Oberlin Wind Ensemble Ends Academic Season with Performance on Friday, May 12, 8 P.M. in Finney Chapel By Emily Manzo
	back to the main story		Arnold's Program Notes: Rrrrrrr... Kagel Rrrrrrr...was composed in 1981-2. The eleven short pieces heard tonight, scored for winds, brass, basses, and percussion are drawn from 58 pieces composed as part of a music/theater piece featuring a man listening and reacting (with some degree of neurosis) to a radio broadcast. Other pieces are scored for a cappella choir, percussion duo, jazz ensemble, solo voice, electronic rhythm generator, and organ respectively. While born in Argentina, Kagel has become one of Europe's foremost and most prolific contemporary composers, writing stage, orchestral, and chamber works, film scores, and radio plays. His works are noted for their originality, humor, irony, and absurdism. The title Rrrrrrr..., has many implications: the rolled European "r", a stuttering beginning to the word "radio" (perhaps also indicating some incoherency, or inability to communicate), and, as a series of "r's", the first letter of the title of every one of the fifty-eight pieces making up the musical portion of the complete stage work. These eleven pieces are distributed in two "books", not, as requested by Kagel, to be played one after another. Tonight, Book II opens the program; Book I follows the piece by Chou. Kagel's characteristic acerbity and irony are evident in many of the pieces. Some rather vaguely relate to the titles, often clouded by dissonance, fragmentation, and multiple layers of activity. Kagel has provided definitions for each of the titles. These are given below, followed by my own comments. Book II 1. reveille (Fr.: réveil = awakening): Military bugle call; also accompanied by a slow grenadiers' march in pas ordinaire in the case of the grand reveille. retreat: Traditional military bugle call in the evening, associated with a solemn military band parade in the case of the grand retreat. Features trumpet and wind fanfares, then slowly fades into night. 2. Rheinländer (Ger.: Rhenic or Bavarian polka): A German couple dance in moderate 2/4 meter which arose in the mid-19th century (probably from the polka and the écossase) and included polka elements and steps; a social dance known throughout Europe in many variants during the 19th and 20th centuries. In three sections (the third a composite of the first two). In each, the "polka" is carried by bass instruments, always enshrouded by a more "lyrical" component. 3/4. ritornello (It.: ritornare = return): 1. Refrain in Italian vocal forms; 2. In the 17th-18th century, a term for the recurring instrumental interlude in vocal compositions of all types; 3. The tutti in 18th-century instrumental concertos; 4. Originally a self-contained section following each stanza in the 14th-century Italian madrigal. The first ritornello consists of a slow, kaleidescopic rotation of melodies. The second, alternating triple and duple divisions of the beat, is played three times, each slightly faster, and features the trumpet. 5. rhapsody (Ger.): 1. A free form of vocal and instrumental music of a fragmentary, improvisatory character, based on models from Antiquity and frequently including folksong melodies; it was prevalent from the end of the 18th century and is related to the fantasy and the ballad; also a string of tunes in the manner of a potpourri; 2. In Greek Antiquity, the recitation of fragmentary (Homeric) epic verse by traveling singers (rhapsodies). Balances trumpet fanfares with a descending, chromatic line prominent throughout Book I. Book I 1. raccontando (It.): In a narrative manner. Four mixed trios; quiet overlapping undulations of triadic harmonies. 2. Rauschpfeife (Middle high German: rusche = reed): 1. [wind instrument] Double reed instrument of the 16th-17th century with a straight cylindrical bore, slightly flared bell and a cap over the reed; 2. A non-repeating mixture stop on the organ which imitates the sound of the early wind instrument and is composed of several ranks in fifths (5 1/3, 2 2/3) and octaves (4', 2'); 3. Medieval term for reed instruments. Trios of piccolos, then oboes, later clarinets and all then all three, stacked in fifths with glissandi dropping off each note. All are layered over 1) a disjointed bass line, 2) a slow dirge-like horn melody later taken by bassoons and tuba. 3. rejdovák: Czech folk dance in 3/4 meter, followed by a rejdovacka in 2/4 meter. Kagel combines the two meters in each measure; thus 3 +2+2 or 2+2+3, for measures in seven - very loosely inspired by the dance form. The fast melody, given first to the clarinet, is countered by a descending chromatic line. (Listen for the moaning friction drum!) 4. Register (Ger.): 1. Organ stop; 2. Mechanical devices found primarily in bagpipes and stringed keyboard instruments which make it possible to change the timbre, volume and response of the various octave registers (e.g. 8', 4', 16') and to combine these registers; they are operated by means of mechanical stops, pedals, and levers activated by the hand, knee or foot; 3. Vocal ranges which have a similar timbre in all types of voice: chest tone, head tone, and voix mixte. Again, the descending chromatic line prevails. Pauses are perhaps explained by the fact that register changes on an organ usually require a moment to pull levers. 5. rejouissance (Fr.: merriment): Fast, scherzo-like movement in the 18th-century suite. Fast, descending melody is derived from the chromatic line heard in the previous two pieces. It is repeated numerous times, altered by speed, and the placement of the pitches within the beat - that is, each repetition begins in a different part of the beat. 6. reprise (Fr.: repetition; It.: ripresa): 1. German term for recapitulation, i.e. the section of a sonata-form movement that repeats all or part of the exposition following the development section, with the thematic material now appearing in the tonic key; also an immediate repetition of the exposition, usually with ornaments; 2. The repetition of the opening section of a rondo or three-part song form; 3. Originally, a repetition of a section; in the 18th century divided into reprise grande (repeat of entire section) and reprise petite (repeat of a few measures). Cast as a light dance by high winds, with melodic material derived from réjouissance. Low winds, brass, and basses provide thick, dissonant harmonic underpinning. In three parts, each repeated softly; then a coda, arriving at stillness with a D-flat minor chord. Yün Chou Wen-Chung Growing up in Shanghai, Chou was exposed to Western influence from an early age. Studying with Varèse in America in the 1950's, Chou dedicated himself to synthesizing elements Western and Asian musical traditions. According to Chou: ...in all my compositions I am influenced by the same philosophy that governs every Chinese artist, whether he be a poet or painter, namely, the affinity to nature in conception, the allusiveness in expression, and the terseness in realization. His larger compositions, which have been performed by major orchestras in the United States, Europe and Asia, along with chamber works, like Yün, exhibit what Nicholas Slonimsky calls "a controlled spontaneity and quiet intensity derived from an intimate knowledge of his art and his culture, together with a growth process as organic and inevitable as that of nature..." Yün, composed in 1969, is scored for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano (played normally and by plucking and damping strings), and a large variety of percussion instruments played by two musicians. Chou's own description follows: Yün is based on the Chinese philosophic concept of art as the moment when "the universe and the individual merge as one." That is when macrocosm and microcosm resonate in sympathy. The title, Yün, is taken from the expression ch' i yün, the foremost principle in Chinese art, which means 'reverberation (yün) of the vitalizing force in nature (ch' i). Some natural resonances are audible, such as: wind and thunder, rain drops and cascades, frogs and cicadas, waterfalls and tidal waves. Other reverberations are not. The Taoist philosopher, Chuang Tzu said: "When it cannot be heard by the ear, listen with the mind; that is when nature and art merge as one." Another concept that is responsible for the structure of Yün is yin/yang, which is best understood as "the intertwining of positive and negative." Born of the same source, the two opposites entwine - complement, reflect, reshape, and replace each other to become the whole. In Yün all the pitched instruments join in one single continuous line. The pitch succession follows the unfolding of a mode in perpetual transformation in accordance with I Ching principles, through permutations of yang (a single interval of a minor third) and yin (a succession of the component intervals of the minor third - a major second and a minor second). Each new pitch in the progression is articulated on a single instrument and given nuances by means of repeated attacks, pitch inflections, slow vibratos, tremolos, or crescendo-diminuendos. This pitch is then sustained or rearticulated to resonate with other pitches. The percussion instruments join each other to form another line that interacts with the pitched line, again in a yin/yang relationship. The durations and the rhythmic figures in both the lines (percussion and pitched instruments) are temporal reflections of the intervals, in ratios of 3:2:1 and their permutations. The directions and relative motions in the registral space within each line or between the two lines are also in the same yin/yang relationship. Serenade in E-flat Major Wolfgang Amadé Mozart Originally composed in 1781 for pairs of clarinets, bassoons, and horns, the Serenade was later expanded by the addition of two oboes by the composer, probably in 1782. Tonight we perform this octet version. Such small wind ensembles were quite the rage in 1780's Vienna; Mozart, in fact, had arranged Abduction from the Seraglio for such an ensemble. The first movement is cast in the form of a noble march yet its florid, cadenza-like melodies suggest certain operatic aria-types. Later, in the recapitulation, Mozart inserts a gavotte-like dance initially featuring the horn. The second and fourth movements are minuets, typical of the serenade's genesis as evening entertainment. The central Adagio is a heartfelt song, while the finale is a quick contredance in rondo form.
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