Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) was very adept at composing pieces well-suited to the characteristics – and the possibilities - of the instruments for which he was writing. Today’s Concertino da camera (a 1934 work, originally for alto saxophone and small orchestra) is a case in point. It explores – even exceeds, at times – the expected sounds of the instrument, including calling at one point for a high A-flat, an octave above the instrument’s normal range. Drawing on jazz influences (of the 1930’s mind you), its syncopations and harmonies are refreshingly delightful. We’ll hear the work’s first movement.
The usual summation of Ibert’s music describes it as graceful, witty, and evocative; but there is music of weight as well. He wrote in many forms: operas, ballets, choral, orchestral, piano, vocal, and chamber music, as well as incidental music for radio and films. The latter includes music for Orson Welles’ film of Macbeth (1948), and the circus scene in Gene Kelly’s Invitation to the Dance (1952).
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was without doubt the most well-known Brazilian composer of the 20th Century. He wrote an enormous amount of music, as the Opus number – 630 – of today’s work will attest. The Fantasia (1948), a roughly eleven-minute piece, was scored originally for soprano saxophone, two horns, and strings. A program note we ran across aptly points out that it “demonstrates how Villa-Lobos could integrate nearly any instrument into a Brazilian sound world while still composing a fully ‘classical piece.’”
Two main themes appear in the first movement, the first of them strongly rhythmic, the second broader and more lush. The second movement rests largely in the upper ranges of the saxophone, wrapped in a lazy, sexy melody. A brief pause triggers the last movement, which begins with a brash, dancing theme, relaxes in trills for a time, then returns full force, ending in what is almost a musical question mark.
Villa-Lobos was once described as the one who “transformed the musical life of his native Brazil and put the country on the international musical map.” He was a virtuosic guitarist, and traveled all over his country to experience and collect as many forms of Brazilian music as he could find. His impetuous nature sometimes often stood in the way of formal musical training, but he studied the works of the great classical masters while earning a living playing in cafes. He revered the music of Bach, exemplified in his nine famous Bachianas Brasileiras, works for various instrumental groups based on Bachian models.
The great Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein made it possible for Villa-Lobos to travel and study in Europe in the late 1920’s, where he fascinated the Europeans (Varèse and Messiaen among them) with the Brazilian elements he brought to classical forms. He composed continuously throughout his life.
A new nationalist regime had just come into power when Villa-Lobos returned to Brazil in 1930, and he was put in charge of organizing the musical life of the country, where he carried out important educational reforms which made him a national hero. When died, he was accorded a state funeral.
The remaining two composers represented on today’s program are the most internationally-respected figures in their special fields. Astor Piazzolla (1921-1991) is considered the most important figure in the history of tango; Ennio Morricone (b. 1928) is the most prolific and versatile of film composers of the 20th - now into the 21st - centuries.
Libertango – which has been described as “a sort of song to liberty” and as music which is “compact, dynamic, and unforgiving” - is probably Piazzolla’s most famous tango. It was composed in 1974 when the composer was working with a nonet called Conjunto 9, giving his work a more commercial, rock/jazz influenced sound than it had before.
Bordello 1900 comes from a suite titled History of Tango (the other movements of which are Café 1930, Nightclub 1960, and Concert of Today).
Gabriel’s Oboe is the main theme of Morricone’s soundtrack for the 1986 film The Mission, starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. It’s said that Morricone created the music as he watched a rough cut of the film, noting Mr. Irons simulating what the actor thought might be the motions of someone playing the oboe.
The Untouchables is the title music from the 1987 Brian de Palma film of that name (starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro, among others), which details Eliot Ness’s successful G-man efforts to smash the Al Capone gangster empire.
Astor Piazzolla was another national hero, a cult figure in classical and jazz music who took the “earthy, sensual, even disreputable folk music” of Argentina and elevated it into a sophisticated form of high art. His own instrument was the bandoneón, a button accordion of large size and a difficult fingering system. In his hands, tango broke the bounds of dance music. Eventually called “nuevo tango”, it experimentally borrowed from classical and jazz forms and created new harmony and rhythm made more for the concert hall than the ballroom. Initially, tango purists attacked him for abandoning tradition (which helped drive him out of his country for several years), but he remained internationally respected as the tango’s emissary to the world.
Since the early 1960’s, Ennio Morricone has written scores for some 500 films, from so-called “spaghetti westerns”, through an immense variety of American films, to such works as the classic Italian film Cinema Paradiso. His inventive use of diverse arrangements, extraordinary instrumentation, and his understanding and implementation of the gamut of musical styles (including rock and roll and electronic influences), have expanded the film music genre. Probably his most famous film theme is the one he wrote for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
…back to program notes.
