Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

tall, pagoda-like drum tower where people socialize informally and dance during annu- al festivals and New Year celebrations. Local forests include tung oil trees, whose nuts pro- duce an oil used globally as a wood finish. Their language, known as Kam (also the name the people call themselves), divides roughly along north-south lines into two or three distinct dialects. It remained an exclu- sively spoken language for centuries until the Chinese Revolution of 1949, when the gov- ernment first imposed Chinese characters. Unison and polyphonic songs, often of epic length, preserved Kam legend and folktales. The polyphonic tradition known as Kam Grand Song was placed on the UNESCO In- tangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009. Chinese-American composer Chen Yi first encountered the Dong people and their cultural traditions in 1980 when a group of composition students from the Central Con- servatory of Music traveled to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. One music and dance form held particular appeal, the Duo Ye , in which Dong men and women dressed in traditional clothing sing and dance in cir- cles around a central bonfire. A leader extem- porizes short, simple phrases to the nonsense syllables “Ya Duo Ye,” which the group re- peats. The Duo Ye was added to the Guangxi Autonomous Region List of Intangible Cul- tural Heritage in 2020. Adapting melodic material she collected in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Chen Yi composed Duo Ye No. 1 for solo pia- no in 1984. She wrote, “Developed from the primitive motive, the style of the lyrical melo- dies (in homophonic or polyphonic writing) and the hidden layers in the rhythmic pat- terns in the piece is mixed by high-pitch mountain songs (with many grace notes imi- tating the speech-singing) and Beijing Opera tunes. The overall rhythmic arrangement in the entire piece is dominated by an applica- tion of telescopic principle originated in Shi- fan Drum, a type of traditional percussion ensemble music in Southeastern China. The combinations and the contrasts between Chen Yi parts, the meters designed, and the numbers of note groupings, all are inspired by the orig- inal rhythmic organizations called ‘The Sum of Eight’ and ‘The Golden Olive’ from the folk music. The imagination of the primitive pow- er, the high energetic spirit, and the charming folk singing as the soul of the music is repre- sented in the composition.” Duo Ye No. 1 received the top prize in the Fourth Chinese National Composition Com- petition (1985). Chen Yi subsequently created a chamber-orchestra version for a recording for the China Record Company (1990) and a version for pipa (1995). She composed Duo Ye No. 2 (1987) for full orchestra on a commis- sion from the Central Philharmonic Orches- tra of China for its United States tour. Cheng Zuohuang conducted the premiere in Avery Fisher Hall on October 11, 1987. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–91) Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola in E-flat major, K. 364 (320d) Scored for two oboes, two horns, strings, and solo violin and viola The long months (September 1777–January 1779) Mozart spent in Mannheim, Paris, and points between accounted for a promising and perplexing interlude in his stagnant ca- reer. In Munich, the 20-something musician quickly realized the improbability of any ap- pointment, since all positions were occupied. His music enjoyed great success at the elec- toral court in Mannheim, a famous center for orchestral performance, but Mozart received no professional engagement there. Parisian audiences and aristocratic patrons initial- ly greeted the traveling musician with great enthusiasm. However, Mozart suspected that behind their polite smiles, the French con- sidered him the same child prodigy who had visited 15 years earlier. Commissions proved more difficult to obtain than the optimistic Mozarts had anticipated. Over and above those professional disap- pointments came a string of personal trau- mas. Mozart’s beloved mother, his traveling companion, died after a short illness in Par- is on July 3, 1778. This loss dealt a crushing blow to the close-knit family, especially the Duo Ye dance, as seen from above devoted son: “I have, indeed, suffered and wept enough—but what did it avail? So I have tried to console myself: and please do so too, my dear father, my dear sister! Weep, weep your fill, but take comfort at last.” Mozart also fell in love with the singer Aloysia Weber, who later jilted him. (Aloysia, the older sister of Constanze Weber, later became his sister- in-law.) With no realistic career opportunities in sight, Mozart returned to Salzburg and his loathsome employer, Archbishop Colloredo. One tangible benefit of this journey emerged in his later Salzburg compositions. Parisian and Mannheim musicians had perfected the union of popular-type melodies with solidly developed formal structures. Mozart adopted this stylistic amalgamation with such ease that the “post-journey” works inaugurated a new phase in his career. The Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola in E-flat major, K. 364 (320d), illustrated this newly attained level of compositional maturity. Its autograph manu- script disappeared years ago, but cadenzas and their sketches have survived. Interesting- ly, the viola part (perhaps written for Mozart himself) was notated in D major, requiring an instrument tuned a half-step higher. The sinfonia concertante genre, which fea- tures two or more solo instruments with an orchestral accompaniment, enjoyed great popularity in late-18th-century Europe. Dif- ferent regions cultivated their own variety of “concerted symphonies.” Paris, for example, favored two-movement works with solo wind instruments. On the other hand, Mannheim audiences preferred instrumental composi- tions in three movements: Mozart’s work for violin and viola conformed to this tradition. Another sinfonia concertante characteristic delightfully exemplified in Mozart’s music is the simulation of dialogue between the solo instruments. The orchestra initiates this con- versation with a long prologue filled with Mannheim symphonic clichés: extreme cre- scendos and decrescendos, rocketing melod- ic figures, and accented syncopations, among others. The solo violin and viola emerge from within the ensemble playing two-octave Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Doris Stock (1789) phrases. Their interaction evolves into long segments of gentle imitation, culminating in duo writing. Development begins unob- trusively, works through hesitant violin and viola phrases, then continues with a rapid ex- change of melodic lines between the soloists. The recapitulation opens with a condensed orchestral statement, followed by generously expanded solo themes. Mozart left an exten- sive duo cadenza followed by an orchestral conclusion. Great pathos radiates through the Andante , a movement that according to legend (no fact supports the notion) Mozart composed as a memorial to his mother. The vivacious sonata-rondo finale, though, dis- perses any lingering sense of gloom. PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–93) Suite No. 4 in G major, op. 61 ( Mozartiana ) Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings Tchaikovsky’s admiration for Wolfgang Ama- deus Mozart took hold at the age of 5 when he heard Zerlina’s aria “Vedrai, carino” from Don Giovanni played on an orchestrion, a mechan- ical instrument that simulated the sound of an orchestra. This fascination for the 18th-cen- tury prodigy-turned-master deepened when he attended a performance of the complete opera in his mid-teens, a profound experi- ence that convinced Tchaikovsky to pursue an independent life as a composer. “The music of Don Giovanni was the first to make a sen- sational impression on me. It awoke in me a holy delight that later bore fruit. Through it, I entered that world of artistic beauty where only the greatest geniuses dwell,” he wrote in a letter to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, on March 28, 1878. “The fact that I have ded- icated my life to music, I owe to Mozart. He provided the first inspiration to my musical powers; he made me love music more than anything else.” Mozart possessed an unrivaled spontaneity of creation, talent for dramatic characterization, and ability to create time- less works of art that Tchaikovsky celebrated throughout his career. In May 1884, while translating Da Ponte’s li- bretto for Le nozze di Figaro ( The Marriage of Figaro ), Tchaikovsky contemplated a mu- sical tribute—a suite based on piano pieces by Mozart—but nothing came of the idea. Three years later, the approaching centenary of Don Giovanni ’s premiere encouraged him to search more earnestly for material for the suite, a challenge that proved more difficult than expected. Tchaikovsky struggled over an appropriate title, considering Mozartiana but almost immediately worrying that the com- position might become confused with Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana , op. 16. His publish- er Peter Jurgenson provided reassurances that “any resemblance or similarity to Kreisleriana is of no significance,” and Tchaikovsky set- tled on Mozartiana (the composition was not called the “Suite No. 4” until after his death). RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 24 – AUGUST 15, 2021 58