programme notes
phoenix collective
American Dreams:
Antonin Dvořák (1841–1904)
String Quartet no 12 in F major ‘American’ (1893)
Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Molto vivace
Finale: vivace ma non troppo
In the years between 1892 and 1895 Bohemian composer Dvořák held the post of artistic director of the National Conservatory of Music in America. Possibly due to his status as an outsider in a new country, he was able to perceive potential sources for the creation of a national musical style which had not been embraced by other classical composers: Dvořák collected and analysed spirituals and plantation songs from the South, and also some First Nations American music, noting the elements that made them unique.
In 1893, Dvořák summered in Spillville, Iowa, where there was a strong Bohemian contingent. It was here that he composed the String Quartet no 12, and elements of the traditional styles that Dvořák had been studying are apparent in the work. From the strongly pentatonic opening to the plaintive slow movement, the quartet embodies a fusion between traditional composition and an emerging American national style. Personal elements, such as the prominence of Dvořák’s own instrument, the viola, and a quotation of a bird call he heard in Spillville in the Scherzo, add to the charm of this quartet, surely the most popular of Dvořák’s works.
Mark O’Connor (1961–)
Appalachia Waltz (1993)
A composer and performer who is comfortable in many different genres, Seattle-born Mark O’Connor was a musical prodigy, performing on both guitar and violin from a young age. His early training and experience in Texan, Bluegrass and Appalachian fiddle styles led to a life-long commitment to popularising them through performance and recording. His collaborations with luminaries such as Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer have brought his work to an even wider audience, and his many compositions bring American vernacular styles into a more formal classical space.
Appalachia Waltz is perhaps O’Connor’s most popular work. He writes about its genesis:
‘In the summer of 1993, I went on a two-week retreat in the New Mexican desert in hopes of finding inspiration for a violin concerto slow movement I was composing called Trail of Tears. The name refers to the effect of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a measure passed under President Andrew Jackson that forcibly relocated tens of thousands of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and other Native Americans from their lands east of the Mississippi to present-day Oklahoma. I was hoping to experience and identify with some of the Native American culture in New Mexico, since there wasn’t much of it left in my adopted state of Tennessee. I envisioned the soundscape of Trail of Tears as a slow drum march, and one of my main goals during my retreat was to develop a few melodic themes that reflected the tragedy of the hardship to which the title refers.
But one day, a breeze of American optimism blew through an open window in my cabin, and in no time at all, and with seemingly no effort, I had composed three parts to a new nostalgic but powerful piece. I could not place it in Trail of Tears, so I wrote it down, recorded it on cassette tape, filed it away, and went on searching for more appropriate melodies for the concerto.
Two years later, the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma was sitting in my living room in Nashville, Tennessee. He and I, along with Edgar Meyer, were auditioning repertoire for anything we could perform together, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to show him the piece I’d composed in the desert a couple years before. When I presented it to him, he embraced it wholeheartedly and insisted we create an album around it.
Thus, Appalachia Waltz was born.’
String Quartet no 3 ‘Old Time’ (2007)
I. Aggressive with Precision
II. Waltz played in Old-Timey manner
III. Driving Rhythm
IV. Spirited, Joyful
The String Quartet no 3 was commissioned as part of the Hudson River Quadricentennial Music Project. O’Connor writes that his task in composing the work was ‘to concentrate on music based on the natural habitat and beauty of the Hudson as well as on the time of the first European settlers. It was natural for me to think about old-time fiddling in this light… For the musical genesis of the Quartet, I initially created phrases…that were molded [sic] out of old-time fiddling tradition… The counterpoint of the Quartet invigorates and establishes itself. The result is a wholly participating body emphasizing transitions from the traditional to the contemporary in sound and style.’
O’Connor’s homage to the Appalachian fiddling tradition is apparent in the dance-like energy and rhythmic drive of the first and third movements and in the sweet nostalgia of the waltz in between. A spirited hoe-down brings the quartet to a dizzying conclusion.
Musicians, Phoenix Collective Quartet:
Violin 1 & Artistic Director - Dan Russell
Violin 2 - Pip Thompson
Viola - Ella Brinch
Cello - Andrew Wilson