Dahl, Hindemith and Dukas

 

Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970)

In class today, we heard three landmark works of the 20th century for brass ensembles, including "Music for Brass Instrument"(1944) composed by Ingolf Dahl as recorded by the American Brass Quintet. As I mentioned, the piece was written as a brass quintet (two trumpets, horn, tenor trombone and bass trombone) with an optional tuba part in the score.

Here is a description by Joseph Stevenson (from AllMusic.com) 

The Hamburg-born Dahl (his parents were Swedish) left Germany before World War II and based his musical career in Los Angeles. By 1944 he was working as a regular accompanist for comedienne Gracie Fields and it was while touring with her that he completed this composition for brass quintet (two trumpets, horn, and two trombones) with optional tuba in Toronto in May, 1944. It is a pivotal work, for it is regarded as not only having been the one in which the composer found his authentic personal voice, but as the source of the modern revival of the brass quintet. It has even been called (by Julian Menken) "... the most outstanding work in brass repertory."

It is a thoroughly American-sounding piece in three movements, adding up to fifteen minutes. Jazzy figurations merge seamlessly with Baroque-style gestures in the faster parts. The opening "Chorale Fantasy" is based on the old German chorale tune "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death. The joyful second movement evoked spontaneous applause at the work's premiere, and the third movement, a fugue, brought only redoubled cheering. In addition to the old chorale, musical material of the piece includes transcriptions of the telephone numbers of Universal Studios and composer Gail Kubik, Dahl's friend and the composer of the score for the Gerald McBoing Boing animated short film

 What is Gerald McBoing-Boing? (from Wikipedia):

"Gerald McBoing-Boing is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 1950. It was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by Dr. Seuss, directed by Robert Cannon, and produced by John Hubley.

Gerald McBoing-Boing won the 1950 Oscar for Best Animated Short, Gerald McBoing-Boing is In 1994, it was voted #9 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked UPA cartoon on the list. In 1995, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Here is a YouTube video of the short film. See if you hear any similarities to Dahl's Music for Brass Instruments.

 

 

 

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

 

Morgenmusik is the first part of a much longer work written by Hindemith for a day-long music festival at a boarding school in Plön, in Northern Germany. To commence the day-long festival, it was performed from the tower of the Plon Castle.

Plon Castle

Plöner Musiktag

The aim of this ambitious initiative is to bring young musicians and professionals together and approach the composer's ideas "playfully": "I hope, on the one hand, that this music is perceived as a highlight of Hindemith's educational oeuvre and among his complete works", says conductor Jobst Liebrecht. "On the other hand, I hope for the Hans Werner Henze Music School in Marzahn-Hellersdorf or, in general, for the educational policy in Berlin that people remember the roots and ideals with which the music school movement began, and that they move forward from the right sense of tradition."
The "Plöner Musiktag" sets a whole day to music: The four parts, Morgenmusik [Morning Music], Tafelmusik [Table Music], Kantate [Cantata] and Abendkonzert [Evening Concert] have been written for different levels of difficulty and instrumentations – from recorder trio to orchestral piece and three-part choir. Hindemith wrote the work for a four-day stay in a boarding school in Plön, Schleswig-Holstein in June 1932 where he made music with pupils.

 
From Fanfare Magazine by James H. North -

On June 20, 1932, A Day of Music at Plön . The day opened with Morning Music , a complex set for brass instruments. Much of the day was spent rehearsing individuals and ensembles. For a boy who could play only the xylophone, Hindemith wrote a part, on the spot; for three boys who couldn’t play any instrument, he wrote recorder trios and had them trained to play the instrument. During breaks between courses of midday dinner, the orchestral Table Music was played. In the afternoon, a cantata (“Admonition to Youth to Apply Themselves to Music”) for two soloists, three choruses, and orchestra which urges children to learn music was sung, spoken (a melodrama), and played. Hindemith was renowned for his sense of humor; the cantata is supposedly mostly tongue in cheek, but any wit therein doesn’t translate—the texts seem deadly serious, almost boarding-school punitive in attitude. The Evening Concert , a 35-minute series of orchestral, ensemble, and instrumental works, closed the day.

The point of it all was performing, not creating music for the ages to be heard by the general public or even the Serious Record Collector. So there seems little point in evaluating the music (by what standards?) or the performances (measured against whom?). While parts of Table Music have a light touch, most of the Plön music is in Hindemith’s heavy, neobaroque style of the early 1930s. Morgenmusik and sections of Abendkonzert have been recorded before, but I have not previously encountered the cantata. This seems to be the first recording of the complete Plöner Musiktag.

A similar day took place at Montepulciano, Italy, in August of 1980, with local school children premiering Hans Werner Henze’s opera Pollicino. Jobst Liebrecht led another performance and a recording in December 1980, sung and played by Berlin school children ( Fanfare 28:1). Liebrecht founded the Marzahn-Hellersdorf Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and performed Plöner Musiktag in 2008, at which time the music school was named after Henze. The booklet lists every performer—258 of them, by my count—but does not tell us who (or which ensemble) performs what. One must assume that all mix into most of the works; for example, there are not enough brass players in any one of the ensembles to fill out Morning Music . This studio recording documents that day in 1932 and a slice of Hindemith’s oeuvre, which Wergo is slowly producing in toto —at least the majority of it that is owned by Schott Music & Media, the label’s parent company.

The boarding school was the King Alfred School. Here is a link translated from German page.

The entire Plöner Musiktag program included these movements:

1. No. 1, Mässig bewegt
2. No. 2, Lied
3. No. 3, Bewegt
4. No. 1, March
5. No. 2, Intermezzo
6. No. 3, String Trio
7. No. 4, Waltz
8. Advice to Youth to Apply Itself to Music
9. No. 1, Prelude for orchestra
10. No. 2, Flute solo with strings
11. No. 3, 2 Duets for violin & clarinet
12. No. 4, Variations for clarinet & strings
13. No. 5, Trio for 3 recorders
14. No. 6, Quodlibet for orchestra

Ingolf Dahl Biography form Schott EAM

Born in Hamburg, Germany to Swedish parents, Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970) began his formal music education with Philipp Jarnach at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik, with whom he studied from 1930 to 1932. Fearing the oppression of the Nazi party coming to power, he fled to Switzerland and continued his studies at the University of Zürich with Volkmar Andreae and Walter Frey. Dahl's first professional assignment out of school was as conductor and coach for the Zürich Stadttheater. In 1938, Dahl emigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where he worked as a composer and conductor for radio and film, gave lectures and piano recitals, and attended master classes with Nadia Boulanger. He became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1943, and two years later joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he taught until his death. As conductor of the university's symphony orchestra, Dahl gave West Coast premieres of a wide variety of contemporary works from the US and Europe. His close collaboration with Igor Stravinsky had a significant effect on Dahl's own work, leading him to lecture, perform, and arrange Stravinsky's music as well as translate his Poetics of Music (1947). Dahl served on the faculty of the Middlebury Composer's Conference in Vermont and taught at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood (1952-1955). In 1961 and 1962 he gave goodwill concerts in Germany sponsored by the US State Department, and from 1964 to 1966 he directed and conducted at the Ojai Festival in California. In his last years, Dahl conducted the Los Angeles Guild Opera and again the University of Southern California symphony orchestra. Among Dahl's many honors are two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Huntington Hartford Fellowships, an Excellence in Teaching Award from USC, and the ASCAP Stravinsky Award. His music has been recorded on a number of labels including Boston Records, Capstone, Centaur, Chandos, CRI, Crystal, Klavier, Nimbus, and Summit.

 

Paul Dukas (1865-1935)

Paul Dukas composed his ballet La Péri in 1912. Today we listened to his Fanfare to precede that ballet, and like many overtures, it has taken on a life of it's own in the brass world. We heard the Cincinnati Pops recording from 2004 with Erik Kunzel recording. What is a Peri?

Jan Bach Laudes and Maurer 12 (5) Pieces

Today in class, we listened to a recording of five of Maurer's 12 Pieces by the New York Brass Quintet from 1985. It is from their Mentor Music Record Brass Pioneers, Volume 2 "Romantic Age Brass". On the recording cover it mentions "Historic sound document of live performances (1980-1984). The personnel of the New York Brass Quintet during this time was: Robert Nagle and Allan Dean on trumpet, Paul Ingraham on horn, John Swallow on trombone and Thompson "Toby" Hanks on tuba. Several of us remarked on the graceful and pleasant style of the piece and the NYBQ's interpretation, and that it was especially impressive since it was a live recording.

From Wikipedia:

Ludwig Maurer

Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer (February 2, 1789 – October 13–25, 1878) was a German composer, conductor, and violinist born in Potsdam. In 1802, he debuted in Berlin with his first major violin performance. After a brief period of studying French violin style in Mitau (Latvia), Maurer went to Russia at age 17 in 1806, where he would stay for most of his life. For this reason, Maurer is considered both a German and a Russian composer.
Upon his arrival in St. Petersburg, Maurer performed extensively until the French violinist and composer Pierre Baillot aided Maurer in becoming the conductor of the Count Vsevolozhsky's orchestra in Moscow. Maurer conducted the orchestra until 1817 when he toured as a performer in Germany and Paris. In 1819 Maurer began using Hanover as a base for directing and conducting, while touring and composing. During this period Maurer also maintained a composing partnership with Aleksey Nikolayevich Verstovsky in the opera-vaudeville form. Toward the end of this period in Maurer's life, he toured Germany with his sons Vsevolod and Alexis, who played violin and cello respectively. By 1833, however, Maurer was back in St. Petersburg, where he would remain for the rest of his life. The following year Maurer appeared as the soloist in the first performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in Russia. In 1835 Maurer became the conductor and director of the French Opera in St. Petersburg. He attained other positions in the St. Petersburg music scene and continued to compose until his death in October 1878.

We also listened to Laudes by Jan Bach. It is considered one of the most important works for brass quintet in the 20th century.

From JanBach.com

LAUDES for brass quintet
Program notes by the composer

Laudes (loud-ays), as its name may imply, is a Twentieth-Century tribute to the great brass tower music of the Italian Renaissance. Its title has several different associations: I(louds) was the sunrise service of the Roman Catholic Church. Laude (loud-ee) were Italian hymns of praise and devotion which flourished from the 13th through the 19th centuries. And the title is also a musical pun: somewhere in each movement is a loud concert A! The work was written in late 1971 at the request of the Chicago Brass Quintet, which premiered the piece at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art on January 21, 1972.

The work is cast in four contrasting movements. Reveille moves from dark to bright colors, alternating sections of relative inactivity with sections of extreme brilliance and energy. Its title was chosen after the fact, because of the music's suggestion of a sunrise. Scherzo is cast in three-part form, its quick outer sections consisting principally of a single melodic line produced by rapid entrances and exits of the five instruments playing their "open" (valveless) tones con sordino, the middle section consisting of chromatic scale segments in both principal and supporting material. Cantilena gives each instrument an opportunity to dominate one of several solo sections which alternate with weightier sections of all five instruments, each section cadencing in the same d minor/c minor ploychord. Volta, a lewd dance (the couples actually embraced each other!) of Provencal origin, is in this instance a quick movement of violent dynamic and textural contrasts. After an exhausted breakdown of the instrumental forces near the end of this movement, the suite concludes with a coda based on a slow section of the first movement; out of this coda emerges a gradually rising and quickening line which brings the work to a brilliant close.

In 1974 this work received international attention when it was chosen as the best new brass quintet submitted to the First International Brass Institute in Montreux, Switzerland. Since that time, Laudes has been performed countless times throughout the world, largely through the efforts of the New York Brass Quintet, which performed it on two European and several American tours, recorded it on Crystal records, and published it through their Mentor Music house. Laudes opened the Kennedy Library in Boston, and was danced to by the Hubbard Street Dancers on the streets of New York. It is one of a very few works by living contemporary composers existing simultaneously in four different recordings, three of which on CD and recorded since 1990. In 1983 a poll of International Trumpet Guild members selected it (along with works by Dahl, Schuller, and Etler) as one of the four most significant brass quintets ever written.

Brass Ensemble Music by Underrepresented Composers 2023

 

Brass Ensemble Music by Underrepresented Composers 2023 - Playlist on YouTube:

1. Transmission I - Florence Anna Maunders - The Brass Project (score in ABEL ICON page files)
   
2.  Saoko - Tania Léon - Meridian Arts Ensemble
3. Brazen Overture - Libby Larsen - Stiletto Brass Quintet
4. Invictus - Anthony Barfield - Musicians from The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet Orchestra, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
5. The Five Chairs - Marti Epstein - Atlantic Brass Quintet 
6. Fanfare for a Learned Man -   Libby Larsen - Brass Band Northwest
7. Variations for Brass Band - Thea Musgrave - Rutgers University Brass Band 
8. Quintet No. 2 - Kenneth Amis - Blair Brass Quintet
9. Stiletto Brass Quintet Program:
• A Scent of Paradise  - Kenneth Amis (b. 1970) 
• Tempesta (2021) - Velvet Brown 
• Boy Meets Horn - Duke Ellington (1899–1967) arr. Kenneth Amis 
• Sophisticated Ladies - Ellington arr. Jack Gale 
• The Chili Ristra Tango - Elizabeth Garrett (1885–1947)arr. Charles Brandebury 
• Sea Suite (2020) - Dorothy Gates 
• I. Gulls 
• II. Sea Urchins 
•  III. Heron by Moonlight 
• IV. Seaweed Dance
10. Song for Ursa - Katahj Copley - Pacific Brass Societ
11. The State of Mind - Dorothy Gates - Monarch Brass 
12. Sousa on the Rez: Native American Brass Bands and Beyond - 

Erin Fehr (Yup'ik), archivist at the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas (Little Rock), and John Troutman, curator of American Music at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, will discuss the social, historical, and artistic experiences of Native American musicians from the early 1900s to today. Michael Pahn, head of Archives and Collections Digitization at the National Museum of the American Indian and Vice Chair of the Smithsonian Music Executive Committee, moderates the program.

Notes on Xiaoyu's Listening Presentation

Since several of your were away for ABA, I thought I would share a blog about Xiaoyu's listening presentation. It was an eclectic mix of types of group from around the world in several different styles. Here is her playlist.

Three Brass Cats is a composition by Chris Hazell commissioned by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. The group we hear was from Sinfonia Varsovia, an orchestra from Poland. From a German publishing website, here is a bit about the composer:

Chris Hazell studied composition at the Royal College of Music before joining the Argo division of Decca in 1973 as a producer. There he continued the legendary recordings of Sir Neville Marriner, Philip Jones, King's College Cambridge and Peter Hurford amongst others. As the Decca Group labels evolved his artist base widened to incorporate such names as Sir Georg Solti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Charles Dutoit and Sir Charles Mackerras with the Berlin, Chicago, Montreal Symphony and all the major London Orchestras, becoming Senior Producer in 1992. His many recordings with David Zinman in Baltimore have continued (after becoming freelance in 1997) with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, on their award winning Beethoven Symphony cycle. His partnership on recordings with Simon Eadon is about to enter its 30th year.

Parallel to this has been his work as arranger and composer. His 'Brass Cats' (written for Philip Jones) is standard repertoire world-wide. He has worked extensively with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and was both producer and arranger on Bryn Terfel's recent best selling Welsh album. He also works regularly with Angela Gheorghiu. He has written music for television, including the title theme for the late Desmond Wilcox's award winning documentary series 'The Visit.'

This is what Chris Hazell, the composer, had to say about ‘Three Brass Cats': ‘Some years ago I had four cats in the house - all were strays and decided that I was a soft touch when it came to free board and lodgings, so instead of moving on, they all decided to stay. Sadly they have all now gone to the great cattery in the sky. However, at the time they were around I was asked to write some pieces for a brass group (The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble). What should I write about? Well, I've always liked writing about the people and places around me (they appear in a lot of my music) so I thought.. I know, my cats. These days I don't have any cats as I travel around a lot with my work, but it's nice to think that they're still with me in the music.'

Sinfonia Varsovia Brass

is a thirteen-person brass band formed of the members of the brass and percussion sections of the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra. The ensemble’s repertoire includes original compositions written for the ensemble as well as arrangements of symphonic, jazz, and baroque music. The members of the ensemble are particularly drawn to Latin music as well as film scores. The ensemble has performed with notable soloists, such as Eric Miyashiro or Wayne Bergeron. In 2017, Warner Classics published the debut record of the Sinfonia Varsovia Brass, an energetic compilation of hits drawn from film scores and American and Latin music.

The ensemble is made up of: Jan Harasimowicz (trumpet), Jakub Waszczeniuk (trumpet), Ostap Popovych (trumpet), Andrzej Tomczok (trumpet), Marek Żwirdowski (trombone), Tomasz Światczyński (trombone), Tomasz Hajda (trombone), Mariusz Opaliński (trombone), Henryk Kowalewicz (French horn), Krzysztof Mucha (tuba), Piotr Kostrzewa (drums), Sebastian Frankiewicz (drums), and Tomasz Bielecki (drums).

Brass Ensemble Zero

In 2010, a group of recent music university graduates came together to form Brass Ensemble ZERO. In keeping with their motto, “tradition and innovation,” the ensemble strives to expand possibilities in different directions to explore the true meaning of music. Their name contains their goal – thinking up new things from nothing; from point zero. Since its founding, Brass Ensemble ZERO has presented primarily unique programs with music for brass instruments at subscription concerts. The ensemble’s programming includes early works, such as arrangements of Early and Baroque music by Monteverdi, J. S. Bach and Handel, as well as later works by Sibelius, Hindemith, and Stravinsky, which were composed primarily for brass instruments. They also perform contemporary pieces by composers such as Xenakis and Takemitsu, as well as works by Chris Hazell, Jim Parker, and Goff Richards, which the well-known Philip Jones Brass Ensemble has often played.

 This video below is from Paradise Balkan Orchestra

 

I commented that it was my new favorite band, and admired the video for how engaging, musical, dynamic and energetic is was. The audio is excellent, the videography is outstanding and compelling, and visually the scenery, settings, and "uniforms" work very well. From their website:

Since they began their journey in early 2015 in Barcelona, Balkan Paradise Orchestra has shown, in each and every performance, their potential as an unusual and ground-breaking group. Composed by wind and percussion players, the Balkan Paradise Orchestra (aka BPO) is a breath of fresh air for the music panorama of our country. Audiences are completely engaged with their pure cheerfulness and distinguish playful vibes which will make it impossible for you to sit still during they shows.   

With different studies, experiences and influences, but inevitably connected with the Balkan tradition of wind orchestras, they transform this musical genre to an authentic elixir made of rhythms of the entire world. They offer a show that works both on stage and on the street, with a surprising capacity of generating empathy towards the public and always bringing joy, party and an urge for dancing in every single corner of the world.

Balkan Paradise Orchestra

 

The playlist also includes outstanding performances by the Samurai Brass, the China Philharmonic Orchestra Brass Quintet, the Canadian Brass and another work by Henri Tomasi, Etre ou ne pas Etre (To Be or Not To Be). We didn't get to the last three selections on the list, but give it a listen and leave feedback on Xiaoyu's latest blog post.