Music of Hunter Johnson
Serenade for Flute & Clarinet
Short Sonata for Trumpet & Piano
Three Emily Dickinson Songs
Sonatina for Solo Clarinet
Trio for Flute, Oboe & Piano
HUNTER JOHNSON was born near Benson, North Carolina, in 1906. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Eastman School of Music, graduating from the latter institution in 1929. He did graduate work in composition with Bernard Rogers at Eastman, and later had helpful criticism from Alfredo Casella in Rome.
A partial list of his works includes Symphony No. 1; Elegy for Hart Crane; Piano Sonata; Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra; Serenade for Flute and Clarinet; Music for String Orchestra; For an Unknown Soldier; In Time of Armament; Letter to the World; Deaths and Entrances; Dance Scherzo for Piano; Sonatina for Solo Clarinet; Three Emily Dickinson Songs; North State; Past the Evening Sun; The Scarlet Letter and Short Sonata for Trumpet and Piano.
Johnson is perhaps best known for his much-performed Piano Sonata and for his music for the Martha Graham ballets: Letter to the World and Deaths and Entrances, which have had hundreds of performances in the United States, Europe and Asia by the Graham Dance Company. The music of Johnson has been variously described as neo-classic, neo-romantic and nationalist. It is undoubtedly a combination of all three.
Johnson's awards and honors include the Rome Prize, 1933; Guggenheim Fellowships, 1941 and 1954; the Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1958; an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1960; and the North Carolina Award in Fine Arts, 1965.
Throughout most of his career, Johnson has been deeply involved in teaching, having taught advanced theory and composition at Cornell University and at the Universities of Michigan, Manitoba, Illinois and Texas. In June, 1991 Hunter Johnson was named Composer Laureate of North Carolina, the first such award to be designated by the state.
Completed in Rome in 1934, this work was first performed there in May of that year by Pietro Scarpini.
Revisions in 1948 were intended to achieve greater clarity, concision and performance practicability. Later minor revisions to the work have been incorporated into the performance on this recording.
Stylistically speaking, the sonata exhibits at times a proclamatory and rhapsodic character, and in the more lyric portions an intense romanticism. Although it follows the general outlines of traditional sonata form, the opening theme of the first movement is heard several times in the slow movement, lyrically transformed, as a unifying element. The last movement, a fast, exuberant scherzo, is followed by a coda that includes material from all three movements. A thoroughly assimilated jazz flavor is evident in much of this work.
Serenade for Flute and Clarinet
This little composition, in simple ternary form, evokes both a playful and a poignant atmosphere. It was inspired by a passage describing the sound of flute music in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
Short Sonata for Trumpet and Piano
This work was first performed by Ned Gardner and Ella Ann Holding January 13, 1991, at Johnston Community College, Smithfield, North Carolina.
The structural layout of this sonata is as follows:
I. Prologue and three interludes.
II. Introduction and Allegro Dinamico.
It will be evident immediately that this work does not follow the general outline of traditional sonata form. The prologue is followed by three contrasting interludes played without pause. After a short introduction, the allegro develops material stated in the prologue, followed by a contrasting section, reprise and coda.
Three Emily Dickinson Songs
As in the ballet, Letter to the World, these settings reflect the composer's intense admiration for the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Of an inland soul to sea,
Past the houses, past the headlands,
Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
Of the first league out from land?
My friend must be a bird,
Mortal my friend must be,
If Pain for Peace Prepares
If pain for peace prepares,
If Springs from Winter rise,
If night stands first, then noon,
When from a thousand skies,
(printed with permission of Little, Brown & Company)
Sonatina for Solo Clarinet
As the title indicates, the Sonatina for Solo Clarinet (1953) is a miniature sonata, in essentially traditional form, relying entirely for its effect on a single unaccompanied melodic line. Certain aspects of the slow movement are a reflection of the composer's having once heard an apparent musical "dialogue" between an evening thrush and a mockingbird. This work was written as a melodic study in preparation for composition of the Trio.
Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano
The Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano (1954) was first performed at the University of Illinois in May of 1956. In the first movement, two departures from conventional sonata form are to be observed. In the course of the development section, a new lyric theme is introduced and the coda ends with a slow fantasia-like treatment of material from the exposition. The slow movement, utilizing various compositional devices, evolves entirely from the initial four-bar theme. The finale consists of four sections: exposition, development (which introduces a new theme as in the first movement), recapitulation and coda. The work is essentially neo-classical in style with at times an obvious indigenous flavor. Notes by Hunter Johnson
William Black is a champion of many contemporary American composers, and has played world premieres of works by composers such as Aaron Copland and David Diamond, including the latter's Concertino for Piano and Small Orchestra. Mr. Black also distinguishes himself as an outstanding interpreter of the classics. He frequently performs single-composer recitals featuring works of Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven, and recently made the first recording of the original version of the Fourth Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff for Chandos Records. A native of Texas, Black earned degrees form Oberlin College and the Juilliard School, and studied with eminent teachers Rosina Lhevinne, Beveridge Webster and Eugene List. Since his highly acclaimed New York debut in 1977, Mr. Black has been a featured artist in many of the major music capitals of the world, where audiences and critics alike have responded enthusiastically to the absorbing musicality of his playing. Writing about a performance of Hunter Johnson's Piano Sonata given by William Black, the New York Times observed that "Mr. Johnson's sonata is made of the same knotty, powerful, aggressively American Modernism we prize in the sonatas of Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter. It is a challenging work for both pianist and audiencehard and proclamatory on the surface, imbued with a deep, even nostalgic Romanticism just beneath"
Rebecca Troxler, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, received her training at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Juilliard, and has been on the music faculty of Duke University since 1981. Ms. Troxler has performed with Orpheus, Concert Royale, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, and the Mozartean Players. She appears on the Arabesque label.
Michael Votta studied clarinet and conducting at the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music, where he completed a D.M.A. in conducting. Mr. Votta currently teaches conducting at Duke University and is director of the Duke Wind Symphony. Mr. Votta has recorded for the Partridge label.
A native of Eden, North Carolina, Ned Gardner is a Visiting Artist for the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges, currently in residence at Johnston Community College in Smithfield, North Carolina. He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and holds a D.M.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Mr. Gardner has recorded for the Laurel and Crystal record labels.
Ella Ann Holding is a native of Smithfield, North Carolina and holds music degrees from Salem College and Yale University. She studied additionally at Juilliard and was a Fulbright scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ms. Holding has performed as soloist with the Yale University Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony and currently serves on the orchestra's board of trustees.
A native of Benson, North Carolina, Donna Stephenson gives frequent orchestral recitals and has performed more than thirty operatic roles with such companies as Opera Theater of St. Louis, New York Opera National Company, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Omaha, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy. She is a graduate of East Carolina University and studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Melanie Wilsden McCracken is principal oboe with the North Carolina Symphony, having joined the orchestra in 1989. Ms. McCracken came to North Carolina from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony, the Atlanta Virtuosi, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Savannah Symphony. She is a graduate of Juilliard and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Currently Ms. McCracken is on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a member of the North Carolina Woodwind Quintet.
Recording Engineer: Dwight Robinett
Editing/Mastering: Dave Harris (Studio B)
This recording was supervised by the composer.
The Short Sonata for Trumpet and Three Emily Dickinson Songs were recorded January 3, 1991 at Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina. The Serenade for Flute & Clarinet, Sonata for Piano, Sonatina for Clarinet and the Trio for Flute, Oboe & Piano were recorded June 11-14, 1991 at Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina. Sonata for Piano is published by Theodore Presser; Serenade for Flute & Clarinet is published by New Valley Press; Trio for Flute, Oboe & Piano is published by E.C. Schirmer; Sonatina for Clarinet is published by James S. Sclater; Short Sonata for Trumpet and Three Emily Dickinson Songs are published by Hunter Johnson.
Sonata for Piano (1934, revised 1948)
I. Allegro molto e dinamico (7:35)
II. Andante cantabile (8:29)
III. Allegro giusto (5:54)
Serenade for Flute and Clarinet (1937)
Short Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (1990)
I. Prologue and three interludes (3:38)
II. Introduction and allegro dinamico (5:07)
Three Emily Dickinson Songs
I. Exultation is the going (1957) (1:27)
II. Mortal my friend must be (1956) (2:11)
III. If pain for peace prepares (1959) (2:03)
Donna Stephenson, mezzo-soprano
Sonatina for Solo Clarinet (1953)
II. Largo quasi improvisamente (2:59)
III. Allegro molto (2:28)
Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Piano (1954)
I. Allegro con fuoco (8:15)
II. Adagio serioso (5:39)
III. Allegro molto (7:04)
Melanie Wilsden McCracken, oboe
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