Fall into the Arts 2022

• 2022 Artist in Residence María García, piano
• 2022 Young Artist in Residence Maggie Carter, double bass

Performed by María García:

Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937): “Desdémona” from Femmes de légende (Women of legend)

French composer Mélanie Hélène Bonis wrote over 300 works during her lifetime, including pieces for chamber ensemble, piano, organ, choir, solo voice, and orchestra. Bonis studied under César Franck at the Paris Conservatoire alongside Claude Debussy and Gabriel Pierné. Knowing full well the challenges facing women in achieving recognition as a composer, Bonis chose to publish her works under the gender-neutral pseudonym “Mel Bonis.”

Femmes de légende (Women of legend) is a collection of seven piano pieces named after women, historical and allegorical, whose fates became legends, including Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, Desdémona. These seven works were published over fifteen years with no intention by the composer of combining them into a collection. It wasn’t until 2003 that the publisher Furore compiled the thematically related works.

Enrique Granados (1867-1916): “El Amor y la Muerte” (“Love and Death”) from Goyescas

Despite his international acclaim today, Catalonian composer and concert pianist Enrique Granados established surprisingly little notoriety outside Barcelona during his lifetime. Granados wrote over 140 pieces for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, voice, and stage. However, he was perhaps better known for his improvisations as a concert pianist. He was notorious for how performances of his music differed from his printed scores.  

The piano suite, Goyescas (meaning “Goya-esque”), is the composer’s best-known musical work. First performed as a complete set in 1912, Goyescas was inspired by the artwork of Spanish painter Francisco Goya and his ability to capture the essence of Spanish character. The ballade, “El Amor y la Muerte” (“Love and Death”), references Goya’s etching of the same title from Los Caprichos. The haunting image portrays a woman holding her dying lover in her arms, looking distressed and mournful. Granados noted, “All the themes of Goyescas are united in ‘El Amor y la Muerte’ … intense pain, nostalgic love, and the final tragedy – death.”

Marianna Martines (1744-1812): Sonata in G Major

A contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, Marianna Martines (also known as Marianne von Martinez) was an Austrian composer, keyboardist, and singer. Her career trajectory was unprecedented for a woman at the time because she could financially support her family from composition and teaching without court patronage. Martines wrote oratorios, masses, choral works, cantatas, and works for orchestra and keyboard, the earliest dating from when she was a teenager. In 1773, she became the first female composer to be admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, a highly regarded society of musicians and composers.

Sonata in G Major was written for harpsichord in 1769. The three movements of the piece beautifully demonstrate the ideals of music from Classical-era Vienna. As a whole, the work showcases the composer’s mastery of the genre’s elegance, approachability, and sense of balance.

Johanny Navarro (b. 1992): Son a Papá

Puerto Rican composer Johanny Navarro is quickly becoming an internationally renowned musical force. Despite her young age, Navarro has already established an expansive catalog of works rooted in Afro-Caribbean musical traditions. As of 2022, Navarro’s oeuvre consists of orchestral works, chamber music, opera, and pieces for choir, solo voice, and solo instrument. She is currently a resident artist at the American Lyric Theater in New York. Her most recent opera, ¿Y los pasteles?, Ópera Jíbara en dos actos (“And the cakes? Jíbara Opera in two acts”), awarded the composer the 2020 Discovery Grant from Opera Grants for Female Composers by Opera America.   

Primarily drawn to writing for ensembles and stage, Son a papá (“Son to dad”) is currently Navarro’s only piece for solo piano and offers a fascinating insight into the composer’s exploration of the intimacy of the genre. The work was published in 2017 and has already been featured on a recording by pianist Daniela Santos.

Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000): Sonatina in g minor

Composer and pianist Carlos Guastavino was a significant figure for 20^th Century Argentinian music. He came of age amid a robust push towards nationalism in Latin America which undoubtedly influenced his musical voice. Guastavino’s prolific career amassed several hundred works, the best known being his art songs, piano works, and chamber music. The sheer number of art songs alone has prompted admirers to call Guastavino “The Argentine Schubert” or “The Schubert of the Pampas.”    

Written in 1945, Guastavino’s Sonatina in g minor is among the composer’s earliest works. The sonatina is considered to be a study for his 1947 Piano Sonata in c-sharp minor and provides a glimpse into the early days of Guastavino’s musical development. The piece is firmly rooted in Western classical traditions, offering impressionistic influence from Debussy and Ravel, with the exception of the highly syncopated rhythms in the third movement.  

Performed by Maggie Carter:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Cello Suite No.2 in d minor, BWV 1008 – Prelude

Today, Johann Sebastian Bach is celebrated as one of the most influential and significant composers of all time despite never having left his native Germany. During his lifetime, Bach held positions as a singer, violinist, organist, and music director while producing an astounding catalog of musical works.  

In 1717, Bach accepted a music director position at the court of Anhalt-Köthen. During this particular post, Bach wrote many of his most beloved chamber music pieces, including his six suites for unaccompanied cello. While these suites have become pinnacles of music repertoire, at the time, Bach was transcending convention in being the first, or at least among the first, to write music for unaccompanied cello. Previously, the cello was confined to playing the bass line in instrumental ensembles. It didn’t take long for musicians to recognize the extraordinary importance of these suites and arrange them for other instruments, with double bass being among the most popular.

Cello Suite No. 2 in d minor follows the precedent set by the first suite in elaborating on six dance forms in a sequence familiar to listeners of 18^th century Europe. The “prelude” has a tradition of sounding improvisational and sets the tone for the suite as a whole.

Frank Proto (b. 1941): A Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass and Piano – Prelude & Aragonaise

(Accompanied by María García)

American composer and bassist Frank Proto is a pioneer of American bass repertoire. Largely self-taught, Proto was dissatisfied with the lack of contemporary pieces available for double bassists and endeavored to help fill the gap. He subsequently spent three decades as a double bassist and composer-in-residence with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he premiered over 20 large works and countless smaller pieces and arrangements.

Proto wrote his Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass and Piano in 1991 as a surprise for Syrian/French bass virtuoso François Rabbath. The work premiered at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music to much acclaim, leading to calls for the piece to be orchestrated (it later was). In this piece, Proto arranged material drawn from Bizet’s opera, Carmen, including the Aragonaise, the Toreador Song, the Bohemian Dance, and Micaëla’s Act II aria. The prelude, on the other hand, is original and serves as an overture to the suite.

Adolf Míšek (1875-1955): Sonata No. 2 in e minor, Op. 6 – 1^st Movement

(Accompanied by María García)

Adolf Míšek was a Czech composer, conductor, pedagogue, and double bassist who spent much of his professional career living in Vienna and then Prague. The music of Bohemian composers such as Dvořák and Smetana influenced Míšek as an emerging composer, though he eventually honed his own unique way of blending Romanticism with Czech folk idioms. While Míšek is best known for his works for double bass, he also wrote chamber music and art songs. He strove to create a more exciting and varied repertoire for double bassists in his composing.

Sonata No. 2 in e minor for double bass and piano was published in 1911 and exhibits the composer’s deep knowledge and mastery of the string instrument. The first movement, “Con fuoco,” reveals the influence of Brahms and other late-Romantic voices as well as the music heard in Viennese dance halls, an aesthetic Míšek indeed would have known well at this point in his life.

Performed by Eugene Symphony Orchestra:

Libby Larsen (b. 1950): Deep Summer Music

Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. Larsen has written over 500 works spanning every classical genre, from large-scale orchestral works and opera to art songs and chamber music. As an advocate for promoting the work of living composers and musicians, Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum in 1973 (now known as the American Composer’s Forum). 

Deep Summer Music, a tone poem for full orchestra, premiered in 1982 with the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Joseph Giunta. Larsen wrote the following about the piece:

“On the plains, one cannot help but be affected by the sweep of the horizon and depth of color as the eye adjusts from the nearest to the farthest view. The glory of this phenomenon is particularly evident at harvest time, in the deep summer, when acres of ripened wheat, sunflowers, corn, rye, and oats blaze with color. In the deep summer, winds create wave after wave of harvest ripeness which, when beheld by the human eye, creates a kind of emotional peace and awe: a feeling of abundance combined with the knowledge that his abundance is only as bountiful as nature will allow.”

Performed by Mt. Angel Abbey Bach Festival:

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Piano Trio No. 1 in d minor, Op. 63 – 1^st Movement

German composer Robert Schumann is perhaps as infamous for his music as he is for his tragic demise. His sensitivity and introspectiveness make him a quintessential Romantic figure, while his substantial catalog of stunning repertoire has proven to be perpetually captivating for the listener. Best known for his piano music, Lieder, and orchestral music, Schumann only became inspired to write chamber music later in his career. Interestingly, most of these chamber pieces were created within a relatively short period of time, during a burst of creative energy.   

Written in 1847 amid this creative outpouring, Schumann’s first trio for piano, violin, and cello was conceived and written down in just two weeks. The first movement, “Mit Energie und Leidenschaft” (with energy and passion), takes on a restless quality amid brooding, romantic textures. The writing for this modest-sized ensemble seems to take on a larger existence as the music swells and declines.

Performed by the Oregon Repertory Singers:

Matthew Lyon Hazzard (b. 1989): The Ocean Between Us

Filipino-American composer, conductor, singer, and educator Matthew Lyon Hazzard is making waves with his acclaimed choral music. While still early in his career, Hazzard has earned numerous accolades, and his music is increasingly performed by collegiate and professional choirs worldwide. He is currently pursuing his D.M.A in choral conducting at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. 

The Ocean Between Us encompasses three pieces for choir, piano, strings, and crystal wine glasses. Born out of grief, the piece explores life after the storm with songs of joy, sorrow, and renewal. The work began with Jonathan Talberg’s Ocean Poems, written in response to the grief of his father’s passing. One week later, Hazzard’s own father passed away. The following months offered an opportunity for healing through music. The Ocean Between Us premiered in 2018 and was performed by the California State University – Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory Chamber Choir.

Performed by Portland Chamber Orchestra:

Daniel Freiberg (b. 1957): Northern Journey, “Suite for Orchestra in Three Movements” (American Premiere)

Originally from Buenos Aires, Daniel Freiberg is a New York-based composer, arranger, pianist, and music producer. Freiberg has crafted an eclectic and unique musical voice through his studies in jazz arranging, film scoring, and classical orchestration paired with his Latin American roots. In addition to his independent musical commissions, Freiberg is an active film and TV composer writing for HBO, Netflix, Summit Entertainment-Lions Gate, and many others.

Northern Journey is a musical voyage originating in the composer’s native Argentina that gradually moves towards its destination, New York. The piece is autobiographical in that it reflects on the composer’s rich and diverse influences as a Jew growing up in Latin America who emigrates to one of the greatest hubs for jazz music. Northern Journey premiered in 2017 under conductor Wayne Marshall with the Cologne Radio Orchestra of Germany. This recorded performance by Portland Chamber Orchestra under conductor Yaacov Bergman is the U.S. premiere of this work.