Randall Love
piano
Andrew Willis
piano
Music of George Crumb
Guest Artist and Faculty Recital
Sunday, February 5, 2006
3:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Music of George Crumb (b. 1929)
Processional (1983)
Mr. Love
A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979 (1980)
The Visitation
Berceuse for the Infant Jesu
The Shepherds’ Noël
Adoration of the Magi
Nativity Dance
Canticle of the Holy Night
Carol of the Bells
Mr. Willis
Zeitgeist (Tableaux Vivants) (1988)
Portent
Two Harlequins
Monochord
Day of the Comet
The Realm of Morpheus
Reverberations
Mr. Love and Mr. Willis
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
Program Notes
Processional, like much of my music, is strongly tonal, but integrates chromatic, modal,
and whole-tone elements. The descending six tones stated at the beginning present the
basic harmonic cell, subsequently elaborated by varied cluster combinations and
permutations. Although Processional is essentially a continuum of sustained legato
playing, tiny melodic fragments (which intermittently emerge and recede) provide contrast
in articulation.
I think of Processional as an “experiment in harmonic chemistry” (Debussy’s description of
his Images for piano) — the music is concerned with the prismatic effect of subtle changes
of harmonic color and frequent modulation. While composing the work, I felt no need for
the resources of the “extended piano” and limited myself to the contrasts of texture and
color available through the conventional mode of playing on the keys. However, I
subsequently did construct an alternate version which does in fact include a minimal use of
non-keyboard effects (the choice between the two versions is left to the pianist).
The title of the work was suggested by the music’s obsessive reiteration of pulse (“sempre
pulsando, estaticamente”) and broad “unfolding” gestures. Perhaps the music suggests
more a “processional of nature” rather than any sort of festive or sombre “human”
processional.
George Crumb
Written for Lambert Orkis, A Little Suite for Christmas, A. D. 1979 is, in Crumb’s
characterization, an “aural tableau” of seven pieces conceptually related to the Nativity
frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. The private chapel, painted by
Giotto di Bondone (1267?-1337) and finished in 1305, traces, through a series of separate
panels, the lineage and conception of Jesus, incidents in his life, and his crucifixion and
resurrection. These frescoes, instrumental in initiating the transition from a Medieval to
Renaissance ‘style’ of expression, were revolutionary not only for their bold use of colors
and formal balance, but also, for their humanistic portraiture.
Only two of the pieces from the Suite are actually based on panels from the Chapel—1)The
Visitation and 4)Adoration of the Magi. The remaining five pieces are related instead to a
seasonal observance of the Nativity.
1. The Visitation encapsulates the dramatic range of the entire Suite—from the solemn
opening chords through its clangorously celebratory chiming figure.
2. Berceuse for the Infant Jesu is a traditional cradle song—a gently rocking rhythm
accompanying a lullaby-like melody.
3. The Shepherd’s Noël makes reference to the French song-form, noël, which specifically
celebrates the birth of Jesus.
4. Adoration of the Magi is a blend of ritualistic repetition and extreme dynamic contrast.
5. Nativity Dance is the dynamic peak of the Suite’s arch. This piece mirrors the dancing
and pageantry of a Medieval “mystery play.”
6. Canticle of the Holy Night (from the Italian hymn-form, canticle) includes a setting of the
English Coventry Carol (1591), performed with the direction, “like a minstrel’s harp.”
7. Carol of the Bells concludes the Suite, and includes a cyclic return to the chiming figure
heard in The Visitation.
As with all of Crumb’s writing for the piano, an extensive use of the piano’s interior aural
possibilities is utilized, including string harmonics, pizzicati, et al. But especially in this
Suite, the use of very long, pedal-sustained sonorities, both tintinnabular and intimate,
creates a background canvas from which voices appear and submerge.
Considered together like the panels of a fresco, these seven pieces convey both an
extroverted sense of wonderment and joy, and an inward contemplation of the religious
intertwining of the human and metaphysical. The mystery of God becoming man is, to
Christians, the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem humankind. Giotto,
a fervent Christian, represented this in scenes both joyous and quietly personal. A Little
Suite for Christmas, A. D. 1979 portrays a similar balance.
William K. Bland
Zeitgeist (Six Tableaux for Two Amplified Pianos, Book I) was composed in 1987. The
work was commissioned by the European piano-duo team—Peter Degenhardt and Fuat
Kent, who subsequently gave the premiere performance at the Charles Ives Festival in
Duisburg, Germany on January 17, 1988. Zeitgeist was extensively revised after this initial
performance.
For a German-speaking person, the expression “Zeitgeist” has a certain portentous and
almost mystical significance, which is somewhat diluted in our English equivalent—“spirit of
the time.” The title seemed to me especially appropriate since the work does, I feel, touch
on various concerns which permeate our late-twentieth century musical sensibility (our very
own fin de siècle!). Among these, I would cite: the quest for a new kind of musical
primitivism (a “morning of the world” vision of the elemental forms and forces of nature once
again finding resonance in our music); an obsession with more minimalistic (or, at least,
more simple and direct) modes of expression; the desire to reconcile and synthesize the
rich heritage of our classical Western music with the wonderfully vibrant ethnic and
classical musics of the non-Western world; and, finally, our intense involvement with
acoustical phenomena and the bewitching appeal of timbre as a potential structural
element.
In many of its aspects—compositional technique, exploitation of “extended-piano”
resources, and emphasis on poetic content—Zeitgeist draws heavily from my earlier piano
compositions, especially the larger works of my Makrokosmos cycle (Music for a
Summer Evening [1974] for two amplified pianos and percussion, and Celestial
Mechanics [1979] for amplified piano, four-hands). Self-analysis of one’s stylistic evolution
is exceedingly difficult, but I suspect that the thematics, harmonic usage, and rhythmic
language in Zeitgeist represent some new extensions of germinal ideas which I had some
years ago incorporated into my music.
The opening movement of Zeitgeist—which I have entitled Portent—is based primarily on
six-tone chordal structures and a rhythmically incisive thematic element. The music offers
extreme contrasts in register and dynamics. A very characteristic sound in the piece is a
mysterious glissando effect achieved by sliding a glass tumbler along the strings of the
piano while the keys are being struck. The music will seem to suggest a kind of “striving”
towards something visionary, but somehow elusive.
The second movement—Two Harlequins—is extremely vivacious and whimsical. The
music is full of mercurial changes of mood and comical non sequiturs. Although this piece
is played entirely on the keyboard, an echoing ambiance resonates throughout.
Monochord, which in the score is notated in a symbolic circular manner (which faithfully
reflects the music’s circularity), is based entirely on the first 15 overtones of a low B flat. A
continuous droning sound (produced alternately by the two pianists) underlies the whole
piece. This uncanny effect, which is produced by a rapid oscillating movement of the
fingertip in direct contact with the string, results in a veritable rainbow of partial tones.
Monochord projects a sense of unbroken timelessness.
The title of the fourth movement—Day of the Comet—was suggested by the recent advent
of Halley’s comet (the previous visitation was commemorated by H. G. Wells in his science
fiction novel of the same title). The piece, played at prestissimo tempo and consisting of
polyrhythmic bands of chromatic clusters, is volatile, yet strangely immaterial. Perhaps
Debussy’s Feux d’artifice (Préludes, Book II) is the spiritual progenitor of this genre of
composition.
The fifth movement—The Realm of Morpheus—is, like Monochord, symbolically notated.
The bent staves take on the perceptible configuration of the human eye (“…the inner eye of
dreams”). Each of the two pianists plays independently and the combined musics express
something shadowy and ill-defined¸—like the mysterious subliminal images which appear in
dreams. Disembodied fragments of an Appalachian folk-song (“The Riddle”) emerge and
recede.
The concluding movement of the work—Reverberations—recalls the principal thematic and
harmonic elements of the first movement. This piece is constructed in its entirety on the
“echoing phenomenon”—that most ancient of musical devices.
George Crumb
Randall Love is a member of the Duke University music faculty
where he teaches piano and fortepiano. He has been heard in this
country as a soloist and chamber player in events ranging from
performances on period instruments to contemporary concerts
featuring North Carolina composers. He has performed at the
Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the Boston
Early Music Festival, and the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He has collaborated with “Ensemble Courant” (UNC-Chapel Hill) in
numerous programs featuring romantic music on original
instruments. Love has recorded solo works of Vorísek for the
Titanic label. He has also collaborated with Capitol Chamber
Artists of Albany, NY, in concerts and a recording of Haydn’s
London Symphonies in a chamber version by Johann Salomon.
A native of Colorado, Randall Love received his music training from the Oberlin
Conservatory (B.M.) and the New England Conservatory (M.M. with honors). His teachers
were Sanford Margolis and Patricia Zander. While living in the Boston area, he concertized
extensively on the fortepiano. A two-year period of study in Amsterdam followed during
which he earned a soloist diploma with honors from the Sweelinck Conservatory. His
teacher there was Edith Lateiner-Grosz. His performances in Holland included two
recordings made for Dutch radio.
Randall Love’s awards include being a finalist in the Erwin Bodky Early Keyboard
Competition (1983) and a finalist in the Jaques Vonk Prijs Piano Competition in Amsterdam
(1984).
Andrew Willis is recognized for his performances on historical
and modern pianos in the United States and abroad. He has
recorded a wide variety of solo and chamber repertoire for
Claves, Albany, Centaur, Newport Classics, and CRI records.
The New York Times called his recording of Beethoven’s Op.
106 “a ‘Hammerklavier’ of rare stature.” At UNCG, where he
joined the piano faculty in 1994, Willis serves as Artistic
Director of the biennial Focus on Piano Literature, at which he
premiered Martin Amlin’s Sonata No. 7 in 2000. Willis holds
the BM in Piano from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he
studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski, the MM in Accompanying
from Temple University, where he studied with George
Sementovsky and Lambert Orkis, and the DMA in Historical Performance from Cornell
University, where he studied with Malcolm Bilson. For a number of years, his multifaceted
musical career was based in Philadelphia, where he served as keyboardist of The
Philadelphia Orchestra for several seasons. He has also taught at several colleges and
universities and at Tanglewood.
