over home.

The Riddle I gave my love a cherry that has no stone, I gave my love a chicken that has no bone, I gave my love a ring that has no end, I gave my love a baby with no cryen.

How can there be a cherry that has no stone?

How can there be a chicken that has no bone?

How can there be a ring that has no end?

How can there be a baby with no cryen?

A cherry when it’s blooming, it has no stone.

A chicken when it’s pipping, it has no bone.

A ring when it’s rolling, it has no end.

A baby when it’s sleeping has no cryen.

Ev’ry Night When the Sun Goes In Ev’ry night when the sun goes in, Ev’ry night when the sun goes in, Ev’ry night when the sun goes in, I hang down my head and mournful cry.

It’s once my apron it hung down low.

He’d follow me through sleet and snow.

It’s now my apron it comes to my chin.

He’ll face my door and he won’t come in.

I wish to the lord my babe was born, A-sitting upon his papa’s knee, And me, poor girl, was dead and gone, And the green grass growing over me.

True love, don’t weep; true love, don’t mourn.

True love, don’t weep; true love, don’t mourn.

True love, don’t weep nor mourn for me.

I’m going away to Marble Town.

Down in the Valley Down in the valley, the valley so low Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.

Hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow.

Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.

I wrote a letter containing three lines: Answer my question, will you be mine?

Will you be mine, dear, will you be mine?

Answer my question, will you be mine?

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew, Angels in heaven know I love you.

Know I love you, dear, know I love you, Angels in heaven know I love you.

Hush, Little Baby Hush, little baby, don’t say a word.

Papa’s gonna buy you a mocking bird.

If that mocking bird don’t sing, Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.

If that diamond ring is brass, Papa’s gonna buy you a looking glass.

If that looking glass gets broke, Papa’s gonna buy you a billy goat.

If that billy goat don’t pull, Papa’s gonna buy you a cart and bull.

If that cart and bull turn over, Papa’s gonna buy you a dog named Rover.

If that dog named Rover don’t bark, Papa’s gonna buy you a horse and cart.

If that horse and cart fall down, You’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

All the Pretty Little Horses Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you’ll have cake And all the pretty little horses.

Black and bay, dapple and gray, Coach and six a little horses.

Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, Go to sleepy little baby.

Way down yonder, down in the meadow, There’s a poor wee little lamby.

Bumble bees a-buzzing at his knees, The poor little thing is crying “mammy”.

Go to sleep and don’t you cry, Rest your head upon the clover.

In your dreams, you shall ride, While your mammy’s watching over.

Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you’ll have cake And all the pretty little horses.

PROFILES & NOTES

GEORGE CRUMB composer George Crumb’s reputation as a composer of hauntingly beautiful scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers in today’s musical world. From Los Angeles to Moscow, and from Scandinavia to South America, festivals devoted to the music of George Crumb have sprung up like wildflowers. Crumb, the winner of a 2001 Grammy Award and the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music, continues to compose new scores that enrich the musical lives of those who come in contact with his profoundly humanistic art.

George Henry Crumb was born in Charleston, West Virginia on 24 October 1929. He studied at the Mason College of Music in Charleston and received the Bachelor’s degree in 1950. Thereafter he studied for the Master’s degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign under Eugene Weigel. He continued his studies under Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik, Berlin from 19541955. He received the D.M.A. in 1959 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after studying with Ross Lee Finney.

meticulously notated scores. A shy, yet warmly eloquent personality, Crumb retired from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania after more than 30 years of service. Awarded honorary doctorates by numerous universities and the recipient of dozens of awards and prizes, Crumb makes his home in Pennsylvania, in the same house where he and his wife of more than 50 years raised their three children. George Crumb’s music is published by C.F. Peters and the ongoing series of “Complete Crumb” recordings, supervised by the composer, is being issued on Bridge Records. » www.georgecrumb.net

George Crumb’s music often juxtaposes contrasting musical styles. The references range from music of the western art-music tradition, to hymns and folk music, to non-western musics. Many of Crumb’s works include programmatic, symbolic, mystical and theatrical elements, which are often reflected in his beautiful and

Vox Balaenae notes Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), composed in 1971 for the New York Camerata, is scored for flute, cello and piano (all amplified in concert performance). The work was inspired by the singing of the humpback whale, a tape recording of which I heard two or three years previously. Each of the three performers is required to wear a black half-mask (or visor-mask). The masks, by effacing the sense of human projection, are intended to represent, symbolically, the powerful impersonal forces of nature (i.e. nature dehumanized). I have also suggested that the work be performed under deep-blue stage lighting.

The form of the Voice of the Whale is a simple three-part design, consisting of a prologue, a set of variations named after the geological eras, and an epilogue.

The opening Vocalise (marked in the score: “wildly fantastic, grotesque”) is a kind of candenza for the flutist, who simultaneously plays his instrument and sings into it. This combination of instrumental and vocal sounds produces an eerie, surreal timbre, not unlike the sounds of the humpback whale. The conclusion of the cadenza is announced by a parody of the opening measures of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathrustra.

The Sea-Theme (“solemn, with calm majesty”) is presented by the cello (in harmonics), accompanied by dark, fateful chords of strummed piano strings. The following

sequence of variations begins with the haunting sea-gull cries of the Archeozoic (“timeless, inchoate”), and gradually increasing in intensity, reaches a strident climax in the Cenozoic (“dramatic, with a feeling of density”). The emergence of man in the Cenozoic era is symbolized by a partial restatement of the Zarathustra reference.

The concluding Sea-Nocturne (“serene, pure, transfigured”) is an elaboration of the SeaTheme. The piece is couched in the “luminous” tonality of B major and there are shimmering soulds of antique cymbals (played alternately by the cellist and flutist). In composing the Sea-Nocturne, I wanted to suggest “a larger rhythm of nature” and a sense of suspension in time. The concluding gesture of the work is a gradually dying series of repetitions of a ten-note figure. In concert performance, the last figure is to be played “in pantomime” (to suggest a diminuendo beyond the threshold of hearing!); for recorded performances, the figure is played as a “fadeout.”

-George Crumb

PROFILES & NOTES

American Songbook III notes My impulse to do a cycle of Appalachian folk song settings came about through a suggestion of my daughter Ann, who had long been interested in American folk music and in particular those haunting tunes associated with Appalachia. She hoped I might find inspiration for an extended work suitable for concert performance. In undertaking the task I was, in a sense, returning to my own Appalachian roots.

Indeed, these beautiful and haunting melodies were always a part of my musical psyche, and in my earlier compositions I had quoted fragments of two of the tunes as a sort of personal musical “signature.” This present work includes a selection of my very favorite pieces of the genre – pieces as varied as the darkly brooding “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” the heart-breaking intonations of an emerging blues style in the Southern Appalachian “Ev’ry Night When the Sun Goes In,” and the light-hearted and playful little song entitled “The Riddle.” In confronting these songs head-on, so to speak, I determined to leave the beautiful melodies intact (only occasionally “spreading” the metrics for a more spacious effect, or compressing the bar for greater momentum), since one could not hope to improve on the pristine perfection.

In the matter of the folk song texts, there was a huge variety of alternate versions, and my daughter and I simply chose our favorites.

I have attempted to heighten the expressiveness of this music by scoring the

work for a rather unusual “orchestra” consisting of an amplified piano and a quartet of percussionists (who play a number of rather unconventional instruments in addition to the more common ones). By means of a wide range of timbres and textures together with a frequent use of an extended chromaticism and unusual rhythmic patterns, I have attempted to bring out the psychological depth and mysticism and also the humor (both whimsical and ironic) inherent in Appalachian folklore.

If my settings will enhance the listener’s enjoyment of these wonderful songs, I would feel that my efforts were truly rewarded. The title of my work is drawn from the famous 121 st Psalm of David: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”

-George Crumb

JANNA BATY mezzo-soprano Praised by the Boston Globe for “a rich, viola-like tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” mezzo-soprano Janna Baty enjoys an exceptionally versatile career. She has sung with Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hamburgische Staatsoper, L’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Longwood Symphony, Hartford Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Eugene Opera, Opera North, and Boston Lyric Opera. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis, Robert Spano, Steuart Bedford, Stephen Lord, Stefan Asbury, Gil Rose, David Hoose, and Shinik Hahm, among numerous others. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has performed at festivals worldwide, including the Aldeburgh and Britten Festivals in England, the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Tanglewood, Norfolk, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina festivals in the United States.

A noted specialist in contemporary music, Ms. Baty has worked alongside many celebrated composers, including John Harbison, Bernard Rands, Yehudi Wyner, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Reza Vali, Paul Salerni, and Paul Moravec, on performances of their music. Ms. Baty has enjoyed a long collaboration with Boston

Modern Orchestra Project, and with them has recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian); Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin; the world-premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Civil War-era opera Our American Cousin; and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. An alumna of Oberlin College and the Yale School of Music, she joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2008.

PROFILES & NOTES

BENJAMIN WALLACE composer Ben Wallace grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he began playing piano and percussion during high school as well as some light composing. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in both percussion and composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he studied with Allen Otte, Joel Hoffman, and Michael Fiday. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with David Lang. Ben’s music has been performed in various venues in Albuquerque, Cincinnati, and Switzerland, and he has participated in masterclasses with Frederick Rzewski, Meehans Perkins Duo, and eighth blackbird. Earlier this year he performed as a percussionist and then pianist in Musical Theater Southwest’s productions of Miss Saigon and Footloose in Albuquerque.

Tick notes Tick is the result of about two years of work and thirteen years of obsession. At some point during the fourth grade, I began looking at my surroundings with symmetry in mind.

Everything I did had to be equal and symmetrical, for instance, the sequence of tiles I walked across and which foot landed on them, or having to scratch my head with both index fingers instead of just one. And eventually, all of these things began to follow a very simple ABBA pattern. And so, thirteen

years later, I have finally translated this obsession into music with the little ABBAs and BAABs pulsing along in a giant, completely symmetrical framework.

BÁLINT KAROSI composer Hailing from a musical family in Budapest, Hungary, Bálint Karosi started his musical career on the clarinet, piano and later on the organ. Currently, he is a candidate for the MMA degree in composition at the Yale School of Music. Karosi’s compositional work draws on improvisation, modal harmony, atonal elements, early music, Hungarian folk, and minimalism. Thanks to his mother, opera singer and voice professor Júlia Pászthy, he has a long-standing interest in vocal music.

Bálint is the winner of the 2012 Improvisation Competition of the University of Michigan and the 2008 International J. S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, amongst other competitions. His skill in Baroque keyboard improvisation has earned his reputation as a teacher of this art in the Boson area, where he has been on the faculty at Boston University and UMass Boston.

Four Temperaments: Phlegmatic notes Sanguine is the second movement of my four-movement piece for an ensemble of 17 musicians entitled “The Four Temperaments”—to be completed next semester. The movements correspond to the four classic personality types: melancholic (introverted and thoughtful), sanguine (pleasure-seeking and sociable), phlegmatic (relaxed and quiet), and choleric (ambitious

and leader-like). Although Sanguine is composed in equal temperament, the other movements will feature unequal temperaments (just intonation, 1/4 comma and 1/6 comma Meantone).

Sanguine is a musical portrayal of a personality that has many contradicting characters in him; a tender, sociable one, an unpredictable one, a funny and a violent one. Sanguine has three sections. In the first section I explore all musical material of the piece; fast, dissonant gestures, repeated notes, woodwind solos, and a main theme that becomes more and more dominant as the piece goes on. The middle section combines these elements in harmony; in the last section I set them in sharp contrast in a dense, layered structure, leaving it up to the audience which layer to focus on.

PROFILES & NOTES

MICHAEL GILBERTSON composer Michael Gilbertson, a native of Dubuque, Iowa, studied composition with Samuel Adler, John Corigliano, and Christopher Rouse at The Juilliard School. Gilbertson’s works have been programmed by ensembles including The Juilliard Orchestra, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Symphony in C, the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the Dubuque Symphony, the Flint Symphony, the Rockford Symphony, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, the Galesburg Symphony, the Denver Young Artists Orchestra, Musica Sacra, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.

Gilbertson’s music has earned wide recognition, receiving three Morton Gould Awards from ASCAP, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2007–2008 PalmerDixon Prize (awarded by the Juilliard composition faculty for the most outstanding work composed by a student during the year), and the 2010 Israel Prize from the Society for New Music. His music can be heard in the 2006 documentary Rehearsing a Dream, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Who Remembers Day notes Who Remembers Day is based on a text by one of my favorite writers, the American poet W.S. Merwin (b. 1927). I composed this work in the fall of 2012 working closely

with Virginia Warnken, for whose voice this work is written.

“Carol of the Three Kings” currently collected in The First Four Books of Poems

by W.S. Merwin.

NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN

artistic director Christopher Theofanidis manager Andrew W. Parker music librarian Roberta Senatore production assistant Kate Gonzales conducting fellows Paolo Bortolameolli Jonathan Brandani assistants Philip Browne Jean Laurenz

music.yale.edu

music librarians Paolo Bortolameolli Leonard Chiang Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez Michael Gilbertson Darren Hicks Michael Halloway Hye Jin Koh Qizhen Liu Yuan Ma Alan Ohkubo Rachel Perfecto Elisa Rodriguez Sadaba Matthew Rosenthal Matheus Souza stage crew John Allen Jonathan Allen Jeffery Arredondo Colin Brookes Jonathan Hammonds Timothy Hilgert Stephen Ivany Gerardo Mata Jonathan McWilliams Shawn Moore David Perry Doug Perry Matthew Rosenthal Gerald Villella

COMING UP

Hung-Kuan Chen, piano Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu music.yale.edu

concert programs & box office Krista Johnson Carol Jackson Julie Blindauer communications Dana Astmann Monica Ong Reed Austin Kase operations Tara Deming Christopher Melillo

november 28 Morse Recital Hall | Wed, 8 pm Tickets $12–$22 | Students $6-$9 Horowitz Piano Series Music by Mozart and Brahms, plus Schumann’s Fantasie in C major and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka.

Laura Usiskin, cello november 29 Morse Recital Hall | Thurs, 8 pm | Free Doctor of Musical Arts Recital Debussy: Cello Sonata; Bach: Suite No. 5 in C minor; Justine Chen: Alaripu; Stravinsky: Suite Italienne. With Katsura Tanikawa, piano.

technical services Jack Vees

New Music for Orchestra

piano curators Brian Daley William Harold

Woolsey Hall | Sun, 8 pm | Free New Music New Haven & Yale Philharmonia The Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Shinik Hahm, performs new music for chamber orchestra by Stephen Feigenbaum, William Gardiner, Michael Gilbertson, Daniel Schlosberg, and Matthew Welch.

recording studio Eugene Kimball

decmeber 6