Season Sponsor
DR. BRICE ADDISON
Concert Sponsor
Tim & Darcy Wilkinson
2023 - 2024
Chamber Music Series
FAREWELL Chinook Winds CONCERTS
FRIDAY April 19 7pm
SUNDAY April 21 2pm
The repertoire for wind quintet isn’t limited to pieces written specifically for the grouping. Dvorak’s gorgeous American String Quartet breathes another life in this performance.
FRIDAY
The Newberry
420 Central Avenue
SUNDAY
First Congregational Church
2900 9th Ave S
Don't miss these world-class musicians in their last two Chinook Winds Quintet performances!
Chinook Winds
Antonín Dvorák
1841 – 1904
Quintet in F Major, Op. 96
"American"
1893
arr. David Walter transcribed from the original string quartet
1886
20 MINUTES
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Lento
III. Molto vivace
IV. Vivace ma non troppo
Antonin Dvorak was a prolific Czech composer, known for incorporating the folk music of his homeland in his writing. He also famously fell in love with American folk music during his years in the United States, when he came to teach at the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City.
Dvorak spent his first summer in the U.S. visiting the Czech-speaking community of Spillville, Iowa, where he recounted feeling quite happy. It was there amongst the company of fellow Czech speakers that Dvorak became inspired to write his twelfth string quartet, finishing it in just over two weeks and subtitling it the “American Quartet.”
The quartet relies heavily on the pentatonic scale, a tonality that is present in American folk music but is also used in ethnic music traditions across the world. Musicologists debate the presence of other distinctly “American” references in the quartet; to many, the subtitle references little more than the location of its composition.
Composed just a few months after the famous New World Symphony, the American Quartet is one of Dvorak’s most frequently performed chamber music works. In 1986, the work was transcribed for wind quintet by David Walter, an oboe professor at the Paris Conservatoire and a prolific arranger.
Note by Julia Klein
David Maslanka
1943 – 2017
Quintet for Winds No. 3
1999
27 MINUTES
I. Slow, Moderate
II. Moderate
III. Very fast
FROM THE COMPOSER
In recent years I have developed an abiding interest in the Bach Chorales, singing and playing them daily as warm-up for my composing time, and making my own four-part settings in the old style. The chorales now regularly find their way into my music, and have become a significant “leaping off” point for me.
The first movement of Quintet No. 3 opens with the chorale “Ihr Gestim ihr hohlen Lufte” (“Your stars, your cavernous sky”). The movement is a “continuous play” kind of piece. After the chorale there is a sharply contrasting first theme, which works its way over time into a second theme, and this becomes the subject of a short and very pushy set of variations. There is a restatement of the first theme, and the movement ends with a blunt presentation of a new chorale: “Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht” (Christ, you are day and light”).
In the second movement, the chorale “Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist” (“Take courage, my weak spirit”) serves as a backdrop for an impassioned flute soliloquy. This is an intimate and personal music. The movement closes with a simple and uninterrupted statement of the chorale.
The third movement is exceptionally demanding for the performers because of its speed and length. It is something of a sonata form. However, the second theme, which sounds like a chorale melody, becomes the subject of a set of variations. The movement finishes with a partial recapitulation and an extended coda.
Note by David Maslanka