Program Notes
(All additional listening, for the brave and curious, is available on YouTube)
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 for flute and bassoon (1938)
This tricky little vignette was written by the Rio-born, Paris-trained Heitor Villa-Lobos. He’s known for lovely, idiomatic guitar preludes, but this “Brazil-Homage to Bach,” on the other hand, features two instruments that make very odd bedfellows. The first movement (Aria - Chôro) begins with a twirling flute figure, languidly descending to meet the passionate voice of the bassoon. The instruments engage in counterpoint, weaving harmonically tighter and tighter until they finally settle in unison on a low D. The second movement (Fantasia) is verily a flight of fancy. It plants a flag with the quintessentially Latin 3+2+2 rhythmic idea, introduces bel canto secondary themes, and then returns to variations, cadenza, counterpoint, and the conclusive final dash.
Additional listening: Liebermann Trio (Evelyn Mo, Oliver Herbert, Rama Kumaran - 2015)
Concerto No. 7 in E minor for Flute and Orchestra (1787)
We begin our French excursion with this delightful Classical-era concerto, published the same year as the US Constitution! The small chamber orchestra will be conducted by the soloist. Francois Devienne was a flute professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music, and he composed this concerto so expertly that the melodies are totally natural to the instrument—they practically play themselves (and are undeniably pretty). This lush concerto was revived by Jean-Pierre Rampal in the 1960’s, but it still isn’t played as often as the more popular Mozart Flute Concerto in G Major (published 9 years earlier).
Here you’ll see an eighteenth-century convention that’s almost abandoned in modern performance practice: the improvised cadenza. The two solo cadenzas in the second movement will be improvised extempore, making the performance you witness tonight quite literally one-of-a-kind. It will never be played the same way again!
Additional listening: Mozart Flute Concerto in G (Jean-Pierre Rampal, Zubin Mehta - 1989)
Le Merle Noir (1952)
Here we escape 18th-century France into a very different 20th-century France, a country still recovering from World War II. Olivier Messiaen wrote this piece as a test for competitors in the annual flute competition at the Paris Conservatory of Music, where he was (just like Devienne) a professor. Messiaen was deeply religious, and his music reflects his reverence. He was also fascinated by birdsong! “Le Merle Noir” (“The Blackbird”) is his first piece dealing with one specific species of bird, and it uses complicated atonal melodies to transform the sound of a flute into the sound of this bird.
The realism of Messiaen’s literal notation is in shocking contrast to the artifice of its large-scale structure: in one of the oldest formal tricks in the book, Messiaen uses a canon to develop his material. He frames this central canon with two other elements: a cadenza (a densely notated, unmetered selection of birdcall fragments) and a vif (a lively dance interposing a 12-tone piano part into a sudden flurry of activity from the flute). This whole structure (cadenza, canon, vif) is repeated twice, giving the piece a recognizable structure. We can hold on to this structure in the midst of atonal wanderings and strange sounds.
Additional listening: Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time, III. Abyss of Birds (Paul Meyer - 2000)
Sonata “La Vibray” (1732)
Almost all of Blavet’s Opus 2 flute sonatas are named after places; Vibraye is a town in northern France. But this piece is at the end of the program for a different reason altogether: it’s a challenge, a call to action, a Rhetorical piece. It’s just like a speech: every note has a meaning--upward lifts, downward sighs, joyful ornaments and somber ones too. In the Eloquent style of the 17th and 18th centuries, Michel Blavet invites performers to join him in the art of musical “oratory,” using his “words” (the notes on the page) and inflect them with meter, ornament, and affect. These are what Michael Rose calls audible signs and they live in our imagination, waiting to be animated. Carl Smith and Jed Wentz are both experts in these audible signs, and their work serves as a guide and inspiration for this performance.
Additional listening: Telemann Suite in A minor (Hanspeter Oggier, Ensemble Fratres - 2017)
Acknowledgments
Amma and Appa, for everything.
Prof. Leslie Fagan, for her helpful, surefooted guidance and support.
Destin Tunca, Amy Thompson, Ben Harris, and many others, for friendship and inspiration.
Profs. Michael Rose, Carl Smith, Peter Kolkay, and Stan Link, for a valuable education in progress.
Polly Brecht, Andrew Sledge, Yani Quemado and the orchestra, for the skill, energy, and imagination you’ve dedicated to this program.
Lovina Botts, Karen Hansen, and Tracy Harris (my flute teachers before college), for bringing me here.
My students back home in Hemet.
Everyone watching the livestream—special shoutout to the Harvard Street Music Exchange!
My studio-mates at Blair, and the musical community here and far beyond.
Professor Dikeman in memory.
Soli Deo Gloria.