Notes on the Program
April 26, 2008
Remembering Gatsby (Foxtrot for Orchestra)
John Harbison
Born in Orange, New Jersey on December 20, 1938
Remembering Gatsby was composed for the Atlanta Symphony and is dedicated to the orchestra and its Music Director, Robert Shaw. It was completed during the summer of 1985 at Token Creek, Wisconsin.
For some years I made sketches for an opera based on Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby: after I abandoned the project I sometimes ran across musical images (in my sketchbooks) and fragrances from the novel (in my senses). A few of these were brought together in this orchestral foxtrot.
The piece, which runs about eight minutes, begins with a cantabile passage for full orchestra, a representation of Gatsby's vision of the green light on Daisy's dock. Then the foxtrot begins, first with a kind of call to order, then a twenties tune I had written for one of the party scenes, played by a concertino led by a soprano saxophone. The tune is then varied and broken into its components, leading to an altered reprise of the call to order, and an intensification of the original cantabile.
A brief coda combines some of the motives, and refers fleetingly to the telephone bell and the automobile horns, instruments of Gatsby's fate.
My father, eventually a Reformation historian, was a young show-tune composer in the twenties, and this piece may also have been a chance to see him in his tuxedo again.
— John Harbison
Symphony No. 3, op. 90 in F Major
Johannes Brahms
Born in Hamburg, Germany on May 7, 1833
Died in Vienna, Austria on April 3, 1897
The third symphony was written in 1883 and first performed in Vienna that December. Here, as in Brahms' other symphonies, two smaller intermezzo-like movements are flanked by outer movements which are larger and more dramatic. In contrast to the Beethovenesque first symphony, and the genial but somewhat rambling second, the third symphony is compact and has the more direct and intimate quality of Brahms' chamber music. All four of the movements end quietly, forsaking and kind of dramatic concluding gesture, and the mood throughout is intensely lyrical. Brahms achieves a remarkably cohesive structure through the use of a “motto” theme which is heard at the very beginning in the winds. The motto introduces a sweeping triadic theme in the violins and supplies its harmonic foundation deep in the bass.
The second subject — a one-bar folk-like theme — is an example of Brahms' technique of continuous variation. Following a closing section charged by a displaced sense of meter, the development begins with an angry transformation of this second subject. The heart of the development is and intensely serious section in Eb in which the motto theme in the horn is heard against a somber background of the contrabassoon and string bass. The principal theme gropes through eb minor to the distant key of Cb Major. In the midst of the gloom the opening chords burst forth in a new harmonic setting and wee are plunged into the recapitulation. Following a final impassioned outburst, the movement closes with the first theme, now a calm, distant echo.
The principal theme of the second movement is another folk-like melody with a hint of the motto theme in its tail. The mood of quiet, almost religious, contemplation extends to the second theme, scored for clarinet and bassoon. The first two notes of this theme are echoed hesitantly by the strings and usher in a richly harmonized variation of the main theme. A final reminder of the opening melody over a tonic pedal brings the movement to a peaceful close.
As in the first two symphonies, a relaxed pace replaces the usual scherzo tempo in the third movement. The celli intone a simple theme in c minor over a chamber music like accompaniment in the upper strings. After a repetition in the violins, the celli continue with a smoother and more flowing secondary theme. The “trio” which follows is quite short, with woodwinds phrasing a simple theme across the bar, while the celli add a syncopated accompaniment. A repeat of the first section is differently orchestrated but the themes are unchanged.
The final allegro is a more complex structure: a stormy sonata allegro movement in f minor. It opens with a unison theme which chromatically surrounds the dominant and reappears throughout the movement in many of ingenious rhythmic transformations. Soon it is interrupted by a solemn episode which we recognize as the secondary theme of the second movement. But the religious atmosphere is quickly swept away by the impetuous first subject.
The second subject in C Major is played by the horns and celli. This is followed by a very dramatic development in which the theme from the second movement grows to huge proportions. The recapitulation begins with a condensed statement of the theme, now in an impassioned forte . Soon the fury dies down and the second movement theme returns, accompanied by a warm halo from the strings. the motto soars gently, and with a quiet remembrance of the principal theme of the first movement, the symphony comes to a peaceful close.
— Leif Bjaland
Symphony No. 1 (Titan)
Gustav Mahler
Born in Kaliště, Bohemia on July 7, 1860
Died in Vienna, Austria on May 18, 1911
The Symphony Number 1 in D major was completed in 1888 when Mahler was musical director of the Royal Opera in Budapest . Its beginning, however, dates back to the turbulent years which saw the creation of the Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) from which the symphony borrows freely. The keynote for the first movement is given by a simple phrase, printed over the opening bar: Wie ein Naturlaut (like a sound of nature), a phrase which Mahler felt obliged to elaborate upon when the work was subjected to rigid programmatic interpretation. "That nature embraces everything that is at once awesome, magnificent, and lovable nobody seems to grasp... Nobody seems to think of the mighty underlying mystery, the God Dionysus, the Great Pan; and just that mystery is the meaning of my phrase Wie ein Naturlat . That, if anything, is my 'program' or the secret of my composition."
The Symphony opens with a long sustained pedal point, carried out by the entire string section. The mysterious mood is punctuated by fragments of motives suggesting the call of the cuckoo and distant trumpet calls. The characteristic use of the interval of the fourth assumes great significance throughout the composition. After the long introduction the principal theme is presented; it consists of a cheerful little tune Ging heut morgen über's Feld (strolled through the field this morning), which has been extracted from the song cycle. The song material permeates the entire movement, lending it youthful fervor and vigorous freshness.
A rural, uninhabited atmosphere dominates the following Scherzo, whose themes are of robust character. The Ländler -like trio follows, filled with reverence, grace and charm; the recapitulation of the Scherzo rises to ever increasing gaiety and exuberance. A long pause separates the carefree expression of the first two movements from the following, in which a drastic reaction against the former frivolity sets in; it is the spiritual reaction to a tragic event, transformed into music.
A funeral march opens the third movement in which brooding despair gives way to bitter irony. Mahler drew his inspiration for this movement from a 19th-century print depicting the funeral procession of a hunter accompanied by all the animals of the forest. Fatefully the drums beat out the characteristic fourths and a muted solo contrabass intones a minor version of Frere Jacques. Slowly other instruments join in a canon. 'The ironic implication of the funeral march is heightened by sudden interferences from the woodwinds, which start playing a vulgar tune. The tragi -comic mood gives way to pathetic sadness, which finds relief in the touching consolation offered by the last song of the "Wayfarer" cycle; "I lay sleeping under a Linden tree on the road. The tree showered its blossoms down on me and everything is well again, love and grief, world and dream." But, inevitably, the funeral march comes back again, finally fading to a mere whisper.
Without warning, the fourth movement breaks forth with raging vehemence. Crashing chords speak of the agonized cry of a wounded heart; the ghastly oppressiveness of the funeral march gives way to a violent counter-action. In sharp contrast to the first theme, the second theme is nostalgic and full of tender beauty ,.After a tempestuous development containing a chorale which will return at the triumphal conclusion of the work, the second and then the first subject are recapitulated. The heroic motive of the development breaks through and, gaining victory over the nervous excitement, it leads the work to a. triumphant climax.
After the completion of the Symphony, Mahler wrote to a friend: "It has turned out so overwhelming-as if it poured from my heart like a mountain stream.”
— Leif Bjaland