University AuditoriumThursday EveningDecember 13, 19738:00 p.m

Corra, Arthur, Conductor

Hillstrom, Philip, Horn

English

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Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData School of Music Programs Music 12-13-1973 Ensemble Concerts: Symphony Orchestra Concert, December 13, 1973 Arthur Corra Conductor Philip Hillstrom Horn Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/somp  Part of the Music Performance Commons Recommended Citation Corra, Arthur Conductor and Hillstrom, Philip Horn, "Ensemble Concerts: Symphony Orchestra Concert, December 13, 1973" (1973). School of Music Programs. 5306. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/somp/5306 This Performance Program is brought to you for free and open access by the Music at ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Music Programs by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData. For more information, please contact ISUReD@ilstu.edu. Symphony Orchestra ConcertArthur Corra, ConductorPhilip Hillstrom, HornMomentum Jubilo (world premiere)Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 ("Jupiter")Allegro vivaceAndante cantabileMenuetto: AllegrettoMolto AllegroHorn Concerto No. 1, Opus 11AllegroAndanteAllegro; Rondo: AllegroPhilip Hillstrom, hornINTERMISSIONRoque Cordero MozartR. StraussA Hero's Life, Opus 40The HeroThe Hero's AdversariesThe Hero's Companion (Won-Mo Kim, violin) The Hero's BattlefieldThe Hero's Mission of PeaceThe Hero's Escape from the WorldR. StraussUniversity Auditorium Thursday Evening December 13, 1973 8:00 p.m.PROGRAM NOTESThe fanfare MOMENTUM JUBILO (a moment of joy) is dedicated to Dr. Arthur Corra and the Illinois State University Symphony Orchestra. It was written especially to create a festive mood for this first concert of the ISU Symphony Orchestra in the new University Auditorium. Dr. Cordero conceived the work to demonstrate the sonic splendor of the Auditorium; he spent a good deal of time in the Auditorium even before construction was completed. The work is scored for multiple brass—both on the stage and in the auditorium—percussion and some stringed instruments.Sometime in June of 1788 Mozart began work on a symphony, now commonly listed as his 39th (K. 543 in E-flat), the first really large-scale composition to occupy his attention since the completion of the opera Don Giovanni nine months earlier. By August 10, his creative efforts had produced not just the lyric 39th Symphony, but the darkly passionate 40th (K. 550 in G Minor) and the greatest of them all, the 41st (K. 551 in C Major), later given the subtitle "Jupiter" by a publisher.One of the most phenomenal child prodigies ever known, Mozart grew up wise in the ways of music but naive in the ways of his fellow men. The young composer was too proud to endure the humiliating servitude imposed on him by his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, yet he lacked the hard-boiled aggressiveness that might have won him a steady source of income as composer, performer, and teacher in Vienna, where he spent his last ten years. To make matters more difficult for himself, he married Constanze Weber scarcely a year after breaking ties with the Salzburg Court and his father, thus taking on further responsibilities he was far from able to assume. Mozart had the misfortune to be living at a time when the old feudal system of court patronage for musicians was breaking down and there was nothing else to adequately take its place as a means of earning a living. The vast music publishing and concert hall enterprises to which we are accustomed today were at the very begin­nings of their development in Vienna, and such fees as a composer could earn from concert per­formances and publication of his works were for the most part small in amount and irregular in payment.The really singular feature of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony is the change in gravity from the first movement to the last. The symphonic composers of Mozart's time, and most of those who worked in succeeding generations, placed most of their weighty musical material in the first movement and a succeeding slow movement, allowing the minuet (or scherzo) to represent a tapering off, with the final movement not much more than quick, noisy, often joyous confirmation of the basic tonal center. With the Jupiter Symphony the procedure is quite different. The virile opening movement serves much as a prelude. The exquisite slow movement which follows is a tender song. The easy-going Minuet performs the function of an intermezzo leading at last to the titanic finale whose contrapuntal bravura is unequalled in the entire orchestral literature (with A Hero's Life by Strauss running a close second in that category).Of its five distinct thematic fragments, the most prominent is the opening C-D-F-E motive, one which Mozart used in at least half a dozen previous works. The first two and the last two of these five thematic fragments are combined respectively as sonata-form elements, with the third fragment serving as a transition from one group to the other. Thus the finale as a whole is not a fugue but a sonata form employing in the most intensive fashion fugal and canonic techniques in the exposition, development and recapitulation of its thematic material. All this culminates in an incredible 20-bar coda wherein all five themes are presented simultaneously bringint the Symphony to a dazzling close.Richard Strauss' father, Franz, was principal hornist of the Bavarian Royal Opera House in Munich. (He was also a composer, he performed on the viola and guitar, and he conducted an amateur or­chestra.) Thus Richard Strauss grew up well aware of the horn's potential and when he began to compose, he wrote a number of works for it as a solo or obbligato instrument. In 1882, when he was scarcely 18 years old and a student at the University of Munich, Richard began composing a concerto for horn and orchestra. He completed it early in 1883.There is no evidence that father Strauss ever performed the work in public; the first performance was given in Meiningen in 1885. The three movements of the work are well integrated. The third movement quotes thematic material from both of the previous movements. Much of the thematic material outlines basic triads. There are no pauses between movements. The light orchestral ac­companiment is reminiscent of Mendelssohn. Although almost all of Strauss' subsequent works have prominent virtuosic parts for horns, he did not write a second concerto until 60 years after completing the first.No works in the entire literature cause the program annotator so much trouble as do the tone poems of Richard Strauss, and A Hero's Life, which is the seventh and last of the series, is the most troublesome of all. One never knows whether one should be restrained and cryptic about these pieces as Strauss' official apologists have done. One usually ends up, of course, going all the way.The scores of Strauss' tone poems contain no descriptive notes, but such notes have been provided in each case by close friends of the composer. Strauss never sanctioned these notes, but he never disavowed them. And it is difficult to believe that any of them could have been written without his assistance. Critics have accused Strauss of writing works which are based on the most definite of episodes and then mystifying his listeners by telling them that he prefers not to give them clues to the episodes but to let them "crack the nut" as best they can. All the while, these critics continue, he is giving clue after clue to his personal friends, until at length sufficient information is gathered to reconstruct the story that Strauss had worked on.Strauss' publicly expressed viewpoint was that the anxious search on the part of the audience for the corresponding passages in the music and the "program," the guessing as to the significance of various motives or themes, the distraction of following a train of thought exterior to the music, are destructive to the musical enjoyment.At any rate, a common experience is that the first thing grasped in listening to one of these com­plex works is the general line of the musical expression. The descriptive, literary and picturesque allusions do not take their natural place in the whole scheme until the music becomes familiar, and then they often seem quite unimportant.Shortly after A Hero's Life was finished, in December 1 898, a bewilderingly elaborate commentary on it was published by Wilhelm Klatte, who had been assistant to Strauss in the direction of the Weimar Opera, and who, three years earlier, had published Strauss' first biography. Klattes notes seem heavy-going, it has been suggested that they are even funnier than the parody on them in H. L. Mencken's Book of Burlesques, but they seem accurate and complete.Here, then, is a brief summary of Klatte s notes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to follow them completely on a first hearing of this work. By way of general introduction it should be said that A Hero's Life is in six movement-like sections which follow one another without pause. The first is "The Hero", the second "The Hero's Adversaries," the third "The Hero's Companion," the fourth "The Hero's Battlefield," the fifth "The Hero's Mission of Peace," and the last "The Hero's Escape from the World". The hero is Richard Strauss himself, as the music unblushingly tells us in one highly significant passage.I. The Hero: Without introduction, the principal theme, sixteen measures long, is announced by horns, violas, and cellos, which are joined in the eighth measure by the violins:No. 1.This is meant to convey an idea of the hero In toto. The attributes of a genial nature, emotional and vibratory (a, b, and d) are his fundamental characteristics. His step is haughty and firm (c), and his will indomitable (e).Next comes a series of melodic motives, closely related to one another, which refer to various sides of the hero's character: richness of fantasy (a), warmth and elasticity of feeling (b), allied with lightness of movement (c) whose tendency is always toward buoyancy, thus imparting an effect of "inflexible and well-directed determination instead of low-spirited or sullen obstinancy."No. 2.First Violins, Flute, Clarinet.”7~' fStlp• B.L, |a-g-f .Q.|a—> |yfr' -----,---- --ttJ -1 ^3- —i J tr.- n-------------------Violas, Eng. Horn.With rich contrapuntal inventiveness these several motives are interwoven and brought into manifold and complex relationships with each other in a vivid description of the hero—his strength, his aims, and his nobility of character. A pompous climax is reached as the motive la appears in the trumpets, trombones, and tubas.II. The Hero's Adversaries: The hero is oppressed and persecuted by his fellow men—the great mass of mankind, to whom is wanting not only the power to be great but also the ability to handle greatness. "They are consumed with avarice and love of personal gain, and all which extends beyond their own narrow sphere is made the mark for their poisonous, corroding criticism":No. 3No. 4 a and btJ 3 3nOboe- r- Uu-—: 1 Wfc1---------"The soil in which these sluggish and vindictive natures have their roots is depicted by the following motive:No 4c.Tenor and Bass Tuba.a barren foundation from which nothing good can spring."Against these onslaughts of adversaries the hero is well-nigh powerless. As an indication of his righteous indignation and perplexity, his nearly-exhausted courage, the motive la comes to the fore again but in a different guise. A timid, writhing figure is joined to it; these two motives with the gloomy and apprehensive syncopated accompaniment in the horns and bassoons, reveals the hero's temporary confusion and agitation:No. 5.Only after severe trials (involving motives la, 3 and 4) does the hero finally succeed in shaking off his adversaries through exercise of his indomitable will power (2d and le). Scarecly has this victory been attained when a new situation—love—is encountered.III. The Hero's Companion:No. 6.The loved one at first meets the advances of the hero (2d) with a repulse:Basses, Cellos. Horn.No. 7.At first languishingly, and then coquetish or angry, she eludes him until he approaches humbly:No. 8.Basses, Cellos, Bassoon.2p ||He is rewarded with assurances of affection. There ensues a ravishing love duet, in which motives 6 and 8 are developed. To these is added a new motive, first stated by the oboe:No. 9a.Oboe.A melody in the violins crowns the development of this scene:No. 9b.and at last the happy union is achieved. Suddenly another diversion is encountered:Iv. The Hero’s Battlefield: A crash of trumpets from behind the scenes marks the call to arms:No. 10.After a second sounding of the warlike fanfare, his zeal is kindled by a reminiscence of his love (6). The enemy advances:No. 11.Trumpet., :=*■ 3IA4— — —11 • 4-and he gives forth a haughty challenge:No. 12.The battle commences. The enemy (11) confronts the hero, whose presence is indicated by the opening theme (motives la and lc), while admidst the wildest clash of arms and the noise and confusion of the conflict always shines forth the inspiring vision of the beloved one (6). With un­weakening energy the hero endures until at last the enemy is vanquished:No. 13.Violins, Horns, and heavy brass.ztff ° -<9-—J-—-------------The proud first theme now reappears, to which the love motive (9a) is added, and after mounting to a climax of dazzling splendor (in which motives 6, 2a and 2c are also used) there is a broad, exultant song of victory, which begins:No. 14.Violins, Oboe.The hero's song of victory eventuates in a somewhat startling quotation of the principal motives from Don Juan, Strauss' first mature work, the one in which his individuality first manifests itself. There is a brief pause and then a return to motive 4c, the empty fifth suggesting spiritual barrenness and intellectual vacuity. The next motive:No. 15.Violas, Clarinet.suggests shocked surprise and anger. In other words, the hero, Richard Strauss, having won his battle with himself and the old-fashioned traditionalism in which he had been educated, and having given the world the first genuinely Straussian work, finds the world doesn't care much, and he is angry. However, he proceeds on his creative path, as the next movement indicates.V. The Hero's Mission of Peace: Motive 2c is the fundamental substance for this section, one which depicts the gradual expansion of the spiritual sense—the growth and maturing of the soul. The composer makes use of a succession of reminiscenses from his own previous works, weaving into a luxurious contrapuntal fabric various thematic materials from his Don Juan, Macbeth, Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Don Quixote, and his music-drama Guntram, and his most important songs.VI. The Hero's Escape from the World: Once again the hero's glance wanders. Has his spiritual growth now attained its consummation? The world stands cold and indifferent, as before (4a). At­tempts to divert his thoughts (15) are ineffectual; the motive of defiance and anger (le) gains the upper hand for a time, but soon this wave of passion subsides into a condition of resignation (la). The calm which was formerly his only in fleeting moments is now permanent:No 16.n uViolas.—- ' ... u•-l, 7 -• ITLfnV—Jzu ~____ __ __ J J  LI . . > 1 '------ ....... .. < " " ■ *-• -----------------The rustling of nature which surrounds him reminds him of the old times of combat (motive 11— trumpets). The happy hours he has enjoyed pass before him (motive 6 in the solo violin, and 9b); and amid these memories his soul takes flight.In solemn strides the principal theme (la) rises majestically in the trumpets to a climax; the work concludes with a mighty chord reiterated by the wind instruments.Philip HillstromHornist, and former member of the University of Oregon Woodwind Quintet, Mr. Hillstrom has done recordings and television shows with that group. He has studied with Douglas Campbell and Dale Clevenger and is a clinician and soloist with school music groups and community orchestras.Won-Mo KimFormerly Artist-Professor at the University of Wisconsin and Indiana University, Dr. Won-Mo Kim was awarded the Albert Spaulding Prize by Charles Munch at the Berkshire Music Festival, Tanglewood. He has appeared with orchestras, in solo recitals, and on national radio and television in the United States and the Far East.Roque CorderoPanamanian composer and conductor, Roque Cordero joined the ISU faculty in 1972, having formerly been director of the National Institute of Music in Panama and conductor and artistic director of the National Orchestra of Panama. He has lectured extensively in South America and the United States and has appeared as guest conductor in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. His works, some of which have won international prizes, have been performed by leading orchestras in the U.S., South America and Europe.Symphony Orchestra Personnel1st ViolinWon-Mo Kim Bang-Hee LeeFrank Schwarzwalder Deborah Perry Joan Svoboda Deborah Metskas Martha BarkerTerryl Jares Jung Min Wooh Joung Sook Noh2nd ViolinAe-Sil Kim Pamela CombsHye Young Chung Beth PalmaGregg Oakley Barbara Fiechtl LuAnn HolstineMary Lynn Krueger Alison HolsteViolaKaren Dickelman Chris Reichert Lynn Hirschauer Susan Nelligan Helen ZamieKim ChaoMichael TraverCelloPeter Garfield Young Ju Lee Darilyn Manring David ReeceLaura KubiakKathy WatsonBassPam BurdMichael Johannesen Barry Fletcher Debra Buchanan Scott Kreger Carol Jansen Sue KasanovHolly HertelSteve Hayes George GillhamFluteJanet MacMillan Kathy Kallas Carol BeanBecky MeyerGaye StuckiSue ReilandPiccoloNancy WidmerOboePatricia Seino Jan LohsBeth ChristiansenEnglish HornMarvin CarltonClarinetWayne Montag Margaret MeyerE-Flat ClarinetBetty NixonBass ClarinetJoyce KremlBassoonTerry Grush Suzann Howe Grant GillettContrabassoonMary DalzielHornPeter Johnson Robert Knight Rodger Burnett William Lawyer Susan Foster Tim Swenson Jeanette Koetz Stan Reiml Linda AllisonTrumpetDavid Golden James Cassens John TurnbullE-Flat TrumpetRobert FundGregg NeuleibTromboneDavid Kotowski Michael Fischer Mark VictorTenor TubaGary MorganTubaEdward FirthTimpaniPhilip HenryPercussionThomas Hensold Alan IsaacsonTed PargeRon EngelHarpMary Jane Rupert Ann EisfellerLibrarianMarvin CarltonStageDavid Kotowski

Ensemble Concerts: Symphony Orchestra Concert, December 13, 1973

https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6355&context=somp

Ensemble Concerts: Symphony Orchestra Concert, December 13, 1973

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