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the Philadelphia Music Project

Sound Diary: Robert Maggio

Composer ROBERT MAGGIO is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Music Theory and Composition in the School of Music at West Chester University. His newest work, “Summer: 2 AM,” scored for soprano and orchestra, was conceived as a companion piece to Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” and commissioned by James Freeman for soprano Laura Heimes and Orchestra 2001. On Saturday, May 22, 2010, Orchestra 2001 will premiere the piece as part of its Samuel Barber Centennial program.

Here are Maggio’s reflections on Barber and the process of writing “Summer: 2 AM” with librettist Mary Liz McNamara.

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Trying Not To Think About “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”

or: How Mary Liz and I wrote “Summer: 2 AM”

by Robert Maggio

Maggio with his mother and daughter. "Summer: 2 AM" is dedicated to them.

In 1982, I bought a recording of Eleanor Steber singing Barber’s “Knoxville” at the Yale Co-op on the recommendation of my first composition teacher, who sensed in my own “young” music a spirit kindred to Barber’s. Along with Copland’s, Bernstein’s and Ives’ music, Barber’s compositions became beacons of light for me amidst the overwhelming variety of 20th Century music I was immersed in as a student. Barber’s idyllic, moving and nostalgic picture of writer James Agee’s native Knoxville, Tennessee haunted me with its simple, dreamlike depiction of an evening in the American South, narrated by a child who seems, at times, to transform into an adult of profound wisdom. I wore out that recording of “Knoxville,” secretly wishing I had written it.

Thus it was something of a dream come true to have been commissioned to create a companion piece to “Knoxville” to celebrate the Barber Centennial and yet, the shadow of anxiety cast by Barber’s music was something I was eager to step out of.  I immediately decided that my new piece could be nothing like Barber’s.

Sound Diary: Kyle Bartlett

KYLE BARTLETT is a composer, performer, and teaching artist living in Philadelphia. She is also a founding member of the NY-based new music collective counter)induction. On Sunday, May 16, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents counter)induction performing the world premiere of  Kyle’s sextet “Present” (alongside works by Xenakis, Dusapin, Crumb, and c)i member Douglas Boyce).

Listen to Kyle describe her  new composition here:

*Playing in the background: excerpts of Bartlett’s “Bas Relief: 1.” Hear more  here.

Sometimes the starting point of a piece is a particular sound-texture or a melody; sometimes it’s a story. Sometimes it’s a poem or a picture.  Sometimes it is a case of finding the right metaphor for something (a feeling? an idea?) that escapes direct analysis. This time I just felt a sense of movement, free movement, movement impeded by obstacles, movement that travels long distances, and movement that stands in place…

Roberto Sierra’s powerful, rhythmic Missa Latina

Roberto Sierra's Missa Latina will be performed by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia on April24th with guest soloists Heidi Grant Murphy and Nathaniel Webster.

By Tom Di Nardo

The Latin Mass began its evolution during the seventh century, with Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame—from around 1360—the first known example in its eventually-accepted form.

Since that time, thousands of Masses have been composed which include the Kyrie-Gloria-Credo-Sanctus-Agnus Dei core elements, usually set to Latin texts. Perhaps the grandest of them all, Bach’s B Minor Mass, was unacceptable to his Lutheran church and not heard during his lifetime. The form evolved through Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, though many were conceived for concert rather than liturgical purposes. In recent times, Leonard Bernstein’s eclectic MASS and Osvaldo Golijov’s polysourced La Pasión Según San Marcos have expanded the use of popular forms, different languages and many ethnic flavors.

Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina refers not only to the Latin texts, with prayers to peace added to its extremities, but to the rhythmic palette he brings from his native Puerto Rico. These rhythms on claves, bongos, congas, and timbales emerge organically with a sense of inevitability, never jarring and always with stunning dramatic effect.

Resuscitating Antony and Cleopatra

Allison Sanders as Cleopatra in The Curtis Opera Theater's sold-out production of Antony and Cleopatra, March 2010. Photo by Lenore Doxsee

By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

In the long and colorful history of opera fiascos, that of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra must surely take pride of place. For starters, the stakes could not have been higher. For Barber, the Met’s commission of an American opera for the opening of its spectacular new home at Lincoln Center in September of 1966 was an honor that would have marked the pinnacle of any composer’s career. To do it justice, he turned to one of the greatest love stories of the ages as told by Shakespeare, the tale of the Roman general Antony, torn between loyalty to Caesar and his love for the Egyptian empress Cleopatra. At the urging of the Metropolitan Opera, he paired up with the flamboyant Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who was to adapt the libretto and stage a production that would, in Zeffirelli’s words, “rise to the occasion with mammoth sets, a vast cast, and sumptuous costumes.”

Anti-Jazz: The New Thing Revisited

John Coltrane

By Howard Mandel

“Anti-Jazz: The New Thing Revisited” is the provocative title of a four-program series at International House Philadelphia that began in October 2009 with a performance by the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen, and continues through March 6, 2010 with a concert by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Curated by the independent non-profit organization Ars Nova Workshop, the series features ensembles rooted in a musical movement that emerged in the late 1950s, cohered in the ‘60s, and has become recognized as an integral part of the historic jazz narrative.

The series’ name is taken from a Down Beat magazine review of 1961 that described a John Coltrane performance as “a horrifying demonstration of what appears to be a growing anti-jazz trend.” What the review’s author, associate editor John Tynan—and elsewhere, critics Ira Gitler and Leonard Feather—objected to was the length, density, intensity and harmonic content of solo statements by Coltrane and his front-line collaborator, fellow saxophonist Eric Dolphy. Those two men, performing with Coltrane’s rhythm section at the Village Vanguard, were introducing new language that upset the established melodic-harmonic basis of jazz improvisation, and required the modification of other elements of then-standard jazz performance.

A Conversation with Tim Berne and Matt Mitchell

Tim Berne (photo by Peter Gannushkin)

By David R. Adler

For the last 30 years, alto saxophonist Tim Berne has developed a singularly challenging body of work for a host of different ensembles—from the pared-down trios Paraphrase and Big Satan to the sextet Caos Totale, from the famed quartet Bloodcount to the large ensemble heard on Open, Coma. It’s a world of scabrous dissonance, fast and elaborate lines, infectious rhythm and tightly conceived yet wildly unpredictable structure that pushes improvisers beyond their limits.

Until recently, the piano has played little to no role in Berne’s oeuvre. This began to change decisively with the appearance of pianist Craig Taborn in the Berne-led groups Science Friction and Hard Cell. Now Berne has struck up a promising creative relationship with Philadelphia-based Matt Mitchell, who brings formidable keyboard skills to two of Berne’s newest projects, Adobe Probe and Los Totopos (“chips”).

Adobe Probe, a septet, makes its Philadelphia debut on December 12, the second night of an Ars Nova Workshop-sponsored Composer Portrait honoring Berne. Mitchell will begin the evening with a set of Berne’s works for solo piano — a bold new departure for the composer, but one that calls for extensive improvisational input from the performer. On December 11 Berne appears with Big Satan; he’ll also unveil a new treatment of music from his ambitious 2002 release The Sevens.

I sat down with Berne and Mitchell in a Brooklyn coffeehouse to discuss the new music.

John Santos: “What is Latin Jazz?”

John Santos—outstanding California-based musician, composer, educator, and historian—introduces the artists featured in Montgomery County Community College’s Sabor Latino series (funded by the Philadelphia Music Project), and examines the cultural history of Latin jazz.

Click here for a Latin jazz bibliography and discography compiled by John Santos.

John Santos (photo by Tom Ehrlich)

Sabor Latino: A Caribbean Journey

The amazing artists featured in the “Sabor Latino: A Caribbean Journey” series represent a marvelous cross section of modern Latin jazz, but to refer to them simply as Latin jazz musicians would do them a disservice, as they all bring a broad range of experience and awareness to their art. They are all musically multi-lingual, equally at home playing myriad rhythms and styles from all over Latin America as they are with classical music, straight-ahead jazz, and funk.