Blogs

This week, I am sharing pianist Samantha Ege's performance of the second movement from Florence Price's Sonata in E minor.

I have an exceptionally busy week, but I was not about to skip week 5 of this summer listening blog!

This week features a friend, Connor Mikula, and his project Maybe I'll Make My Own Quartet (MIMMOQ). Connor and I attended Michigan State University together, where we studied saxophone with Joe Lulloff. Connor joined "The President's Own" United States Marine Band in 2019, with whom he performs at ceremonies and celebrations throughout the Washington D.C. area, and on concert tours.

The minimalist composer and performer Terry Riley wrote this week's featured work, "Tread on the Trail." When you listen, the first thing you will notice is the use of a pedal tones, the sustained interval heard for the first four minutes. Gradually, this harmony gains life through rhythm, timbre (different saxophones emerging out of the texture), and, eventually, melodic ideas begin to take shape.

The Chinese composer, and Guggenheim Fellow, Chen Yi, composed "Chinese Ancient Dances." Chen Yi came to the United States to study composition in the 1970s at Columbia University with Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. Growing up in Guangzhou, she played the violin and piano until the government split up her family for political reasons, sending some to labor camps, and forcing the others to disperse across the country. Today, Dr. Chen teaches composition at my alma mater, the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

This week's video shows clarinetist Anat Cohen and pianist Fred Hersch's performance of the standard "Jitterbug Waltz," in 2016. Both Anat and Fred are living greats on their respective instruments. I have come back to their interpretation of this Fats Waller tune many times because of their undeniable chemistry, their smile-inducing playfulness, and their seamless shifts between the swing style, rubato, the straight waltz feel, and Waller's hallmark stride style.

My students have a listening assignment each week, drawing from the diverse history of music. For example, my piano students have listened to everything from renaissance era clavichord music, to Ben Folds, and Nico Muhly. Given continuing online lessons, I decided to take this activity online.

I realize I have not posted since starting my doctorate. I hope to start writing more often to expand this website. To begin, I've posted a number of blogs on American pieces written for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet. This research was part of a musicology course this fall.

Suite (1972) – Walter Hartley (b.1927)
SATB
Autograph Editions
11’

Light and Shadow (1977) – Robert Starer (1924-2001)
AATB
MCA Music
5’

Line Drawings (after Mark Tobey) (1978) – Samuel Adler (b. 1928)
SATB
Dorn Publications, published 1979
6’

Samuel Adler and his family immigrated to the U.S.A. just before the start of WWII. He studied composition with Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, and Paul Hindemith. Adler studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky. Adler's professional career included teaching positions at the University of North Texas, 30 years at Eastman School of Music, and time at Julliard. He wrote a large number of text books including the popular, The Study of Orchestration.