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An American Tapestry Program Notes
Spectacle of Light (2020)
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969)
Premiere: September 19, 2021 | Skokie, IL
American composer Stacy Garrop is known for creating music that tells stories. She composes in a variety of genres, including orchestra, opera, choir, chamber ensembles, and solo performers. Her music has been commissioned and performed by major ensembles across the United States, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Omaha Symphony, New England Philharmonic, and Boston Choral Ensemble. In recognition of her achievements, she has received numerous honors, including an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Garrop studied composition at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and Indiana University Bloomington.
Spectacle of Light was commissioned in 2020 by Music of the Baroque for their 50th anniversary season. As its title suggests, Spectacle of Light invites listeners to experience the beauty, brilliance, and constantly changing nature of light through music. Garrop uses the colors of the orchestra to create shimmering textures and vivid contrasts, allowing different instrumental groups to reflect light in a variety of ways. Bright brass fanfares, sparkling harp passages, and glowing string sonorities combine to create a sense of wonder and excitement. The inspiration for the work came from an image she encountered while contemplating the commission. The image was an eighteenth-century etching depicting a fireworks celebration on the River Thames in 1749, the same event for which Handel composed Music for the Royal Fireworks. Garrop became fascinated by the artist’s depiction of individual fireworks arcing into the sky, blossoming into light, and then disappearing. The image led her to explore historical engravings and modern fireworks displays alike, eventually recognizing a connection between fireworks and music: both exist only briefly before fading into memory.
Spectacle of Light is scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, harp, timpani, and strings.
Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (1939)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Premiere: February 7, 1941 | Albert Spalding, soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy
Few American composers of the twentieth century achieved the broad public appeal and enduring critical success of Samuel Barber. At a time when many composers embraced increasingly experimental musical languages, Barber cultivated a style rooted in lyricism, expressive melody, and traditional formal structures. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Barber grew up in a cultured and musically inclined family. A child prodigy, he composed his first piece at age seven and wrote an operetta by age ten. At fourteen, he entered the newly established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied piano, voice, composition, and conducting. His remarkable talent quickly attracted national attention. By his mid-twenties, he had received a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship, the American Prix de Rome, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He would later return to Curtis as a member of the faculty, helping shape future generations of American musicians.
The Violin Concerto emerged from a commission by Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels, a member of the Curtis Institute’s board of directors. Fels intended the work for his protégé, violinist Iso Briselli, an émigré from Odessa and fellow Curtis alumnus who had studied alongside Barber. The composer began work on the concerto during the summer of 1939 while traveling in Switzerland. There he completed the first two movements, but the outbreak of World War II abruptly interrupted his stay. Returning to the United States, Barber finished the concerto’s finale later that autumn.
Although Briselli admired the concerto’s opening movements, he objected to the final movement, arguing that it lacked sufficient virtuosity and seemed disconnected from the lyrical character of what preceded it. He requested substantial revisions, but Barber declined. As a result, Briselli withdrew from the project and never performed the work. The concerto ultimately received its first performance in 1940 with violinist Herbert Baumel and the Curtis Institute Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. The first major professional performance followed on February 7, 1941, when Albert Spalding joined Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Subsequent performances in Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall quickly established the concerto as one of the most popular American concertos in the repertoire. Today it remains among the most frequently performed violin concertos of the twentieth century.
The concerto is in three movements that display Barber’s distinctive balance of lyricism and virtuosity. The opening Allegro departs from convention by allowing the solo violin to introduce the principal theme immediately, without an orchestral prelude. The second movement, Andante, opens with an extended oboe solo whose haunting melody establishes an atmosphere of introspection. When the violin enters, it presents a rhapsodic and emotionally charged response before eventually restating the oboe’s theme. The concerto concludes with a striking contrast. Marked Presto in moto perpetuo, the finale launches into a relentless stream of perpetual motion. Far from lacking virtuosity, the movement has become renowned as one of the most exhilarating finales in the violin repertoire.
Violin Concerto, Op. 14 is scored for two flutes with second doubling piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, piano, and strings.
“Hobgoblin” from Symphonic Sketches (1895-1904)
George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931)
Premiere: February 7, 1908 | Boston, MA; Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Max Fiedler
George Whitefield Chadwick was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1854, and later became one of the most influential musical figures in American classical music at the turn of the twentieth century. Chadwick is best known as a member of the so-called Boston Six, also known as the Second New England School, a group of composers who sought to establish a distinctly American concert tradition while preserving the technical rigor and formal sophistication of European models.
Symphonic Sketches, composed between 1895 and 1904, is widely regarded as one of Chadwick’s finest orchestral achievements and a landmark of his mature style. Written during what scholars often describe as his “Americanism” period, the four-movement suite presents a series of musical character studies, each inspired by a brief poetic epigraph. Rather than following a strict symphonic form, the work unfolds as a collection of evocative orchestral scenes, revealing Chadwick’s distinctive musical voice.
The third movement, “Hobgoblin,” serves as the suite’s scherzo. Chadwick prefaced the movement with lines from Shakespeare referring to the mischievous Robin Goodfellow or Puck:
“That shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow.”
Drawing upon this literary inspiration, Chadwick creates a musical portrait of a playful and elusive supernatural creature. The movement’s scherzo form, inherited from nineteenth-century symphonic tradition, provides an ideal framework for its mischievous character. Rapid figurations, unexpected accents, and sudden changes of mood create an atmosphere of whimsy, while the orchestra darts and scampers through a constantly shifting landscape of color and texture. Evident in Chadwick’s music are echoes of Antonín Dvořák, whose influence on American composers was profound during this period. Like Dvořák, Chadwick filtered vernacular and folk-inspired elements through the lens of European training. Yet Chadwick’s voice remains unmistakably his own.
Symphonic Sketches is scored for two flutes, piccolo, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
American Suite, Op. 98 (1894-1895)
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Orchestral Version Premiere: March 1, 1910 | Prague; Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Karel Kovařovic
By the time Antonín Dvořák composed the American Suite in 1894, he had become one of Europe’s most celebrated composers and a leading musical voice of Czech national identity. Born in the small Bohemian village of Nelahozeves, near Prague, Dvořák grew up immersed in the folk traditions of his homeland. The songs, dances, and rhythms of Czech, Moravian, and broader Slavic culture would remain a lifelong source of inspiration, helping him forge a musical language that balanced national character with the formal sophistication of the Austro-German classical tradition.
In 1892, Dvořák accepted an invitation to become director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. During his three-year American residency, he composed some of his most famous works, including the Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” and the String Quartet No. 12, known as the “American.” In these compositions, Dvořák explored aspects of American musical culture, drawing inspiration from African American spirituals, Native American music, and the expansive character of the American landscape. Yet not all of his American-period works were overtly influenced by these sources.
The American Suite occupies a distinctive place among Dvořák’s compositions from this period. Written first for solo piano in 1894 and orchestrated the following year, the work emerged during the final months of his American stay. By then, Dvořák had become increasingly homesick. Financial difficulties at the Conservatory had substantially reduced his salary, and troubling news from Bohemia weighed heavily on him. Josefina Čermáková, the woman he had loved in his youth and the sister of his wife, was seriously ill. Combined with his growing success in Europe and his longing for home, these circumstances prompted Dvořák to return permanently to Bohemia in 1895.
Perhaps reflecting this state of mind, the American Suite is less overtly “American” than some of Dvořák’s better-known works from the period. Rather than incorporating distinctive American musical materials, it speaks in a more traditional and intimate voice. The melodies are direct and memorable, the rhythms straightforward, and the overall atmosphere graceful rather than dramatic. Yet the work remains unmistakably Dvořák, infused with the lyrical warmth, rhythmic vitality, and folk-inspired character that define his mature style.
Although Dvořák completed the orchestral arrangement in 1895, it remained unpublished during his lifetime. The orchestral version received its first performance on March 1, 1910, in Prague, when the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performed the work under the direction of Karel Kovařovic. Publication followed the next year, seven years after the composer’s death.
American Suite is scored for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town”
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Suite Premiere: February 3, 1946
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Jewish immigrant parents of Russian and Ukrainian heritage, Bernstein developed a musical language that reflected the diversity of American culture. As a composer, conductor, pianist, educator, and cultural ambassador, Leonard Bernstein became one of the defining artistic figures of the twentieth century. He led the New York Philharmonic as its music director, composed works ranging from symphonies and ballets to operas and Broadway musicals, and became a household name through his televised lectures and educational programs. His many honors included sixteen Grammy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and an Academy Award nomination.
Bernstein’s rise to prominence was swift and dramatic. In November 1943, at the age of twenty-five, he was serving as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic when he was called upon to replace the ailing guest conductor Bruno Walter on only a few hours’ notice and without rehearsal. The nationally broadcast performance was an extraordinary success, and glowing reviews instantly propelled the young musician onto the international stage. That same year, Bernstein met choreographer Jerome Robbins, then associated with the American Ballet Theatre. Their collaboration produced Fancy Free, a ballet depicting three sailors on shore leave in wartime New York City. Premiered on April 18, 1944, the ballet was an immediate success. Recognizing its dramatic potential, Bernstein and Robbins expanded the work into a full-length Broadway musical. With a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, On the Town opened on December 28, 1944.
Set against the backdrop of New York City during World War II, On the Town follows three sailors who have only twenty-four hours to experience everything the city has to offer before returning to duty. The show’s exuberant celebration of metropolitan life, youthful optimism, and romance resonated strongly with wartime audiences. The musical’s success eventually led to a 1949 MGM film adaptation starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin, though only portions of Bernstein’s original score were retained for the screen version.
As he would later do with West Side Story and other theatrical works, Bernstein recognized that portions of On the Town could thrive independently in the concert hall. In 1945 he assembled the Three Dance Episodes, an orchestral suite that distills some of the musical’s most memorable moments into a compact symphonic work. The suite received its premiere on February 3, 1946, and quickly became one of Bernstein’s most frequently performed orchestral excerpts.
The first movement, “The Great Lover,” presents a humorous musical portrait of one of the sailors imagining himself as an irresistible romantic hero. The central Pas de deux provides a welcome contrast. Adapted from the song “Lonely Town,” it captures a more introspective side of the bustling metropolis. The suite concludes with Times Square: 1944, a brilliant evocation of the city’s frenetic pulse drawing upon material from the show’s iconic song “New York, New York.”
On the Town: Three Dance Episodes is scored for flute doubling piccolo, oboe doubling English horn, three clarinets doubling alto saxophone and bass clarinet, two horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, piano, and strings.
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