Untitled Flashcards Set

The Natural World

• Composers have used music to portray the world  for centuries, and musical compositions can illustrate geographical features or other things, like weather.

  • Others address the weather that warms or chills the planet.

• Many composes have showcased various living things that reside on Earth, whether on land or in water.

• Many cases, composers use only instruments - no voices - to illustrate these aspects of the globe.

  • Sometimes these pieces convey a storyline, labeled as programmatic.

• In the pages to come, we will take a “programmatic” ride in the Grand Canyon and experience a thunderstorm.

  • Other pieces illustrate simpler musical portraits, like depictions of a bird (Hermit thrush at Morn), a bee (Flight of the Bumblebee), and a tree (Rain Tree).

• Many geographic landmarks have been celebrated via music.

• There are pieces that illustrate oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains, valleys, or dessert.

• Some depictions are generalized, meaning that they don’t depict any specific place.

  • Claude Debussy’s French Symphonic La mer (1905) is an example.

  • The Sea (1924) by Englishman Frank Bridge is equally unspecific.

• In contrast, some are very precise, like 1874 Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau in German)

•  Philip Glass paid tribute to the Amazon in 1999 Aguas de Amazonia.

• In 1969, Yin Chengzong led a group of Chinese composers to revive 1939 Yellow River Cantata to make the Yellow River Piano Concerto.

  • 1939 Yellow River Cantata was made by Xian Xinghai

  • Piano Concerto by Yin Chengzong is scored for a piano and orchestra.

• In the United States, the Mississippi river has also been featured in a vast number of musical works.

  • Not surprising as the Mississippi and its two great tributaries (Ohio and Missouri rivers) make up the world’s 3rd largest river system.

  • One amateur historian has collected a list of more than a thousand songs that reference the Mississippi.

• “The Mississippi River may be the most musical river in the entire world”.

•  The river has figured in instrumental compositions, including the Mississippi River Suite in 1934.

  • By Florence Price, who in 1933 was the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra.

• Ferde Grofe (1892 - 1972) depicted scenes from the Mississippi’s headwaters in Minnesota to New Orleans in Mississippi Suite, A Journey in Tones, 1926.

  • Premiered in New York in 1926.

• Michael Daugherty made a tuba concerto in 2013 called Reflections on the Mississippi.

  • Arranged for tuba and wind band as well.

• Daugherty’s first composition for wind band was titled Niagara Falls, written for the University of Michigan Band for 100th anniversary.

  • 1997 - written for University of Michigan in honor of Hundredth anniversary.

• Alan Hovhaness was living in Seattle when Mount St Helens erupted in 1980 with the largest landslide.

  • Hovhaness, a composer, was asked by his publisher to  write a commemorative work in 1982.

    • 1982 - The same year that Congress had declared the region as a national monument and:

    • Symphony No 50, St Helens was competed by Hovhaness.

Grand Canyon (1929-1931, idea from 1917 visit, Grand Canyon became monument in 1908 and park in 1919), ABACA form

• Numerous other American national parks, monuments, and regions have also been depicted in concert works, among them:

  • Jett Hitt’s lovely concerto "Yellowstone for Violin and Orchestra" (2002).

  • Joan Tower’s "Sequoia" (1981): This was her first orchestral composition.

  • William Grant Still - His Afro-American Symphony (1931) was the first orchestral work by a black composer to be performed by a major American orchestra (this was before Florence Price in 1933)

    • He surveyed much of the United States in his American Scene (1957). It’s five subsections are titled:

      • Suite 1: The East.

      • Suite 2: The South.

      • Suite 3: The Old West

      • Suite 4: The Far West

      • Suite 5: The Southwest: A Mountain, A Memorial, and a Song.

  • In fact, the scholar Denise von Glahn’s published The Sounds of Place" (2003): A book-length study of the vast musical output that has captured various American scenes.

• Few composers are likely to match the prolific “place” output of Grofe.

• He composed his own Yellowstone Suite in 1960 and a Niagara Falls Suite in 1961.

• He had also previously written Death Valley Suite (1949), Hudson River Suite (1955) and Dawn at Lake Mead (1956).

• Renowned Works:

  • "Yellowstone Suite" (1960)

  • "Niagara Falls Suite" (1961)

  • Death Valley Suite (1949)

  • Hudson River Suite (1955) 

  • Dawn at Lake Mead (1956).

  • "Grand Canyon Suite" (1929–31): Most famous of his works, celebrated for its vivid portrayal of the Grand Canyon.

    • Used by Disney in a 1958 canyon vista short film.

• Ferde Grofe regarded himself as “composer of Americana”

  • An achievement helped by his widespread exposure to the United States.

• He was born in New York into a musical family, and when his parents moved to the West Coast when Grofe was still an infant.

• Grofe learned to play piano, violin, viola, and alto horn.

  • He was performing professionally by the age of 15.

• He joined the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra as a violist at age seventeen, playing there for a decade.

• Traveled throughout the Southwest while performing in all sorts of venues.

  • These venues required live musicians, like:

    • Vaudeville Houses

    • Theaters

    • Film Sets

    • Cabarets.

• He would likely be unknown today if he had not joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra as an arranger in 1920.

  • He encountered a much wider swath of the United States while touring with the group.

• Most importantly, he created the symphonic jazz arrangement of George Gershwin’s two-piano version of Rhapsody in Blue (1924).

  • The instant popularity of the symphonic piece thrust Whiteman, Gershwin, and Grofe into the national spotlight.

• Whiteman recognized the commercial potential of symphonic jazz pieces, and he asked Grofe to compose original works (not just arrangements) for Whiteman’s ensemble.

  • This encouragement led to an outpouring of compositions from Grofe, many of which remain in the concert repertoire to this day.

• The Grand Canyon Suite, in particular, earned Grofe lavish praise.

• Walt Disney adapted Grofe’s score for a 1958 short film depicting the numerous vistas of the canyon.

  • This film won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Live Action).

• Even before he joined the Whiteman Orchestra, Grofe’s personal introduction to the Grand Canyon had a profound impact on him.

  • During World War l, he had volunteered to join a U.S. cavalry band as a baritone player and reported to Douglas, Arizona, in 1917.

• He noted “My practice hours were spent on the desert, much to the relief of my neighbors in the city.”

• While he was in Arizona, a sheriff friend took Grofe camping at the canyon.

  • He recalled:

    • “It was summertime, August. We had camped at night. It was dawn, no clouds; I was spellbound. The silence. As it got lighter and brighter you could hear nature coming to life. I get chills right now just thinking about it. You feel awful close to God there. It just overwhelms. Words are inadequate. It made such an impression on me.”

• Grofe joined a long history of awestruck visitors to the Grand Canyon.

  • One of the earliest of North America’s natural wonders to be viewed by outsiders.

• Native Americans, of course, had resided in the region for approximately 13000 years and had known of this geological marvel much earlier, but they maintained no written records discussing the landmark.

• Early Exploration and Conservation:

  • The Grand Canyon was first viewed by Spanish conquistadors in 1540. (South Rim)

    • 138 years before Niagara, 167 years before Yellowstone, and 300 years before Yosemite was found.

• Gradually, as awareness of the Grand Canyon’s magnificence grew more widespread, the region was taken under government protection.

  • Became a forest reserve in 1893, a game reserve in 1906, and a national monument in 1908.

  • U.S. National Park Service was established in 1916, and it took jurisdiction over the Grand Canyon as a national park in 1919, 2 years after Grofe’s first visit.

  • Designated as a national park in 1919, covering over 1.2 million acres (more than 1900 square miles) and attracting millions of visitors annually.

    • 278 miles, and in the first year visited by 37745 people.

      • Afterwards it had 4.7 million visitors in 2022.

• In 1922, 3 years after the Grand Canyon became a national park, Grofe vacationed in Kingman, Arizona, and began to have ideas for a work to commemorate the landscape that had impressed him so deeply.

• He did not sketch the work until 1929.

  • Initially planned a four movement composition that would depict one day, from dawn to dusk, in the canyon.

• Over time, it expanded to a five-movement structure with the working title of:

  • “Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon”/

• Grofe credits Eddie King, a recording supervisor for Columbia Records.

  • This man had worked for Whiteman Band on numerous occasions.

  • He was the inspiration for the “On the Trail” movement.

• After hearing Grofe’s work, King said:

  • “Well, it seems to me that you’re overlooking a good bet. You know every tourist goes down the Bright Angel Trail.”Grofé was startled: “Gee, I never thought about it. . . . I forgot about the trail.” He added, “I had never been up and down the trail, but I had been to the head of it”

• By the time the work debuted (November 22, 1931), there were 5 movements:

  • Sunrise

  • Painted Desert

  • On the Trail

  • Sunset

  • Cloudburst

• Had an explanation, or program, for each movement.

  • For “On the Trail,” the program read:

    • A traveler and his burro are descending the trail. The sharp hoof beats of the animal form an unusual rhythmic background for the cowboy’s song. The sounds of a waterfall [tell] them of a nearby oasis. A lone cabin is soon sighted and, as they near it, a music box is heard. The travelers stop at the cabin for refreshment. Now fully rested, the travelers journey forth at a livelier pace. The movement ends as man and burro disappear in the distance. This is the most popular movement of the suite. It starts as the orchestra simulates the loud bray of a burro. After a violin cadenza, the first theme—a graceful melody in a rhythmic pattern—is established. It has the feeling of the burro walking. The second theme of the movement—a melody in Western style—is played contrapuntally to the first. This is followed by a suggestion of an old music box, which is played by the celeste. The opening theme is heard again in a faster tempo. The movement is concluded with the bray of the burro and the musical ending, itself, is short and incisive.

• Because Grofe had never taken the trail ride himself, he relied on his imagination to create the journey.

  • The trip is fictional.

  • For one thing, riders are actually carried by mules rather than burros (wild donkeys).

    • A pioneer named John Hance is believed to have initiated the practice of putting tourists on mules.

      • He advertised mule rides and lodging at his hotel as early as 1887.

      • Mules can bray (offspring of male donkeys and female horses), so Grofe is plausible in that aspect.

• Grofe drew the musical elements of this programmatic movement from a wide variety of sources and inspirations.

  • Thought of the Hee-Haw right away for the beginning.

  • Then thought of having a violin cadenza to work on the hee haw business.

  • He said, “I thought of the ‘hee-haw’ right away for the beginning. And then I thought of having a violin cadenza, to work on that ‘hee-haw’ business.”

• To create the sound of a braying burro, Grofe employed a disjunct drop of a major seventh interval.

  • Disjunct interval refers to notes that are fairly distant from each other in terms of their positions on a keyboard.

  • Conjunct pitches are close together, such as the pitches C-D-E on a keyboard. (C major scale)

• Grofe alluded to a cadenza, borrowing a term from the genre of the concerto - a work that features (most often) a solo instrument and an orchestra.

  • There is, during most concertos, a section in which the orchestra stops playing, allowing the soloist to perform a cadenza - a passage without a steady beat.

    • The soloist plays particularly challenging, or virtuosic, techniques, sometimes improvising on the spot.

• In creating the cadenza, Grofe was helped by the principal violinist of the Whiteman orchestra, Kurt Dieterle (1899-1994), and Dieterle was the soloist when Whiteman recorded the suite in April 1932.

  • Dieterle’s interpretation “became the gold standard by which all future violin soloists playing the passage were measured.”

• At the very beginning of “On the Trail”, just before the first disjunct “hee-haw”, the timpani sustain a fortissimo drum roll..

  • The player hammers rapidly on the drumhead with 2 mallets.

• After the initial bray of the burro, the harp ascends upward through an arpeggio, in which the notes of a chord sounded in succession rather than simultaneously.

• Violinist then demonstrates the virtuosic technique of double stops, requiring the performer to play on 2 strings at the same time.

  • Grofe asks the violinist to take very quick upward leaps to a high register in between the double stops.

• During this introductory cadenza portion of “On the Trail”, the violinist will also usher in 2 important motifs.

  • After a very slow downward glissando about 30 seconds into the movement, the violinist begins to play the Cowboy Song motif.

  • At the end of the tune, after another fermata, the violinist launches into the “Burro” motif:

    • A humorous pattern of alternating disjunct (large distance) octave leaps

    • And short conjunct (small distance) phrases.

• Accelerandos bit by bit until interrupted by 3 fermatas on increasingly high pitches.

  • Easy to imagine that the burro has started trotting faster and faster down the cliffside trail before being reined in.

• The Burro motif had 2 sources of inspiration.

  • Grofe was hard at work on the movement in the summer of 1931, when the Whiteman band had taken him to Chicago.

    • During a break one day, Grofe took his infant son for a walk in his stroller.

      • As they wheeled along, he could hear “five pile-drivers [that] were thumping along in some building operation, and their peculiar broken rhythm at once suggested . . . a recollection of the metrical hoof-tap that I had heard so often from the little beasts of burden in Arizona.”

  • The 2nd - He adapted the melody for the Burro motif from a 1926 popular song, “Horses” written by Byron Gay and Richard Whiting.

• Grofe’s infant son contributed too to invention of the “Cowboy Song” motif.

  • During theri Chicago walks, Grofe often headed to an apartment building surrounded by large shade trees. 

    • Baby usually fell asleep at that point, but according to Grofe, on one particular day: He didn’t take a nap. He was restless, and I was trying to get a theme for the trail. While I was standing there, all of [a] sudden this theme came out of the ether, and [I hummed it], rocking the buggy back and forth—Dee dee, da dum, Dee da da da, da da—it came out just like that, rocking the baby. In fact, I put him to sleep . . . and that’s where the tune came from. It’s really a lullaby, when you stop to think of it . . . Oh, it worked out fine as the cowboy’s chant, as he’s riding down the trail on a horse, following a pack train.

• After the introductory violin cadenza has paved the way, the full orchestra reenters and begins to reiterate the main melodies in a straightforward A-B-A-C-A rondo form.

• Grofe does have a few more surprises for listeners.

  • In section A - he asks a percussionist to use coconut shells (muffled with leather) to create clip-clop sounds of hooves.

    • Some orchestras substitute temple blocks.

  • Grofe also employs polymeter (like in Pastoral) when Cowboy Song enters, since it is set in cut -time, while the “Burro” motif is in (unfinished sentence here).

  • During waterfall and music-box sections, Grofe calls for a tone color that was still somewhat uncommon in 1931:

    • The Celesta - a small keyboard operated percussion instrument, produces a bell-like sound.

      • Is better known today thanks to its prominence in “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter films.

• The celesta’s timbre (style/sound) adds a magical quality to Grofe’s imaginary oasis during the often-rugged journey.

The chart above:

• Start with a timpani playing fortissimo drum roll.

  • Accompanied by orchestra mimicking “hee-haw” braying of the burro.

  • Harp plays arpeggio followed by a fermata for the ensemble.

    • Arpeggiated fermata.

• Continue at 12 seconds with the solo cadenza:

  • Mimic the hee haw again (bray), and performing series of double stops.

  • Then slow down glissando.

  • Then Cowboy Song.

Then introduce Burro Motif rhythm, with an accelerando, ending with very high “E”.