Program Notes
200 Years
%20(Facebook%20Ad).png)
a trip to the darker side of string quartet writing
.png)
Edgar Allan and The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe is one of our own. Born in Boston and having lived in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City, Poe was a Northeasterner all the way. He was also one of the first American writers to attempt to make a living solely by writing, and we could maybe give him a 6 out of 10 for success in this endeavor - meaning he did accomplish it, but he really struggled financially (through little fault of his own).
Publication of The Raven - his best known work, and the one that put him on the map internationally - boosted his reputation significantly, but money was still elusive. Poe was paid $9 for The Raven, which is apparently equivalent to $394.37 today. Maybe enough for a mid-level dishwasher? Poe struggled throughout his life with money issues, depression, alcohol abuse, the death of his parents at a very young age, the death of his wife when he was 38…perhaps we should not be surprised by the tenor of his work.
The Raven is a poem about loss and eventual madness. It tells the story of a young man anguished by the death of the woman he loves. On a December night, as he attempts to find solace in reading, the man is visited by a raven, who enters his study and won’t leave. Like parrots, ravens have the ability to speak, and this one repeats the word “Nevermore” more times than is healthy for his host. The man gradually loses his grip on reality, and the raven remains with him, repeating “nevermore” for-evermore.
The Raven has been illustrated by many notable artists, including Gustave Doré, Édouard Manet and John Tenniel (who also illustrated Alice in Wonderland).
Our presentation of The Raven will be accompanied by music by Beethoven and Shostakovich as well as Cecilia Muylaert and Evan Blaché, both contemporary composers from France and Texas respectively.
Program notes
or Things you Might Like to Know
Cecilia Muylaert
(pronounced "MY-lert”) is a Brazilian pianist and composer based in Paris. As a result of studies in piano AND musicology AND contemporary composition AND film scoring in both France and the UK, Cecilia's compositional style is versatile. She writes for the cinema and theatre as well as the concert hall, and her work has been performed in England, Scotland, the US, Brazil, Mexico and Germany. She draws inspiration from a variety of genres and often adds electronic elements to her pieces. But not for the piece on this program - A Mischievous Plan is straight ahead string quartet writing that is perfect to introduce The Raven, and we think you're gonna love it.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Evan Blaché
is a non-binary choral composer and choral singer based out of San Marcos, Texas. Never known to mince words, Evan has composed many works that combine the classical style with topics of social justice.
Having recently completed a residency at the Oregon Bach Composers Festival, Evan is currently enrolled as a graduate student in Composition at Texas State University, and sings with the Tinsel Singers, Inversion Ensemble, and San Antonio Chamber Singers.
While we are presenting their piece in conjunction with the somewhat morbid themes of this program, Evan's intention when writing Grey Burgundy was different. Here's what Ev says...
This piece was written as part of a string project I created called Chromatic Reverie. In the project, I wanted to take my synesthesia and expand on it in an almost literal sense with colors I find myself very fond of. This piece takes two colors I often love experimenting with synesthetically... Grey is a color that I find dark, with some tones of floatiness, while Burgundy I find to be very dark and bold. This piece takes those two properties and combines them together.
Dmitry Shostakovich -
Elegy for String Quartet
Shostakovich’s 2 Pieces for String Quartet, of which the Elegy is one, were written in 1931 but were discovered in 1985. Shostakovich wrote 15 quartets, the most famous of which - #8 - is on our program in March. But the 2 Pieces predate the first quartet by 7 years. As an example of early Shostakovich - written when he was 25 - these short works are now frequently used as encore pieces.
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
Beethoven - Op. 130 Cavatina
Beethoven’s Op. 130 quartet is a massive six movements long. The 5th movement Cavatina is generally considered to be the pinnacle of the work, so for this concert we are basically skipping straight to dessert. Who needs veggies? We will do the whole piece some other time.
Anyway, Beethoven had a guy that he employed as his secretary by the name of Karl Holz. Karl is primarily remembered today as a violinist. But he also worked for Beethoven, because wouldn’t you? Even if you were a violinist? Anyway, Holz, in conversation with a friend, said the following about the Cavatina…
"For him the crowning achievement of his quartet writing, and his favourite piece, was the E-Flat Cavatina in 3/4 time from the Quartet in B-Flat Major Op. 130. He actually composed it in tears of melancholy (during the summer of 1825) and confessed to me that his own music had never had such an effect on him before, and that even thinking back to that piece cost him fresh tears."
Enough said, probably.
Schubert's Death and the Maiden
Admittedly, these notes do highlight a propensity of sad artists. Our apologies for bringing down the room - it was not really intentional. Still, probably none of us should be surprised that pieces about death and madness and melancholy are born from people who aren’t perhaps feeling like beaming rays of sunshine, and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden is no exception.
Before we get into all the details, it is worth mentioning that this quartet marks an important shift for Schubert - away from the Classical-era models of Mozart and Haydn - and into the emotionally charged realm of the Romantics. It wasn’t published until 3 years after Schubert’s death, but when it was finally made public it was greatly admired by composers like Schumann, Dvorak, and Brahms. Gustav Mahler liked it so much that he orchestrated (made an orchestral version of…) the work. Since then, this quartet has remained one of the most played and loved pieces in the repertoire.
It's also worth mentioning that the idea of "Death and the Maiden" has been a much used theme in visual art since the 1500's. If you are interested in seeing many young girls being badly treated by many versions of death, it's something you could google. Some of them are truly horrible. Anyway, back to the Schubert - here’s how it came about…
In 1817, Schubert wrote a song called Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden). (And just to be extra clear, the term “song” is used here because this first work was written for voice. And piano. In the rule-ridden world that is classical music, unless something is written to actually sing, we avoid using “song” and often use the term “piece”.) ANYWAY, Schubert wrote this song. The text he used was written by the German poet Matthias Claudius in 1774. Here is a translation ( by Malcom Wren).
The girl:
Get away! Oh, get away!
Go away, savage skeleton!
I am still young, go away love!
And don’t bother me.
Death:
Give me your hand, you beautiful, tender image!
I am a friend, and I have not come to punish.
Cheer up! I am not savage,
You are going to sleep gently in my arms!
Fun, no? So Schubert set this text in 1817. Then, in 1824, he took part of the piano accompaniment from the song and used it to build a set of variations that became the 2nd movement of the quartet. Thus the name and the connection.
But it’s not just the second movement that is rather death-y. Remember our apology for being so grim? Schubert wrote this work while he was sick - actually dying - and also irrevocably broke, and he did lean into the “death and sadness” part quite a bit. While there isn’t a program (a specific story) to this work, the whole thing is pretty dark. The first movement is scary. The last movement is a tarantella, which is an old dance from Italy that historical myth tells us was created as the only cure for a venomous spider bite - it’s either dance or die. Or possibly dance until you die. And we've already discussed the second movement.
For those who need to take a breath, we do get a bit of a respite from all the death and destruction in the middle of the 3rd movement. Our advice is to enjoy it while it lasts. Just like life. You’re welcome!
