Ravinia 2021 - Issue 4

R.D. TONES (PRICE) skilled violinist and pianist, a published com- poser, and an individual discovering himself as a Black man of African descent living in Victorian England. Written one year later, the African Suite for solo piano affirmed this identity while remaining within the conventions of late-19th-century instrumental music. Its four movements— Introduction , A Negro Love- Song , Valse (Waltz), and Danse nègre —follow the broad outlines of a sonata, though with rhythmic and melodic elements derived from African music. The publisher Augener Ltd. announced the release of the African Suite in the Musical News (December 31, 1898). As was its habit, Augener issued multiple in- strumentations of Coleridge-Taylor’s music, including the composer’s version of Danse nègre for full orchestra. A reviewer for the Musical News (February 4, 1899) commended the new suite: “Its natural coloring gives it a breezy freshness which is quite exhilarating.” JOHANN STRAUSS JR. (1825–99) An der schönen, blauen Donau Walzer ( On the Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz), op. 314 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, bass drum, harp, and strings Soon after the younger Johann Strauss’s or- chestra gave the first performance of On the Beautiful Blue Danube in February 1867, a number of instrumental and vocal arrange- ments were published. Austrians, in fact, first heard the waltz as a song for men’s chorus with a rather absurd text (not by Strauss). As the music quickly traveled to France in a vo- cal version, the piece began to accumulate musical imagery more clearly focused on the attributes of the Danube River. The Danube had long been Austria’s connec- tion to the commerce, politics, and trade of Johann Strauss Jr. the East. In the guise of Strauss’s waltz, the Danube also built bridges to the rest of the world. One Paris newspaper reported: “His waltzes carry their sound to the utmost limits of civilization, in America and Australia as in China, where they evoke an echo at the Great Wall.” The most popular of all was the Blue Danube . Often described as a “symphonic poem in waltz time,” the Blue Danube lacks a true program, or sequence of musical events that follow a story line. Instead, the music alludes to the morning mist rising over the river. It conjures images of the ornately decorat- ed spires of the churches. It reminds of the carefree revelry in the salons and ballrooms in Vienna. [The “symphonic poem” or “tone poem” as a genre of orchestral music was later greatly popularized by the German composer Richard Strauss, who is entirely unrelated to the Austrian Johann.] It is an ageless image that in Strauss’s day stirred a universal sentiment. On the occa- sion of his 50th-year jubilee, the Viennese Press wrote: “In the eloquent language of tones one was reminded what treasures in pleasant sound Johann Strauss had strewn during the course of his life. Whenever one of the favorite waltzes was intoned, a sort of joyous intoxication ran through the audience, and … naturally with the Blue Danube Waltz the public broke in with applause and almost started to sing and dance. The older gener- ation proved itself renewed to the present generation, and the majority of those present heard many a splendid work for the first time. One could not help observing that many beautiful women and young girls who lis- tened entranced barely could sit still in their seats, but sent glowing looks of thanks to the master, who himself had forgotten some of those pearls from his treasury.” FR<DER<K FRANCIS=EK C+OPIN (1810–49) Grande valse brillante in E-flat major, op. 18 (arranged by Igor Stravinsky) Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, three clar- inets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, snare drum, bass drum, handbells, harp, celesta, and strings The waltz might not immediately appear a natural medium for a pianist renowned for his ethnic Polish improvisations and compo- sitions. Born of German peasant dances (such as the Ländler) and cultivated into a ubiqui- tous Viennese ballroom dance, the waltz had, however, enjoyed a vogue far beyond the po- litical boundaries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Chopin’s 20 examples for solo key- board illustrate that by the late 1820s the waltz had firmly established itself in Paris, where he then resided. “Lanner, Strauss, and their waltzes obscure everything,” the compos- er-pianist remarked in 1831. Chopin published his first waltz—the Grande valse brillante in E-flat major, op. 18—in 1834. He had composed six waltzes earlier, but these were not printed during Chopin’s life- time. Robert Schumann praised his initial ef- forts in this form, writing in June 1834 that “Chopin’s body and mind elevate the waltz.” Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s orches- tration of the Grande valse brillante owes its existence to Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes in Paris. Diaghilev had learned of the young musician at a perfor- mance of his Scherzo fantastique or, perhaps, one of several private readings of Feu d’artifice ( Fireworks ), op. 4, in Saint Petersburg in early 1908. Diaghilev planned to present a modern- ized version of Alexander Glazunov’s ballet Chopiniana during the Ballets Russes sum- mer season 1909. That work had been mod- ified numerous times since its premiere in 1892 but it was the seven-movement version by Mikhail Fokine, originally performed in 1908 and referred to as the “second Chopini- ana,” that Diaghilev selected. Finding the existing orchestrations inade- quate—with the exception of one movement by Glazunov—Diaghilev commissioned new arrangements by Anatoly Lyadov, Sergey Taneyev, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Igor Stra- vinsky. Stravinsky was assigned to orchestrate both the opening (Nocturne in A-flat major, op. 32, no. 2) and closing ( Grande valse bril- lante in E-flat major, op. 18) numbers. Diaghi- lev decided to retitle this refurbished version of the ballet, calling it Les Sylphides for the Ballets Russes premiere at Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet on June 2, 1909. The orchestration impressed the impresario, who immediately engaged Stravinsky for a more challenging task: the score to the full-length ballet L’oiseau de feu ( The Firebird ) for the 1910 season. Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin by Ary Scheffer FLORENCE PRICE (1887–1953) Dances in the Canebrakes (arranged by William Grant Still) Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, alto saxophone, three horns, three trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings From her youth in Little Rock, AR, through the end of her career in Chicago, Florence Be- atrice Smith transcended the limits of race and gender to become one of the most her- alded African American classical musicians of the early 20th century. She graduated high school at age 14 and entered the New England Conservatory—one of the few conservatories in the country that admitted African Ameri- can students—with dual majors in piano and organ. Florence taught music at Shorter Col- lege in North Little Rock, AR, and was named head of the music department at Clark Uni- versity in Atlanta before returning to Little Rock to marry attorney Thomas Jewell Price 1912. Growing racial tensions forced the Price fam- ily to abandon their roots in Little Rock and, in 1927, move to Chicago. Florence already had begun advanced musical studies during the summers at Chicago Musical College and later at the American Conservatory. Her career as a pianist, composer, and teacher flourished in this new environment. Flor- ence Price gained worldwide acclaim when her Symphony in E minor won first prize in the 1932 Wanamaker Competition. Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed the symphony in 1933 at the Cen- tury of Progress Exhibition (Chicago World’s Fair), making Price the first African Ameri- can woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. A steady stream of compositions spread her reputation well beyond the shores of Florence Price (c.1933) RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 45