•

ordanna Matlock, bassoon
Gail Novak, piano
Kristi Hanno, clarinet

April 23rd, 2016 at 7:30pm
Recital Hall at ASU

ARIZONA

STATE

UNIVERS I TY

-PROGRAMAntonio Vivaldi

Concerto in e minor

I. Allegro Poco
II. Andante

Ill. Allegro
Gail Novak, piano
iThree Rainy-Day Barcarolles

Evan C. Paul

1. A Dreary Mid-Morning
Pergol~se

3. A Downpour

TERMISSIONre do "

ohn
Bill Douglas

. Suite Cantando
I. Sambata
IV_ Cantabile

Kristi Hanno, clarinet
Gail Novak, piano

Aside from his beautiful music, our historical assessment
Vivaldi is full of contradictions. He was a red-haired promiscuous priest
who never made it through a Mass, a world trave1,,-.. ~ho could not walk far
due to his baited breathing, and a champion of yeung female musicians.
Most classical music lovers only kn ~w. him as a 'l'Usical prodigy and yet
Vivaldi's
life reveals a series of cht\ices
t~
'
-;.,._J make. us wonder who was the
man behind the music.
Three RainY, !fay harcal'olles by Evan C. Paul was written in 2011.
The p_iet e is written in three m& emetits, A Dreary Mid-Morning, A Cafe on
Rue /'ergo/ese, and A Downp/Jl/r. The three movements are meant to
embotty.p single day in ~is coinciding with the rain. The barcarolle is a
boating song of tJ'te V~netian gondoliers. The 'rocking' presents itself
through the triple meter and gives the steady swaying movement
throughout the piece.

r#

2. A Cafe on Rue

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is one of the most important composers of
the Baroque Era. For bassoonists, he is even more influential. Vivaldi
wrote 37 bassoon concertos, more than any other composer. His
incredible contributions to the bassoon repertoire makes him one of the
few prolific composers for bassoonists. The Concerto in e minor, like
many others, was written for an orphanage of abandoned girls fNhere
Vivaldi was employed as the resident musician.

Paul says the first movement is inspired by Ned Rorem who wrote
a set ~ ree bftf~ for solo piano. The second movement drew
, i,nspifj"tiort '-"A"'f"Wlcl~ 'Poulenc and the third movement from two lesser
• knoWh French composers Alfred Desenclos and Pierre Sancan. Paul
dmires these composers for their "highly colored triadic and octatonic
ling, melodic contour and characteristic rhythmic subdivisions."
edibly the third movement still maintains its easy feeling and lush
dies even though it is based completely on the octatonic scale.
John Steinmetz is a very important living composer for
bassoonists. One could say we hear his per
n(y incorporated in his
music. He is known to be eccentric, thou
ul and sometimes
sarcastically funny as evidef1Cf d by his s f-appointed title of "satirist"
and his "Comedy an~f.Satire.~ tab on his
1cial website.
Etude No. 5: "Stre~~ Laredo" is an old cowboy folk tune that
follows th~. structure of a theme and variations. In the 60's Steinmetz got
"ca\lght u ~ the folk m" sic revival" while on bus trips in high school. He
enjoyed singing and playtr,g guitar to songs like "Puff the Magic Dragon"

and "This land is your land". Many years after leaving behind 'silly folk'
tunes to become a "servant of Serious Art Music", Steinmetz describes
waking up in a room in the Colorado Mountains with the tune "Streets of
Laredo" stuck in his head. That morning he began writing a set of theme
and variations to the "melancholy song full oftenderness and longing."
This unaccompanied, highly lyrical bassoon solo is written in
baroque style with the dynamics, articulations and tempos left'itp to the
performer. Steinmetz notes it should sound improvisatory as if the
musician was making it up as he/she goes along. He also notes, "I have
e · yed inviting the audience to sing the theme with me, and they seem to
joy it, too. After all, how often do people get a chance to sing with a

As I walked out in 'lhe streiJts of Laredo
As I walked out in laredo one day
I spied a young cowboy all dressed in white linen
All dressed in white linen as cold as 'lhe clay.

Bill Douglas is a Canadian comp ser born in London, Ontarro. His,.
mother was a church organist and his fath r played trombone and sang in
a big band. After being musically influenced by his parents,
and his two
brothers during the early rock and roll movem~t, s~d a ba d in hopes
to sound like some of their idols, Elvis and th~ E~ly Brot~ers.
At thirteen, Dougtps started playing bassoon and became
increasingly-interested in fusing classical music and jazz. While attending
the University of Toronto, Bill Douglas had become a classical musician .by
day and jazz musician by night. This passion continued even when e ,.
began teaching in California. He wrote several etudes at bl d
together many different genres ome of his inttuences includin Miles
avis and Herbie Hancock.
'
Suite Cantando, is five movement work, today we will be
performing three of the mo ments. T e first movement, Sambata, is
lnfluenced by Brazilian and C~ban music (hence the combination of
"Samba" and'l~ta" rhythm in the title). The fourth movement,
Ca~bile, is a very \,rical song. The fifth movement, Bebop, combines
chord ogression often played by jazz musician with rhythms influenced
by Afric