Converging Cultures

Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Conductor
David D. Robinson, Guest Conductor*

Program

Tumbao from Sinfonia No. 3 “La Salsa”, Roberto Sierra (b. 1953)
Summerland*, William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Korean Dances, Chang-Su Koh (b. 1970)
Yiddish Dances, Adam Gorb (b. 1958)
Funiculi, Funicula Rhapsody: Variations on a melody by Luigi Denza, Yo Goto (b. 1958)

Program Notes

Tumbao from Sinfonia No. 3 “La Salsa” (2005/2009)
Roberto Sierra

Tumbao from Sinfonia No. 3, subtitled “La Salsa” is a collective name for dance music deriving from the Aro-Cuban popular tradition. In Sinfonia No. 3, Sierra has embraced the rhythms and characteristic sonorities of Caribbean salsa. The first movement, Tumbao contains many rhythmic and melodic events, each with its own specific character. Textural long, lyric melodies bind together the rhythmic and melodic events, creating an overall popular and folk-like idiom.

Summerland (1936)
William Grant Still

Summerland is one of Still’s most well-known compositions. The work is taken from the second movement of his piano suite Three Visions, whose title refers to the composer’s vision of life after death. Still composed Summerland for his dear friend Louis Kaufman, a violinist deeply interested in the performance of serious art music. Summerland is an example of Still’s strong emphasis on blues elements in his composition. His modal inflections, irregular phrase lengths and descending melodic turns make this work one of his finest achievements.

Korean Dances (2002)
Chang-Su Koh

Korean Dances is a three-movement work that begins quietly with a tuba solo. Each following statement of the melody in the first movement is varied and gradually thickens in texture. “Preludio” ends as quietly as it started as the theme passes to several solo instruments. “Passacaglia,” the second movement, opens with the melody in the flute, which then passes through the ensemble in continuous variations. The final movement, “Rondo – Finale,” combines new melodic material and the same melody from the second movement with rhythms based upon a Korean traditional music entitled “Chirche Chandan.”

Yiddish Dances (1998)
Adam Gorb

Yiddish Dances was written for the sixtieth birthday of Timothy Reynish, the conductor of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra. It brings together two contrasting musical ideas: the Symphonic Wind Orchestra and Klezmar—the folk music of the Yiddish-speaking people. The first movement “Khosidl,” or scissor dance, has a medium tempo in half-time 2/4 meter that moves freely between satire, sentimentality, and pathos. The second movement, “Terkishe,” is an up-tempo Jewish tango. The third movement, “Doina,” is a free recitative in which various instruments have an opportunity to shine. The fourth movement, “Hora,” is a slow movement with a characteristic rocking rhythm. The work closes with the “Freylachs” in a very fast 2/4 meter recalling the themes from the previous movements.

Funiculi, Funicula Rhapsody (2001)
Yo Goto

Funiculi, Funicula Rhapsody is a set of variations based on the famous melody written by Luigi Denza. This rollicking dance-song in tarantella rhythm was written to be played at the opening of the new tourist attraction in Naples, the funicular railroad or incline railroad that takes travelers to the top of Mount Vesuvius. Although the song was composed in only a few hours, it has remained popular for more than a century. Even Richard Strauss included the tune in the fourth movement of his Aus Italien (1886), believing it to be a popular Neapolitan folk tune.