Time & Date: 7:30 PM, Saturday, March 25, 2017.
Guest Artists: The Mason Cabaret, George Mason University School of Theater.
Concert Venue: Fairfax High School, 3501 Rebel Run, Fairfax, Virginia.
Instead of the traditional European “3 Bs” (Bach-Beethoven-Brahms), Virginia’s City Of Fairfax Band features 3 great American Bs from the modern era — Barber, Bernstein, and Broadway. The program includes both the Commando March and the Overture to the School for Scandal by acclaimed 20th century composer Samuel Barber. Also featured are two pieces by composer/conductor colossus Leonard Bernstein: his lighthearted Divertimento as well as Slava!, a razzy-jazzy-snazzy tribute to Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich. GMU’s Mason Cabaret will join in to sing a variety of Broadway showstoppers.
Divertimento (Leonard Bernstein, 1918-1990). Bernstein composed Divertimento on commission for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, dedicating the piece “With affection to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its First Centenary.” Having served as assistant to Boston Symphony conductor Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center, Bernstein wrote Divertimento not only out of gratitude to the orchestra but also out of fondness for his personal Boston history – native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and graduate of Harvard University and The Boston Latin School. The piece is a witty series of musical jokes and humor based on two notes, “B” for Boston and “C” for Centennial. Fortunately in-depth knowledge of music history and theory is not needed to enjoy the fun and good humor. (That is, if it sounds funny it is funny.) The title of Movement 1 (“Sennets & Tuckets”) is a Shakespearean term for what can be called ruffles and flourishes. The movement is plenty brassy with lots of work for the bass drum and snare drum. Movement 2 (“Waltz”), based on a Bach minuet, sounds like a waltz that keeps tripping up on its uneven rhythm and its mocking faux-elegance. Movement 3 (“Mazurka”) sticks pretty much to the style of a Polish folk-dance style, except for a few measures containing extra beats – that, plus a famous oboe theme taken from a Beethoven symphony. Movement 4 (“Samba”) is loaded with Latin percussive sounds (cowbell, bongos, congas, maracas, guiros) unheard of in 18th century divertimenti. Movement 5 (“Turkey Trot”) is a jolly little tune that’s so corny that you’ll swear you know it from somewhere else – but it’s all-original. Movement 6 (“Sphinxes”) consists of two atonal 12-note rows that end . . . tonally (a musical insider’s joke). Movement 7 (“Blues”) takes a raunchy jazz style pretty much to the limit, with loads of brass and lots of percussion. Movement 8 (“In Memoriam” & “BSO Forever March”) opens with an elegy in the flutes in memory of departed members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Then after all the flutes join in, they trill to the start of a raucous full-force march tune featuring some of what we heard in the opening movement and in “Turkey Trot,” but with lots more volume and way more grandiosity. By the end of the piece, a good time was had by all.
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Slava! Concert Overture (Leonard Bernstein, 1918-1990). Leonard Bernstein studied composition at Harvard, where he met Aaron Copland. Their friendship solidified in the early 1940s at the music workshops of Tanglewood. Bernstein achieved instant conducting fame when, at age 25, with 16 hours’ notice (on account of the scheduled guest conductor’s sudden illness), he conducted a broadcast performance by the New York Philharmonic. It was Bernstein’s fortune to be more than ordinarily successful. His talents, personal charm, and speaking mastery gave him extraordinary skill in communicating to others an intense enthusiasm for music and a deep love of it. Bernstein wrote symphonies, ballets, an opera, a film score, works for violin and chorus with orchestra, four Broadway musicals, and various works for solo and chamber music ensembles. He was equally at home with traditional classical music and the American jazz and pop medium. He used jazz elements in many of his compositions, including his Mass and the score to West Side Story. William Schumann said of Bernstein, “He is an authentic American hero, a new breed of hero, an arts hero, showing that America does honor her artists.” Bernstein wrote his Slava! concert overture in 1977 to celebrate the inauguration of Mstislav Rostropovich as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC. The opening theme features vaudeville-style razzmatazz full of slippery modulations and sliding trombones. Next is a canonic tune in uneven triple meter. After brief development, two themes come back, in reverse order. Near the end, they join a quotation, proclaimed by the trombones, from the Coronation Scene of Moussorgsky’s Boris Goudonov, where the opera chorus sings the Russian word slava! (glory) – the composer’s special tribute to his friend “Slava” Rostropovich, to whom the overture is dedicated. (Adapted from Foothill Symphonic Winds, Los Altos, California – www.fswinds.org )
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First Essay (Samuel Barber, 1910-1981). Samuel Barber is among the handful of 20th century American musicians authentically regarded as Romantic composers. He was one of the first students to enroll in Philadelphia’s (now) renowned Curtis Institute of Music. Some of his most popular and enduring works, like The School for Scandal Overture and Dover Beach for voice and string quartet, were written while Barber was still a student at Curtis. Barber’s Essay for Orchestra (later re-titled First Essay for Orchestra after he wrote others in 1942 and 1978) was composed in 1937. Its premiere came in 1938 in a radio performance by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Arturo Toscanini. The broadcast performance included Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Toscanini’s enthusiasm contributed to the young composer’s early fame and international recognition. Likewise, the attention and praise of Artur Rodzinski and Ralph Vaughan Williams also helped place Samuel Barber in the pantheon of distinguished American composers. Essay, as the name of a musical form, was Barber’s own invention, one he had used more than a decade earlier in his Three Essays for Piano. Like a literary essay, Barber’s essay progresses through development of a complex, well-reasoned, thoughtful idea derived from a single (melodic) thesis. (Note adapted from the Los Angeles Philharmonic – laphil.com )
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Commando March (Samuel Barber, 1910-1981). Samuel Barber served as a member of the Army Air Corps during World War II. His second symphony, produced for the Army Air Corps in 1942, made use of an electronic device to simulate wireless signals. In a similar wartime spirit, Barber completed his first band work, Commando March, in 1943. The premier performance was by the Army Air Corps Band at Atlantic City that same year.
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Overture to The School For Scandal (Samuel Barber 1910-1981). Samuel Barber wrote his first piece at age 7 and tried writing an opera when he was 10. At 14, he entered Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied voice, piano, and composition. Later, he studied conducting with Fritz Reiner. Barber received numerous awards including the American Prix de Rome, two Pulitzer Prizes, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Barber’s music is masterfully crafted, romantically structured, lyrical, rhythmically complex, and harmonically rich. His Overture to The School for Scandal, after opening with bitonal harmonies, gives way to an irresistible diatonic pastoral melody, seemingly from out of nowhere, that sings in a natural, full-throated way. The Overture to The School for Scandal was the first composition by Barber that attracted general attention, and it won him a $1,200 prize in 1933. Barber’s point of departure for the piece is a 1777 play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), who was trained as a lawyer but had great success with comedies for the stage. In The School for Scandal, Sheridan elevated the comedy of manners to the highest point it reached in England by creating memorable characters and scenes. Only Shakespeare’s plays have gained a stronger hold on the public. The romantic oboe melody from Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal was the music WGMS radio used for many years as the theme song for the station’s early evening classical music program.
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Cornet Man (Jule Styne, 1905-1994). “Cornet Man” is heard early in the first act of Funny Girl, Jule Styne’s 1964 Broadway musical with book by Isobel Lennart (1915-1971) and lyrics by Bob Merrill (1921-1998). The story is based on entertainer Fanny Brice’s life with gambler Nick Arnstein. Barbra Streisand played the part of Fanny Brice both on Broadway and in the 1968 Hollywood movie version of Funny Girl. The Broadway production was nominated for Tony Awards in eight categories but lost out in all eight thanks to tough competition from Hello, Dolly!, which was playing at the same time.
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“Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In,” from Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical (music by Galt MacDermot, 1928 – ). Galt MacDermot was born in Montreal and educated at Upper Canada College and Bishop’s University (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada). He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Cape Town University, South Africa, and specialized in the study of African music. MacDermot won his first Grammy Award for the Cannonball Adderley recording of his song “African Waltz” in 1960. Galt moved to New York City in 1964 where he wrote the music for the hit musical Hair. The show’s Broadway cast album won a Grammy Award in 1969. “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” is a medley of two songs from Hair that were released as a single by The 5th Dimension. In the spring of 1969, the tune peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, and stayed there for six weeks. It’s listed at No. 66 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time list. More recently, the medley was featured at the City Of Fairfax Band’s Bravo Broadway concert in 2010.
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Mama Mia! Medley (music by Björn Ulvaeus [1945 – ] & Benny Andersson [1946 – ]). ABBA, the famous Swedish music group, topped worldwide pop charts from 1974 to 1982. Mama Mia!, the jukebox musical featuring two dozen phenomenally popular ABBA tunes, ran 14 years on Broadway, further extending the reach and influence of what was already just about the most commercially successful act in the history of popular music. The 2008 movie version of Mama Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, kept the success string running, eventually becoming the highest grossing musical film of all time in terms of worldwide take. “Mama Mia” and “Dancing Queen,” featured in the medley, are heard in Act I of the show.
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Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat (Frank Loesser, 1910-1969). Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in 1950, ran for 1,200 performances, and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show was conceived by the producers as a musical adaptation of popular short stories Damon Runyon wrote in the 1920s and 1930s about assorted gangsters, gamblers, and other colorful inhabitants of the New York underworld. Frank Loesser, who was mainly a Hollywood lyricist, wrote all the songs (words and music). Critics praised the musical’s faithfulness to Damon Runyon’s style and characters. (Example: “Guys and Dolls is just what it should be to celebrate the Runyon spirit. It’s filled with the salty characters and richly original language sacred to the memory of the late Master.”) Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat comes in Act Two, sung by gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson as he relates a dream he made up about being saved from hell.
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Broadway Baby (words & music by Stephen Sondheim, 1930 – ). Stephen Sondheim’s career extends over 50 years of contributions to musical theatre. He has been awarded more Tony Awards than any other composer (eight, including one special Tony for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), plus one Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015). Sondheim’s show Follies opened April 4, 1971, at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances. The plot centers on a reunion, in a crumbling Broadway theatre scheduled for demolition, of late-late-middle-age former performers from an old-time musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies). During a 3-song montage, former showgirl Hattie Walker belts out “Broadway Baby,” her showstopping number from her old performing days.
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Encores From West Side Story (arr. James Kessler). After Jerome Robbins suggested to Leonard Bernstein the idea of doing a modern musical based on Romeo & Juliet, it took six years before West Side Story premiered. Originally, the action was to take place on New York’s Lower East Side, with tensions flaring between Catholics and Jews at the convergence of Passover and Easter – a project that went nowhere. But shifting the conflict to the Polish-American Sharks and the Puerto Rican Jets fired up the authors’ imaginations so much that they took some dramatic and musical risks – not all of which were well received. One of the original producers backed out two months before the start of rehearsals. Columbia Records initially declined to record Bernstein’s score – too depressing and too difficult, they said. Despite all the setbacks, the authors and producers kept at it because they knew they were creating something extraordinary. After its Broadway debut in 1957, West Side Story played 732 times before going on tour. The 1961 film version won 10 Academy Awards. The show’s music gained immense popularity through innumerable popular, symphonic, & jazz recordings and concert performances. The suite of blockbuster encore numbers from the show was arranged by James Kessler.
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