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Stephen Dankner attended New York University, Queens College and The Juilliard School where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1971. His principal teachers were Roger Sessions and Vincent Persichetti. He was the recipient of the 1983/84 Louisiana State Arts Council Fellowship in Music. He has composed extensively for solo performers, chamber ensembles, voice and orchestra, in addition to works for computer-controlled synthesizers. He is Chairman of the Music Department of NOCCA—the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, an arts preparatory high school. He also is on the faculty of Loyola University's College of Music where he teaches composition and electronic/computer music. The composer has released three albums of his original works, and was commissioned by the Audubon Institute to compose a state-of-the-art computer-controlled electronic music installation to be part of the permanent exhibitry for the Aquarium of the Americas at New Orleans. Since 1991, he has composed concerti for violoncello, piano and violin, two piano trios, six string quartets and Sonatas for piano (2), violin and piano, and cello and piano. A compact disc recording of his recent works, Songs of Bygone Days was released by Albany Records in the summer of 1992.
My two Trios, composed in 1991, represent contrasting approaches to organizing large scale, multi-movement chamber works.
The Piano Trio's anchor is its broad opening movement, with its unison first theme for all three instruments. The scope of this movement is large, with a contrasting lyrical second theme first heard in the piano and promptly taken up by the cello. The sonata-form features a full and very elaborate development section in which both themes are transformed by means of key areas, tempi and register shifts in all parts. After the recapitulation, the movement culminates in a spirited coda, getting faster all the time until the final restatement of the opening theme is heard, once again in unison, fortissimo.
The second movement begins with a lyrical song for the cello that covers fully three octaves. The violin takes up the melody and expands it, moving to new key areas against pulsating triplet figures in the piano. A middle section offers a playful contrasting idea with much give and take among the three instruments, as if they were conversing. After a transition, a return to the opening theme brings the movement to a quiet close, with three gentle pizzicato string chords.
The last movement is in the form of a rondo—a main theme with alternating themes interspersed for contrast. The intention is to add a spirit of humor to round off the work. As in the subsequent Clarinet Trio, I favor last movements which incorporate elements of the classical scherzo and finale, combining both playful and spirited moods in quick succession.
While the rapid alternation of moods is particularly apparent in the Piano Trio, the Clarinet Trio favors a more gradual approach to thematic transformation—by movement. This is so because the present work is roughly half the duration of the Piano Trio. There is less need for contrast in a shorter time span.
The opening movement of the Clarinet Trio is serious in tone, but not heavily accented or weighty as is its companion piece. In general, this work is more "classical;" restraint and proportion generally are the underlying considerations.
Even so, I cannot resist toying with the conventions of classical form; after the first movement, both sinister and playful moods appear, mocking the notion of a die-cast classical approach. The second movement is a waltz which, with its hesitations and abrupt cadences, signals a descent into a darker world far removed from the controlled lyricism of the preceding. The capricious, jazzy Novelette finale is a palliative to all that came before—a sort of musical thumb-to-the-nose that is halfway between good-natured fun and outright irony.
The Dance Suite (1985) is closest to the spirit of the Clarinet Trio. The four movements comprise a series of pieces that are once again "classical" in tone, but are seasoned with many subtle modern touches.
TOCCATA The opening movement is a piece written to demonstrate the pianist's dexterity and light touch. The spirit derives not from the famous models of Schumann, Prokofiev, et al, but from examples of the genre by composers of the French 18th Century clavecin (harpsichord) style.
NOCTURNE This piece is intended as a model of the form perfected by Chopin and expanded by Faure. Alternately serene and rhapsodic, it is constructed from a two-measure pattern against which a fluid melody is spun out in a series of elaborations containing much filigree work. The modal (Mixolydian) cast of the music lends a perpetually unresolved air that seems to suspend the music in time. A middle section contains some bi-tonal excursions (Bb Major against F# minor). This is the most elaborate of the four movements in the Suite.
WALTZ (for Mickey) A brief moment musicaux; a reminiscence of a beloved cat, in memoriam.
RAGTIME A skewed rag, with occasional beats added or subtracted from the predictable rhythm. In the form of a "classic" rag, the various moods of the preceding movements are echoed, ending with a bit of mock-serious humor.
Stephen Dankner
Steven Cohen Is Principal Clarinetist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. He also is Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Louisiana State University School of Music. Since 1979 he has been Principal Clarinetist with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. He has performed internationally, and was formerly Principal Clarinetist with the Seoul (Korea) Philharmonic.
Allen Nisbet is Professor of Violoncello and Contrabass at Loyola University, where he is also cellist in the Loyola Piano Quartet. He performed with the New Orleans Symphony/Louisiana Philharmonic for seventeen years, and also served as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Denver Symphony. Mr. Nisbet has performed in this country and abroad as soloist and chamber musician. He can be heard on Albany and Spectrum Records.
Peter Collins received his training at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan. He received First Prize in the Washington International Piano Competition, Second Prize in the American Chopin Competition and was awarded the Maurice Hinson Prize at the University of Maryland International Piano Competition. He is Assistant Professor of Piano at Southwest Missouri State University.
Bridget Olavson is the winner of the 1993 Joanna Hodges-Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition Recital Award. She received Second Prize at the Fourth Annual New Orleans International Piano Competition and the 1990 Isabel Scionti Solo Piano Performance Award at the Kingsville International Young Artist Competition. She has performed at home and abroad as a recitalist. Currently, she is a post-graduate student of Krassimira Jordan at Baylor University, Texas.
Susan Doering, violinist in the Hawthorne Trio, has toured extensively throughout the world as a soloist and orchestral performer/concertmistress. She has studied extensively with the members of the Guarneri, Sequoia and Colorado string quartets, and performs regularly with the Music in the Mountains International Festival, the Santa Fe Symphony and the Springfield Symphony. She is a member of the artist/faculty at Southwest Missouri State University.
Michael Murray is the founding member of the Hawthorne Trio. He has won praise as a cellist of "tightly focused passion and confident projection." He performs regularly with the Kansas City Summerfest Series and the Kansas City Camerata. He served as Principal Cellist of the Musicisti Americani Festival, giving several premiere performances of American works. He is presently a member of the artist/faculty at Southwest Missouri State University.
David Belcher serves as the pianist in the Hawthorne Trio, and is presently Dean of the College of Arts and Letters of Southwest Missouri State University. He has appeared throughout the United States as recitalist and chamber musician, and has been the recipient of numerous prizes, fellowships and scholarships. He holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of music, and has taught piano extensively and served as Instructor of Piano at both the Eastman School and at the Neulengbach Music School in Austria.
The Hawthorne Trio has received critical acclaim throughout the United States for its performances of standard repertoire and newly composed works for piano trio. The collaboration of violinist Susan Doering, cellist Michael Murray and pianist David Belcher has been described by critics as possessing "quicksilver style, great expressivity and tonal depth." The Hawthorne Trio is the resident artist ensemble at Southwest Missouri State University.
Recording Engineers (Piano Trio): D. Mark McClanahan and Adam Long.
Recorded in the J.K. Hammons Hall, Southwest Missouri State University,
Springfield, Missouri. Recording Engineer (Dance Suite and Piano Trio):
Douglas Ferguson. Recorded in the Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall, Loyola
University of the South, The College of Music, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Cover Art: Photograph by Eric Sands
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© STEPHEN DANKNER
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