Friday MARCH 5, 2010 at 8pm, Saturday MARCH 6 at 4pm on WFYI 90.1 FM
A Preview of our 10th anniversary concert on Monday, MARCH 22, 2010 at 7:30pm
Broadcast of short excerpts from our performances including past commissions, and a fun conversation between Sharon Gamble, host of “Art of the Matter”; Dean Franke and Susan Chan, cofounders of the NCSQ. With great anticipation, we await the birth of Frank Felice‘s newest work for string quartet, based on favorite children’s literature. Reflecting on 10 years of effort, we are thrilled to have commissioned and premiered five plus wonderful works by these outstanding talents of the Indianapolis area.
Our Mon. 7:30pm March 22, 2010 program at DeHaan includes a sampling of our past commissions. We are only able to choose one movement per piece because there isn’t enough time to play complete works by each of our great composers.
(1) Movement II of Peter Hansen’s String Quartet No. 1 written in 2002-2003. We chose the 2nd movement because it is so sunny, carefree and optimistic. It reminds us of the Beatles and the 70s.
(2) I. “Fireworks” of C. Rutkowski’s “Nocturnes”. The tonality and harmonies he uses are so exotic and the rhythmic pacing is so organic. One of my favorite parts of it is about 3 minutes into the piece where we calmly enter into a trance, repeating and stacking our individual parts without meter restrictions for a little while. I always feel like being in some kind of spiritual meditation when we get there. It is wonderfully spontaneous even though all notes are written out. And it feels like my whole being is embraced by the beauty of nature and the sounds of nature.
(3) Mov. II of Ronald McKean’s “American Quartet” op. 21. Ron wrote it for us in 1988 when we lived in San Francisco and had our chamber group perform regularly at Ron’s church, but we only got to perform the first movement before moving to Indiana. Ron has been the music director, organist extraordinaire at the First Presbyterian Church in Oakland CA for 20 some years now. This is an incredibly improvisatory movement with flowing embellishment in the ornate Baroque style, yet it has Ron’s own unique harmonic tension and release. The middle section is lighter and uses a favorite scale pattern of Ron’s which he says originates from Iroquois Indians. One of the music critics, Marc Geelhoed who gave us a wonderful review said it sounded like Bartok. I suppose the Magyars could have shared some of these scale patterns in their folk music.
(4) Movement III of James Beckel’s String Quartet No. 1. It is full of energy. We go through the brilliant section with lots of romping in blues scales, then there is the sultry section where it feels like the summer heat way down south. I always think of lemonade on the porch when we get there. It reminds me of scenes from movies like “In the Heat of the Night”.
We wanted to make this a very special anniversary by following Villa Lobos’ lead in celebrating children. Our only old music on this program is Heitor Villa Lobos’ String quartet #5 of 1931 which uses several melodies from Brazilian children’s nursery rhymes. After all, it is the children who never stop showing us their optimism and courage to reach for their dreams. The nurturing of our group and our music is very much like the nurturing one would give to children. I had heard Frank’s creative renewal recital at Butler University as he, Sharon and I are of the same class of 2005-6 Creative Renewal Fellows of the Arts Council of Indianapolis. One of his pieces used a toy piano. Remembering his childlike humor, I thought he would be perfect for this commission.
Here’re some excerpts of what Frank Felice wrote about his piece:
Five Whimsies for Non-Grownups
Program Note:
Well, I’m not growing up. You can’t make me.
(and I won’t eat those Brussels Sprouts, neither – no, I won’t)
These five movements for string quartet are based upon five of my favorite children’s books, books that I repurchased as an adult, because they’ve always stayed with my imagination and me. They are as fresh and fun, witty, and plain silly as the day I first read them (mostly as a child, but not all of them). Titles for each movement are taken from one line in each of the books and hint at that movement’s individual character., although in a more general sense, rather than an overt programmatic one.
1. I’m in the milk, and the milk’s in me! (The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak)
I wanted to convey the jovial, single minded nature of the three bakers, who all look like Oliver Hardy. Their work ethic and smiling madness had always attracted me, and the music that resulted seemed to be a kind of busy, somewhat unbalanced dance.
2. Two weeks passed and it happened again (The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg)
This book is unique – each pair of pages is a title, a sentence from the mystery “book” and one drawing illustrating a line from the story – this drawing shows something creeping under the rug, and a startled guy who’s holding a chair over his head…… what happens? I don’t know….. it might sound like this…..
3. … and all his party fell out of the sky onto the Dorkinses, the soup, the beetle and the lovely carpet (Mr. Bliss by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Mr. Bliss is an eccentric who rides a bike with no pedals (it only goes downhill), who decides to buy an automobile, which he promptly crashes; not once, but three times in succession. (and then there are the three bears, the Girabbit and a host of other silly characters.) – this scherzo is the car and some of it’s bumps.
4. Great Yawns are in Blossom (The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss)
A slow, sleepy movement, with lots of stretching, and push and pull. (Ha - I think a lack of sleep made me write a romanza for sleeping……) The line that is the title for this movement is so wonderfully descriptive.
5. These Things will not bite. They want to have fun (The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss)
A fun, mash-up provided by Thing 1 and Thing 2, typical “things” who dash about your house bumping into and knocking things over: Fast, careening, and nearly out-of-control.
(these titles have been approved by Kiera and Fiona Campbell, of Bellevue, Washington)
