eighth blackbird - Program Notes
	back to the Main Story		Paramo (1999) Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon Born in 1962, in Guadalajara, México, Ricardo Zohn Muldoon received his B.A. in Music from the University of California, San Diego, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Pennsylvania, where his principal teacher was George Crumb. Mexican literature has provided the point of departure for many of his compositions. Previous works have been based on the pre-Hispanic myth of Quetzalcóatl. More recently, several a cycle of works have been based on the novel Pedro Páramo, by the great Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. His music has been selected for various international festivals, including the Gaudeamus International Music Week (prize finalist, Holland), Festival A*DEvantgarde (Germany), ISCM World Music Days (Romania, México), June in Buffalo (U.S.A.), Society of Composers Inc. (U.S.A.), International Recorder Festival (Holland), Foro de Música Nueva (México), Festival Internacional Cervantino (México), among others. Throughout 1996 he was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, where he realized a composition project, under the auspices of a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. Previous distinctions include an Associate Composer Fellowship to attend the 2nd Inter-American Composition Workshop at Indiana University (U.S.A), México's prestigious Mozart Medal, and fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center (Omar del Carlo Fellowship, U.S.A.), Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (México), Composers Conference (U.S.A.), Fondo para la Cultura y las Artes de Jalisco (México), and the Bowdoin Music Festival (U.S.A.). During the Fall of 1992, he was composer-in-residence at the Camargo Foundation, in Cassis, France. From 1993 to 1995, he taught composition and theory at the School of Music of the University of Guanajuato, in México, where he also co-directed the international festival and conference of new music Callejón del Ruido. In January of 1997, he joined the faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, as Assistant Profesor of Composition. Trés lent (In memoriam Olivier Messiaen) (1994) Joan Tower This duet for cello and piano is written for and dedicated to cellist André Emelianoff, who wrote the following note: Some time ago, I asked Joan to write a cello work of modest length, half expecting to hear, "Are you crazy? I'm booked for five years." To my utter surprise and delight, she said she had wanted to write such a piece for a long time. This slow piece is an homage to Olivier Messiaen, who died in 1992. It is, in particular, a tribute to his Quartet for the End of Time and its infinitely slow movements for cello, then violin. The connection to this music is particularly personal, as Joan and I have played numerous performances of the great work together. In most of Joan's compositions, her "melodies" tend to be more intervallic arches, surrounded, even overwhelmed, by highly energized rhythmic and colorful material. In Trés lent I sense a melody being born. Out of the opening D octaves grow embryonic intervals and a rhythmic motive: short-long D (the only real Messiaen quote). The expansion and contraction of harmonic bands and pedal points, punctuated by embellishments and grace notes, create a profoundly expressive homage, entirely in Joan's own language. Joan and I premiered Trés lent in New York City on May 8, 1994. Known for the rhythmic energy with which she infuses her work, Tower demonstrates effectively in Trés lent that such energy does not depend on a fast tempo. The forward motion of the tolling bells and piano frissons suggests an inner propulsion that is compelling even at the sostenuto tempo that she has indicated. Luciérnagas (1998) Carlos Sanchez-Guiterrez Written for eighth blackbird, and commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation Born in Mexico City in 1964, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez grew up in Guadalajara and is now a permanent U.S. resident. He obtained a degree in piano performance from the Universidad de Guadalajara and later pursued studies in Music Composition, obtaining Master's degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Yale University, as well as a Ph.D. from Princeton. Among his teachers are Jean E. Ivey, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, and Henri Dutilleux. Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez is currently Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at San Francisco State University. Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Tanglewood Music Center. About the work, Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez writes "Luciérnagas is an example of a rather abstract composition that is otherwise based on a very concrete experience. A few months ago, I was working on the music for Pascal Rioult's choreography "El Mozote" - a story about the killing of hundreds of innocent Salvadorians at the hands of militiamen, when I came across a text by Carlos Henríquez, titled "Luciérnagas en El Mozote" ("Fireflies at El Mozote"). The text described the arrival of Henríquez and other workers of "Radio Venceremos" to the site where the massacre had taken place three years earlier. As the men reached the outskirts of the desolate village, Henriquez writes that "...a dazzling spectacle made it clear to us that we had arrived at El Mozote: thousands of little lights began to twinkle. The intermittent dance of the fireflies illuminated the night, showing us the way to the town's ruined church. 'They are the souls of El Mozote!', said Padre Rogelio Poncel." I was fascinated by the fact that the "dance of the fireflies" described above stayed on my mind not as a visual or narrative representation of a brutal - albeit strangely poetic event, but as a powerful - and strictly musical - "picture": The sound of brief rhythmic punctuations that weave a sparkling, constant, yet unpredictable flicker. Like the trompe-l'oeils found in the visual arts, the outcome is a shared expression of that which is regular (or "predictable") and of the ultimately chaotic. My "luciérnagas" are represented by tangible musical materials: ascending and descending scale-like gestures that only seem regular, but that are actually under constant transformation. Similarly, the general rhythmicity of the piece is marked by the use of ostinati, whose regularity is perpetually disturbed by the incisive action of various surface elements, such as displaced accents, dynamic interjections, and the juxtaposition of extreme registers: the highly organized but endlessly puzzling world of insect life." Variations (1998) David Schober David Schober grew up in Rushford, Minnesota. He received a B.M. in Piano Performance and Composition from Oberlin College, where he studied composition with Param Vir. In 1995, Schober studied Korean language and culture for six months at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Composition from the University of Michigan, where his primary teachers include William Bolcom, Michael Daughtery, and the late William Albright. Recently named a 1999 Aaron Copland Award recipient, Schober is one of seven winners invited to reside at Aaron Copland's house in New York to pursue composition. His Variations, the 1999 recipient of San Francisco State University's Wayne Peterson Prize, are not a traditional set of theme and variations. Rather, the work consists of six segments that are loosely based on related harmonic and thematic material. Variations is scored for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, percussion, and piano. The composition is approximately nine minutes in duration. Notturno (1973) Donald Martino Donald Martino, born in 1931, holds degrees from Syracuse and Princeton Universities. His principal teachers include Ernst Bacon, Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions. He has taught at Tanglewood, The New England Conservatory of Music, Brandeis University, Yale University, Princeton University, and most recently at Harvard University, where he is the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music, Emeritus. The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Martino received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his chamber work Notturno, which music critic Michael Steinberg described as "nocturnal theater of the soul." About his work, Martino writes that "Movement I is characterized by disjunct motions, i.e., dramatic contrast, while Movement III, which uses the same material loosely retrograded, is characterized by conjunction and attempts in the foreground to parallel the 'long line' that is ever present in the background. [In Movement II] an effort is made to begin the movement with 'noise' and transform it into pitch (via key clicks and piano stopped notes and pizzicato) and back again." - Richard Berberian
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