Franz Waxman (1906-1967): Carmen Fantasie German-born American composer Franz Waxman is well known for the 144 film scores that he composed in Hollywood from the mid 1930s (after emigrating from a darkening Europe), including Bride of Frankenstein (1934), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Rear Window (1954). He was one of the busiest film composers of the time. His Carmen was composed for the 1947 film Humoresque in which an actor ‘plays’ along on screen to Isaac Stern’s sound recording, and for which Waxman received an Oscar nomination. One of the greatest and most influential violinists of 20th century, Jascha Heifetz, asked Waxman to expand this work for him. Being also a brilliant orchestrator, he revived and adapted Bizet’s opera Carmen into his modern, yet poignant mixture of fiery passion and sorrow. James Macmillan (1959~): After the Tryst James Macmillan is a Scottish composer and conductor. He was born in North Ayrshire, Scotland, and attended Edinburgh University and Durham University. He was brought to international attention with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s premier of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990. Macmillan has since maintained a position as one of the world's leading composers. Macmillan’s creative spirit was profoundly influenced by traditional Scottish culture. After the Tryst was composed in 1988, and is one of his earliest published compositions. Composer’s note: After the Tryst is a miniature fantasy based on an earlier setting of The Tryst, a love poem by William Soutar. Written in the Scots tongue, it is an erotic account of a nocturnal assignation, and the violin piece is a reflection of the poem’s intimacy and emotion: A’thru’ the nicht we spak nae word Nor sindered bane frae bane A’thru’ the nicht I heard her hert Gan soundin’ wi’ ma ain. James Macmillan (1959~): Kiss on Wood Composer’s note: Kiss on Wood is an ornamental and highly elongated paraphrase on the Good Friday versicle, Ecce lignum cruces in quo salus mundi pependit: Venite adoremus (Behold the wood of the cross on which the saviour of the world was hung: come let us adore him). This is sung as the crucifix is slowly unveiled and before the people are invited forward to kiss the wood of the cross. The music and title are devotional in intent but can equally represent a gesture of love on the wooden instruments making this music. Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Violin Sonata 1. Andante semplice 2. Lento 3. Allegretto giusto Copland is one of the most well known American composers of the 20th Century. His compositions captured the harmony of American folk songs and contemporary compositional technique. The transparent quality of his harmonization and percussive approaches evoke images of the magnificent American landscape. He was the youngest of five children born to Harris and Sara Copland in Brooklyn, New York in 1900. His parents were Jewish immigrants who arrived in the USA when they were young. He was very close to his sister Laurine, who first introduced him to music such as ragtime, opera, and the basics of playing the piano. He showed his musical gift as a composer at an early age, and started his formal theory and composition lessons when he was 17. He continued his education in Paris with Ricardo Viñes (piano), and Nadia Boulanger (composition) from 1921 to 1924. During his time in Paris he met distinguished artists through his teachers, travelled to other European countries, and was introduced to a wide variety of cultures. Throughout the 1930s and '40s Copland visited Mexico and Cuba, during which he was exposed to Latin American folk songs, which influenced his compositions. These experiences contributed to the topography of Copland’s character as a composer. Copland had an important collaborative relationship with Sergei Koussevitzky, music director of the Boston Symphony from 1924 to1949. In addition, Copland developed a close relationship with Boosey & Hawkes – one that he maintained throughout his career. After Koussevitzky, Leonard Bernstein championed Copland’s music for almost 40 years. His Violin Sonata was composed during 1942-3 as Copland moved from New York to Hollywood, where he was simultaneously working on the film The North Star. The first movement opens peacefully and is later joined by contrasting rhythmical and vigorous sentiments. The middle movement has a meditative tone and transitions seamlessly into the final movement. Copland's use of harmonics, which adds a brilliant spice to this dynamic last movement, came from a suggestion he received from composer David Diamond, who was visiting at Copland’s New York loft at that time. This Sonata was dedicated to his close friend Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham, who died in action in the South Pacific shortly after Copland completed this sonata. Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981): A Song Sonata 1. Quiet and philosophic 2. Same tempo, but belligerent 3. Slow and lonely 4. Madly dancing 5. Gracefully strolling Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer, orchestrator and conductor. He provided orchestration for all or part of more than 300 Broadway musicals and films such as Oklahoma! (R. Rogers), The Sound of Music (R. Rogers), Girl Crazy (G. Gershwin), My Fair Lady (F. Loewe), Show Boat (J. Kern), Annie Get your Gun (I. Berlin), Anything Goes (C. Porter) and many others, and was regarded as the “Dean of American Arrangers” Bennett was born into a highly musical family in Kansas City, Missouri. His father, George Robert Bennett, played the violin and trumpet professionally; his mother, May Bradford Bennett, was a pianist and teacher. Bennett first began piano lessons with his mother, then violin and trumpet with his father. When he was four years old, he was diagnosed with polio, forcing his parents to move out of the city for his health. They bought a farm near Freeman, Missouri where his parents quickly became the centre of the town’s musical activity. Bennett soon became a member of his father’s band where he performed on brass, wind and percussion instruments. The experience with his father’s band opened up his musical potential and inspired Bennett to become a composer and orchestrator. His early composition training came from Danish composer-conductor Dr. Carl Busch, who led the Kansas City Symphony. He spent much of his thirties in Europe where he studied with Nadia Boulanger, one of the most prominent composition teachers in the 20th century. In 1930, he was awarded two prizes for his orchestral pieces Abraham Lincoln Symphony and Sight and Sound at the ‘Victor Symphonic Contest’, where the 1st prize of $25,000 was equally divided amongst five pieces (the other three winning composers being Bloch, Copland, and Gruenberg). Bennett frequently wrote pieces as gifts for very fine musicians whom he'd met or simply heard at their recitals in New York. Great numbers of his non-commissioned works were done for pleasure. His kindness and generosity were an integral part of his personality. His associates and interviewers referred to him as “ the nicest man in the music business”. A Song Sonata was composed in 1947. This was one such non-commissioned piece that was dedicated to Benno and Sylvia Rabinof. The piece premiered the same year in New York. Although it remains a mystery as to exactly why the piece is named A Song Sonata, it may be reminiscent of the Broadway pieces Bennett so prolifically orchestrated. This piece contains five movements, each creating a unique atmosphere. The first movement features a searching and enigmatic scene. The second movement has a restless and aggressive part as well as the beautifully flowing melodic line on the piano, accompanied with the violin's triplets. The third movement has a gorgeous lullaby tone. This is in sharp contrast to the next (4th) movement of continuous triplet figures, which presents an adorable comic character. The final movement has a serious but delightful middle part that is surrounded by a flowing, lyrical tone with fascinating harmonization. William Bolcom (1938~): Sonatina 1. Moderato 2. Andante 3. Allegro Grammy Award-winning composer William Bolcom is one of the most prominent and leading American composers of his generation. He started his private composition lessons with J. Verrall at the age of 11 at the University of Washington. He continued studying with Leland Smith at Stanford University, and with Milhaud and Messiaen in Paris. After returning to the USA he held a number of teaching positions at several universities. During his time at Queens College (New York) and the City University of New York (CUNY), he contributed to the popularization of ragtime and even developed a style of play in the ragtime tradition. He composed his own ragtime, Graceful Ghost (1979) for violin and piano, which became one of his most successful works. Bolcom started his career composing with a twelve-tone technique; the works of Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio particularly inspiring him. His marriage to mezzo-soprano Joan Morris expanded his artistry, and they frequently played concerts and recorded together. Their programmes included some songs by Henry Russell, Henry Clay Work and others. Performing those songs aroused his interests in parlour and music-hall songs from the 19th and 20th centuries. His style gradually developed from the use of twelve-tone technique to his own musical voice. Currently, Bolcom works as a professor of music composition at the University of Michigan. Sonatina was composed in 1958 when he was at Mills College in Oakland, California, studying with Darius Milhaud. Bolcom has said that Milhaud was “quite taken with it”. This piece consists of three movements. The first movement contains two different characters, a peaceful, flowing part and rather sarcastic tune with rhythmical figure. The second movement has a yearning, song-like quality. The last movement has a very energetic motif with a pinch of sorrow and some jazzy moments that highlight this delightfully playful piece.