(total duration: 75 minutes + intermission)

FAENZA CODEX

Constantia

Che pena questa ("How it Pains my Heart")

De tout flors ("Among the Flowers")

anonymous

Francesco Landini (1325-1397)

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

Ballate (2005)

Matthew Greenbaum (b. 1952)

Three Preludes on Gregorian Melodies (1919)

Molto Lento

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Toccata #1, Book 2 (1627)

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

Toccare! (2001)

Jon Magnussen (b. 1967)

intermission

China Gates (1977)   

John Adams (b. 1947)

FAENZA CODEX

Bel fiore danca ("Beautiful Flower Dance")

(untitled)

Aquila Altera ("Proud Eagle")

anonymous

anonymous

Jacopo da Bologna (1310-1386)

Hurucane ("Demon-spirit of the Wind")

Fabrizio De Rossi Re (b. 1960)

Five Incantations (1953)  

Deciso imperioso

Presto

Agitato

Misterioso, soprannaturale

Wild and Strident

Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)

* the Faenza selections were arranged by Blair McMillen

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

Playing the music of the Faenza Codex at the piano for the first time was somewhat of a revelation.  The manuscript contains written-out keyboard improvisation from the early 1400’s: two-voice paraphrases based on 14^th-century song.  Although its origins are unknown, the author of the Codex was certainly a musician well-versed in the performance of music from the period: a performer who desired to leave the legacy of late-Medieval musical intuition to future generations.  

The Faenza’s florid and spontaneous music is full of energy, beauty, contrasts and unexpected moments.  My thought was not only to present this seldom-heard music, but to perform it alongside other selections that might help illuminate it.       

One of the wonderful results in presenting this concert was commissioning two works inspired by the Codex.  Fabrizio de Rossi Re’s background in jazz and improvisation is given full expression in “Hurucane” (Demon-Spirit of the Wind).  The piece includes re-harmonized snippets from the Faenza (including Bologna’s “Aquila Altera”), soaring vocals from both tape and performer, and swirling textures of resonant piano sound.   Matthew Greenbaum’s long-time interest in the music of the trecento and the Faenza Codex is evident in “Ballate.” Syncopation, counterpoint, and sudden meter changes combine to help render a 21^st-century ballata – a piece that is inspired by older techniques, but is unmistakably music of today.  

The other pieces tonight also abound in contrast, but they reveal certain intriguing connections.  Respighi’s prelude delivers an early 20^th-century composers’ perspective on vocal music from the medieval period. Frescobaldi’s music acts as both historical context and introduction: Jon Magnussen’s “Toccare!” is (in part) a continuation and celebration of that most historic of pianistic forms, the Toccata.  The two-voice texture, repetition, and subtle syncopations in John Adams’ “China Gates” precede pieces from the Faenza.  And Giacinto Scelsi’s “Five Incantations” brings us full-circle with spontaneously-created music: the glorious art of improvisation at the keyboard.   

 

-- BLAIR MCMILLEN