Strings & Spirits
October 30 - 6:00 PM
Bastion
434 Houston Street, Nashville
Join us at Bastion for some drinks and a night of string music featuring the work of composers such as Holst, Ives, Rossini, Bartok, Grieg, and Larissa Maestro.
Program
Brook Green Suite
Gustav Holst
English composer Gustav Holst composed the Brook Green Suite while ill in the hospital a year before his death in 1934. The piece, like his more well-known St. Paul’s Suite, was written for the St. Paul’s Girl’s School orchestra. This piece in particular was written for the younger students in the orchestra to be able to play, while still being a substantial piece of music. The name of the suite is believed to either be derived from the location of Holst’s wedding, or the location of the school—Brook Green in Hammersmith, London. The suite consists of three short movements.
The first movement, Prelude, is pastoral in character and centers around a simple C major scale. The upper strings share a unison melody, while the lower strings play a counter-melody that creates a warm, flowing texture. Holst ends the movement with a pizzicato version of the main theme.
The second movement, Air, is a traditional slow middle movement. This movement features lilting melodies with a variety of accompanying parts in the lower strings. Toward the middle of the movement, Holst interweaves a counter melody in the lower strings, lending some complexity and contrapuntal interest into the texture.
The third and final movement, Dance, is based on a melody Holst heard while in Italy. The melody comes from a puppet show and forms the main substance of this movement. The melody is shared throughout the orchestra until the end, when the orchestra plays in unison, driving the finale to its conclusion.
Hymn: Largo Cantabile
Charles Ives
Charles Ives (1874-1954) is America’s earliest composer to receive international recognition. Even to this day that continues, not only for his music, but for is revolutionary work in the insurance industry where he essentially developed the contemporary practice of estate planning. The Hymn: Largo Cantabile was written in 1904 and eventually grouped into a suite known as A Set of Three Short Pieces. There is debate about when this suite was compiled and eventually performed - estimates range from 1914 to 1935.
Lasting only 32 bars the piece is a compact restructuring of two hymn’s “More Love to Thee” and “Olivet”, however it is distinctly Ivesian in style. The hymn tunes are stacked upon each other and mixed around. There are strong dissonances sustained throughout that never quite resolve where you expect them. Although brief, this piece is a small encapsulation of Ives’ life and style: religious, pioneering, and uncompromising.
Duet for Cello and Double Bass Mvt. III
Gioachino Rossini
Many of us know Gioacchino Rossini for his famous operas that have woven themselves into the fabric of popular culture (William Tell, Barber of Seville). Rossini, however, also composed several chamber pieces. His Duetto for Cello and Double Bass is perhaps one of the most well-known of these.
This duet was commissioned by the amateur cellist, Sir David Salomons, to play with the double bass virtuoso, Dominic Dragonetti. The virtuosic writing for both the cello and bass shows the clearly high level of these players.
The piece is comprised of three movements, and due to the instrumentation, delivers an intimate, simple texture, while also allowing the performers to showcase an array of technical fireworks. Tonight's performance will feature the final movement.
The third movement, Allegro, is a rondo, or a musical structure that contains a repeating motif or melody. This movement is lively and endearing. It takes several turns and twists, but always returns to its initial statement, before ending in a flurry of notes, giving us a look into the mastery of the two musicians it was written for.
Duos for two Violins
Béla Bartók
Like many musicians, Béla Bartók made a portion of his income by teaching students. In the 1930’s Bartok wrote his most pedagogical works such as the Mikrokosmos, the Petite Suite (based off of the Duos for Two Violins), and 44 Duos for Two Violins. These were never really intended for public performance, but were for introducing students to all aspects, techniques, and ranges of the violin. Each movement is fairly short, many lasting less than one minute. These pieces are also very characteristically Bartók, with many folk songs used, dissonances, and uneven phrase lengths. Tonight’s performance features five of the duets:
#6 - Magyar nóta (Hungarian Song)
#7 - Oláh nóta (Wallachian Song)
#8 - Tót nóta (Slovakian Song)
#23 - Mennyasszonybúcsútató (Bride’s Farewell)
#28 - Bánkódás (Sorrow)
Rotation
Larissa Maestro
Written in the wake of Nashville’s devastating 2020 tornado, this piece wakes the listener on a journey through the storm. Although it is one continuous piece there are four large sections that indicate different aspects of this tornado: “Turning”, “Spinning”, “Breathing”, and “Returning”. Starting at slow the piece has a reflective tone before the storm comes.
Holberg Suite
Edvard Grieg
Also known by its full name, From Holberg’s Time, Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite is a five-movement work for string orchestra. Grieg’s Holberg Suite was written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Dano-Norwegian (or Bokmål) playwright, Ludvig Holberg. This dedication is unsurprising, as Holberg became a symbol of Norwegian identity. Because Holberg did much of his work in Copenhagen, this was an opportunity for Grieg to reclaim the playwright as a Norwegian figure, rather than a Danish one.
The subtitle of the piece, “Suite in Olden Style”, describes the essence of this collection of eighteenth-century dance forms. The suite was originally composed for piano and then later adapted for string orchestra.
Like many dance suites (musical collections of dances), Grieg’s Holberg Suite begins with an introduction, or prelude. The Praeludium is an energetic introduction that showcases flurries of notes, cascading string writing, and an ever driving, energetic pulse urging the movement forward.
The second movement, the Sarabande, is an Arab-inspired Spanish courtly dance. The distinct characteristics in a sarabande lie in the rhythm and tempo. A sarabande is a slower dance in triple meter (think waltz time) with an unusual emphasis on the second beat, rather than a more standard emphasis on the first beat.
As is typical in many dance suites, the Sarabande is followed by a Gavotte. The Gavotte is a French folk dance, later co-opted by the French court. The gavotte is characterized by its duple meter, with an emphasis on the upbeat, rather than the downbeat, giving it a sense of lift. Couples often ended gavottes with a kiss, but later when the dance became more formal, this tradition instead changed into an exchange of flowers. In many gavottes including Grieg’s, a central section called a Musette is incorporated before returning to the Gavotte once more. Musettes are a dance inspired by the bagpipe instrument, Musette de cour, that was fashionable in French court during the 1600’s and 1700’s. These pieces of music are identified by their droning, pastoral feel, meant to replicate these bagpipe instruments and the settings in which they were often played.
The fourth movement is an Air, or a song-like instrumental composition. Greig’s marking for the suite’s Air is “Andante Religioso”. Many believe that this implies that this Air was inspired by Baroque sacred arias, or a religious solo vocal work (think “Ave Maria”). The melody of this movement is singing and ornamental in style, like one of these showier vocal works. Both the upper strings and lower strings get to partake in the melody.
The final movement is a Rigaudon. A Rigaudon is a quick, spirited French couples dance in duple meter with folk origins that became a popular court dance during the reign of Louis XIV. The dancers of a Rigaudon were usually skilled dancers, as the hopping steps required some athleticism. During the middle section of Grieg’s Rigaudon, a subdued and delicate chorale interrupts the action, before the sparkling energy of the opening dance returns to bring the suite to its animated conclusion.
