Music Notes – Sunday, July 16th:
This week’s musician is Laura Silverman
Laura Silverman received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano from The Cleveland Institute of Music and was a prize winner in both The Casadesus International Piano Competition (now The Cleveland International Piano Competition), and the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. Ms. Silverman is on the faculties of both The University of Akron School of Music (Director of Collaborative Piano Studies) and The College of Wooster. Be sure to arrive early this Sunday for pre-service music from Laura, beginning at 10:10!
Prelude: Invention No. 6 in E Major – Bach
Without question, Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was one of the most important and influential composers in the history of European music. Bach’s output as a composer was wide-ranging, but his Two- and Three-part Inventions (BWV 772-801) have probably been performed more often that anything else Bach wrote, simply because they are excellent pedagogical exercises that are still played by thousands of students all over the world, even 300 years after their first publication. The two (or three) parts referred to in the title are lines of imitative counterpoint, one melody ‘chasing’ after the other in an often-complex dance of melody, countermelody, and harmony. Bach originally wrote his Two-Part Inventions to be used as training exercises for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and then later reworked the pieces for some of his other pupils. Invention No. 6 in E Major (BWV 777) and Invention No. 8 in F Major (BWV 779) are among the more famous and frequently performed of Bach’s collection of 30 pieces.
Opening Hymn: No Number Tallies Nature Up – American folk melody/Emerson
#79 in Singing the Living Tradition, “No Number Tallies Nature Up” is built on a hymn tune called “Resignation”, which was first published in John W. Steffey’s shape note hymnal The Valley Harmonist in 1836. The words are adapted from “Song of Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).
Centering Music: Elégie – Massenet
Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was a French composer of the Romantic Period who wrote in a variety of forms, but is best remembered today for his operas, the most famous of which were Manon (1884), Werther (1892), and Thaïs (1894). “Elégie” was first published in 1892 as part of a collection of piano pieces title 10 Pièces de genre (Op. 10). The other nine works in that collection are largely forgotten, but Elégie has become a famous work on its own, and has been performed thousands of times by a plethora of different artists and performing forces.
Offertory Music: Die Sterne (The Stars) – F. Schubert
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer who wrote in both Classical and Romantic styles during his lifetime. Schubert composed symphonies, operas, piano and chamber music and over 600 lieder (art songs for solo voice and piano) during his brief career. One of Schubert’s best-known lieder was “Die Sterne (The Stars)”, D. 939. The text by Austrian author and poet Karl Gottfried von Leitner (1800-1890) speaks of the transcendent beauty of the stars and the night sky, and Schubert’s gentle musical setting is a perfect match for the poetry. “Die Sterne” is believed to have been written in 1828, the last year of Schubert’s life.
Special Music: Nocturne in E minor – Chopin
Born and raised in Poland, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) moved to Paris when he was 21 and spent the rest of his life there, becoming one of the most significant composers of the Romantic period. A virtuoso pianist himself, Chopin composed almost exclusively for the piano. The Nocturne in E minor (Op. posth. 72, No. 1) was written in 1827, the first of 21 nocturnes Chopin would write. However, this work was not published until 1855, several years after Chopin’s death.
Closing Hymn: #134 Our World Is One World – Taylor
#134 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Our World Is One World” was written by British author, poet and hymnist Cecily Taylor (b. 1930), who is most famously known for Contact, her 1972 collection of poetry.
Postlude: Invention No. 8 in F Major – Bach
See information under Prelude above.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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