Mother Earth Program Notes
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Seule dans la forêt by Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
Vöglein by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Forest Bird by Katherine Hoover (1937-2018) A Hermit Thrush at Morn by Amy Beach (1867-1944) Visions of Dunbar by Robert Schultz (b. 1948) Children of Light, No. 5 by Karen Tanaka (b. 1961) Northern Lights Galapagos Land Iguana Marsupial Mole Florida Panther Polar Bear Tides of Manaunaun by Henry Cowell (1897-1965) Water Dance III by Karen Tanaka (b. 1961) Meditation Prelude No. 4: Cumulus Humilus by Patrick Burke (b. 1974) Sounds of a Fjord for piano and electronics by Kaja Bjørntvedt (b. 1981) Pole Mountain Suite by Bonnie McLarty (b. 1983) I. First Light II. Old Happy Jack Trail III. Mountain Stream IV. Autumn Sky: Fog, Sunbreak, Last Light Mirage by Elisenda Fábregas (b. 1955) Rhythms of the North Country by Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947) |
“Henry Cowell’s music covers a wider range in both expression and technique than that of any other living composer.” So wrote composer-critic Virgil Thomson. To some, Cowell is a radical experimenter, to others, a tuneful lyricist; to some he is primarily a symphonist—over a dozen symphonies to his credit—and again to still others, an orientalist, a writer of Irish reels and ballads, or a composer of Hymns and Fuguing Tunes which re-state an old American musical tradition.
Born in San Francisco, March 11, 1897, Henry Cowell spent his childhood in an area in which the Celtic and American folksongs of his parents and the music of Asian playmates became equally natural to him. In 1912 he gave the first public performance of his piano compositions, using broad chords of massed seconds, which he called tone clusters. Programmed on this 1912 recital was The Tides of Manaunaun, one of his earliest piano compositions. The story of Manaunaun, according to John Varian: “Manaunaun was the god of motion, and long before the creation, he sent forth tremendous tides, which swept to and fro through the universe, and rhythmically moved the particles and materials of which the gods were later to make the suns and worlds.” Notes by Oliver Daniel |
