William Kraft Encounters IV: Duel for Trombone & Percussion
I. Strategy
II. Truce of God
III. Tactics
Don Bowyer, Trombone
Scott Eddlemon, Percussion
Scott Eddlemon Ricercar del Roboti
Scott Eddlemon, Roboti
Intermission
Eugène Ysaÿe Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 27, No. 2 "Jacques Thibaud"
I. Obsession – Prelude: Poco vivace
II. Malinconia – Poco lento
IV. Les Furies – Allegro furioso
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Don Bowyer Primeval Atom World Premiere
I. Youth
a. Jesuits
b. War
II. Studies
a. Physics & Math
b. Ordination
c. Cosmology
III. The Big Bang
a. Before Time
b. Bang
c. Expansion
Don Bowyer, Trombone
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Scott Eddlemon, Percussion
Don Bowyer is professor of music and chair of the Department of Music at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. With a Doctor of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Bowyer has taught at every level from kindergarten through university in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Sweden. Active as a composer, Bowyer has published more than 60 pieces of music. With an active interest in computer-assisted instruction in music, he is the creator of Dolphin Don's Music School, an educational computer game that teaches music reading and provides ear training for children. As a trombonist, Bowyer has performed in more than 40 countries on five continents, including 11 cruise ships in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the Gulf of Alaska. The first 10 didn't sink. Bowyer and his wife are also certified foster parents, having provided a home to 18 foster children since 2003.
Susan Eddlemon is the first woman to graduate from the Juilliard School with a doctorate in violin performance. She studied with Joseph Fuchs. She has performed as concertmaster, chamber musician, and soloist both in Canada and the United States, including two Carnegie Hall performances. Dr. Eddlemon has performed and taught violin in the Knoxville area over the past 20 years. Susan's 40 years experience as a concert violinist and wide range of contact with students and key Knoxville area musicians equip her to serve the performing arts within the life of the school and community.
Scott Eddlemon is the creative force behind the Isotone Concerts. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Saul Goodman. He was principal timpanist of the Victoria Symphony(Canada) as well as the Spoleto Festival, where he played under the directorship of Thomas Schippers and Spoleto Founder Gian Carlo Menotti. He has extensive contemporary music experience, including projects with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Pierre Boulez, Dave Brubeck, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. While in Canada, Scott was the percussion instructor at the University of Victoria and the University of Saskatchewan. Scott is a regular performer with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and is currently the principal timpanist of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra.
Program Notes
Georges-Henri Lemaître was born July 17, 1894, in Charleroi, Belgium, and died June 20, 1966, at the age of 71. Lemaître was a priest, astronomer, and physics professor. He conceived the “hypothesis of the primeval atom,” later known as the “Big Bang” theory of the origin of the universe.
Physics of music…
At the concert Don Bowyer and Scott Eddlemon will consider the physics of the trombone (formerly known as the sackbut), a brass instrument characterized by use of a “slide” for changing pitch. For the demonstration work, Don and Scott will present music for trombone and percussion.
William Kraft's Encounters IV is subtitled Duel for Trombone and Percussion. The composer writes “…Encounters IV is based on medieval warfare. The first movement 'Strategy' (the manner in which one engages the enemy) consists of a series of attacks and counter-attacks, the trombone being the aggressor, the percussion responding from a fixed position, as did defenders in the Middle Ages. The opening has the trombone approaching and spelling out in Morse code an idea rather popular during the Second World War, 'Make war to make peace,' while the defending percussionist strengthens his position with a growing ostinato. Then there are 12 attacks and counter-attacks,” the order of which will be determined by the audience.
“The second movement is the most explicit commentary in the piece. It is titled ‘Truce of God’ after the medieval convention supervised by the Pope wherein fighting was suspended from Thursday sundown to Monday sunrise. The ineffectuality of the convention against man’s evidently strong predilection for combat is represented by a variation, which distorts the conductus ‘Beata Viscera’ by the 13th century composer Perotin, accompanied by interspersed bell sounds of gongs, vibraphone, and stainless steel bowls, along with various other comments from the percussion.”
“The third movement, ‘Tactics’ (the way in which the battle is fought) is 'all-out war' with the combatants locked in virtuosic battle climaxing in the defeat and retreat of the trombone, who spells out ‘peace’ as he departs.”
Music of physics…
The word “robot” was invented by Josef Capek from the Czech word “robota,” which means “servitude” in English. Robots have a long history of servitude at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and now invade almost every facet of life from ice cream machines to bomb disposal. The musical form “ricercar” eventually evolved into the “fugue.” Its original meaning is to “search out” and often is a form of music intended to explore the capabilities of the instrument. We present today a ricercar attempting to explore the musical capabilities of various robots, many of which were purchased in the museum gift shop!
In recognition of Georges-Henri Lemaître’s Belgian heritage, we turn to the great Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe. Today we hear one of Ysaÿe’s most famous solo violin sonatas, No. 2, dedicated to his friend Jacques Thibaud (also a famous violinist of the day). The work is known primarily for its first movement, titled “Obsession.” While many a violinist has been obsessed with this work, the reference is actually to Ysaÿe’s own obsession with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, most notably his Partita No. 3 in E Major for solo violin, of which references are splashed throughout the movement. Also appearing in “Obsession,” as well as the other two movements here presented, is the famous “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) theme from the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass (mass for the dead). Many composers make use of this theme (see below), and Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra attendees will remember the theme from the Berlioz Symphony Fantastique performance several years ago.
Our commissioned work in honor of Georges-Henri Lemaître is composed by Don Bowyer. Here are Mr. Bowyer’s notes:
It is always risky to try to portray someone else's life in music; doubly so if that someone else is responsible for a theory of the universe that the composer probably doesn't completely understand! Nevertheless...
This composition is dedicated to Georges Lemaître, the father of the Big Bang Theory (the actual theory, not the sitcom). The piece is divided into three movements, each of which has two or three sections.
Movement I: "Youth"
This movement begins with quotes from a Gregorian chant, meant to reflect Lemaître's Jesuit upbringing, and ends with musical reflections on his artillery service in the Belgian Army during World War I. The chant chosen for quotation is the Dies Irae, representing the Day of Wrath. This seemed like an appropriate way to begin a piece that will close with The Big Bang.
Movement II: "Studies"
Lemaître studied physics and math, receiving his doctorate in 1920. He was ordained a priest three years later and then went on to postdoctoral studies in cosmology. The music attempts to reference each of these areas of study, sometimes literally and sometimes with tongue firmly in cheek.
Movement III: "The Big Bang"
This movement is meant to represent the theory for which Lemaître is remembered. It begins with a section that has no fixed meter or rhythms, representing the period before the Big Bang, when "time didn't exist as we know it." This is followed by the Bang itself, a rather brief but monumental experience leading to the long expansion, estimated by some to be at 13.7 billion years and counting. Fortunately, the music does not attempt a literal representation of this timeline! Instead, the various themes from throughout the composition are brought back and combined to represent the totality of the universe.
3:00 p.m. AMSE Auditorium
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Camille Saint-Saëns Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124
Cindy Hicks, Harp
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Scott Eddlemon Cell-abration in Three Movements
Andante
Pollyphoney Audiencoso
Scott Eddlemon, with audience participation
Intermission
Victoria Bond Sacred Sisters
Esther
Ruth
Judith
Cindy Hicks, Harp
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Scott Eddlemon
World Premiere Shema Yisrael
Cindy Hicks, Harp
Susan Eddlemon, Violin
Scott Eddlemon, Percussion
Dale Watermulder, Bass
Cindy Hicks has been principal harpist with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2002. She also serves as principal harpist with the Knoxville Opera, the Symphony of the Mountains, the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, and the York Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, she performs with the Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra in California, and the Assisi Music Festival in Assisi, Italy. She is a frequent recitalist in East Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. She also enjoys teaching both the pedal and non-pedal harps. Ms. Hicks served as president of the Baltimore (Charm City) Chapter of the American Harp Society in 2002-2005, when she helped organize and present Harpfest, a multi-state event featuring recitalists, educational programs, and harp-related seminars. In 1994, she was one of only 2 U.S. citizens to compete in the prestigious International Harp Contest held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel. Ms. Hicks received a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Johns Hopkins University. Her teachers and coaches included Alice Chalifoux, Eileen Mason, and Judy Loman. In June 2004 Ms. Hicks participated in the premiere recording of Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg’s Requiem for Victims of the Nazi Persecution with the National Cathedral Choir in Washington, D.C. Ms. Hicks performed Debussy’s Danses Sacree et Profane last year with the Oak Ridge Symphony.
Susan Eddlemon is the first woman to graduate from the Juilliard School with a doctorate in violin performance. She has performed as concertmaster, chamber musician, and soloist both in Canada and the U.S., including two Carnegie Recital Hall performances. Dr. Eddlemon has performed and taught violin in the Knoxville area over the past 19 years. Thirty-five years experience as a concert violinist and wide range of contact with students and key Knoxville area musicians equip her to serve the performing arts within the life of the school and community.
Scott Eddlemon is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Saul Goodman. He was principal timpanist of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (Canada) as well as the Spoleto Festival where he played under the directorship of Thomas Schippers and Spoleto Founder Gian Carlo Menotti. He has extensive contemporary music experience including projects with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Pierre Boulez, Dave Brubeck and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. While in Canada, he was a percussion instructor at the University of Victoria and the University of Saskatchewan. He is a regular performer with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and is currently the principal timpanist of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra.
Isotone appreciates the additional assistance in today’s concert by double bass player Dale Watermulder. He is very familiar to Oak Ridge music fans as the principal bass of the Oak Ridge Symphony. He also plays in the bass section of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. He received his B.A. degree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his M.A. degree in library science from the University of Michigan. He retired in 2004 from the Knox County Public Library System, where he served as Sights and Sounds manager. He is a loyal Isotone fan, having attended every concert since the inception of the series.
Lise Meitner was born November 7, 1878, into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. She conceived of nuclear fission to explain the experimental breakup of uranium nuclei bombarded with neutrons. Sadly, the Nobel committee overlooked her achievement and awarded the Nobel Prize in physics instead to her colleague Otto Hahn and another male physicist. Element 109, Meitnerium, is named in her honor.
Today we consider the physics of the harp, an ancient instrument and favorite of King David. For our demonstration work, we will hear music for harp and violin. Where harpist and violinist share the stage together, it is most often to perform the 1907 work by Camille Saint-Saëns entitled Fantaisie. Harpists regard this composition as a staple of their study repertory. Violinists find it remarkable that, given the soft beauty of the timbres produced by the combination of the plucked and bowed strings, more music for this genre of ensemble has not been written! We could, therefore, not resist including it in today’s concert along with the contemporary Sacred Sisters, though it was written 101 years earlier and during the young adulthood of physicist Lise Meitner.
The two instruments complement one another and exchange musical motifs as the work progresses. As the reading progresses the performers see the same material appearing in changing rhythmic meters, and first one, then the other, leads the episodic musical events. Using the cyclic construction of French compositional technique of his time, Saint-Saens brings back the opening musical materials in the closing pages of this rhapsodic work, an example of the late work of this beloved composer.
Physics invades the whole world! Today’s modern cell phone can trace its roots to the invention of the radio by Nikolai Tesla in the 1880s. For possibly the first time, we will ask you to turn your cell phone on for the duration of this work. The first movement consists of cell phones being used physically as percussion instruments. In the second movement the audience will be directed to call numbers on the screen to produce a symphony of ring tones! The final movement will be composed by the audience using “poll texting” from cell phones, hence the name Pollyphoney Audiencoso.
In recognition of Lise Meitner’s Jewish heritage, we have turned to a great friend of Isotone, Victoria Bond. Faithful Isotoners will recognize Bond as the composer of a tribute to Marie Curie, A New Light, premiered at these concerts two years ago. Ms. Bond writes: “I decided to write Sacred Sisters because I wanted to explore my own cultural and musical heritage. My grandfather, Samuel Nathan Epstein, ran away from his home in Sellets, Russia, because his father wanted him to be a rabbi and he wanted to become a musician. He made his way to Warsaw by stowing away under a rail coach and arriving in the city at night, falling asleep on the steps of the Warsaw Conservatory. The next morning, he was found by a professor, and my grandfather became his student. He completed his studies and traveled to the United States as a bass player with the St. Petersburg Symphony, eventually combining his father’s ambitions with his own by composing liturgical music for the temple. Although my grandfather died before I was born, his spirit and his genes are a part of me, and I wanted to honor his memory with Sacred Sisters.
Our commissioned work as tribute to Lise Meitner is entitled Shema Yisrael. The composition attempts to portray an integration of Meitner’s discovery of fission with her Jewish heritage. The focus of the work is a common melody used for the singing of Shema Yisrael, the centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This passage is musically bookended by a portrayal of fission, with one note breaking up into many notes, and then at the end many notes combining to become one, just as “the Lord is one.”
3:00 p.m. AMSE Auditorium
Sunday, September 19, 2010
| William Kraft | Suite for Percussion |
| Fanfare Andante Ostinatos Toccata Cadenze | Jay Oberfeitinger Steve Rodgers Andrew Adzima Scott Eddlemon |
| Arthur Honegger | Danse de la Chèvre |
| Rachel Schlafer-Parton, Flute | |
| John Cage | Child of Tree |
| Jay Oberfeitinger, Percussion | |
Intermission | |
| Ingolf Dahl | Duettino Concertante |
| Alla marcia Arioso accompagnato Fughetta Presto Finale | Rachel Schlafer-Parton, Flute Scott Eddlemon, Percussion |
| Jay Oberfeitinger | Elements |
| World Premiere Einsteinium Plutonium Seaborgium | Rachel Schlafer-Parton, Flute Scott Eddlemon, Percussion Jay Oberfeitinger, Percussion |
Jay Oberfeitinger is active as both a performer and educator in the Northeast TN and Southwest VA region. He has been a percussionist for the Knoxville Symphony since 1995; the principal percussionist for the Symphony of the Mountains since 2000; a founding member and principal percussionist for the Knoxville Wind Symphony since 2006 and percussionist for the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA. He is a founding member of the Tri-Cities Jazz Masters quintet and an Educator/Endorser for ProMark® sticks and mallets. Jay received a BSM in Orchestral Performance from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA where he studied with Gerald Unger and Stanley Leonard of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He pursued graduate studies in Music Education at Miami University of Ohio where he studied with Dr. William Albin along with Dick Jensen and Eugene Espino of the Cincinnati Symphony. Jay has also received a Master's Degree in Education/Curriculum Design from the University of Phoenix. Currently he serves as adjunct faculty in music at Virginia Highlands Community College, Emory & Henry College and Tusculum College. Jay has composed, arranged and performed music for two PBS documentary films: "Where the Wild Things Live; America's Wildlife Refuges", and a biography of Mary O'Hara, author of "My Friend Flicka".
Rachel Schlafer-Parton plays all kinds of flutes and whistles, hammer dulcimer, and bowed psaltery. She is best known, perhaps, for being the syringe player on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Besides playing with Farr Horizons (trio of flute, harp, and cello), Rachel has an eclectic variety of performing experience with groups such as Knoxville Early Music Project, Just in Time a cappella jazz ensemble, Circle Modern Dance, Interact Theatre for the Deaf, and the Bijou Mime Theatre. She has performed in such venues as the National Gallery of Art , Strathmore Music Center, Bonnaroo, and the Bluebird Café. As a certified sign language interpreter through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Rachel interprets in educational, religious, and community settings. She enjoys combining her love of music, sign language, and the stage by interpreting for concerts, plays, opera, and other performance events. Rachel and her husband, Joel, are beekeepers and live on a 15 acre "farmette" where they often watch the many "kids" in their goatherd perform their own "Danse de la Chèvre".
Scott Eddlemon is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Saul Goodman. He has been Principal Timpanist of the Victoria Symphony(Canada) as well as the Spoleto Festival where he played under the directorship of Thomas Schippers and Spoleto Founder Gian Carlo Menotti. He has extensive contemporary music experience including projects with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Pierre Boulez, Dave Brubeck and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. While in Canada, Scott was the Percussion Instructor at the University of Victoria and the University of Saskatchewan. Scott is a regular performer with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and is currently the Principal Timpanist of the Oak Ridge Symphony.
Isotone appreciates the additional assistance in today's concert by Oak Ridge Symphony Principal Percussionist Steve Rodgers and Knoxville Symphony Percussionist Andrew Adzima.
Swedish-American scientist Glenn Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements including element 106, which was named seaborgium in his honor. He also developed more than 100 atomic isotopes, and is credited with important contributions to the chemistry of plutonium. Early in his career, Seaborg was a pioneer in nuclear medicine and developed numerous isotopes of elements with important applications in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, most notably iodine-131, which is used in the treatment of thyroid disease.
Today's concert begins with an all-out fun "overture" of percussion instruments, the Suite for Percussion by William Kraft. This is an early work by Mr. Kraft, former percussionist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Watch for later works by Mr. Kraft in future Isotone concerts.
Physics of music…
Today we consider the physics of the flute. For our demonstration work we will hear the Danse de la Chèvre (Dance of the Goat) by Arthur Honegger. Written in 1921 as incidental music for dancer Lysana of Sacha Derek's play La mauvaise pensée, the piece is meant to illustrate a goat dancing on a grassy hill after the winter snows have melted away.
Music of physics…
Regular "Isotoners" will be looking for a special work using instruments of science and physics. In recognition of Glenn Seaborg's special love for the outdoors, today's work is "organic" in nature, John Cage's Child of Tree. While on a tour in Arizona with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1975, one of the dancers brought a dried cactus to Cage, placed it near his ear and plucked the spines of it. This was the initial inspiration for Cage to use cacti as musical instruments in works such as Child of Tree. The score consists only of performance instructions on how to select the 10 instruments, using I-Ching chance operations. All instruments should be made of plant materials or be the plant materials themselves (e.g. leaves, branches, etc.). One of the instruments specified is a pod (rattle) from a Poinciana tree which is native to Mexico. "Using a stopwatch, the soloist improvises clarifying the time structure by means of the instruments. This improvisation is the performance". (From performance instructions).
In recognition of Glenn Seaborg's Swedish heritage, we have chosen a now standard work for flute and percussion, the Duettino Concertante by Swedish-German composer Ingolf Dahl. This early work (1966) for contemporary percussion makes extensive use of various means of striking traditional percussion instruments to obtain a large variety of sounds.
Our commissioned work as tribute to Glenn Seaborg is entitled "Elements." Here are notes provided by the composer, Jay Oberfeitinger:
Each movement of Elements is based on one of the transuranium elements of which Mr. Seaborg was either the principal or co-discoverer. Graphic representations of the three chosen elements were the primary "inspirations" for each movement.
I. Einsteinium - is my impression of both the structure of the element and a musical representation of the great physicist ruminating on one or more of his problems in Theoretical Physics. The end of this movement is somewhat ambiguous for, as with Einstein's Theories; they are not fact and still open-ended
II. Plutonium - This element is frightening - it looks strange, it is dangerous, mysterious and somewhat ambiguous. These are all reflected in this movement. Elements of random chance operations are juxtaposed with composed and improvised sections.
III. Seaborgium - This movement has two direct inspirational sources: the graphic depiction of the Seaborgium atom (shown on the advertising poster for this concert) and Mr. Seaborg's love of the outdoors and nature. It is my hope that both of these direct influences may be heard in the melody and structure.
Michelle Powell
Executive Director
Phone: 865-483-5569
E-mail: office@orcma.org