Clinton Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, November 2, 2024
– 7:30pm –

Centennial Auditorium – Sterling High School

– The Symphony No. 2 by Beethoven anchors this annual concert in Sterling’s Centennial Auditorium. The new discovery on this concert is an overture by Spanish Basque composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga. Nicknamed “the Spanish Mozart,” he was a child prodigy and accomplished composer who died young. The program is completed with a romantic overture by Mendelssohn in tribute to a mermaid, The Fair Melusine.

Let us do the driving! In partnership with Community State Bank, we offer a bus from Clinton, through Fulton and Morrison to the concert in Sterling. Space is limited. Make a reservation by calling hosts Kathy and Dan at 563-503-4886.

Program Notes

Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826)
Dead before his 20th birthday, Arriaga’s shortened life is one of Western music’s
most tragic stories. Nicknamed “the Spanish Mozart”, he was born on his namesake’s
birthday, and shared his prodigious talent at both keyboard and composition. Arriaga
was born in Bilbao, Spain into a Basque family who encouraged his artistic talents. At
11 he started composing major chamber, orchestral and choral works, most remarkably
a two-act opera “Los Esclavos Felices” written at the age of 13 and performed
successfully in Bilbao. At 16 he was sent to study at the Paris Conservatoire where the
director praised him as “music itself” and awarded him prizes for counterpoint and
fugue. Absorbing all principles of harmony in only 3 months, he went on to become the
youngest professor ever appointed at the Conservatoire at age 18.
Arriaga’s feverish creativity seemed to have undermined his health and he died in
Paris 10 days short of his 20th birthday. Although never identified, a lung infection,
probably tuberculosis, and exhaustion undoubtedly led to his early demise. He was
buried in a communal grave in Montmartre and his works remained largely unknown for
the next 100 years. More recently, his works are now being published, although some
remain lost. Three excellent string quartets and the powerful “Symphony in D” have
been recorded, but, sadly, his opera remains in only a few fragments.

Overture in D Major
Arriaga’s music is known for its exceptional fluency, power and technique. Although
a contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, his style reverts to earlier classical
composers. His only symphony, the D Major, is unique in both its structure and its
orchestration, a blend of neo-classicism and romantic qualities.
His Overture in D Major follows a classical sonata form, beginning with a series of
emphatic chords followed by a slow, gentle adagio. The main allegro begins with a
vigorous and rhythmic theme played by the strings. A second pastoral theme is
introduced by the flute over the col legno (tapping of the strings with the wood of the
bow), followed by a brief but richly varied development, surprisingly accomplished for
such a young composer. After a recapitulation of the main themes, the piece closes with
a potent and powerful coda.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Born in 1809, Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, conductor and
teacher, one of the most celebrated figures of the early Romantic period. Although
largely observing Classical models in his work, Mendelssohn moved into key aspects of
Romanticism, the artistic movement that exalted emotion and imagination over rigid
forms and tradition.
An extremely precocious composer, he wrote numerous works during his boyhood,
including 5 operas, 11 symphonies and various shorter compositions. He made his first
public appearance in Berlin at age 9. Studying in Paris, by age 16 he reached full
stature as a composer with Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream, and had also
become active as a conductor. Founding the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, he put
Leipzig on the map as the musical center of Germany.
Worn out by his strenuous career and the death of his beloved sister and lifelong
inspiration, Fanny, he died in 1847 at the age of only 38, one of the first great 19th
century Romantic composers.

Marchen von der Schopenhauer Melusine
Mendelssohn’s 1833 concert overture, The Fair Melusine, was inspired by a popular
legend from medieval European folklore. Melusine was a water sprite cursed to turn into
a serpent from the waist down for one day every week. She fatefully agrees to marry a
knight and live in the human world on the condition that he must not seek her out on her
“serpent day”. Of course, human nature prevails, the knight breaks his promise and she
returns to the water for eternity.
Mendelssohn was very fond of this work, and made a point of saying his overture did
not represent a telling of the story, but rather a reflection of its themes and moods.
The overture begins with gently rippling currents suggesting a sense of the sunny,
blissful serenity of Melusine’s watery home, a flowing motif introduced by the clarinet.
Forty years later, this burbling motif was souped up by Wagner to represent the Rhine
river in his Ring Cycle, and has become the cliched manifestation of anything aquatic in
countless movies. Soon, this fluid dreamscape takes an abrupt turn towards stormy
passion, a sense of two worlds colliding. The drama comes to a sudden end as the final
bars sink into the watery depths.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven began writing his Symphony No. 2 in D Major during one of the most
productive yet depressed periods of his life. By the beginning of the 1800s, a growing
deterioration in his hearing was causing a major crisis for him. A prominent Viennese
physician urged him to move to the village Heiligenstadt where he could rest and bathe
in its curative spa. But his hearing continued to fade, and the isolation contributed to his
increasing despondency. Documentary evidence of his complete despair, even
contemplation of suicide, exists in his famous Heiligenstadt Testament, yet his
remarkable resolve turns to triumph and continued composing. “For some time now my
physical strength has been increasing more and more, and therefore my mental powers
also…I will seize Fate by the throat; it shall not crush me completely,” he writes. The
resulting Symphony No. 2 generates a cheerful enthusiasm, demonstrating the
composer’s resolve to seize the day despite tragic obstacles. Composer Hector Berlioz
later commented, “Everything in this symphony smiles!”

Symphony No. 2 in D Major
The symphony begins darkly enough, moving to D minor midway through the
introduction, setting in motion Beethoven’s dramatic use of contrasts and colorful
instrumental treatment, roaring to a climax over a rising chromatic bass line. The
expansive Larghetto movement takes on the air of a nocturnal serenade, yet transitions
into off-beat and forte crashes in the following Scherzo, reflecting the sense of humor
Beethoven’s contemporaries often attributed to him. The joking spirit carries over into the
powerful Allegro molto finale, enlivened with sudden outbursts and rhythmic surprises. It
ends with a monster coda on the heels of unaccompanied violins, described by one
critic as “a wounded dragon, raging and striking in vain”. In this remarkable work,
Beethoven clearly expends his incredible energy to overcome both personal and
musical boundaries.

Notes compiled by Karin Anderson-Sweet

7:30 p.m. — Saturday, April 20, 2024

Vernon Cook Theater – Clinton High School

Cellist Anthony Arnone, a member of the music school faculty at the University of Iowa, joins us to play the Elgar Concerto for Cello in E minor, one of the last and most beloved works by that composer. It will be complimented with the G major Symphony of Antonin Dvořák.

Learn more about our Guest Artist Anthony Arnone here: https://music.uiowa.edu/people/anthony-arnone

Antonín Dvořák

Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

England has long been a welcomer of foreign composers to its shores. When Antonín Leopold Dvořák arrived for the first of his nine visits in March 1884, a chronicler of the period responded that Dvořák’s “reception was one of the most cordial ever offered by our land to a foreign artist.” From Henry Purcell (1659-1695) to Edward Elgar (1857-1934), the British produced no native-born composer of international rank, but in those years, the music-loving country made itself open to the talents from the continent. George Frederick Handel, for instance, German-born, Italian-trained, came for a visit and stayed as the country’s resident composer. And after he died, came a son of Bach, Johann Christian, German born, German trained, to live and prosper as the “English” Bach. Other European composers of note followed, not to live there but to thrive and burnish their reputations – Franz Joseph Haydn, Muzio Clementi, Ignatz Moscheles, and Felix Mendelssohn, to name a few. It might be said that Dvořák was the last notable continental composer to receive such unbounded approbation, for with Elgar, the British began to look inward to its own composers of rank – Ralph Vaughn Williams, Arnold Bax, William Walton, and Benjamin Britten.

Interest in Dvořák had been growing in England since the performance of selections from his first set of Slavonic Dances in 1879, an interest that only increased with succeeding performances of the Slavonic Rhapsodies, the String Sextet and the Symphony No. 6 in D major, followed in 1882 by a performance of the Piano Concerto in G minor. The event, however, that immediately prompted the London Philharmonic Society to formally invite Dvořák to England was the enthusiastic reception by a choral-loving public of the Stabat Mater, given its first English performance in March 1883.

When Dvořák arrived in London, he brought with him the hope that a “happier period is now beginning for me…a period which…will…bring good fruits for Czech art.” Ever the nationalist, Dvořák resisted the impulse to trade away his love of country, to become Germanized, so to speak, even at the behest of his publisher Simrock and his great benefactor Johannes Brahms. Brahms had written to Dvořák in 1882 an impassioned letter urging the Czech composer to move to Vienna in order to capitalize on the great successes of the first set of the Slavonic Dances, the Stabat Mater, and the Piano Concerto. Dvořák, while grateful to Brahms, would have none of it and looked to England for a broader recognition of his works.

The Czech composer was astounded at the reception he received when he arrived at Albert Hall to guest conduct his Stabat Mater. The orchestra and soloists had been so well prepared that the rehearsals went smoothly, which naturally pleased Dvořák, but what amazed him was

…the size of the orchestra and choir. Please do not be afraid! There are 250 sopranos, 160 altos, 180 tenors and 250 basses; 16 violins, 16 cellos, 16 double basses. The impression of such a mighty body was indeed enchanting. It is quite indescribable.

The following week (March 20, 1884) Dvořák directed his second concert at St. James’s Hall which featured the Hussite Overture, Slavonic Rhapsody and the Symphony No. 6 in D major; he even accompanied the tenor who sang a number of his Gypsy Melodies. These enthusiastic receptions of his music opened up English audiences to Dvořák and Czech music, an opening Dvořák took great pains to cultivate.

From this first venture and the three other trips Dvořák made to England between 1884-1886, the composer garnered commissions for three major works – an opera (The Spectre’s Bride), an oratorio (St. Ludmilla), and a symphony for the London Philharmonic Society. Dvořák began composing the symphony on his return to Bohemia following his first trip, and on April 22, 1885, he attended its premiere in London at St. James’s Hall, barely a month after its completion. Abandoning the usual British restraint, one music critic hailed the Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op 70, as “one of the greatest works of this kind that had been performed in the present generation.” Other critics were just as unbounded in their praise for the new symphony. Oddly, this Seventh Symphony is not the one subtitled ‘English.’

Dvořák, bolstered with the praise for his work, approached his publisher Simrock to increase the fees he was paid for new manuscripts. Dvořák was aware that Simrock paid him only a fifth of what he gave Brahms for a new work. A break between the composer and his publisher was avoided when Simrock agreed to pay Dvořák what the composer expected (half a Brahms’ symphony), and Dvořák offered to compose a new set of Slavonic dances. It was a tentative compromise, however, which the two parties made.

By 1890, Dvořák and Simrock were at loggerheads again over payment for a symphony, this time the Eighth Symphony. Simrock refused Dvořák’s demands, and the composer turned to Henry and Alfred Littleton, owners of the English music publishing firm Novello, who had been after Dvořák for new manuscripts. The two brothers paid Dvořák handsomely for the new symphony, which served the composer favorably in his further dealings with Simrock. Dvořák and Simrock made up after this fit of pique, and the two lived happily ever after. And, thus, it came about that the symphony carried the subtitle ‘English’ for several decades after its publication.

The Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op 88 is a stark contrast to the stormy Romanticism of the Seventh Symphony. The Eighth is bright, cheerful, and brimming with melodic invention spurred by the Bohemian folk music from which Dvořák drew his inspiration.

Edward Elgar

Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

Edward William Elgar (1857-1934) was emotionally devastated by the onset of World War I, and as the ‘war no one wanted’ dragged on through four long years, his depression deepened. In a letter to a friend, he wrote that he could not do “any real work with the awful shadow over us.” He was incensed and saddened that the flowers of British arts and letters were being cut down in the trenches on the battlefields of Europe. Young composers such as George Coles, Ivor Gurney, and George Butterworth sacrified much to defend England – Coles and Butterworh with their lives. It was after the war, in the spring of 1919, that Elgar found again the impulse to compose music of a grand nature.

Most of Elgar’s notable works were composed over a twenty-five year period, beginning around 1890. This was the period often referred to as the Late Romantic era, not only in music but in the other arts as well. From the turn of the century to the onset of war, Elgar’s music came into its own as a distinctive ‘British’ music, and he was hailed as the legitimate heir to Henry Purcell, the paragon of English music before the arrival of the Germans Bach and Händel and the Italian Clementi and the Czech Dvořák. England did, indeed, produce home-grown composers, Stanford and Parry and Bantock of Elgar’s youth, but they were more attuned to the influences from the continent, of Wagner and of Brahms. One can hear echoes of Wagner, for example, in Elgar’s Froissart Overture of 1890.

The orchestral work that established Elgar as truly ‘British’ is his 1899 work Variations on an Original Theme, Op 36, ‘Enigma Variations’. From that springboard, he went on to create other works with some international success including Symphony No 1 in A-flat major, Op 55, and a choral masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius, Op 38.

The Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85, is Elgar’s last major work. The theme for the concerto came to Elgar in March 1918 as in a dream; he awoke from a sedative-induced nap and asked his daughter for pencil and paper and wrote the melody down. At the time he was suffering intense pain from a tonsillectomy, which was considered a dangerous operation on a man of sixty years age. He did little with this first theme for over a year. Then during the family’s summer retreat in 1919 at a cottage along the Channel coast, he began to compose with a fervor that surprised his family; he seemed to have regained the vigor of the pre-War Elgar. By August, Elgar had completed the scoring and his daughter Alice posted the work to his publisher on August 8. Cellist and Elgar friend Felix Salmond served as soloist with the composer conducting when the concerto was premiered at the London Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert on October 27, 1919. Albert Coates, “that brutal, selfish ill-mannered bounder…that brute Coats”, according to Lady Elgar, conducted the rest of the program.

Lady Elgar was enraged that Coates had exceeded his rehearsal times, thus giving her husband inadequate time to prepare the orchestra and the soloist for his new work. As a result, the premiere of the concerto was a failure. The critic of The Observer Ernest Newman wrote,

There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never…has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. … The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar’s music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity.

Elgar later said that it was only because of the hard work his soloist Salmond had pored into the work that he went on with the performance. Unlike his other major compositions, the concerto did not have another performance in London for well over a year.

The Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85, remained on the periphery of the ‘great cello concerto’ repertoire for half a century before it finally reached its rightful place among the hallowed works for the instrument. The work had its performances and recordings over the years, including two recordings with the composer conducting; but it was the 1960s before it became a popular success with an impassioned recording by Jacqueline du Pré with conductor Sir John Barbirolli. The concerto has now become a standard of the instrument’s repertoire and is widely performed.

As he lay on his death bed, Elgar hummed the concerto’s first theme to a friend: “If ever after I’m dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don’t be alarmed. It’s only me.”

Program notes by William H. Driver

Due to the heavy snow and blizzard conditions this weekend, and the bitter cold expected on Sunday, we have decided to postpone this concert until January 21st. The concert will now be hosted by St. Paul Lutheran Church, which is at the foot of the Highway 30 bridge at 715 S 3rd St in Clinton. Thanks for your patience, and stay cozy warm and safe this blustery weekend!

2:00 p.m. — Sunday, January 21, 2024

St. Paul Lutheran Church
715 S 3rd St in Clinton

Warm a Sunday afternoon in January with this performance of chamber music. Composers, musicians, and listeners alike consider chamber music to be the music of friendships. Composers write it with specific friends in mind, often writing a part for themselves in the ensemble. The group of friends gather to play it, and invite their closest friends to hear it. Join our musicians as we continue this great tradition of musical friendships!

Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 26
by Antonin Dvořák

Allegro moderato
Largo
Scherzo. Presto
Finale. Allegro non tanto

 Nadia Wirchnianski, piano
Asa Church, violin  • Ann Balderson, violoncello

– • –

El Grillo
by Josquin Des Prez

Since First I Saw Your Face
by Thomas Ford

Hard By a Fountain
by Hubert Waelrant

April Is In My Mistress’ Face
by Thomas Morley

Il et bel et bon
by Pierre Passereau

Brooke Logan, soprano  •  Sara Dunne, alto
Noah Strausser, tenor  •  Karl Wolf, bass

– • –

Miniatures for Woodwind Quintet
by William Grant Still

  I Ride an Old Paint (U.S.A)
Adolorido (Mexico)
Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land (U.S.A)
Yaravi (Peru)
A Frog Went A-Courtin’ (U.S.A.)

Crystal Duffee, flute  • Tamara Byram Mahl, oboe  • Elizabeth Matera, clarinet
Thomas Wood, bassoon  • Bianca Sierra, horn

Program Notes:

Dvorak Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 26

The first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition, Antonin Dvorak turned his
native folk music into 19th century romantic music. Born in 1841 in a village on the Vltava River
north of Prague, Dvorak showed an unmistakable talent for music by age 12, and began formal
study of harmony, piano and organ. His music teacher realized young Antonin had easily
surpassed his lessons and had him enrolled at the Institute for Church Music in Prague where
he took on private students and played viola in various inns to eke out a living. Although these
were trying years for Dvorak, he composed two symphonies, an opera, chamber music and
numerous songs .
In 1873 he married Anna, a pianist and singer, but the couple tragically lost all 3 of their first
children. However, they were eventually able to raise six more healthy children, spending
summers in a small village where he was to compose some of his best-known works.
He became close friends with Johannes Brahms who helped him technically and found him an
influential publisher, attracting worldwide attention for his Slavonic Dances as well as his
country’s music. His fame spread abroad as he made 10 visits to England where he was made
an honorary doctor of music of Cambridge, as well as triumphant concerts in Moscow arranged
by his friend Tchaikovsky. He became director of the National Conservatory of Music in New
York in 1892, and traveled as far west as Iowa, finding much to stimulate him in the New World.
Eventually he became homesick and returned to Bohemia where he died in 1904.

Piano Trio No. 2, Op.26
Dvorak composed four piano trios, each more celebrated than its predecessor. His Trio No. 2 in
G Minor is imbued with his vivid musical personality: color, warmth, lyricism, melancholy, lively
dance and Slavic folk tunes abound. Its composition came on the heels of his infant daughter’s
death, and is thought to convey dark sorrow, flashes of rage, and deeply felt compassion,
although the final movement breaks into bright play and sunny dance dispelling any lingering
shadows.
The trio is comprised of a full-scale, four-movement program reflecting the influences of
Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn. The opening, a sprawling sonata with Slavic melodies
and colorful, folk- inspired textures swirls between dark and light punctuated by a recurring
motto of two fierce chords.
By contrast, the second movement is slow, spacious and singing, a tender lullaby with wistfully
wandering modulations concluding quietly in a major mode.
The third movement scherzo gallops along urgently with rhythmic drive and
transforms into a brighter, milder trio.
With the finale, Dvorak leaves despair behind once and for all with humor, a touch of manic
Figaro and lively dance. Beginning with a rondo, it hushes into a suspenseful theme until
bursting into a polka and ending in jovial triumph.

RiverChor Quartet

Established in 2004 by Dr. Rob Engelson and a dedicated group of Messiah singers, RiverChor
is currently under the direction of Karl Wolf with Christine Holmer as accompanist. The
community choir consists of singers from many communities and ranges in age from teens to
80s, performing a wide variety of choral music as well as continuing Clinton’s Messiah tradition.
Today’s quartet includes: Brooke Logan, soprano; Sara Dunne, alto; Noah Strausser, tenor; and Karl Wolf, bass.

El Grillo – Josquin Des Prez
Josquin Lebloitte dit des Pres (1440?-1521) is considered one of the greatest composers of
the High Renaissance, greatly influencing the music of 16th century Europe. He is credited with
developing the polyphonic style that utilized short, repeated motifs between voices. El Grillo,or
the cricket, is a frottola likely written in the early 16th century, describing a cricket who sings for
the sheer love of singing.

The cricket is a good singer
Who can hold long notes
After drinking the cricket sings
But he doesn’t do like the other birds
Once they’ve sung a little bit
They go somewhere else
The cricket instead stands firm
When it’s very hot out
He sings only for the love of it.

Since First I Saw Your Face – Thomas Ford (1580-1648)
Although this piece is usually attributed to Thomas Ford, he didn’t compose it. A composer,
singer and viola player in the service of the Prince of Wales, Ford is better known for publishing
works by obscure songwriters and rearranging into his own interpretations. Since First appears
in his 1607 collection, a miscellany of Elizabethan songs.

Hard By a Fountain – Hubert Waelrant (1517-1595)
Hubert Waelrant was a Flemish composer, teacher, and music editor of the Renaissance. He
was a contemporary of Palestrina. In this madrigal, the poor suitor sits by a fountain and pouts
over the fact that the woman he was wooing has shown no interest in him.

April Is My Mistress’ Face – Thomas Morley(1557-1602)
Thomas Morley was an English composer, theorist, singer, and organist. A significant
member of the English Madrigal School, he was known for incorporating Italian influences into
his compositions. This is one of his best-known (and shortest) madrigals.

Il Et Bel Et Bon – Pierre Passereau (1509-1547)
A Renaissance composer from France, Passereau wrote light-hearted chansons and was
fond of using nonsense language to represent animals. In this piece, two gossiping women are
extolling the virtues of their husbands and the way they help with chores such as doing the
dishes and feeding chickens. Note the clucking at the end of the piece.

“I tell you, girl, my husband is handsome and fine.”
Once two women from the same village were gossiping.
Saying one to the other, “Do you have a good husband?”
“He doesn’t scold me, or beat me either.
He does the chores,
He feeds the chickens
And I take my pleasure.
Girl, you have to laugh
To hear the cries of the chickens.
‘Little flirt (co, co, co, co, da) what is that?”

William Grant Still Miniatures
For woodwind quintet

Known as the Dean of Afro- American composers, William Grant Still (1895-1978) was born in
Mississippi and grew up in Arkansas. Early in his career he played for and arranged for W. C.
Handy and attended the Oberlin Conservatory. Following World War I he studied composition
with Edgar Varese and attended the New England Conservatory. He held a Guggenheim
fellowship and was awarded honorary doctorates from Howard University, Oberlin, and Bates
College. Still broke many barriers in his career, including being the first Afro- American
composer to write orchestral works and have them performed by major symphony orchestras,
as well as being the first to lead a major American symphony. His musical style incorporates a
variety of Afro- American styles, from spirituals to blues and jazz, in addition to European, Latin
American and other folk music genres.

I Ride an Old Paint (USA)
This cowboy tune from Santa Fe, New Mexico was sung by a rider who so loved his horse
that he begged that on his death his bones should be tied to the horse and the two of them set
wandering with faces turned westward.

Adolorido (Mexico)
Lacking newspaper, Mexican rural natives invented the ‘corridor’ – similar to the European
ballad – to convey news of heroic deeds, accidents, love affairs, etc. Aldolorido is such a song,
coming from the Bajio, or low, hot country around Guanajuato. It tells of sadness over betrayal
by an ungrateful woman.

Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land (USA)
This Negro spiritual differs from those generally arranged for singers. Here it is given a
rhythmic treatment corresponding to the way it would be heard in some of the more primitive
churches today.

Yaravi (Peru)
In the Quechua tongue – language of the ancient Incas- yaravi means lament. Known in Peru
as a song of long ago, this poignant melody speaks to the absence of a dear one.

A Frog Went A-Courtin’(USA)
There are many versions of this lilting tune, each one varying with the particular singer. The
composer first heard it in a little village close to the mountainous section of Kentucky, and was
told that it came from Virginia. Other regions claim it as well. The basic song is said to have
been in continuous use for more than four hundred years.

Program notes compiled by Karin Anderson-Sweet