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Musicians of
Conservatory, College and Community Commingle in Oberlin
College Community Strings.
Performance
Slated for Thursday, May 13, 8:00 p.m. in Finney
Chapel
Story and photos by Linda Shockley
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PROGRAM: OBERLIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY STRINGS Philip Highfill, conductor Thursday, May 13, 1999 Prelude and Fugue in A minor String Symphony no. 7 in D minor - intermission - St. Paul's Suite Prelude and Fugue in E minor |
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It is open by audition to students, faculty, staff, and townspeople
Musicians from the conservatory, college and community will come together when the Oberlin College Community Strings perform on Thursday, May 13, 8 p.m., in Finney Chapel. The performance marks the ninth concert by the 35-member orchestra, which was founded in 1995 by Philip Highfill, professor of accompanying.
"Community Strings is different from
other orchestras on campus," Highfill says, "in that it is
only strings, and it is composed primarily of students
from the College of Arts and Sciences (plus a few
conservatory students who play strings as a second
instrument), and community members. Also, like the Community
Winds and Musical Union, our once-a-week rehearsal schedule
is less concentrated than that of other conservatory
ensembles."
The program will feature Prelude and Fugue in A minor by Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Highfill), String Symphony no. 7 in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn, St. Paul's Suite by Gustav Holst, and Prelude and Fugue in E minor by Vittorio Giannini.
Highfill explains his selections, "I choose repertoire for the group with the following considerations in mind: Is the music of high quality? Will it be challenging and interesting for the players? Does it cover a variety of styles and epochs?And is there some form of thematic coherence within each individual program? Usually we feature a concerto or other collaborative venture, but this spring it's just the orchestra -- no soloist.
"The program's four pieces balance each other quite nicely. The program begins and ends with a prelude and fugue, and there's a lot of contrapuntal writing in the Mendelssohn and Holst as well. Also, the keys work well together -- A minor, D minor, C major, and E minor. And as I mention in the notes, there's even a short melodic fragment common to all four works (though you'll have to listen like a detective to find it!).
Molly Johnson, is one Strings member
who represents both the college
and community. She's assistant to college president Nancy
Dye, and also teaches viola and violin in private lessons in
the Oberlin area.
Johnson says, " It's wonderful to have a string orchestra on campus for anyone who is interested, to have an ensemble available to non- Conservatory performance majors. And it's terrific that we can provide a performance venue for members of the community who love music and want to perform. A local high school student, a member of the Strings, is quite accomplished. The Strings meets a real need in the wider community."
Prelude
and Fugue no. 22, from Book One of the 'Well-Tempered
Clavier', was originally composed in B-flat minor. Because,
however, pitch has risen since the early eighteenth century,
the A-minor transposition of this arrangement for strings
might actually be closer to what a listener in Bach's day
would have heard. The tightly constructed architecture of
the five-voice fugue offers an austere contrast to the
lyrically flowing prelude, one of the loveliest of Bach's
forty-eight.
The String Symphony in D minor is one of a dozen such works produced by Felix Mendelssohn between the ages of twelve and fourteen. The inventiveness and technical assurance of these remarkable pieces attest to the young composer's amazing precocity, soon to flower in such masterpieces as the 'Octet for Strings' and overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Although conceived by Mendelssohn and his teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter primarily as exercises, the string symphonies are fully deserving of presentation in the concert hall.
Symphony no. 7, completed in 1822, is the first in a four-movement format and one of the most ambitious in scale, particularly the finale, which combines aspects of rondo, sonata, and fugal form in a characteristically Mendelssohnian tarantella.
In 1905, Gustav Holst was appointed music-master at St. Paul's School for Girls in London, and he remained in that position until his death in 1934. The popular suite which bears the school's name was composed in 1913 for the young student orchestra. It is nonetheless a sophisticated and intricate work. While most of the material derives from folk music of the British Isles (the last movement juxtaposes two familiar tunes, 'Greensleeves' and the 'Dargason'), Holst's equally vital interest in the music of South Asia is evident in the Intermezzo.
Vittorio Giannini, born in Philadelphia in 1903, is largely forgotten today, his brand of neoromanticism out of vogue. Giannini's music is nevertheless well-crafted, stylishly energetic, and emotionally intense. In addition to chamber music, choral works, solo concertos, and operas, he wrote several pieces for string orchestra, notably an impressive Concerto Grosso and the Prelude and Fugue in E minor.
The extended prelude is reminiscent of Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' in its language and contours. The much briefer fugue, set in a brisk 5/4 meter, builds upon a three-note fragment of the prelude's melodic material; later a fuller reference to the prelude's main theme emerges in counterpoint, as the fugue races to an emphatic conclusion.
Giannini taught at Juilliard, the Manhattan School, and the Curtis Institute, and was director of the North Carolina School of the Arts when he died in 1966.
In addition to the obvious thread of polyphony in tonight's program, alert listeners may detect the presence of a short melodic motive common to all four pieces.
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