Ravinia 2021 - Issue 4

trio concludes with a folkish, almost Oriental movement whose tender central section re- calls the repeated-note motto. ERNST BACON (1898–1990) Piano Trio No. 2 Pianist and composer Ernst Lecher Bacon was the son of Dr. Charles Sumner Bacon, a well- known obstetrician from Wisconsin practic- ing in Chicago, and Maria (“Misa”) von Rost- horn, the daughter of a Viennese industrialist who trained as a pianist. Ernst cherished this dual musical heritage—Midwestern grit and Viennese elegance—throughout his career. In fact, it was a great source of pride: “Some will say that my music is eclectic. They could not praise me more. I take the same pride in my musical ancestry as I do in my family back- ground. I would rather be natural than novel.” Whatever the elements, Bacon’s music pos- sessed a distinctively American sound. Bacon attended Northwestern University, not to study music (he did take counterpoint with Peter Christian Lutkin and published a treatise, “Our Musical Idiom,” on harmonic constructions at age 19) but as a mathemat- ics major before switching to German. After three years, he transferred to the University of Chicago for its celebrated history faculty, but he left school in 1920 one course shy of an undergraduate degree. Fifteen years later, after moving to the West Coast, Bacon completed a master’s degree at the University of Califor- nia–Berkeley, submitting the choral cantata The Song of the Preacher as his thesis compo- sition. His musical mentors included pianists Alexander Raab and Glenn Dillard Gunn, composers Karl Weigl, Franz Schmidt, and Ernest Bloch, and conductor Eugene Goosens. Under the Works Projects Administration, he was placed in charge of the Federal Mu- sic Project in San Francisco in 1928. Seven years later, Bacon founded the Carmel Bach Festival. Bacon served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, San Francisco Ernst Bacon Conservatory of Music, Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, and Syracuse Universi- ty, where he retired as professor emeritus in 1964. After leaving academe, Bacon returned to California, living in Orinda, just east of Berkeley, until his death at age 91. A prolific composer, Bacon displayed a spe- cial affinity for vocal music—perhaps an in- heritance from his Viennese mother—com- posing approximately 250 art songs on poems by Emily Dickinson, A.E. Housman, and Walt Whitman, among others. To this list, he added hundreds of piano pieces, four sym- phonies and other orchestral works, a couple dozen short and extended choral works, and 30 chamber compositions. Bacon received numerous composition awards, including a Pulitzer Fellowship (1932) for his Symphony in D minor, three Guggenheim Fellowships, the Bispham Memorial Medal Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago, and grants from the American Society of Au- thors, Composers, and Publishers (ASCAP), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He also authored two influential books: Words on Music (1960) and Notes on the Piano (1963). Bacon composed two piano trios, both late in life: No. 1 in 1980 on a commission from the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and No. 2 in 1987 on a commission from Louise Davies and Judy Wilbur. The Malan-Suther- land-Miland Trio played the world premiere of Piano Trio No. 2 in Burlingame, CA, on February 1, 1987. The composer’s widow El- len—his fourth wife, who was 44 years Ernst’s junior—contributed the following program note to a Bacon centennial concert at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City on Septem- ber 17, 1998: “The Trio No. 2 was composed when Bacon was in his late 80s. Its large pro- portions combine the vigor of more youthful works with the increasing profundity of age. Bacon believed that all music, whether vocal or instrumental, should retain an essential connection with humanity—not only with the human voice in its rich scope of expres- siveness, but also with the body and its move- ments of walking, running, waltzing, romp- ing, and so forth. Like most of his chamber works, the Trio No. 2 is full of melodic ideas derived from his own art songs, as well as from folk songs and dances.” SHAWN E. OKPEBHOLO (b. 1981) city beautiful Award-winning American composer Shawn E. Okpebholo’s upbringing in the Salvation Army church provided numerous opportu- nities to study and perform music as a youth. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Asbury College (now Asbury Univer- sity) in Wilmore, KY, before completing a doctorate in composition at the College-Con- servatory of Music at the University of Cin- cinnati. Pursuing interests in music for film and ethnomusicology, he attended the Buddy Baker Film Scoring Program at New York University and conducted field research among the Esan people of southern Nigeria, the Akambe people in the Machakos region of Kenya, and South Sudanese refugees living in northern Uganda. Okpebholo has received numerous honors and awards, among them the American Academy of Arts and Letters Walter Hin- richsen Award in Music (2021), American Prize in Composition (first place, 2020), Flute New Music Consortium Composition Com- petition (first prize, 2019), American Prize in Composition (second place, 2017), and the inaugural Leslie Adams–Robert Owens Composition Award by the African Ameri- can Art Song Alliance (2017). He currently serves as Professor of Music at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, having previ- ously taught at Union University in Jackson, TN, Northern Kentucky University, and the College-Conservatory of Music. In the sum- mer, Okpebholo is a faculty member at the Fresh Ink Festival. This performance marks the world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s string trio city beau- tiful , which was commissioned by Alexandra Nichols through a grant to Cedille Chicago, NFP, and is dedicated to the Lincoln Trio. The composer writes: “Chicago’s City Beau- tiful Architecture Movement of the late 19th century is a philosophy aimed at beautifying world cities, believing that it would, in part, stimulate human flourishing, quality of life, and civic integrity. city beautiful is a triptych that celebrates Chicago’s matchless architec- ture and is an artistic salute to three Chicago architects, their style, and a related structure.” As with his architectural models, Okpebholo employs solid structural elements—composi- tional techniques, that is—beneath the stylish surface of each movement. “The first movement, aqua , is a musical de- piction of Aqua Tower, an 82-story skyscraper designed by Jeanne Gang, an imaginative Shawn E. Okpebholo architect who also holds the record for the two tallest buildings designed by a woman. This modern structure was completed in 2009 and is irregular, primarily concrete, graceful, and aesthetically evokes water. These attributes are the musical foundation of this movement.” The fluid exterior of Aqua Tower finds musi- cal parallel in the piano’s flowing interplay of hands. Hidden beneath the flowing move- ment is compressed canonic writing: the “theme” begins on the second note in the left hand and is echoed literally by the right hand after three eighth notes. The cello enters with a pizzicato countermelody. Brief contrast re- sults from “light and precise” piano chords in dialogue with the violin and cello playing in octaves. Okpebholo introduces 3+2+2 rhyth- mic patterns, typical of several forms of pop- ular music, in a section marked “Groove, double time.” The streaming canonic writing and piano chords combine in new and inge- nious ways before the original tempo returns (“Gently, half time”). “It is impossible to explore Chicago architec- ture and not reference the artistry of Frank Aqua by Jeanne Gang Frederick C. Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright RAVINIA MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 60