Four Centuries of Great Music March 19, 2023 Chamber Music That Must Be Programmed Episode 11

Chamber Music Works the need to be Programmed Episode 11

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we are opening with Leo Sowerby: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1938)   

Leo Sowerby began as an aspiring concert pianist and wunderkind composer and ended life as the generally acknowledged Dean of American Church Musicians. He was born in 1895 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and moved to Chicago at age 13 to study theory and piano. Later, he studied briefly with Percy Grainger.  By the time Sowerby was 18, the Chicago Symphony had premiered his Violin Concerto. Two years later, the Symphony presented an all-Sowerby concert at Orchestra Hall.  Sowerby gained the first American Prix de Rome fellowship in music in 1921.  His prolific compositional period in the 1930s and 40s lead to him receiving the 4th Pulitzer Prize- ever given in 1946  for the cantata “The Canticle of the Sun”.  In 1962 he become founding director of the College of Church Musicians at Washington Cathedral, a post he held until his death in 1968.  

The Sonata for Clarinet and Piano reflected Sowerby’s adaptation of sonata form into what he sometimes dubbed “fantasy-sonatas.” This becomes immediately apparent in the sonata’s atmospheric opening movement, marked “Slow and sombre”, essentially a prelude in which all of the sonata’s thematic material appears. He then develops the two main themes in surprising ways by cutting them apart, inverting the pieces, and then reassembling them in the three more traditionally structured sonata movements that follow. The second movement, marked “Exuberantly, but not too fast “, is a scherzo with the two instruments using wry jazzy insinuation to poke gentle fun at one another. The third movement, marked “Quietly flowing,” again states and then breaks apart the themes introduced in the first movement, this time constructed as a canon in which the clarinet and piano alternate stating the main theme, with the instrumental interplay weaving a sensual love duet. Sowerby brings the sonata to a rollicking climax in the final movement with a rondo marked “Bright and merry” in which the clarinet pokes gentle fun at both the thematic material and the piano, which mostly takes the lead to move the piece to its optimistic climax.



Ruth Crawford Seeger: Suite for Wind Quintet   

Suite for Wind Quintet was composed in 1952, a year before Crawford passed away. The National Association for American Composers and Conductors (NAACC) had announced a competition for a new chamber work to be commissioned in 1951. Crawford put aside much time,so that she could enter this prestigious composition. And from this, Suite for Wind Quintet was composed, and then subsequently won the NAACC competition. Ironically, after winning the competition, Crawford gained more confidence (as she was ill with cancer at this time), and said “I will work again – I will live to 99” – sadly this was not the case.

Movement I. Suite for Wind Quintet is a quintessential Crawford composition, with its lively nature, busy melodic lines and persistent ostinato bass lines. Scored for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon, this suite is in three short movements, totaling about 10 minutes in length. The first movement begins with an ostinato rhythm played by the bassoon. Throughout, there is a sense of conversation between the different instruments, and this climaxes at points where the ensemble comes together to play lines in unison. You can hear Crawford’s application of the twelve-tone technique, which is resonant through the dissonant passages. The feel of the first movement is playful and rather pleasant.

Movement II. The second movement is slower and highlights all the instruments by passing
around a main solo melodic line. It is also interesting to see Crawford’s layering of the accompaniment instrument, such as the bassoon and horn. This movement is slightly more mysterious and menacing in places, which shows a good contrast between the first and second movements.

Movement III. The final movement begins with a fast-paced unrelenting melodic line introduced by the bassoon and flute in unison. This kernel of music is then passed around the ensemble. I find this movement is the happy medium between the first and second movements, due to its playful, yet somewhat reserved feel to it. The conversational feel comes to an abrupt end.


C.P.E. Bach:  Violin Sonata in G Minor, H.542.5  

Notes from the editor: 'Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), the third son of the Leipzig master, Johann Sebastian Bach, appeared on the musical scene as the grandeur of the baroque era was giving way to the elegance and wit of the rococo period. It was the age of enlightenment. Rational thought was favored over the mysticism and poetics of the baroque. Even Emanuel Bach turned his back on his father's 'learned' musical style, declaring on one occasion to the English musician and indefatigable traveler, Charles Burney, that canons were 'dry and despicable pieces of pedantry that anyone might compose who would give his time to them.'

'Le style galant', which is a synonym for rococo, was particularly cultivated in France. Frederick the Great of Prussia, an avid music lover and a francophile in cultural matters, apponted C.P.E. Bach as a chamber musician and clavecinist to his court in 1740. It was only natural, therefore, that this young musician became an exponent of this new musical style. At the same time another musical philosophy was developing which was primarily identified with German composers called 'empfinsamer Stil', literally 'sensitive style'. This expressive approach to music was one of simplicity with emphasis on a plain, homophonic chordal structure and simple melodic lines. Emanuel Bach was equally at home in this expressive style through which a composer endowed his music with a more intimate and personal form of emotion. Sometimes melodic lines were elaborated with a carefully worked out system of ornamentation which drew on the 'style galant'.

One of the most famous examples of this type of composition is Emanuel Bach's celebrated, so-called 'Conversation Sonata' which he composed in 1749 while still in the service of Frederick the Great. It was published in 1751 and reportedly caused a sensation. It is often mentioned in musicological literature, but the original edition poses a number of problems for the contemporary performer which can only be resolved in a modern edition.
In the original edition, Bach provided an extensive introduction in which he explained the 'program' of this work. It is an attempt to convey through instruments alone a dialogue between two persons, one sanguinary and the other melancholic. The contrasting views of the two protagonists are depicted in the first movement through frequent alternation of 'Allegretto' and 'Presto' passages. In the second movement, an Adagio, Melancholicus comes around to Sanguineus' more optimistic point of view. In the final movement it is evident that they are now of one mind.

The Introduction also included useful information regarding the performance of the music. The composer, for example, is quite explicit in stating that a measure of Presto in 3/8 equals a quarter notes of the Allegretto sections. Bach also suggested alternative methods of performance. One version is for two violins (or flute and violin) with figured bass; the other is for a melodic instrument with obligato cembalo (or piano). In the present edition, which opts for the second version, the sonata has been transposed from the original key of c minor to g minor in order to accomodate the flute's somewhat limited range.

Historically, this work constitutes a fundamental study of the esthetic laws of the period concerning the use of affections. From a musical point of view, the sonata is one of the most important and interesting works of the 18th century pre-classical period.'


Mucha: String Quartet No. 2        1986   

Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata a quattro, WoO 2   

Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata No. 7 in C Major, Op. 1 


Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40  

In 1934 the Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin launched a blood-stained campaign to eliminate several perceived enemies of his state. Amid the long list of political figures and military personnel, were also writers, filmmakers, actors, musicians, and composers who were arrested on fabricated charges. Most were subject to exile, interrogation, torture, humiliation, starvation, and execution.

During the same year and shortly after composing his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich wrote the Cello Sonata in D minor as a personal request from Viktor Kubatsky, who was the principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The sonata was a way for Shostakovich to counter a tendency from his Soviet contemporaries to neglect chamber music compositions in favor of orchestral works. At the same time, the Cello Sonata offered a significant stylistic departure from his opera as a more lyrical, classical, and resonant work.

The first movement “Allegro ma non-troppo” displays the composer’s melodic prowess with a lilting, melancholic theme that gets repeated and varied throughout the movement. The second movement “Allegro” includes one of the first instances of Shostakovich’s musical sarcasm displayed by variations on an ostinato theme for both instruments. The slow and expressive third movement “Largo” is evocative of pain by using purposeful dissonances that rarely resolve in consonances. Additionally, the piece concludes with a rapid fourth movement “Allegro” which culminates into a chaotic and frantic ending bursting with virtuosic passages for the cello and piano alike.

Although the composer is also known for his intentional and descriptive markings in the score of this work, the Cello Sonata however was often reworked and performed at the piano by Shostakovich until his death. Shostakovich also performed many contrasting and stylistically different interpretations of this work with his personal friends and cellists: Viktor Kubatsky, Daniil Shafran, and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Two years after writing the piece, the Bolshoi Theater hosted his opera performance which was personally attended by Stalin. After this performance, an anonymous review of his opera was published by the Soviet newspaper Pravda with the title “Muddle Instead of Music.” Some historians speculate that Stalin was the writer of this article which attacked Shostakovich’s music but also included a stern warning to the composer: “It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very badly.”

In 1936 Shostakovich became a heartbroken man, terrified of the Soviet state. His compositional output was under threat due to the censorship of Soviet authorities that left him artistically shackled. This time would also become very important for Shostakovich as it would commence a long period of danger, immense paranoia, and distrust of the Soviet government for the rest of his life.