PROGRAM NOTES
ELLINGTON AND GERSHWIN
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
BY AARON GRAD
Grażyna Bacewicz
Born February 5 , 1909 in Łódź , Poland Died January 17 , 1969 in Warsaw , Poland
OVERTURE [ 1943 ]
Grażyna Bacewicz , one of the most influential Polish musicians in the twentieth century , is finally getting her due in American concert halls . Like so many of the American greats from her generation , she studied composition in Paris with the legendary Nadia Boulanger . Bacewicz was also a top-tier concert violinist who led the Polish Radio Orchestra for a time , not to mention an accomplished pianist known for interpreting her own works , a writer of novels and short stories , and in later years an educator .
When World War II halted her budding career as a concerto soloist , Bacewicz returned home to Poland to focus on composing works such as this Overture from 1943 . Crafting a musical language steeped in the harmonies and textures of the eighteenth century , her take on the modern trend of “ neoclassical ” music was unusually muscular and forward leaning , as heard in this thrilling and hopefilled romp for orchestra .
Instrumentation Two flutes , piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba , percussion , and strings .
Duke Ellington
Born April 29 , 1899 in Washington , D . C . Died May 24 , 1974 in New York , NY
“ NEW WORLD A-COMIN ’” [ 1943 ]
Pianist , composer , and bandleader Edward Kennedy “ Duke ” Ellington pushed the boundaries of jazz ever outward , proving how popular and profound this most American art form could become . His big break came in 1927 , when his 11-piece band started a long residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem , providing the music for a jungle-themed revue that perpetuated the racist tropes from the era of Blackface minstrelsy — just what the wealthy white clientele came uptown to enjoy ( well , that and the illegal booze ). Ellington used that platform to secure his own independence , and soon he began writing his own songs for the band and performing them on radio , recordings , and international tours . By the end of the 1930s , the Duke Ellington Orchestra — an appropriate term for the expanded roster of woodwinds , brass , and rhythm section — had become a worldwide phenomenon .
Ellington ’ s aspirations for his orchestra went far beyond the standard fare of dance bands . He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1943 , and he brought two major new compositions that dealt squarely with the intersection of music and race in America . One was the 50-minute suite , Black , Brown , and Beige , which Ellington described as a “ tone parallel to the history of the American Negro ,” depicting everything from an African ’ s arrival on a slave ship to the vibrant culture of Harlem in the 1920s . The other big premiere was “ New World A-Comin ’,” a rhapsody for piano and ensemble that took its title from a groundbreaking book by the Black journalist Roi Ottley . Writing in his autobiography , Ellington explained , “ I visualized this new world as a place in the distant future , where there would be no war , no greed , no categorization , no nonbelievers , where love was unconditional , and no pronoun was good enough for God .”
At the invitation of Ellington ’ s son and successor as bandleader , Mercer Ellington , the conductor Maurice Peress created this symphonic version of “ New World A-Comin ’,” working off a recording from the 1943 premiere and transcribing Duke ’ s mostly improvised piano part .
Instrumentation Two flutes , two oboes , English horn , three clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons , four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , harp , and strings including rhythm bass .
George Gershwin
Born September 26 , 1898 in Brooklyn , NY Died July 11 , 1937 in Hollywood , CA
SECOND RHAPSODY [ 1931 ]
George Gershwin was 11 when his Russian- Jewish immigrant family first brought a piano into their apartment on Manhattan ’ s Lower East Side . Four years later , after some lessons in classical repertoire including Chopin and Debussy , Gershwin dropped out of high school and found work as a “ song plugger ” on Tin Pan Alley , New York ’ s row of music publishing firms . He began to write his own songs , signed on with a publisher , and gravitated toward Broadway , finding work as a rehearsal pianist on a Jerome Kern show . Gershwin ’ s first Broadway production opened in 1919 , and the influential performer Al Jolson added Gershwin ’ s Swanee to a revue that year . Jolson ’ s recording of Swanee sold millions of copies in 1920 and put Gershwin on the map as a top songwriter .
Gershwin reached a new milestone with the show Lady , Be Good in 1924 — it was his first full show with his brother Ira as lyricist , and it also marked his first collaboration with Fred Astaire . The same year , Gershwin made his debut as a “ serious ” composer with Rhapsody in Blue , a free-ranging fantasy for piano and ensemble commissioned by the popular bandleader Paul Whiteman . Gershwin ’ s star just kept rising from there , and it reached new heights in 1930 when he was invited to Hollywood to write the music for Delicious , a film about a Scottish immigrant finding her way in the manic melting pot of Manhattan . Asked to score a montage of
Maximilian Franz
34 OVERTURE / BSOmusic . org