June 2009 Subscription Concert

RE-CYCLE, RE-VIEW, SING NEW!

recycled motorcycle

How do composers take materials at hand to fashion something new? Whether borrowed or stolen, for fun or propaganda--or desperate when deadlines loom--composers exploit existing musical resources. Several works, featured in this concert, showcase this technique, as described below.

 

Ted Allen' new composition "Lluvia/La Primavera", offers a fresh look at 19th century Spanish songs. It is based on the poem "Lluvia", by local poet Lucha Corpi, combined with elements from the song "La Premavera", found in two collections of songs sung by 19th century Spanish residents of California. The collections were published in the 1920's by authors who transcribed the songs as they were sung by 80 and 90 year olds.
Our 2008-2009 Composer-in-Residence, Ted Allen is an Oakland resident and California native, and his musical associations have included the New York Ballet as well as Metallica and Nintendo. [back]

 

Paul Ayres' Funeral Sentences is a rewrite of Baroque music for double choir.
"Choir 1 parts are taken, almost exactly, from Henry Purcell's setting of words from the Order for the Burial of the Dead from the Book of Common Prayer, with the second SATB choir providing the extra harmony and texture in place of the continuo. They comment, imitate, exaggerate, accompany, mirror, distort and illustrate the already highly descriptive setting of the text. Purists may feel that this treatment ('remix', a commercial musician might say) is indeed a Sentence upon the music of Purcell, but rather than turn in his grave, I hope he (and you in the audience) enjoy this 'hommage'." [back]

 

The Missa Carminum, a folk-song Mass by LA-based Paul Seiko Chirara is described by the composer as:
"transforming seemingly disparate musical materials into strange and new configurations, much as in dreaming or in reverie. I ... decided to complete the Mass using a different folk song as cantus firmus in each movement, while combining it with the Gregorian incipits from the Missa Deus Genitor Alme, whose well known melodies run like sinews through the body of the work ... the models for my Mass were chosen from ... the great masses of the High Renaissance, and especially those of Palestrina."
In addition to his many concert works, Chihara has composed scores for over ninety films, television series, and musicals. He is currently on the music faculty of UCLA. [back]

 

Missa L'Homme on the Range, by Mark Kilstofte, is a work based on the secular tune that we know as Home on the Range and the Agnus Dei text -- set in Renaissance style. Kilstofte is currently on the faculty at Furman University. [back]

 

The winners of our 5th New Voices Competition are presented, along with works by Eccard, Pederson, Schein, and others.