This morning’s musical selections reflect the desire of many classical composers to give voice to the musical expression of indigenous peoples. Folk music--orally transmitted, frequently tied to agricultural economies--found some degree of permanence and universal dissemination in the works of Unitarian composers Edvard Grieg and Bela Bartok, as well as the British-born composer of African descent Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the Spaniards of Catalonian ancestry Carlos Surinach and Federico Mompou, and the Polish Frederic Chopin. To claim a moral agenda on the part of these musicians might amount to reframing their work to suit our contemporary sensibilities, however. Equally retrospective would be the dismissal of such compositions as exploitative or patronizing. In all likelihood, these composers were motivated by a romantic desire to idealize the natural world, rejecting the artificiality of the city—with its concert halls and conservatories—and replacing it with the alleged innocence of pastoral life. What this music means to us today morally, what it accomplished unwittingly or otherwise, is left to us to determine. Read on for programming details.
Gathering Music: Adam Kent, piano
Take Nabandji
Southeast African, arr. by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Norwegian Melody, Op. 12, No. 6
Halling, Op. 47, No. 4
Edvard Grieg
15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Nos. 2, 7, 8, 9 and 10
Béla Bartók
Centering Music:
Rumanian Dances
Dance with Sticks
Waistband Dance
Stamping Dance
Hornpipe
Rumanian Polka
Quick Dance
Bartók
Opening Music:
Mazurak in F Minor, Op. 7, No. 3
Fredric Chopin
Musical Interlude:
Chanson et danse espagnole No. 3
Carlos Surinach
Musical Interlude:
Canción y danza No. 1
Federico Mompou
Meditation:
Mazurka in E Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
Chopin
Music for Parting:
The Bamboula
West Indies, arr. by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
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