Composers Datebook

Synopsis

In 2001, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, commissioned American composer Steve Heitzeg to write a Nobel Symphony.

In 1866, the Swedish engineer and scientist Alfred Nobel had invented dynamite. His patent helped him amass a great fortune, but, troubled by the destructive power and potential misuse of his invention, Nobel arranged that his estate would award annual prizes to those who made significant contributions to world peace.

For his Nobel Symphony, Heitzeg chose to set quotes from a variety of Nobel laureates, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Dalai Lama. Purely instrumental effects were also employed to convey something of their ideas and ideals. For example, in a section honoring a 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, he scored an eerie march for a percussion ensemble consisting of hollow artificial limbs.

The October 2, 2001 premiere of the Nobel Symphony came shortly after the tragic events of September 11th. Understandably, its message had a special resonance for the performers and audiences present at its first performance.

Music Played in Today's Program

Steve Heitzeg (b. 1959): Nobel Symphony; Gustavus Orchestra; Warren Friesen, conductor; Gustavus Adolphus 60171-10022

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2010, at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in Nashville, the ALIAS ensemble gave the premiere performance of a new chamber work by American composer Gabriela Lena Frank. It was titled Hilos — the Spanish word for “threads” — and scored for piano, violin, cello and clarinet.

Now, it’s not unusual for composers to tap their particular cultural background for inspiration, but she has a pretty wide variety of options in that regard: Her father is an American of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and her mother is Peruvian of Chinese descent. They met when her father was a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru in the 1960s, and Frank grew up in Berkeley, California.

“There’s usually a story line behind my music,” she said. Regarding Hilos, she noted, “There are similarities to [Mussorgsky’s] Pictures at an Exhibition in that each movement tells a different story … Hilos refers to the ‘threads’ that make up Andean textiles and how these threads weave together.”

Each movement of Hilos has an evocative title, such Canto del Altiplano (Song of the Highlands), Zumballyu (Spinning Top), or Juegos de los Niños (Games of the Children).

Music Played in Today's Program

Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972): ‘Hilos’; Lee Carroll Levine, clarinet; Zeneba Brown, violin; Matt Walker, cello; Gabriela Lena Frank, piano; Naxos 8.559645

Synopsis

Even during the bombing of London by the German Air Force, the London Blitz of World War Two, the BBC Proms Concerts continued.

True, in 1941 a German incendiary bomb did destroy the long-time home of the Proms, Queen’s Hall on Langham Place, but, not to be deterred, the Proms simply moved to the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington.

Wartime Proms programs included this printed notice: “In the event of an Air Raid Warning the audience will be informed immediately, so that those who wish to take shelter either in the building or in public shelters outside, may do so, The concert will then continue.”

Talk about pluck!

In 1944, British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams completed a new oboe concerto to be premiered at a Proms concert, but a German V-1 rocket that landed dangerously near the Albert Hall led to an early end to that Proms season, since the V-1 rockets, unlike the German bombers, didn’t allow enough warning time to clear the hall.

So, on today’s date in 1944, the new Vaughan Williams concerto was premiered not in London, but in Liverpool, with soloist Leon Goossens and Malcolm Sargent conducting the Liverpool Philharmonic.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Oboe Concerto; David Theodore, oboe; London Symphony; Bryden Thomson, conductor; Chandos 8594

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2000, a new cello concerto received its premiere performance at the Barbican Center in London. Billed as the Crouching Tiger Concerto, this score was by Chinese composer Tan Dun, and was derived from his film score for Ang Lee’s martial arts film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

That score featured a prominent cello part, tailor-made for cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as well as a variety of traditional Chinese instruments and a percussion battery that included a North African frame drum. The haunting score matched the film so effectively that it was nominated for — and won — an Academy Award.

It was director Ang Lee who suggested that Dun rework his film score into a cello concerto, and even offered to put together a special film to accompany it. In effect, saying, “Turnabout is fair play — you composed music to fit my film, now I’ll compose a film to fit your concerto!”

Lee pulled together shots from the original film and mixed in real and imaginary scenes from New York’s Chinatown and 19th century Beijing for the new film designed to accompany performances of the new concerto.

Music Played in Today's Program

Tan Dun (b. 1957): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film score; Yo Yo Ma, cello; Shanghai Symphony; Tan Dun, conductor; Sony 89347

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1951, the classic sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still was playing in theaters across America. The film’s opening sequence depicted a UFO hovering over Washington, D.C. Back then, flying saucer sightings were increasingly common, perhaps a result of mass hysteria spawned by cold war tensions and the existential threat posed by the atomic bomb. Or maybe we were being visited by other planets?

In any case, the movie made a big impression at the time, and countless kids — and probably a few adults as well — memorized the magic words “Gort: Klaatu barada nikto” which, in the film, prevented Washington DC’s destruction by a death-ray robot.

Fast forward nearly 50 years to 1999, when Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony premiered a new concerto for percussion and orchestra, specially composed for virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie by American composer Michael Daugherty.

Inspired by the outer-space look of her percussion gear, Daugherty titled his piece UFO and asked that the soloist arrive unexpectedly and dressed as a space alien! In performance, she moved through the audience and around the stage while performing sleight-of-hand improvisations on a variety of flying saucer-like percussive instruments.

Music Played in Today's Program

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975): The Day the Earth Stood Still film score; National Philharmonic; Bernard Herrmann, conductor; London 443 899

Michael Daugherty (b. 1954): UFO; Evelyn Glennie, percussion; North Texas Wind Symphony; Eugene Migliaro Corporon, conductor; Klavier 11121