Harrisburg Symphony Welcome to the Concert Packet

SUITE SOUNDS

Special Thanks to:

Sponsor or the Harrisburg SymphonyMusical Chairs Program

November 9-10, 2013Masterworks 2

Welcome to the Concert begins 45 minutes before each

Masterworks concert outside section 208 of the Forum Lobby.

4’33” (Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds)for Any Instrument or Combination of Instruments John Cage (1912- 1992)Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op. 60 Richard Strauss (1864-1949)Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1 Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Counting in music

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In John Cage’s piece, which opens the concert, there are no notes; there is no sound from the orchestra. The listener must imagine what the music might be during this silence, which lasts for four minutes and 33 seconds. In the last piece of the concert the composer, Bach, uses a lot of notes. If you look at the score for The Brandenburg Concerto the page is almost black with the amount of notes. On this page, see the first page of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. And on the following page, you may see the first page of Cage’s 4’33”.

The Original: John Cage, “4’33″ (In Proportional Notation)” (1952/1953)

ACTIVITY: Make a Folder Cover for your own Welcome to the Concert materials.

MATERIALS: Music staff paper, black pens, blank folders

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Making Music Notation You are invited to take a sheet of music staff paper and make your own notes on the page. Some of you may be familiar with musical notation. For others, this will be an exercise in randomness. And the repertoire for this concert may suggest to you that both are okay. Here’s a printed reminder of where the notes fall on the musical staff……….

After you have finished making your black notes on the music staff paper, you might consider attempting to play your composition on the big music keyboard or on a piano or keyboard at home.

Now that you have filled the staff paper with music notes, we’ll help you attach the paper to the front of your folder as a remembrance of this concert. Can you count how many notes you drew on your music staff?

John Cage: There Will Never Be SilenceA new exhibit has just opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, featuring John Cage’s vision, both as a visual artist and as a composer (and as a unique thinker!). The “notation” for 4’33” will be on display as a part of this exhibition, which is called: There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage’s 4’33”. For you budding composers who wish to see the score, here it is:

http://tinyurl.com/p457sgf

HEAR THE COLOR: MASTERWORKS 2 If you joined us for the first HSO Masterworks concert of the season back in October, you probably already started making your Welcome to the Concert folder and your color wheel. (Remember the green pie wedge with tuba player, Eric Henry’s picture you cut out and affixed to your own color wheel?) The color for the second concert, and thus your second wedge in the color wheel is: BLACK.

The “Color”, Black (adapted from Colors in Art by Silke Vry). In the beginning…. the Earth was totally “desolate” and empty, and it was also terribly, terribly dark. Many people long ago used to imagine the beginning of the world like this. Not particularly appealing, is it?

What color would you see if you could travel in a time machine back to the beginning of the Earth as early people imagined it? Actually you would not see any color at all; only darkness darkness - which IS the definition of black! No sun, no moon, and not a single star would appear in the sky. There would be nothing that could lighten up the darkness even a little bit. How dreary!

Color Quiz: WHERE IS BLACK? Everyone has two places on his or her body that seem completely black. They look this way because no light penetrates them. Sometimes they appear red, which is their real color, but usually you can’t see them like this. What are these places? (Answer on page 10)

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Contemporary Artists: John Cage and Jackson Pollack John Cage was a composer who had different ideas of how to compose music. He liked to “think outside the box” which means his music often sounded different than what we are used to. An artist who lived about the same time, in fact was born the same year as John Cage (1912) and who also thought “outside the box” was the painter, Jackson Pollack. He painted by dripping paint on the canvas, not brushing it on as other artists did.

Here is an activity, related to the painting of Jackson Pollock and related to the thought process of John Cage’s music: Jackson Pollock Drip Painting for Kids

Materials: Paper, poster paints in red, blue, green, brushes

Jackson Pollock was an American painter who believed in abstract expressionist art. He believed art was about movement and more about the creating of it than the actual finished piece. He said, “My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. . . On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides, and literally be in the painting. . . I continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives, and dripping fluid. . . ”

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← Jackson Pollock Painting

Here is one of Pollock’s drip paintings →

Now create some art Pollock-style.

First, you must work on the ground. Don’t allow your brushes to touch your paper at all while painting. Now, fold a sheet of paper in half and then open it again. Put your name on the lower right corner, using a pencil or pen. Fill one side of the paper with drips of different paint colors. Fold the paper again and press the two halves together. Open it up and see the design you’ve created through action painting. Sometimes you’ll find that you’ve formed new colors where the previous colors have mixed together.

• Identify the colors that combined to form new colors in your paintings.• Discuss why Pollock’s work was called “action painting.”• In 1956, “Time” Magazine dubbed Pollock “Jack the Dripper.” Why? What other nicknames can you come up with for him?• Read “Jackson Pollock” by Mike Venezia (from the “Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists” Series). This is a great book for kids ages 4-10.• Choose one of his paintings and write about what you would name it, what you see in the painting, and the kind of mood it puts you in.

What Colors Make Black?Answer: The colors that are mixed together to make black are equal measures of yellow, red, and blue. These are only interpretations that are discernible to the eye, as black is a hue that is absent of color.

http://tinyurl.com/q77pbuq

Try using this idea in your Jackson Pollack painting by using the three colors and seeing if they make black when you fold the paper.

Classical Artists: Bach and RembrandtClassical Musician: Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.5Check out this website to hear the Brandenburg concerto and learn a little more about J.S. Bach, who wrote it.

http://tinyurl.com/o26qxrf

Bach and Rembrandt are from the same period in music history known as the Baroque Period. If you visited the Classics for Kids website (just above) you have seen and heard the music of Bach.

Here are two pictures that Rembrandt painted. Compare it to what the contemporary painter Jackson Pollock painted.

The Night Watch Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642

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Besides the first piece in the concert (Cage’s 4’33”) and the final piece in the concert, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, there are two pieces in the middle, both chronologically (in order of when they were written) and in concert repertoire order (the order in which they are being performed by the Harrisburg Symphony).

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Richard Strauss, 1912, will be performed before intermission andAncient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1 by Ottorino Respighi, 1917, immediately following intermission.

While the Strauss and the Respighi pieces were written approximately 100 years ago, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto was written almost 300 years ago. What a listening treat to hear great music spanning hundreds of years all in one concert!

Both Strauss and Respighi took great interest in the music of the past and both of these composers made lots of musical references to the Baroque period (the time of Bach) and to musical forms of the past. There are lovely dances (Minuets) throughout. There are nine fairly brief movements in this piece, the title of which, translated from the French means “The Would Be Gentleman”.

The nine movements of Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme are here for your listening pleasure:

Mvt. 1 Strauss Le bourgeois gentilhomme Overture www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLJyTxVGWs

Mvt. 2 Minuet www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXk8hbBXkKg

Mvt. 3 The Fencing Master www.youtube.com/watch?v=__1C9JIhczM

Mvt. 4 Entry and Dance of the Tailors www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1wFWUU_le0

Mvt. 5 Lully’s Minuet www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcnzBH7wsZ4

Mvt. 6 Courante www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgVjP0nJL4E

Mvt. 7 Entry of Cleonte www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdC9TlX5h8

Mvt. 8 Intermezzo www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7iASdu2-KI

Mvt. 9 The Dinner www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiy-XItR-Wo

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Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1Ottorino Respighi, an Italian musician (he played the violin and viola), composer and conductor, was also a musicologist. What a talented guy! Can you guess what someone who is a musicologist does? He or she studies music. And so you might imagine that this Mr. Respighi knew about the history of music, since it was a topic he had studied.

As it happens, Respighi had a great passion for Italian music of the 16, 17th and 18th centuries. It might be expected then that in Respighi’s music, sometimes we hear influence of some earlier music. Remember, Respighi was composing in the 1900s, yet the music we hear in such works as Ancient Airs and Dances takes us back to a much earlier time.

Studying the past – learning about the history and the music of an earlier time – was very influential in Ottorino Respighi’s development as a composer and a musician. You may listen to his Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSqymoJeV6s

As you listen to the three movements of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, can you pick out the sound of the three “solo” instruments – the harpsichord, a plucked string instrument (as opposed to a hammered string instrument, the piano) - the violin, a bowed string instrument - the flute, a woodwind instrument? Try listening to the first movement and use this exercise: When you hear the harpsichord sound, gently play air keyboard. When you hear the violin, show us your best violin bowing. And when you hear the flute, play air flute, that is pretend you’re a piper, playing a flute. Do this exercise without making any sounds yourselves. Remember, it’s a listening exercise.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

http://tinyurl.com/l5m73ph

http://tinyurl.com/lkhyr4a

http://tinyurl.com/kvh4hte

WHERE IS BLACK? (ANSWER to question on page 5: The blackest places on your body are your two pupils, which are nothing but circular holes in your eyes. Each exists inside the colorful part of the eye called the iris. Behind each of these openings is the retina, which is well supplied with blood. When you look into the flash of a camera, you later appear in the photograph with flaring red eyes. Why? Because the bright light reaches the blood-red retina, which is otherwise almost always in the dark.)

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MUSICIAN: HSO VIOLA, MARJORIE GOLDBERG

Marjorie Goldberg was raised in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of the Hartt School of Music and is a Suzuki Certified instructor. Marjorie is currently a member of the Harrisburg Symphony and the Philly Pops.

A devoted educator, Marjorie currently teaches violin, viola and ensembles at Waldron-Mercy Academy as well as private lessons and string methods at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Marjorie has performed with Josh Groban, the Trans Siberian Orchestra as well as countless other headlining stars in Atlantic City and on tour.

Marjorie is married to Jonathan Fink, a cellist with the Harrisburg Symphony. Jon and Marjorie live in Philadelphia with their two children.

Get Marjorie’s autograph here__________________________________________________________

Questions for Marjorie Goldberg (she will be at Welcome to the Concert at 7:30 Saturday (11/9) and 2:30 Sunday afternoon (11/10).

1. When did you first start playing the viola?

2. Do you play any other instruments besides viola?

3. What is your favorite piece of music (to play)?

4. How long have you played with the Harrisburg Symphony?

5. Do your children play any instruments?

6. Where do you sit on stage during HSO Masterworks concerts?

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Are there other questions you might like to ask Ms. Goldberg?

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The Harrisburg Symphony’s Welcome to the Concert program features a color wheel to go with a full season of seven Masterworks concerts. We welcome you to make your own color wheel and store it with us in the Welcome to the Concert folder OR, if you will only be attending one concert this season, you might wish to add your wheel wedge in the space provided below.

(Actual size pie wedge 1/8th of the pie.)

Marjorie Goldberg HSO Viola Harrisburg Symphony