"Virginia Symphony"
TR589
John Powell
Symphony in A Major “Virginia Symphony” and Shenandoah
Virginia Symphony, JoAnn Falletta, conductor
JoAnn Falletta, Music Director and Conductor
An effervescent and exuberant figure on the podium, JoAnn Falletta currently holds the position of Music Director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (since 1991) and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Winner of the Stokowski Competition and the Toscanini, Ditson, Bruno Walter and the 2002 Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Awards for conducting, Ms. Falletta is the recipient of eight consecutive awards from ASCAP for creative programming, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League's coveted John S. Edwards Award. As a leading authority on orchestral repertoire and a champion of contemporary music, she has performed over 6- world premieres. Her growing discography includes over 25titles. A native of New York City, Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree from the Mannes School of Music and her master's and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School.
John Powell
Symphony in a Major, “Virginia Symphony”
Virginia-born pianist, composer and ethnomusicologist John Powell received most of his primary music training at home, with his sister as his first piano teacher. He subsequently attended the University of Virginia and then traveled to Vienna where he studied piano and composition. He debuted as pianist in Berlin in 1907 and toured Europe extensively before WWI, returning to the United States after the war broke out. He settled in Richmond, performing extensively around the country, especially his own compositions, and eventually moved to an estate near Charlottesville, Virginia. Powell was also an amateur astronomer, awarded honorary membership in the Societe Astronomique de France for the discovery of a comet.
Powell was a respected composer, his major compositions being a violin concerto, a piano concerto, an orchestral suite, two string quartets, two violin and piano sonatas, two collections of folk-song settings for voice an piano, four piano sonatas, three piano suites, the Rhapsodie negre for piano and orchestra, and the Symphony in A Major.
Powell's most important work was probably his methodical collection of rural songs of the South, many of which he arranged for voice and piano; the best known is probably the Five Virginia Folk Songs, Op. 34. His extensive collection of folk material is housed in dozens of only partially catalogued boxes in the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He helped organize the White Top Folk Festival near Abingdon, Virginia, which specialized in music of rural America, especially the Appalacian region. The Festival was started in 1931 and continued until the early 1940s. In line with Powell's conservative agenda, spirituals, gospel hymns and protest songs were taboo - an odd blind eye, considering the wealth of original work and protest songs in the coal mining area of Virginia and West Virginia. Thus, the flier that announced the first festival specified that “Only old time music [will be] considered in the contests: on modern songs, tunes, or dances.”
Powell's reputation has been tarnished by his racial views, which, while applauded by many in the first half of the century, became totally unacceptable later in his life. He was a strong supporter of eugenics and helped the Anglo-Saxon Club of America, dedicated ”…to maintain the qualities and purposes of the Anglo-Saxon Race.” The club was instrumental in passing the Virginia Racial Integrity Law in 1924.
Powell finished his Symphony in A Major in 1945 but revised it extensively in 1951 and subtitled it Virginia Symphony (actually originally Symphony on Virginia Folk Themes and in the Folk Modes). It is the result of Powell's decades of searching out old melodies still roaming the Virginia countryside - songs that were old when the first queen Elizabeth was young. Instead of the usual major minor scales we are accustomed to, he based his music on the medieval modes of the old songs.
Unfortunately, Powell's extensive collection remains unpublished so that it is almost impossible to identify the sources for the individual melodies within the Symphony. The general style of the work is grandiose, employing the late Romantic Germanic orchestration in which Powell was trained. His melodic material and his style are understandably reminiscent of that of Ralph Vaughn Williams, who was Powell's contemporary and counterpart in the collection of British folk melodies, and whose collections probably overlap considerably. At other times, his music recalls the long Celtic symphonies of Arnold Bax and Granville Bantock.
Listeners will recognize traditional Scottish elements in the dance-like allegro of the opening movement. Like Vaughn Williams, Powell uses the technique of combining more than one tune contrapuntally.
The second movement is slow, within the standard symphonic tradition, beginning with a lyrical ballad-like melody. Powell then spins out the movement in free variations of the original theme, combining it with shorter motivic elements and making great use of asymmetrical phrasing. A middle section introduces a new theme along the same vein as the first, featuring lovely solos for the woodwinds and followed by a varied reprise of the opening.
Powell replaces the expected scherzo of the traditional symphonic form with a third movement in the same slow tempo as the second, but utilizing many shorter melodies. The mood of the movement is more melancholic and dramatic, as if recounting a long epic tale. Not surprisingly, this is the most Wagnerian of the movements and the longest.
The fourth movement continues in a similar vein with a slow introduction but breaks into a series of (Virginia?) reels. But this is a grand finale, and the lightness of the dance is combined with grandiose symphonic statements a la Elgar. New tunes are added to the roster of reprises from other movements. The mood is definitely variable but ends on an uplifting note.
Shenandoah
One of the country's most popular folk songs, Shenandoah, probably started as a river shanty (chantey) west of the Mississippi, but quickly migrated down to the sea where it was used with the windless, capstan, and with winches for loading cargo. It was tremendously popular in the mid-19th century both on land and sea. The song was known under many names and was traditional with the U.S. Army cavalry in the West who called it “The Wild Mizzourye.”
While the cavalry fought the Indians out West, they often also fell in love with their women. Shenandoah was supposedly an Indian chief living on the Missouri River, and one story is that a trader fell in love with his daughter.
The song, said to date back at least to the 1820s, appears to incorporate both Irish and African-American elements. Arranger Carmen Dragon (1914-1984) was a conductor, composer and arranger, especially for movie stars who could not read music. He made easy-listening instrumental arrangements of many patriotic, folk and popular songs, as well as some classical works.
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
The Virginia Symphony has enriched the communities of Hampton Roads for more than 80 years, offering over 140 classical, pops, family, educational, and outreach concerts, including orchestral support of the highly acclaimed Virginia Opera. The 42-week season runs from September through June. The symphony has earned its reputation as one of the country's top regional orchestras. Under Music director JoAnn Falletta's leadership, the orchestra has risen to new artistic heights. In August 2000, the Virginia Symphony was accepted into the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, officially entering the “major league” of symphony orchestras. Eight compact disc recordings of the Virginia Symphony are available. More information is available online at www.virgiasymphony.org.
John Powell:
Symphony in A Major
Allegro non troppo ma con brio
Allegretto Sostenuto
Adagio
Grave; Moderato intense;
Presto con tanto
Traditional:
Arr. Carmen Dragon
Shenandoah
Recorded September 7 and 8, 2001, Chrysler Hall, Norfolk, Virginia
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