By Bryce Christensen
Hailed as “the quintessential American composer” by the BBC,
Aaron Copland just had to appear on the program when the Orchestra of Southern
Utah (OSU) opened their 2016-17 Legacy Season at Cedar City’s Heritage Center
on the night of October 13th with a concert devoted to the “American
Legacy.” And there he was—featured as
the composer of the evening’s culminating number, the foot-stomping favorite “Hoe
Down” (from Copland’s Rodeo), performed
by an extraordinary ensemble that combined the musicians of the OSU with those
of the Cedar High School’s Advanced Orchestra, coming together under the baton
of OSU Assistant Conductor Carylee Zwang.
But before their pulses quickened to irresistible rhythms of Copland’s
celebratory paean to the American West, the listeners gathered in the audience
thrilled to a wide range of other musical offerings, all reminding them of the
nation’s musical heritage.
In extending a warm welcome to the audience, OSU President
Harold Shirley reminded listeners of America’s remarkable accomplishment in
breaking free from European tutelage in music, so creating our own indigenous
musical identity. The character of that
American musical evening began to emerge in the evening’s first three numbers,
performed by talented guests who would return to the stage for the evening’s
last two numbers, including Copland’s masterpiece. Members of Cedar High School’s Advanced Orchestra,
these special musical visitors performed under the direction of Christina
Carrigan, who had well primed her students for their moment in the
limelight.
Ironically, though, this youthful CHS group moved into the
limelight with “Darkened Shadows,” an intense and moody number penned by Joshua
Reznicow, a contemporary American composer with roots in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Its opening passages taut with tension, this
number opens onto reflective and pensive themes suggestive of Americans’ more
sober and meditative moods.
The Cedar High ensemble next turned to “She Will Hang the
Night with Stars,” a liquid composition redolent with melancholy and rich with
the pathos consequent to irrecoverable loss.
Inspired by a passage from De
Profundis--a sorrowful life assessment that Oscar Wilde penned in his
British prison cell--this music of soulful yearning compellingly establishes
that an American composer can cut his own path to the kind of bittersweet
pathos associated with the work of European masters such as Wagner or Rachmaninoff. A native of Chicago, William Hofeldt—composer
of this beautiful piece—clearly knows something of that boundary of the psyche
where light dawns on dark despair. And
with interpretive dexterity remarkable for musicians so young, the CHS
Orchestra transported the audience to that liminal region.
As the third selection of the evening, the Cedar High
Orchestra performed “Overture to the Wind” by the Missouri-based composer Kirt
N. Mosier. A many-textured composition,
this Overture breathes at points with the gentle stirrings of a pleasant breeze—perfectly
conveyed by a dialogue between solo violinist Hannah Klassen and solo violist
Hannah Bradshaw--but then swells through the entire orchestra into the powerful
gusts of a tremendous storm. The CHS
orchestra again demonstrated superb musicianship in conveying the varying moods
of this piece, the two soloists meriting particular praise for their nuanced
renditions. As OSU President remarked in
welcoming the CHS Orchestra to the concert, these young musicians represent the
future of OSU.
As the CHS Orchestra left the stage and the stage crew began
preparing for another group of guest performers—namely Southern Utah
University’s Jazz Band, yet a third group of guest artists--the Hen Hao
Fiddlers—took to the aisles of the Heritage Center to make the break musically
delightful. Local favorites in recent
years, these lively and spirited fiddlers take their name from a Chinese phrase
meaning “very good,” having picked up that phrase while visiting China in 2011
as ambassadors for American music. And
no one in attendance would dispute the aptness of this group’s name, for they
are indeed very good. Recreating the
atmosphere of a cowboy square dance on the frontier, these dyed-in-the-wool
American musicians reminded the audience of how homespun music once sustained
the spirits of America’s settlers on the frontier—and continues to delight
their descendants.
American music in a more modern vein received attention as
the Hen Hao Fiddlers yielded the spotlight to SUU’s Jazz Band—under the
direction of Thomas Herb. This group of
jazz artists started with “In the Mood,” a brass-and-sax celebration made
popular by the legendary Glenn Miller.
With its swinging, syncopated rhythms and it buoyant tone, this
crowd-pleasure effected a bit of musical time travel, taking the audience back
to the America of the Big Bands. Completing
this time-travel magic were the mellow saxophone solos of Ethan Patrick and
Johnny Ruhr and the luminous trumpet solo by Kirk Bevan.
The title of the Jazz Band’s next selection-- “April in
Paris”—pointed beyond the confines of the country being celebrated in this
American-legacy concert. But Vernon Duke’s
catchy composition--first performed in 1932 in America’s own Big Apple as part
of a Broadway revue—lives in the memory because of brilliant renditions by
great American performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count
Basie, Thelonious Monk, Tommy Dorsey, and Frank Sinatra. In any case, a great many American
luminaries—including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hart Crane, and Ezra
Pound—have made France’s City of Lights the place where they made distinctively
American literature. No doubt the shades of these departed musical
and literary artists were listening in as SUU’s jazz musicians moved effortless
from the silky smooth opening measures of this number into the more boisterous
later passages, with Joe Palmer on trumpet and Carvel Allen spicing things up
with their salty solos.
The final number performed by SUU’s Jazz Band, “Night in
Tunisia”—like “April in Paris”—might refer to geography beyond the United
States, but its jazz magic was born in the Forties in New York City (even if
composer Dizzy Gillespie facetiously claimed he’d written it in Texas on the
bottom of a garbage can). From its
pyrotechnic opening through its free-wheeling interplay between pert percussion
and saucy brass, “Night” still conveys a street-savvy musical artist’s sense of
unscripted creativity. Austin Clark’s
trumpet solo in this mamba-themed version of this number was nothing short of
dazzling, with laudable secondary solos from Joe Palmer and Ethan Patrick. As the SUU Jazz Band left the stage for Intermission,
listeners had to see that this group is a secret too well kept: professional in
the quality of their music, this ensemble deserves a wider circle of listeners!
After the Intermission, the Orchestra of Southern Utah took
the stage for the first time, opening their part of the program with a composer
who just might compete with Copland for the label
“quintessential American
composer”—namely, John Philip Sousa.
Famous for declaring that he wanted to write marches that would “make a
man with a wooden leg step out,” Sousa succeeded in his “Free Lance March” in
kindling his listeners an acute desire to do some high stepping—or at least
some vigorous toe-tapping. Of course,
some of this desire reflected the spirited way in which Zwang led the OSU
through a rendition melding a martial sense of pride with boundless patriotic
zeal.
The Italian Ennio Morricone--not an American--was
responsible for the next number, “Gabriel’s Oboe,” an excerpt from the
soundtrack from The Mission, a 1986
film about the courageous men who carried their faith from Europe to the New
World. And though the film is set in
South America, the theme still connects with the spiritual devotion of many who
settled the United States. A poignant
and tender evocation of the spiritual yearnings that sustained these
missionaries through adversity, this number featured a masterful solo by Brad Gregory,
who made his oboe an angelic voice of transcendent hope.
No missionary in the conventional sense, Duke Ellington was nonetheless
impelled by his own brand of evangelism as he wrote, performed, and conducted
the ragtime jazz he proudly called “American music.” Something of Ellington’s infectious
enthusiasm for that music breathed through OSU’s “Caravan.” Zwang and the OSU musicians under her
direction conveyed the restless, sinewy, and salutatory authenticity of
Ellington’s musical Americanism.
But Ellington owned no monopoly on ragtime Americanism. In the evening’s penultimate selection, Scott
Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” listeners relished the genius of another great
American ragtimer. Meeting the challenge
of this composition’s kinetic syncopation, OSU joined forces with CHS’s
Orchestra—beneath a baton wielded by CHS’s Christina Carrigan-- to deliver a
sparkling and effervescent rendition of this jazz classic. Solos by trumpeters Rich McMaster and Laura
Bird plus trombonist John Sutherland channeled Ellington’s ragtime genius.
And then, with Copland’s “Hoe Down,” when OSU’s Carylee
Zwang again took the podium, the concert ended where the audience knew it had
to—with the acclaimed “Dean of American composers,” the leg-slapping beat of
his “Hoe Down” perfectly summing up the irrepressible dynamism that tells a
listener: This is American music!
Regulars at OSU concerts no doubt missed seeing that
American-by-naturalization OSU director Xun Sun, whose musical passions have
done much to enlarge Cedar City’s musical horizons in recent years. But Zwang brought to the podium her own
impressive musical abilities and clear commitment to maintaining high musical
standards. Called on to fill in while
Sun is on sabbatical leave from the university, Zwang deserves special
commendation for doing so with her own charisma and verve. Also deserving of special commendation are
the concert organizers who brought in three guest ensembles—Cedar High School’s
Advanced Orchestra, the Hen Hao Fiddlers, and Southern Utah University’s Jazz
Band—their presence reminding listeners that American music is all about
bringing diverse groups together in shared musical joy!
