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The Merling Trio performs works by C. Curtis-Smith
C. Curtis-Smith (Curtis O.B. Curtis-Smith), b. 1941 in Walla Walla, Washington, studied at Whitman College with David Burge; Northwestern University with Alan Stout; the University of Illinois with Ken Gaburo; and at Tanglewood with Bruno Maderna. He has taught composition at the University of Michigan and is currently Professor of Music at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
In 1994, Leon Fleisher performed his Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra both on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's subscription series, with Neemi Järvi conducting, and again in Tokyo on the New Japan Philharmonic's subscription series, Chosei Komatsu conducting. Dennis Russell Davies will conduct the work in 1995 with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, Leon Fleisher, piano.
Dennis Russell Davies has performed his Great American Symphony (GAS!) on the "Great Performers Series" with the American Composers Orchestra, and also with the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.
He has received some 75 grants, awards, and commissions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, the Medaglia d'Oro from the Concorso Internazionale di Musica e Danza, the Prix du Salabert, and various awards from ASCAP, the NEA, the Arts Foundation of Michigan, as well as the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award from Western Michigan University.
As a pianist, C. Curtis-Smith has presented recitals at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Recital Hall. Orchestra appearances include performances with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Spokane Symphony, and the Kalamazoo Symphony.
His music is published by Editions Salabert and Theodore Presser.
Second Piano Trio "The Secret Heart of Sound" (1992)
The first movement begins with a 75-note melody which is repeated, varied and expanded through some fifteen "choruses." All the variations and countermelodies are derived heterophonically from this melody. The result is a rich, tightly controlled polymetric counterpoint, not a loosely embellished monophonic line, as in most heterophonic writing.
While my own, this 75-note melody is in essence a sub-Saharan African melody (i.e.: diatonic, with large skips alternating with repeated notes, an overall descending shape, and a certain joyousness typical of much Black African music). Sub-Saharan music seems to me the most joyous in the worldand it is this quality I have tried to capture here. In this music (and in the Sextet for Piano and Winds) I have gone back to the genuine roots of Black African music as found in traditional African societies, untouched by New World jazz, blues, and Afro-American pop music in general.
Belying the happy surface, the rhythmic complexity of the first movement is formidable. (All the more remarkable, then, the Merling Trio's effortless performance here.) The intricate cross-rhythms and polyrhythms are modeled on Ashanti Kete drumming from Ghana. In the Kete ensemble there is seldom a common downbeat; each player begins counting "one" on a different beat or subdivision of the beat.
The second movement is a set of variations on my own setting of the Theodore Roethke poem, No Bird, for voice and piano, from which the subtitle is drawn. This movement provides the needed repose from the rhythmic intensity of the outer movements, and offers, I hope, a deeply felt reflection on Roethke's lovely poem.
Now here is peace for one who knew
The secret heart of sound.
The ear so delicate and true
Is pressed to noiseless ground.
Slow swings the breeze above her head,
The grasses whitely stir;
But in this forest of the dead
The third movement, with its regular pulse (though with plenty of asymmetrical subdivisions), provides a kind of "rhythmic resolution" to the complex cross-rhythms of the first movement. In the coda, the African polyrhythms return, the joyous quality is heightened, and my indication to the players reads, "with the greatest joy and exhilaration!"
The Second Piano Trio was commissioned by, and is dedicated to the Merling Trio, who premiered the work at Weill Recital Hall in New York City in 1993.
Fantasy Pieces was premiered in New York City's Town Hall in 1987 by Renata Artman Knific, with the composer at the piano.
The choice of titles may suggest the Romantic era's penchant for character pieces, as in Schumann's Fantasiestücke.
The echoes in the first piece are more heterophonic than literal. Here, the violin is treated as an extension of the piano reverberations, while in the last piece, Romance, the piano is treated as an extension of the violin (through the use of the piano bowing technique). In both pieces, the piano is strictly limited to the same range as the violin.
The title "Romance" is meant here in the sense of the German "Romanze"a lyrical composition in an idyllic mood. The violin weaves long-singing melodies over the sustained piano bowing, while the central section is a lyrical cadenza for solo violin. Near the end, the piano bowing produces an array of rich partials (up to and beyond the 64th partial), which eventually envelop the violin.
In 1972, I was the first to devise the piano bowing technique, using monofiliament nylon bows (as in the piano piece, Rhapsodies, dating from that year). Since then, the bowing technique has been adapted by composers such as George Crumb, David Cope and Stephen Scott (who has expanded the technique to include up to ten performers bowing a single piano). The bowing in Romance represents my only use of the technique in nearly two decades, having gone on to other things in the intervening years. My use of the bowing technique here is not for the novelty of the sounds themselves, but in order to bring the piano into a closer timbral proximity to the violin.
The Sweetgrass Trio alludes to various vernacular American idiomsfrom fiddle hoedowns to "laid-back" blues to rock. My intention was not the creation of a collage or pastiche on popular styles, but rather an organically expanding form, invigorated and renewed by contact with the vernaculareven the vulgar.
In the second movement, where scherzo = joke, the cello plays a "spoiler" role, akin to Charles Ives' "Rollo." Here, at every opportunity, the cello indulges in an insipid, leisurely turn, always centered around A 440, trying in vain to get the other players to join him on this note. Eventually the others do momentarily humor him in a light A major ragtime-y repast, only to return with a vengeance to an out-of-kilter
chicken-dance, complete with mock funeral march (cf. "The Chicken Speaks" in the coda of the March movement, The Great American Symphony).
As in other works from this period, such as The Great American Symphony (GAS!), I have combined rock-like bass lines and harmonies with the Baroque passacaglia and chaconne. The bass at the beginning of the last movement is a derivation, not a quotation, from a well-known Beatles' song. This passacaglia figure gradually moves into the soprano register, there to become the melodic basis for the hoedown and blues variations, which are transformations of earlier thematic material.
The Sweetgrass Trio was commissioned by, and is dedicated to the New Arts Trio, who premiered the work at the Eastman School of Music in 1983.
Sextet for Piano and Winds (1991)
Much of the Sextet for Piano and Winds is based on and inspired by Sub-Saharan African music. In the first movement, the complex cross-rhythms are modeled on Ashanti Kete drumming from Ghana. Similar to techniques used in the Second Piano Trio, the first movement of the Sextet is built on a 51-note diatonic melody (actually expanded from a basic "cell" of 15 notes). All the melodic motifs in the winds, including the "chorale" in the middle section, are derived heterophonically from this 51-note melody.
In the Shona mbira music from Zimbabwe, the featured singer is usually accompanied by two mbiras (also known as sansa, kalimba, or thumb-piano). This style of singing involves a wide range of vocal techniques, including a type of yodeling, which typically descends from high to low in a zigzagging pattern. It is this style of singing which inspired the descending melodic lines in the second and fourth movements. Here the piano takes the role of the mbiras, though in a simplified rhythm, while the winds take turns with the zigzagging "yodeled" lines.
In the third and fourth movements, the technique of change ringing (permutations of a given number of notes or bells) is the basis for the constantly varying melodic repetitions. In the middle section and the coda of the fourth movement, a highly rhythmic Zambian tune is quoted and developed, ending the piece with a joyous shout.
The Sextet was commissioned by the city of Bonn, Germany and the Stuttgart Wind Quintet, and is dedicated to Dennis Russell Davies and the Quintet, who premiered this work at the Kammermusiksaal Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, in 1991.
Since its debut in 1987, the Merling Trio has quickly taken its place as a premier ensemble. The energy, style, and artistic skill of this trio's young talents have earned it critical acclaim and numerous awards.
Coming from varied backgroundsPolish, Japanese and Dutchthe three first met while students at the Cleveland Institute of Music; they later continued their collaboration while faculty members at the prestigious ENCORE School for Strings.
The trio's repertoire encompasses music of all periods, but twentieth-century American music plays an important part in their programs. The trio made its New York debut in 1993 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with the world premiere of Curtis-Smith's Second Piano Trio, which they commissioned. They have gone on to program the Second Piano Trio for performance in such prestigious halls as Merkin Hall in New York and the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium. They have also given the world premiere to Terry Winter Owens' Homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in collaboration with actor Von Washington.
The three are active as educators in their position as a faculty ensemble-in-residence at the School of Music at Western Michigan University. They have collaborated with other leading artists, and have performed under the baton of such conductors as Matthew Hazelwood and Yoshimi Takeda. Festival appearances include the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Pensacola Summer Music Festival. Performances by the Merling Trio have been broadcast widely on television and radio, including WMUK-FM, WCLV-FM, and WNYC's "Around New York." The trio was named a Finalist for the Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Award in 1994.
Renata Artman Knific, Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, has appeared as soloist and in recital in Europe and throughout the United States. She has been a violin faculty member at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Encore School for Strings, and the Lancut Festival in Poland, and was a member of the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. As a member of the English Chamber Orchestra, she toured worldwide and recorded with many prestigious artists. Festivals include Fish Creek, Skaneateles, and the Santa Fe Opera.
Bruce Uchimura, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, has held faculty positions at the Augusta (Georgia) Center for Creative Arts, Michigan State University, and Calvin College, and is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Western Michigan University's School of Music. He has received degrees from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute. Mr. Uchimura was principal cellist and associate conductor of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and has performed as a member of the Seraphim String Quartet.
Susan Wiersma Uchimura is a Resident Artist with the Merling Trio at Western Michigan University. She holds degrees in performance, theory, and pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of South Carolina. She has been a faculty member at the Meadowmount School of Music, the Encore School for Strings, the Cleveland Institute, and Augusta College. Renowned as a collaborative pianist, she performs regularly with major young artists from around the world.
One of classical music's most innovative musicians, Dennis Russell Davies has a career of unusual scope as conductor and pianist, spanning both sides of the Atlantic. Since 1987 he has been the chief conductor of the Beethovenhalle Orchestra and music director of the Bonn Opera. He has been named chief conductor of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, effective in 1995. Davies also is music director of the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and principal conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
As guest conductor, Davies regularly appears with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic. 1994-95 season highlights include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Lithuanian State Orchestra, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He has conducted the operas of Chicago, Houston, Santa Fe, the Netherlands, Paris, Hamburg and the Bayreuth Festivalonly the second American ever invited to do so.
The Stuttgart Wind Quintet
The Stuttgart Woodwind Quintet was founded in 1960 and has achieved international recognition through numerous concerts in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, England, and the United States. Press notices rank the Stuttgart Woodwind Quintet with the top ensembles of Europe. As evidence of their wide recognition are the many invitations to festivals, including Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen, Bregenz, the Chamber Music Festival in Cambrils, Spain, and the Summer Festival of Vienna.
The Second Piano Trio, Fantasy Pieces, and Sweetgrass Trio were recorded May 8-10, 1994 at Dalton Center Recital Hall, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Sextet for Piano and Winds was recorded July 8, 1992 at the Kammermusiksaal Beethoven-Haus, Bonn.
Producer & Engineer: Gregory K. Squires ·Digital Editing: Wayne Hileman and Arlo McKinnon, Squires Productions, Inc. · Merling Trio photo by Arcadia Photographics.
The support of the Faculty Research and Creative Activities Fund at Western Michigan University, Western Michigan University President Diether Haenicke, and the Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artists Grant Program is gratefully acknowledged.
"No Bird" by Theodore Roethke ©1934 by Theodore Roethke. From: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THEODORE ROETHKE. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Second Piano Trio (18:17)
II. Adagio ("The Secret Heart of Sound") (6:31)
III. With a Brilliant, Driving Intensity (5:47)
III. Nocturne (Aeolian Harp) (4:52)
Renata Artman Knific, violin
I. Andante con moto (5:04)
II. Allegretto Scherzando (4:31)
Sextet for Piano and Winds (18:37)
I. Easily Flowing; Happy (4:29)
II. With a Quiet Joyousness (3:36)
IV. Brilliant and Ringing! (6:03)
Dennis Russell Davies, piano
Willy Freivogel, flute ·Sigurd Michael, oboe
Rainer Schumacher, clarinet
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