Program Notes - "We the People" Sunday, February 8 Concert

Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man

To bolster spirits during the hardships of World War II, English conductor and composer Eugene Goossens proposed commissioning fanfares from ten different American composers. While the ten different fanfares served their purpose, none were as captivating as Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland was unsure whom he should write the fanfare for, initially considering American soldiers, as America had recently entered World War II. Instead, he decided to compose his fanfare for all Americans, finding inspiration in Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s speech proclaiming the rise of the “Century of the Common Man.” Goossens was so moved by the fanfare and its meaning that he insisted on the piece receiving its own special premiere: Tax Day, 1943. The day may not be such a joyous occasion to many Americans, but in response to Goossens’s suggestion, Copland had this to say: “I [am] all for honoring the common man at income tax time.”

Carlos Chávez - Sinfonía India

Born in 1899, Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was the foremost Mexican conductor, composer of concert music, and spokesperson for the country’s music. During his over six-decade career, Chávez accomplished much in promoting Mexican culture, primarily through his role as founder and musical director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. Chávez was particularly motivated not only to bring Western classical music to Mexico, but also to celebrate his country by composing concert works that draws on Mexico’s rich and varied musical traditions. But from his stunning list of over a hundred works, including operas, ballets, symphonies, concertos, string quartets, solo piano pieces, and chamber works, it is his Sinfonía India that is his most famous piece and most often performed today. The composer drew from three traditional folk songs from three different indigenous communities of Mexico: the Huicholes of Nayarit, the Yaqui of Sonora, and the Seris of Tiburón Island. As such, while the piece is performed as a single movement, it nonetheless follows the three-movement structure typical of a symphony. Chávez also incorporated Mexican folk instruments into the orchestration, including jicara de agua güiro, tenabari, cascabeles, teponaxtles, tlapanhuéhuetl, and grijutian. He states in the score that, wherever possible, the symphony should be performed with these instruments.

Serge Koussevitzky - Double Bass Concerto, Op. 3, (Movements 1 and 2)

Cast your eyes to the back right side of the orchestra, behind the cellos, and you will spot the double basses. As an instrument, the double bass plays a fundamental role in providing the orchestra's lowest pitches and a rhythmic foundation for the higher voices to rest confidently upon. Because of the instrument’s supportive role in the orchestra, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate or even hear its voice during a piece. Yet, throughout the history of Western classical music, there have been bass virtuosi who have attempted to showcase the instrument’s expressive capabilities by composing solo pieces and concertos. Domenico Dragonetti (1763 - 1846) and, more recently, Edgar Meyer (1960) are such examples. It is, however, Serge Koussevitzky, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, who has provided one of the most popular concertos for the double bass. Koussevitzky employed several techniques in the concerto to ensure that the bass could be heard and in the musical foreground. The piece is in F# minor, a key that includes three of the four open strings of the bass and utilizes double stops and chords as well as the instrument’s higher register.

Aaron Copland - Lincoln Portrait

Few have so effectively and evocatively set spoken words to orchestral music as Aaron Copland in his piece, Lincoln Portrait. Commissioned by conductor André Kostelanetz, Copland was instructed to compose a musical portrait of an “eminent American.” Copland chose President Abraham Lincoln. For his portrait, Copland drew on various speeches by Lincoln, in particular his Gettysburg Address. To emphasize the grandeur, heroic, and inspiring tone of Lincoln’s words, Copland leans into the use of brass, an orchestration technique that is not that dissimilar from film composers such as John Williams and the use of triumphant brass in themes to films like Superman, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. In countless performances of the piece, numerous eminent American figures have recited Lincoln's words, including Maya Angelou, Neil Armstrong, Judy Collins, Tom Hanks, Katharine Hepburn, Samuel L. Jackson, and former President Barack Obama. This afternoon, the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra is honored to have the President of MassBay Community College, Dr. David Podell, narrate Lincoln’s words.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony in Eb, the Eroica Symphony, is one of the most celebrated works in the entire symphonic repertoire. However, the initial reviews of the symphony’s premiere in 1805 were mixed. Some listeners found the symphony too long or too complicated, while others recognized its uniqueness and ambition. The symphony is indeed long; it’s twice as long as most Haydn and Mozart symphonies. In this sense, the symphony reflects two important aspects of Beethoven’s compositional thinking. The first is Beethoven’s interest in experimenting with the symphony as a form. Historians often situate the Third Symphony at the beginning of his innovative and creative “middle period.” For this reason, the Eroica is frequently understood as an important bridge between the Classical style associated with composers such as Mozart and Haydn and the emerging Romantic aesthetic of the nineteenth century.

The second has to do with the symphony’s extra-musical inspiration. Beethoven initially conceived the Eroica as a musical portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte. For Beethoven, Napoleon was a symbol of Enlightenment ideals and meritocracy. However, as Napoleon’s political career progressed, Beethoven’s admiration soured. According to Beethoven’s assistant, Ferdinand Ries, when Beethoven showed him the first complete manuscript of the symphony, he thought so highly of Napoleon that the name “Bonaparte” was printed at the very top of the title page, whilst “Ludwig van Beethoven” was at the very bottom. Upon learning that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of France, Beethoven reportedly reacted with fury. Betrayed by his political hero, he tore the title page from the manuscript and exclaimed, “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!” When the score was published in 1806, it was retitled Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grande Uomo or “Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.”

- James Heazlewood-Dale