Our Guest – Garry Gable

gableIt would be impossible to do a performance of How the Grinch Stole Christmas without an exceptional narrator – the story has been read by parents and children for decades, each word burned in to our Christmastime cultural identity.  The icon score that accompanied the beloved cartoon was narrated by the voice of Boris Karloff…which meant the pressure was on for us to pick the perfect voice to bring this classic to life on stage.

Enter stage right Dr Garry Gable.  Garry has been a star on stages across the globe, and often here at home in Saskatoon – between his performances with Saskatoon Opera, Persephone Theatre, and the SSO, this performance of the Grinch gives us the chance to showcase his voice and acting all in a one-of-a-kind concert experience!

Dr. Garry Gable, bass-baritone, resides in Saskatoon where he teaches vocal studies and directs the Music Theatre Ensemble at the University of Saskatchewan. He is a recipient of the Provost’s Awards for Outstanding Teaching at the University of Saskatchewan, and his students have enjoyed success across Canada and into Europe, the United States, and China.

He has performed across Canada and into the USA in all types of music, musical theater, drama, television, and in-concert productions. He has enjoyed success in recital in China, where Garry is adjunct faculty in Music Conservatories in Wuhan and Tianjin. He has been heard in recital with his spouse/pianist Kathleen Lohrenz Gable on the CBC-Radio both regionally and nationally.

In Saskatoon, there have been many appearances with the Saskatoon Symphony, and with Saskatoon Opera Association. Garry has been seen as Frank in Die Fledermaus, Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Alcindoro in La Bohème, Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zuniga in Carmen, and as the Bonz in Madama Butterfly.  In 2017 he will join SOA as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni. He also had a successful turn in Persephone Theater’s It’s a wonderful life as the irascible Mr. Potter, and earlier was seen as the affable father in Beauty and the Beast. Garry has sung many times with the Saskatoon Symphony and joins them again this December to narrate and sing in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He will also sing the role of Pangloss in March of 2017 with the Regina Symphony Orchestra performance of Candide. Garry again joins Saskatoon Opera in June 2017 to perform the Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

Stravinsky’s Firebird 1919

In 1910, Stravinsky premiered The Firebird ballet with the Ballet Russe, and it became an international success. The new collaboration between Sergei Diaghilev, Stravinsky, and the brilliant dancer Nijinsky brought together what must be considered the most extraordinary minds in ballet history.

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was born in 1882 in Russia, became a French citizen by 1934, and then a naturalized American in 1945. He died in New York in 1971. His early musical training was inconsequential (though his father was a respected Russian Basso) and thus he studied law. It was not until he joined with the great Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov that Stravinsky’s musical talents became ignited. Impresario Sergei Diaghilev heard Stravinsky’s music in 1908, and with continued encouragement Stravinsky wrote his first full length orchestral work, The Firebird, which made him famous and provided the genesis for two more ballets, Petrouchka and The Rite of Spring.

History recalls these first seasons of remarkable performances of the Ballet Russe as “Everything that could strike the imagination, intoxicate, enchant, and win one over seemed to have been assembled on that stage …”.

Stravinsky was asked to write the music to this folk tale just months before its premiere. Previously it had been handed to the Russian composer Liadov (one of the Mighty Handful of Russian composers), but he procrastinated. Thus 27 year-old Stravinsky, unknown outside of Russia, was asked. His Firebird is considered one of his masterpieces.

The Firebird illustrates a popular Russian folk tale, summarized below:

(Introduction) The czar’s son, Prince Ivan, has an unexpected meeting with “a fabulous bird with plumage of fire” during a hunting excursion. In exchange for not being hunted down by Ivan, the fabulous Firebird bargains her freedom by giving Ivan a magic feather (The Firebird and Her Dance). Later, Ivan chances upon an enchanted castle with a courtyard full of lovely maidens (Round Dance of the Princesses). They warn Ivan of the evil Kastchei in the castle who, for his own amusement, turns travelers into stone. Ivan, undaunted, enters the castle, and is faced by the evil Kastchei. The magic feather shields him from harm, and the Firebird appears, sending Kastchei and his ogres into a mad dance (Infernal Dance of King Kastchei). The evil ones are left exhausted and eventually destroyed by the Firebird (Berceuse). Kastchei’s victims are freed from their stone spells, and Ivan wins the hand of a lovely Princess (Finale)

Saint Saens Carnival of the Animals

The Carnival of the Animals (1886)

Leonard Bernstein, in one of his Young People’s Concerts, explored the question, “What makes music funny?” He goes on to suggest, “The first and simplest way that music can be amusing is by simply imitating nature. It’s one of the oldest ways of making you laugh—by imitating things.” In fact, we have examples of music that contains imitations of nature going back to the medieval era, and if we look at a style of vocal music written in the 16th century called the madrigal, we see that they used a lot of what we would call “word painting,” or representing through music a thing, a character, or an action happening in a story (an example would be the pitches ascending when singing about going up a hill, and the pitches descending when singing about going down it). This extended to mimicking the characteristics and sounds of animals. One of the most famous writers of 16th century madrigals, Jacques Arcadelt, wrote a beautiful work called The White and Gentle Swan (Il bianco e dolce cigno) where the smoothness of the music reflects the swan gliding across the water. Another famous Renaissance composer, Josquin des Prez wrote a very entertaining madrigal called The Cricket (El Grillo) that shows some very quick and jolly skipping and jumping in the notes like the cricket rubbing its legs together and hopping around. One Baroque composer that Camille Saint-Saëns admired, Jean-Philippe Rameau, wrote some wonderful keyboard works illustrating bird songs, including one for the hen—perhaps where Saint-Saëns got the idea for his own hens—and many other examples of animal sounds are found in the music of Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Grieg, and Respighi to name a very few. How many others can you think of?

Saint-Saëns built his career by teaching at the Ecole Niedermeyer (Gabriel Fauré was one of his students), occasionally performing on organ, composing, and advocating for the upcoming generations of young French composers through the Société Nationale de Musique, an organization he co-founded in 1871. It was apparently during his days at the Ecole that he first came up with the idea for The Carnival of the Animals. However, it would take him a little over twenty years to get around to writing his “Grand Zoological Fantasy.” That happened in only a few days in 1886 while Saint-Saëns was supposed to be completing work on the Third Symphony (also known as the “Organ Symphony”). Composed for his elderly friend, the cellist Charles Lebouc, who hosted private concerts every Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday at the conclusion of Carnival, The Carnival of the Animals was performed at Lebouc’s the same year it was composed, with Saint-Saëns and Louis-Joseph Diémer (a 19th century pianist and harpsichordist who advocated for restoring interest in early music performance and instruments) performing the piano parts.

Wanting to avoid being known primarily as the composer of The Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saëns decided to make sure the piece was not published during his lifetime. Performances were limited to a few private events (Franz Liszt, who once called Saint-Saëns the greatest organist in the world was at one of these rare performances). It wasn’t until his friends begged him to make at least some of it public that he allowed one movement to be used as a solo piece: “The Swan” (he also finally agreed the entire work could be published after his death).

Fourteen sections make up The Carnival of the Animals, and many of them are peppered with musical quotes from other pieces by Saint-Saëns, or by other composers. The “Introduction and Royal March of the Lion” kicks everything off with anticipatory tremolos and glissandos before announcing the arrival of the lion with a miniature fanfare of chords. How many times can you hear the lion roar? Next are the “Hens and Roosters” squawking and pecking as they come and go, and the frantic scales running up and down on both pianos depict “Wild Asses: Swift Animals.” In “Tortoises” we come to a clever use of Jacques Offenbach’s famous “can-can” from his operetta, Orpheus in the Underworld. Usually performed at a much quicker tempo, here it is adapted to an appropriate speed for their plodding movements. In “The Elephant” Saint-Saëns continues his jokes with more topsy-turvy quotes of other pieces. The light and shimmering music of Mendelssohn’s Scherzo (which translates to “joke”) from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Berlioz’s delicate Dance of the Sylphs (from The Damnation of Faust) is transformed into lumbering double bass solo accompanied by the pianos as a waltz. “Kangaroos” jump and bounce around, skipping from one piano to another, resting occasionally. Rippling waters fill the “Aquarium,” disturbed only by the movement of the fish, swimming gently to and fro. “Personages with Long Ears,” the mules hee-haw back and forth at each other from between the two violin sections, and “The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods” calls to us from the clarinet before an entire “Aviary” flutters from the flute. You may not immediately think of “Pianists” when you think of animals, but here they are taking their places in the parade. Brian Rees, in his biography of Saint-Saëns, suggest the pianists “practicing Czerny-like exercises” remind “the listeners that, for a composer, piano players in the neighboring apartment are troublesome beasts.” “Fossils” are represented both by songs about death, and by old “fossils” of music: Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and the French folk songs Au clair de la lune (a tune we know as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”) and Ah! vous dirai-je, maman. “The Swan” glides elegantly along in what became one of the most famous solo cellos pieces of all time. At the first performance of The Carnival of the Animals, Charles Lebouc (the cellist and host) played the solo, and the beauty of the elderly musician’s performance, as well as the symbolism of the “swan song,” touched many hearts there. Finally comes the “Finale” where we hear the entire menagerie rush forward to take their bows.

Program Note by Kathryn J. Allwine Bacasmot

Ravel’s Mother Goose

Ravel’s music is amongst the most wonderful for an orchestra to play – his understanding of each instrument’s strengths allow his music to beautifully capture the colours and subtly of each melody.  Our second Masters Series concert of the year features music based on storytelling and folklore…making the Mother Goose Suite the perfect concert starter!

 

Ma Mere l’Oye – Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) By Marcia Lotter 2008

French composer Maurice Ravel has always been compared to Claude Debussy, who was taken more seriously during their lifetimes. Ravel was a fastidious and tireless worker and a genius at orchestration. He could always assemble the exact combination of instrumental colors to achieve the effects he sought.

Oddly enough, he considered two of his main inspirations to be Emmanuel Chabrier (for his Spanish style and enthusiasm) and Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote an essay on the meaning of poetry and other forms of art that struck Ravel to the core. The lovely Mother Goose Suite (literally, “My Mother, the Goose”) was originally written to be played by two children on the piano. The first performance was given by children aged 6 and 10. The following year Ravel prepared an orchestral version for a ballet production in Paris in 1912. The five movements depict fairy tales well-known to children of that time.

Movement One, Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, is very short but solemn and thoughtful, like a tableaux of the silent castle. Movement Two is Tom Thumb, one of many deluded characters who scattered bread crumbs, in order to find his way back out of the woods. But birds came behind him and ate them all. Ravel cleverly uses solo oboe above wavering strings to convey the winding paths. You can also hear happy birds chirping over their feast of crumbs from a distance.

Movement Three is Laideronnette (Little Ugly One), Empress of the Pagodas. This is a story called “The Green Serpent.” Laideronnette, formerly a beautiful princess, was magically disfigured by an evil witch. The princess lives in a faraway castle and meets The Green Serpent, who has been similarly cursed, out in the woods. They have various adventures together, including visiting living pagodas made of crystal, diamonds, and emeralds, which nevertheless sing and play for the couple.

Movement Four is The Conversations of Beauty and the Beast, written in waltz time. A solo clarinet conveys Beauty’s part of the conversation, and the bassoon represents The Beast. Beauty’s voice is later found in flute and oboe. After The Beast’s transformation back to a prince, Beauty becomes a solo violin, and The Beast becomes a solo cello. A clash of cymbals announces the end of the wicked witch’s spell.

Movement Five The Fairy Garden is an account of Sleeping Beauty’s awakening by Prince Charming. The celeste has the role of the enchanted princess, as she slowly opens her eyes in the sun-flooded room. A joyous fanfare sounds at the end as the storybook characters gather about her, and the Good Fairy bestows her blessing on the happy pair.

A chat with Julia Wedman

When trying to write a short post about our guest artist baroque violinist Julia Wedman, we realized that it’s hard not to gush about this talented Saskatoon sweetheart. Julia’s bio is incredible. She has been a member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra since 2005, she is a part of Eybler Quartet, and Julia a member of the innovative baroque ensemble I FURIOSI. She has travelled all over the world with the ensembles and as a solo artist. She is also a talented educator and coach having done residencies across North America. To top everything off, in 2011 Julia released her debut solo recording of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas (Sonoluminus) to rave reviews.

Amazing resume aside, we know that Julia is a wonderful person to work and chat with. Instead of parroting more of her bio to you (which you can read here), we asked her to answer a few questions.

SSO: What was your “aha” moment that made you realize you love baroque?

J: My first term at Indiana University, I was placed in one of the big symphony orchestras, with a conductor that was mediocre and music that I wasn’t interested in. One day at rehearsal the conductor accidentally threw his baton, and it hit me just under my eye. Two millimetres higher and it would have taken out my eye. I went home and complained bitterly to my best friend. He said “Come to the baroque orchestra concert tomorrow – you will love it!” So I went, and he was right! The director was the baroque violin guru, Stanley Ritchie, who was so graceful and elegant as he played, it was like he was dancing on stage. The whole orchestra was having such a great time, smiling and dancing together, playing so beautifully and joyfully that I was immediately smitten. I signed up for baroque orchestra and lessons with Stanley the next day. 

SSO: Favourite piece of music to play?

J: Bach C major Solo Violin Sonata. Well – that is my favourite piece to practice. I never get bored – which is good, because it is so difficult that I need to practice it a LOT! Also anything by Bach, Biber, Rameau or Mozart.

SSO: What is the best piece of advice you received early in your career that still holds true today?

J: Listen

SSO: Guilty pleasure?

J: Prince. 80s rock. I think I memorized every song played on CKOM in high school, and I still know them. Sometimes we do covers of the best ones for encores with my group I Furiosi. Last week we did Eye of the Tiger. 

SSO: Favourite SSO memory?

J: One of the first concerts I ever played with the SSO…Beethoven’s 9th Symphony! I was so thrilled to be part of such an incredible musical experience!

 This was also my most embarrassing moment. At the beginning of the Scherzo, Beethoven sets up a pattern of play-rest-play-rest but the third time he writes rest-play. And I played. Alone. When everyone else was resting. A study was done a few years ago on violinists who made mistakes in concerts, and they found that when they played accidental “solos” their heart rates would shoot up so high, it was like they were in a car accident. I know that feeling. 

SSO: How does it feel to be back in Saskatoon to perform?

J: It is so heart-warming to be here playing with dear friends, and having the honour of sitting beside a former (wonderful, inspirational) teacher. It is a real treat to be here playing with this wonderful orchestra. I feel so grateful to have had the support of such a fantastic musical community as a young person growing up here. 

SSO: Any other fun facts you would like people to know?

J: One of the best things we get to do in Tafelmusik is a residency with Opera Atelier at Versailles every 18 months or so. It is a magical week in Paris. I take the train into the city to see incredible art at the Louvre or Musee D’Orsay in the daytime, rehearse and perform Lully in the opera house at Versailles in the evenings, and explore the palace and gardens in my “downtime”. Being a musician isn’t always very glamourous. I love it, but it is a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard work. Every once in a while I find myself in an experience so incredible that I have to pinch myself to see if I am dreaming, and being at Versailles is always one of those times. Last year November we were there just days after the terrorist attacks, and we were even more grateful than ever to be there supporting the French people. I think everyone should come with me to Paris some time. If you love music, art, history, and food, you will love it! 

We will be there again in May! 

Julia joins the SSO at 7:30pm, this Friday (October 28th) at Knox United Church.

Take a listen to the samples below and let Julia serenade you while you buy your tickets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Composer Profile – Jocelyn Morlock

Juno-nominated composer Jocelyn Morlock is one of Canada’s most distinctive voices. She begins her term as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence on September 1, 2014. She has just completed a term as inaugural Composer in Residence for Vancouver’s innovative concert series, Music on Main (2012 – 2014.)

“A lyrical wonder, exquisite writing” with “an acute feeling for sonority” and an approach that is “deftly idiomatic” (Vancouver Sun), Morlock’s music has received numerous accolades, including: Top 10 at the 2002 International Rostrum of Composers; Winner of the 2003 CMC Prairie Region Emerging Composers competition; winner of the Mayor’s Arts Awards in Vancouver (2008); two nominations for Best Classical Composition at the Western Canadian Music Awards (2006, 2010) and a Juno Nomination for Classical Composition of the Year (2011, Exaudi.) Her first full-length CD release, Cobalt, was  nominated for three Western Canadian Music Awards, for Classical Composition (Oiseaux bleus et sauvages and Cobalt) and Classical Recording of the Year, and won Classical Composition of the year (for Cobalt, featuring the NACO with soloists Jonathan Crow and Karl Stobbe, conducted by Alain Trudel) in 2015. Excerpts from the Cobalt CD can be found here.

jocelynMorlock’s international career was launched at the 1999 International Society for Contemporary Music’s World Music Days with Romanian performances of her quartet Bird in the Tangled Sky. Since then, she has become the composer of record for significant music competitions, including the 2008 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition and the 2005 Montreal International Music Competition, for which she wrote Amore, a tour de force vocal work that has gone on to receive more than 70 performances and numerous radio broadcasts.

Highlights of recent premieres include Earthfall for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Undark for Standing Wave, Big Raven for the Emily Carr String Quartet,  Three Meditations on Light, written for the debut concert of the Couloir duo at Music on Main’s Modulus Festival; Luft, a 35-minute music and dance production with choreography by Simone Orlando, featuring Josh Beamish and the dancers of MOVE: The Company, written for Turning Point Ensemble’s Rio Tinto Alcan prize-winning production Firebird 2011; In Situ, a large-scale collaboration with the Aeriosa Dance Ensemble premiered during the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and attended by over 7000 people; Theft for Standing Wave’s Too Strangean exploration of magical realism in music, and two CBC commissions: Asylum, a piano trio written for the 10th anniversary of the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival and the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth; and The Jack Pine, written for The Gallery Project, a partnership between Music and Beyond, CBC Radio Two and the National Gallery of Canada.

New CD releases featuring Morlock’s work include Cobalt, a disc of six of her orchestral works featuring the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Windsor Symphony and the late, great CBC Radio Orchestra, as well as a piano trio featuring Duo Concertante; Couloir’s Wine-dark Sea, musica intima’s Into Light, (nominated for two 2010 Western Canadian Music Awards and two 2011 Juno Awards: Classical Album of the Year, and Classical Composition of the Year for Morlock’s Exaudi), Other notable, recent releases include Fringe Percussion’s eponymous debut album (nominated for a 2010 Western Canadian Music Award), pianist Rachel Iwaasa’s Cosmphony, the Canadian Chamber Choir’s In Good Company, and Tiresias Duo’s Delicate Fires (nominated for a 2008 Western Canadian Music Award.)

Jocelyn Morlock completed a Bachelor of Music in piano performance at Brandon University, studying with pianist Robert Richardson. She received both a Master’s degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia. Among her teachers were Gerhard Ginader, Pat Carrabré, Stephen Chatman, Keith Hamel, and the late Russian-Canadian composer Nikolai Korndorf.

Bach’s A Minor Concerto

Any father with twenty children is bound to have a problem at sometime or other. Papa Johann Sebastian Bach must certainly have had his share of family crises during his lifetime (more than half of his brood did not survive him), but one bit of puerile misadventure has, unfortunately, resounded on (or, more accurately, silenced) an important part of his musical legacy. At Bach’s death, many of his important manuscripts were divided between his two oldest living sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. Carl took loving care of his inheritance, but Wilhelm did not. Though, as a boy, Friedemann had received excellent training from his father, and held some responsible positions as a young man, he was never able to fulfill his early promise. His presence of mind seems to have deserted him after his father’s death, and he gave way in his later years to dissipation and pretty well made a mess of his life. The manuscripts from Sebastian’s estate that came into his possession were lost or destroyed or perhaps sold for a pint of Asbach-Uralt. At any rate, it is known that Wilhelm let at least three of his father’s violin concertos slip through his unsteady fingers into oblivion. The three that remain were the ones passed on by Carl.

It was long thought that Bach composed his three extant violin concertos-two for solo violin and one for two violins-while serving as “Court Kapellmeister and Director of the Princely Chamber Musicians” at Anhalt-Cöthen, north of Leipzig, from 1717 to 1723, a productive period for instrumental music when he wrote the Brandenburg Concertos, orchestral suites, many sonatas and suites for solo instruments and keyboard, suites and sonatas for unaccompanied violin and cello, and such important solo harpsichord pieces as the French Suites and the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. In the Bach tercentenary issue of Early Music published in May 1985, however, Harvard professor and Bach authority Christoph Wolff surmised from stylistic evidence and from the fact that the only extant performance materials for the Concerto in A minor (BWV 1041) and the Concerto in D minor for Two Violins (BWV 1043) were copied around 1730 that at least those two works date from the years (1729-36) that Bach was directing the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, the city’s leading concert-giving organization.

The A minor Concerto follows the traditional Italian structure of three movements, arranged fast-slow-fast. In the heroically tragic opening movement, the violin is carefully integrated into the texture and melodic working-out of the material. The basic plan of the movement is ritornello (i.e., anchored around the frequent returns of the opening music in the orchestra), though Bach’s realization of the form is considerably richer in texture and sentiment than are its Italian models. The episodic sections between the recurrences of the ritornello, the places in which the soloist is dominant, are rather like windows separating the tutti columns supporting the architectonic structure. In the second movement, which derives its lyrical style from the world of opera, the basses present a theme at the outset that is repeated in various keys throughout the movement. Above this ostinato foundation rises the touching melody of the soloist as counterpoint and commentary on the orchestral background. The finale, inspired by the vivacious strains of the gigue, resumes the quick motion and rich pathos of the first movement.

Bach’s Sleepers Awake!

Bach’s Wachet Auf has long been one of the most beloved pieces of music ever written – a favourite of choirs, orchestras, music lovers, and jazz musicians alike, the work features melodies that have become iconic.  This performance marks the very first orchestral performance of the work in our region, and we couldn’t be more excited to feature the SSO Chorus with conductor Duff Warkentin and our soloists Chelsea Mahan, Spencer McKnight, and Joel Allison. 

Bach’s iconic themes have been the basis for great organ and piano transcriptions (Jan Lisiecki performance above), and even great jazz takes on the melody.

Some of the most joyful music is created in the midst of difficult circumstances. Displaced while his home underwent reconstruction, Bach wrote this most famous of his cantatas, BWV 140; Philipp Nicolai, composer of the chorale tune, found comfort in the midst of the death of a pupil by contemplating eternal life.

In the historic town of Tubingen, the pupil, a fifteen-year-old nobleman, succumbed to the scourge of the bubonic plague. His teacher and pastor, Nicolai, who had watched upwards of thirty burials a day, penned the chorale “Wachet auf” in memory of his young student. The chorale text, based on the parable of the wise virgins in Matthew 25, is a sacred recrafting of the old Minnesinger tradition. Instead of the watchman on the tower who warns the lovers to part as dawn approaches, this watchman’s midnight cry announces the heavenly Bridegroom’s arrival.

During Bach’s time, “Wachet” was the principal hymn for the twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity, a rare occurrence in the church calendar. This service, for which Bach wrote cantata 140, fell on November 25, 1731. The gospel reading for this last Sunday before Advent is Matthew 25. In shaping the overall form of the cantata, Bach used each verse of Nicolai’s hymn as a structural pillar in the work: verse 1 in movement 1, verse 2 in movement 4, and verse 3 in the closing chorale. The structure of the entire cantata is chiastic , with movement 4 as the centerpiece.

In movement 1, festive royal processional music imitates the midnight tolling as the wise virgins heed the watchman’s call to action: “awake!, prepare!, arise!, go forth!” Bach sets the chorale tune in the sopranos, doubled by the watchman’s instrument, the horn. The three lower voices represent the scurrying to action, literally falling upon each other in joyful tumult, with ascending melodic leaps and brilliant voicing of rising chords on texts depicting “high up.” All the time, the orchestral wedding procession continues relentlessly on its course to meet the Bride-Church-Sion.

The third and sixth movements, duets for soprano and bass, are dialogues between the Soul and Jesu. Each duet is prefaced by a recitative. The first duet, in question-answer format, is orchestrated as a quartet: the two solo voices, an obbligato violino piccolo, and the continuo.

Movement 4, one of Bach’s more beloved choruses, depicts Sion’s joy in greeting the descending Groom. The musical construction is stunning in its simplicity: the continuo supports a unison string melody of three basic motives over which the tenors, also in unison, float the second verse of Nicolai’s chorale. This wedding song of the Bride Zion (church) and the Returning Bridegroom (Christ) leads all to the feast, the Lamb’s eternal Supper.

The second duet, movement 6, musically exemplifies the union of the soul and Christ: the oboe presents material that is then shared by the voices. The textual references from Song of Solomon in the previous recitative are fulfilled with joyous ebullience in the duet. The phrase “love never separated” literally takes musical life in the melding of a four part texture (two voices, oboe, continuo) into a trio (a united voice, oboe, continuo).

And so, in the final chorale, the host of heaven—humans and angels—gather in the Eternal City at the twelve gates of pearl, raising voices, harps, and cymbals to proclaim the great “gloria” (Revelation 21). All of the instruments join with the choir, but this “joy no ear has heard” takes on an added brightness by Bach’s use of the violino piccolo playing the melody an octave above everyone. Surprising harmonic colorations on the final phrase’s quotation of the ancient “in dulci jubilo” melody depicts the brilliant and eternal rejoicing in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Copyright © 1998, Marian Dolan

Can you hear it?

The other day I was visiting with an SSO donor.  I thoroughly enjoy talking with people who have played a part in this new era of Saskatoon’s orchestra.  I always learn something about the SSO when I talk to our patrons – some come because they are passionate about classical music, some come because it’s a great social outing, others because they love live music, others still who want to be musically adventurous.

sso3On this particular day, I was asked an important question.  She asked me what my plans were.   

Since coming to the SSO nearly three years ago, I’m very proud to say that this is a different organization – and it has been an incredible collective effort: a dedicated board with ideas, a hard working staff, musicians who are doing incredible work, a great musical leader, and an audience who love coming along for the ride.  We have changed the way we operate, the way we program, the way we function, the way we budget, and the way we connect with the community.  We have a lot of things that still need to be changed, but it amazing how far we’ve come. 

 

But one thing has not changed.  The drive for artistic excellence. 

 

If you were at our first concert this season, you sat up in your seat for the last movement of the Beethoven.  I’m certain of it.  It was full of life.  It was why we have a symphony.

I’m proud to say that we’re not the only ones taking notice of this new era of the SSO.  A recent peer assessment from Canada Council noted the “energetic performances” that “demonstrated much emotional commitment”.  They noted our clear sense of direction.  At a recent meeting where Eric and I shared the peers’ comments with the board, Eric said something that summed it all up: “we’re just getting started.”

We have some big plans in the works, but like a good symphony they’ll take a team effort.  The reality is that the SSO is surviving, but it needs to flourish…and I believe that our audience wants us to flourish, and is ready to help with that. 

We are thrilled about this season – we have some incredible artistic projects and programs underway….but just wait to see what is in the works for the future!  We have some of world’s greatest musicians lined up to come to Saskatoon in the upcoming years…and we have a few remarkable community partnerships.  We want a vibrant musical community that looks to the SSO for inspiration. time-for-toddlers

We want to start a music literacy program – the future of our music community relies on planting the seed of musical interest in the minds of our youth.  We have a chance to bring Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program to Saskatoon, and we want to launch a new musical mentorship program Kitocikewin for students who presently don’t have access to any music education.  We are ready and waiting to launch these programs…but with our current situation of being under funded, we don’t have an Education Coordinator.  We need one. Soon. 

We want to record.  Nope, scratch that.  I think the SSO has the potential to produce an award winning record, and because I like to dream big I’m going to say I’d like us to win a JUNO.  We have some guest artists who are wanting and excited to work with us on recordings.  Recording creates more work for our musicians.  Recording allows people across this country to hear what is happening in Saskatoon.  

We want to do more to be an incubator in our music community – we want to encourage the development of young musicians, create opportunities for emerging artists, create opportunities for collaborations, performances, and ideas to come to life.  We want to create artistic bridges that enrich and inspire and close the gaps.  We want to be a space where the musical eco-system thrives and grows.  Big dreams are important. 

Artistic excellence takes time, and it takes hard work, and it takes passion, and we’re going to need your help.  The next steps of our artistic excellence are within reach, can you hear it?

 

See you at the symphony,
Mark Turner

After Dark – With Free Flow Dance

Classical music and dance have more in common than you think.

Aside from the obvious connections, both artistic mediums seem to constantly battle against the perception that they are passé. The misconception that it’s all been done, or that it isn’t relevant any more is one that seems to persist. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The SSO created After Dark to push boundaries. There is an abundance of contemporary music out there and our musicians are always excited to be able to explore works that don’t fit in our regular concert series.

Free Flow Dance Company is known for its innovative and modern choreography. They are constantly thinking outside the box when it comes to movement and performance spaces. Free flow brings dance to people who may not traditionally attend what we think of as a stereotypical dance performance.

This is why After Dark and Free Flow are a perfect fit. Joined by Free Flow dancers and choreographer Jackie Latendresse the concert features the music of living composers including Gyula Csapo, Don Sweete, Max Richter, and many more. After Dark will make you rethink what a concert should be. Think new music meets cocktail party.  Think contemporary dance meets sound experiment.  Think pub trivia meets concert.

After Dark tickets are available here. There are limited seats for each performance so make sure to save your spot!

Friday September 30th & October 1st at 8pm in the SSO office (408 20th St).