Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble

Concert 1 - Youthful Masterworks

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Duo for Violin and Viola in C Major

Regarded as Finland’s greatest composer, Jean Sibelius is best known for his symphonies, his tone poems Finlandia and the Karelia Suite, and the mysterious Swan of Tuonela, all of which helped foster Finnish identity in resistance to Russian imperial domination. It is thought Sibelius wrote this short work for teaching purposes with the viola accompanying the violin.

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), Three Pieces for Cello and Piano

With a last name meaning “baker” in English, Paris native Nadia Boulanger was renowned for her Boulangerie of top 20^th Century composition students, including Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Astor Piazzola, and Daniel Barenboim. She herself had studied under Gabriel Fauré and came from family of talented composers, and both her father Ernest and sister Lili won the prestigious Prix de Rome travel scholarship. Nadia did not feel she was a genius like Lili (the first female winner) even though Nadia began classes at the Paris Conservatory at age 7, won several first-place prizes, and eventually placed second for the Prix de Rome. It is likely that Lili’s death at the age of 24 lead Nadia to largely give up composing on her own.

The three pieces are all in minor keys, beginning with an ethereal first piece of the cello floating over the piano. The second is a folk-like lament. The third piece is a frenzy of energy. 

Zoe Bosin (Oklahoma City University), Freshwater Pearls, world premiere

Zoe Bosin is a composer and violinist studying at Oklahoma City University under Dr. Edward Knight. Bosin is a member of Project 21, a student organization for composers and the creation and performance of new music. She has collaborated on numerous projects with other composers and departments within OCU. Bosin provided the following description of her piece:

“Midnight on the Water” is a folk waltz originating from Texas, written by Luke Thomasson. The melody of this folk tune is the basis for Freshwater Pearls. The original tune has been arranged and used in songs by several artists, the tune holding a deep sense of longing and nostalgia in a way only a folk song can. I grew up in North Carolina and later on in Oklahoma, so I felt that in a piece about childhood and the nostalgia of growing up, a folk tune would be very fitting. Freshwater Pearls travels through different stages of life from the perspective of an adult who has already experienced them. The piece starts with the main theme in the cello before going on a journey through adolescence, young adulthood, infancy, and eventually back to the current moment. Where childhood is conveyed with a more playful melody and the “pop-y” sound of pizzicato, adolescence is more longing and chaotic, and infancy is soft and fragile. Similar to life, even though the motifs change and the theme is transformed and varied, the groundwork is still there and we eventually end back up right where we started.

Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894), Piano Quartet

Guillaume Lekeu was a Belgian composer who studied music under various teachers, composing his first piece at the age of 15. His family later moved to France and eventually Paris, where he studied privately with César Franck, his primary influence. His style is often cyclical and melancholic, and he was encouraged to compete for the Belgian Prix de Rome, where he placed second.

Lekeu died of typhoid fever at the age of 24, leaving his quartet to be finished his teacher Vincent d’Indy. He spoke of the first movement as “a setting for a thoroughly heartfelt poem in which thousands of feelings collide, in which cries of suffering give way to lengthy calls for happiness, and into which tenderness slips, insinuates itself, seeking to soothe the darkest thoughts.”

Program notes by Malcolm Zachariah

Concert 2 - Premieres

William Aceytuno (Oklahoma City University), The Swan Song of Time, world premiere

William Aceytuno graduated with a bachelors in music composition at Oklahoma City University in 2024. He has been thrilled with the opportunity to write for small chamber groups, jazz ensembles, music theatre groups, and for opera programs throughout his undergrad. Aceytuno intends to pursue music composition in writing for orchestras, films, video games, production music, and for the theatric stage.

Aceytuno remarks “The Swan Song of Time is a representation of the final thoughts of ‘Father Time’ as the angels of heaven call for the last hour, minute and second to end. It’s his last sentiment toward nature as he leaves the universe.”

Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Première Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Piano

Debussy was a French composer who at 10 years old began piano and composition studies at the Paris Conservatory, where his innovative style and fickle attention to studies clashed with his professors and yet earned him the prestigious Prix de Rome scholarship. His compositions while in Rome were labeled by the French Academy as “incomprehensible” while Jules Massenet called him an enigma. After returning to Paris, Debussy resisted German-sounding music like that of Richard Wagner, drawing from other sources like Javanese gamelan and Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. At the transition between the 19^th and 20^th centuries Debussy would achieve fame for his lush, colorful musical harmonies and would in turn greatly influence later composers.

Debussy was named in 1909 to the Paris Conservatory’s board of directors, and he wrote Première Rhapsodie for clarinet exams. A rhapsody generally has multiple sections that often feature a variety of moods and tonalities. As a playful and demanding competition piece that soon became popular in performances, it calls on the clarinet’s complete range of musical colors as the music flows back and forth from a slow meander to fast whirlpool.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-92), Quartet for the End of Time, (for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano)

Messiaen was born in Avignon, France, and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11, studying under teachers such as Ducas, Widor, and Dupré. He experienced synesthesia of “seeing colors” with certain chords, and often transcribed bird songs into his music. Messiaen played organ for 61 years at Église de la Sainte-Trinité (Church of the Holy Trinity) in Paris. Drafted in World War II as a medic, he eventually was captured and sent to a POW camp Stalag VIII-A where he met a violinist, cellist, and clarinetist. He composed his quartet for them all to play outdoors in front of inmates and guards. The title comes from the Book of Revelation: 

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth ... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever ... that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished ...

Program notes by Malcolm Zachariah

Concert 3 - The Virtuoso Wind Quintet - The Mae Ruth Swanson Memorial Concert

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Chorale Prelude, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (arr. for wind quintet by M. Rechtman)

J. S. Bach is regarded as one of the most important of the late Baroque composers, though his reputation during his lifetime was not far-reaching. His enormous output covers virtually every genre of the Baroque era, except for opera. Several decades after his death in 1750, Felix Mendelssohn and others contributed to a “Bach Revival” with a performance of his St. Matthew Passion in 1829.  

The Chorale Prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (also known as “Sleepers Awake”) is thought of as one of Bach’s most mature sacred cantatas. This arrangement for woodwind quintet was completed by Israeli bassoonist Mordechai Rechtman. 

Andrew Crawford (Oklahoma City University), Kobe, Japan (world premiere)

Andrew Crawford is a Japanese American composer, music producer, and horn player. His music gathers influence from Jazz, Impressionism, Japanese 80s Pop/Fusion, and his experiences traveling around the United States and Japan. In May 2024, he will graduate from Oklahoma City University with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. Andrew hopes to write scores for film and television and write more music for the concert hall. In both cases, he wants his music to move people emotionally and physically and bring hope, joy, and a smile to the audience. His composition professor at OCU is Dr. Edward Knight. 

“Kobe, Japan” consists of three movements, each depicting a particular scene in Kobe. “Jazz Café” points to Kobe’s position as the jazz capital of Japan; “Nunobiki Herb Gardens & Falls” depicts the Bavarian-inspired herb gardens on top of the Mount Rokko range; “Shopping, Motomachi to Harborland: Sunset at Kobe Port Tower” is inspired by Japanese ‘80s city pop and fusion jazz, and by the high-end fashion and food industry (A. Crawford).

J.S. Bach, Chorale Prelude, Christ lag in Todesbanden, BMV 4 (arr. M. Rechtman)

This chorale prelude by Bach (“Christ lay in the snares of death”) is thought to be one of his earliest church cantatas, maybe written for a performance in 1707. It is based on a hymn by Martin Luther and became an important hymn for Easter in the Lutheran church. The work consists of seven movements, all in the key of E minor. It was originally scored for voices and a small Baroque instrumental ensemble.

David Maslanka (1943-2017), Wind Quintet Number 2 (movement 3 only)

David Maslanka was an American composer of Polish descent who wrote works for a variety of genres. He was educated at Oberlin College and Michigan State University. He served over 20 years on the faculty at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York and at Sarah Lawrence College before moving to Montana where he worked solely on commissions of his works. His compositional style is rhythmically intense and complex, highly tonal and melodically oriented. This third movement from the Wind Quintet Number 2 is a chaconne, a continuous set of variations over a brief repeated harmonic pattern. This radically simple harmonic scheme, laid out in whole notes, persists undisturbed until the coda. Above it unfolds a solo, a duet, a trio, then a drive to the movement’s climactic point. The music then subsides to a restatement of the opening oboe solo, followed by a chorale-like coda that summarizes the entire piece.

J.S. Bach, Chorale Prelude, Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BMV 650 (arr. M. Rechtman)

This Chorale Prelude, originally for organ, was written near the end of Bach’s life. Johann Georg Schübler, after whom the collection came to be named, published it around 1747-1748. At least five preludes of the compilation are transcribed from movements in Bach’s church cantatas, mostly chorale cantatas he had composed around two decades earlier.  

Eugene Bozza (1905-1991), Scherzo, Op. 48 for Wind Quintet

Eugene Bozza was a French composer and violinist. He was one of the most prolific composers of chamber music for wind instruments, and his works are widely known to be very sensitive to the techniques of the instrument(s) for which they are written. His compositions can be placed within the Neo-Classic genre which was emerging after the Romantic and Impressionist periods. The Scherzo is a brief but enjoyable work that could be described as a flight of a swarm of spirited and lively bumblebees, with a very virtuosic style.

J.S. Bach, Chorale Prelude, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BMV 80 (arr. M. Rechtman)

Bach’s work “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress is our God”) is based upon the music and text of the chorale penned by Martin Luther between 1527-29. The chorale is often referred to as the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation.” 

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), Wind Quintet, Op. 43

Carl Nielsen was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist who is widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. His career and personal life were marked by many difficulties, often reflected in his music. He is especially noted for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet, and his concertos for violin, flute, and clarinet.  

The Wind Quintet is a staple of that ensemble’s repertoire, featuring lively passages and hauntingly-beautiful melodies. The English Horn is added in an expressive and pensive opening section of the last movement. The work ends with a delightful, traditional chorale plus variations on that theme.

Program notes by Larry Reed

Concert 4 - Musical Memories

J. S. Bach is regarded as one of the most important of the late Baroque composers, though his reputation during his lifetime was not far-reaching. His enormous output covers virtually every genre of the Baroque era, except for opera. Several decades after his death in 1750, Felix Mendelssohn and others contributed to a “Bach Revival” with a performance of his St. Matthew Passion in 1829.  

This set of four “duets” were originally conceived as “piano or keyboard exercises”. They were completed fairly late in Bach’s career and were written in the successive tonalities of E minor, F major, G major and A minor. These duets we hear were arranged for violin and cello by the famous Classical-period violinist Ferdinand David.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)/Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935), Passacaglia for Violin and Cello

G. F. Handel was a German/British composer most well-known for his works for larger ensembles. After completing his training and early work in Germany, he moved to London in 1712 and became a naturalized British subject in 1727. He enjoyed considerable popularity during his lifetime, and he was held in high esteem by his peers.

J. Halvorsen was a Norwegian composer and talented violinist who became a prominent figure in Norwegian musical life. His style was in the national Romantic tradition of Grieg, whose niece Halvorsen married. Halvorsen’s arrangement of the Handel Passacaglia is one of his best-known works today. It was completed in 1894 and is a flamboyant adaptation and elaboration of the Handel work which was originally written for solo harpsichord. 

Max Heyck (University of Oklahoma), Superluminal Motion (world premiere)

Max Heyck is a junior composer at the University of Oklahoma, where he studies with Jerod Tate and Konstantinos Karathanasis. In addition to writing music Max plays piano and saxophone and has performed in concert bands for many years. Max enjoys writing music for chamber and large ensembles alike, with a special love for winds. Among other things, Max finds musical inspiration in poetry, classic literature and American history.

There are many phenomena in the universe that appear to move faster than the cosmic speed limit. Fast-moving geometric points of intersection between massive objects, the effects of gravity on light traveling long distances, and Cherenkov radiation (in which electrons travel faster than light in water) are all examples of “superluminal motion”. This piece was inspired by these optical illusions that appear to bend the rules of the universe (M. Heyck).

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Piano Trio in A Minor

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.

The Piano Trio was begun in 1914, initially with slow progression. However, at the outbreak of World War I, Ravel gained a sense of urgency in completing the work not in “five months” but in “five weeks” so that he could enlist in the French army. Inspiration for the musical content came from a wide variety of sources, from Basque dance to Malaysian poetry. However, Ravel did not deviate from his usual predilection for traditional musical forms. The Trio follows the standard format for a four-movement classical work with Ravel’s own innovations.

Program notes by Larry Reed