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San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
San Francisco Girls Chorus
Andrew Imbrie has enriched the American contemporary music scene for over five decades. This recording pays tribute to his legacy with performances of three compositions from the late 1990s.
According to Imbrie, “[composing] is a matter of drawing out the consequences (as I perceive them) of an initial idea. The idea may present itself as a contour, rhythm, gesture, or some combination of these; and the first step for me is to pin it down, to give it more definite shape and character. Once the idea has become specific enough, it begins to generate its own continuation. This is possible because every idea worthy of the name is fraught with potential energy; its components interact so as to create an expectation of forward movement." Imbrie views music as a discourse in which composer and listener engage in a dialogue with its own sense of drama. At the same time, he is fascinated with the physical presence of sound: "To me, music is the most concrete of all the arts. It's the least abstract." Even with his superbly trained ear and expert musical literacy, Imbrie still finds it inspirational to compose at the piano. His fluency at the keyboard springs from his early training in piano with such teachers as Leo Ornstein, Olga Samaroff, Rosalyn Tureck, and Robert Casadesus.
These teachers (and a summer studying with Nadia Boulanger in France) nurtured Imbrie's interest in theory and composition, but it was during his undergraduate years at Princeton University that he found his most significant musical mentor, Roger Sessions. Imbrie's senior thesis, String Quartet #1(1942), won a New York Music Critics' Award in 1944 and was recorded by the famed Juilliard String Quartet. After military service during World War II, Imbrie followed Sessions to the University of California, Berkeley and received his master's degree there. Upon graduation, Imbrie was offered a faculty position at Berkeley that he held until his retirement in 1991.
For over four decades, Imbrie has served as a teacher and mentor for composers ranging across the stylistic spectrum from experimentalist Larry Austin to the mischievously "traditionalist" David Del Tredici. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, New York University, and Harvard. He has also been Composer in Residence at Gunther Schuller's Festival at Sandpoint as well as at the Tanglewood Music Center.
Over his illustrious career, Imbrie has garnered many honors, beginning with a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome (1947-49). His awards include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Grant (1950), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1953 and 1959), the Walter Hinrichsen Award (1971), and the Berkeley Citation (University of California, 1991). He has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, the Pro Arte Quartet, the Francesco Trio, the Ford and Naumburg Foundations, and the Halle Orchestra, among others. In 1969 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1980 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Koussevitzky Foundation.
Imbrie's compositional output includes five string quartets plus other chamber works, three symphonies, six concertos, solo works for instruments and voice, many large choral works, as well as the opera Angle of Repose, commissioned by the San Francisco Opera. As critic Mark Lehman of The American Record Guide has written, "The complexity of Imbrie's music is a reflection of the complexity of its emotional meaning—a deeply humanistic meaning that refuses to oversimplify or exaggerate, but instead seeks to balance: clarity with mystery, strength with grace, purity with surprise, restraint with abandon, sweetness with sorrow, light with dark." The works on this recording illustrate Imbrie's freshness, elegance, and energy; they are more light-hearted than many earlier pieces.
The composer writes: "This work was begun in Berkeley but completed in Chicago on November 26, 1996. Its title reflects, perhaps, my sense of the onset of winter in that city, and my yearning for spring, with its varying excitements and instabilities.
"The first movement begins with a maestoso ushering-in of the clarinet, flute and oboe, and finally violin, which proceeds to a duet with the flute. This introduction culminates with a return to the initial 'ushering-in' music. The allegro then leads off with an incisive statement by the piano, supported by short cluster-like chords. This is expanded and briefly developed until it culminates in an espressivo melody in octaves, which in turn leads to a faster section based on a quintuplet pattern. A climax leads to a condensed recapitulation that calms down until the original maestoso comes back. In a sense, the entire movement can be regarded as an introduction to what follows.
"The second movement, allegretto, begins as if it were going to be a scherzo, with a pizzicato theme in the cello, answered by a gentler, somewhat whimsical response by the first violin. A variously unstable development follows until the oboe enters with the original first theme, this time much slower and quite lyrical (as opposed to the original cello pizzicato). The flute responds, then the clarinet. The strings bring the movement to a close by descending gently, in four-part harmony, to the final two notes, which are extended while a fragment of the original pizzicato returns in the cello as a ghostly reminder.
"The finale begins with a forthright statement by the piano, lightly accompanied by the strings, to which the entire ensemble then responds. A second theme is announced by the clarinet, misterioso, but with no let-up in the rhythmically punctuated motion. The ensemble, too, then takes up this idea. A kind of brief development follows in 7/8 time, which soon disintegrates until a spread-out chord is reached. From this point on, a succession of individuals and groups are highlighted in sequence: the double bass, the string quartet, the marimba, the woodwind trio, and finally the piano. The original statement returns tutti, resembling the recap in a jazz arrangement. Elements from the second theme are embodied in the final cadence."
Spring Fever was premiered in 1997 by Collage New Music (Boston), David Hoose conductor.
Chicago Bells was commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress as part of a project initiated by Frank Taplin. It was premiered there in May 2001 by violinist Roy Malan and pianist Karen Rosenak.
“This work . . . was composed in 1997, while I was serving as a guest professor at the University of Chicago. I would walk through the campus on my way to meeting with my students; and as I proceeded through the myriad quadrangles I would occasionally hear the sound of bells in the towers, echoing and clanging. This sound was the inspiration for the opening of the work and influenced it in various ways.
"The first movement begins with bell-like sounds in the piano that soon introduce the opening violin melody. The music expands to a fast and busy texture, culminating in a maestoso statement by the piano that is followed immediately by double stops and a brief solo in the violin. This ushers in a recapitulation of the original melody, which, after reaching a high climax, subsides. The second movement is a very fast scherzo in quintuple meter. The middle section maintains a basic beat but it is frequently subdivided so as to produce a very hasty and busy effect. After the original idea returns, the music soon evaporates.
"The last movement is slow and lyrical, beginning with an extended song-like melody for the violin. That instrument soon re-states its original melody from the first movement to a piano accompaniment consisting of big chords and rapid arpeggios--perhaps an "apotheosis" of the bell sound. The piano continues, getting softer and lower. When the violin re-enters, it is muted and soon accompanied by a version of the movement's opening melody, now played on the piano."
SONGS OF THEN AND NOW (1998)
These settings of poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, and E. E. Cummings explore the ebullience, disillusionment, love, and magic of growing up. Songs of Then and Now was jointly commissioned by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the San Francisco Girls Chorus with funding from the Creative Work Fund (a collaborative initiative of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the Columbia Foundation, the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund); the work was premiered in September 1998 by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
According to Imbrie, “The title of this group of songs can have two meanings: one that draws attention to the variety of texts used; the other referring to the ages of the singers, who have just crossed the threshold and are now young adults. 'Then' refers to vivid memories of recent childhood; 'now' suggests a wide-open world of discovery. 'Singing' acts as an introduction, perhaps as an excuse for starting the journey through music. 'who knows if the moon's a balloon' is a fantasy of total happiness. 'Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind' gives us pause in its description of newly discovered human frailty. The centerpiece of the composition is 'anyone lived in pretty how town,' which is the longest and most substantial song of the group. I chose this poem because it picturesquely portrays the lives of an ordinary, but loving, married couple named 'anyone' and 'no-one,' and their relationship with other people. 'Come Unto These Yellow Sands' is essentially a dance by a group of young women, and is followed by 'Full Fathom Five' with its intuition of mortality and magic. 'hist whist' is not sung, but whispered, spoken, and shouted. It attempts to portray everything scary that nevertheless makes one giggle. The final song, 'The Land of Nod' brings back musical ideas from the opening song but develops them further. The journey is not over, of course, but night is falling, and it is time to dream."
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, founded in 1971, is a leader among American ensembles dedicated to contemporary chamber music. The ensemble has given over a hundred world premieres and has commissioned many important works from a broad range of international composers. Its instrumentalists are recognized virtuosi in new music performance. In addition to presenting an award-winning subscription concert series in San Francisco, the ensemble has played on such series as San Francisco Performances, Cal Performances, the Other Minds Festival, Los Angeles' Monday Evening Concerts, and the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento. The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, which made its East Coast debut in 2001 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has recorded extensively on its own as well as in collaboration with other artists, as detailed on its website, www.sfcmp.org.
The San Francisco Girls Chorus, founded in 1978, has helped to establish girls' choral music as an art form in the U.S. The Chorus has commissioned many new works for young women's voices and has received awards, including two Grammys for performances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence, and the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Susan McMane became Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus in June 2001. Previously, she was a professor of music at Saint Louis University and the University of North Dakota. Dr. McMane was the founding Artistic Director of the St. Louis Women's Chorale and in 1998 was named Music Educator of the Year by the St. Louis Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Chorissima, SFGC's premiere concert and touring ensemble, has represented the U.S. on many international tours. The group has performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, appeared in the Robin Williams film What Dreams May Come, recorded with the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony, and released several CDs as solo artists.
George Thomson, conductor, is Assistant Conductor of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and producer of its "Under Construction" new music reading concerts. He directed the new music ensemble EARPLAY and has guest conducted the Marin Symphony, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. He was recently appointed Music Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Roy Malan, violin, is concertmaster and solo violinist for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He was trained at London's Academy of Music, the Juilliard School in New York, and the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia), where he studied with Ivan Galamian and Efrem Zimbalist. Mr. Malan has soloed at Washington's Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as in such cities as London, Paris, Munich, Brussels, Mexico City, and Sydney. He is founder and co-director of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival in Colorado.
Pianist Karen Rosenak specializes in the 20th-century repertory and in chamber music. A founding member of EARPLAY and the Empyrean Ensemble, she has performed with members of the San Francisco Symphony in its Chamber Music Sundaes, and with the Berkeley Symphony, the Women's Philharmonic, Alea II, and the New York New Music Ensemble. She is on the faculty of the University of California Berkeley and does programming and performing for the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players.
Of speckled eggs the birdie sings
And nests among the trees;
The sailor sings of ropes and things
The children sing in far Japan,
The children sing in Spain;
The organ with the organ man
II. who knows if the moon's a balloon
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky-filled with pretty people?
should take me and take you into their balloon,
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people
than houses and steeples and clouds:
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody's ever visited,where
in love and flowers pick themselves
III. Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
William Shakespeare from As You Like It
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, Heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
IV. anyone lived in a pretty how town
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did.
Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.
Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
V. Come Unto These Yellow Sands
William Shakespeare from The Tempest
Come unto these yellow sands,
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
Foot it featly here and there,
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, "Cock-a-diddle-dow."
William Shakespeare from The Tempest
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them - Ding-dong, bell.
whisk look out for the old woman
with the wart on her nose
for she knows the devil ooch
From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the Land of Nod.
All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do —
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.
The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights abroad
Till morning in the land of Nod.
Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
David Milnes, Music Director
Barbara Chaffe, flute (Spring Fever)
Andrea Plesnarski, oboe (Spring Fever)
William Wohlmacher, clarinet (Spring Fever, Songs)
Julie Steinberg, piano (Songs)
Thomas Schultz, piano (Spring Fever)
William Winant, percussion (Songs)
Scott Bleaken, percussion (Spring Fever)
Roy Malan, violin (Spring Fever)
Susan Freier, violin (Spring Fever, Songs)
Nancy Ellis, viola (Spring Fever)
Stephen Harrison, cello (Spring Fever, Songs)
Steven D'Amico, contrabass (Spring Fever)
George Thomson, guest conductor
E. E. Cummings: “who knows if the moon's.” Copyright 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, “anyone lived in a pretty how town.” Copyright 1940, © 1968, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, “hist whist.” Copyright 1923, 1951, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Chorissima of the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Susan McMane, Artistic Director
Robert Shumaker, engineer • Adam Frey, producer
Recorded at Skywalker Sound, September 30 and October 1, 2001 with the composer's participation.
This recording is made possible in part by generous grants from the Edward T. Cone Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
1 Maestoso - Allegro [8:45]
3 Allegro con brio [8:47]
Songs of Then and Now (1998)
8 who knows if the moon's a balloon [1:36]
9 Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind [4:30]
10 anyone lived in a pretty how town [6:48]
11 Come Unto These Yellow Sands [1:20]
12 Full Fathom Five [2:20]
14 The Land of Nod [4:08]
Chorissima of the San Francisco Girls Chorus
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
David Milnes, Music Director
Barbara Chaffe, flute (Spring Fever)
Andrea Plesnarski, oboe (Spring Fever)
William Wohlmacher, clarinet (Spring Fever, Songs)
Julie Steinberg, piano (Songs)
Thomas Schultz, piano (Spring Fever)
William Winant, percussion (Songs)
Scott Bleaken, percussion (Spring Fever)
Roy Malan, violin (Spring Fever)
Susan Freier, violin (Spring Fever, Songs)
Nancy Ellis, viola (Spring Fever)
Stephen Harrison, cello (Spring Fever, Songs)
Steven D'Amico, contrabass (Spring Fever)
George Thomson, guest conductor
Chorissima of the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Susan McMane, Artistic Director
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