Holst, The Planets – Astrological and Astronomical

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Marlene’s Musings
April 11, 2017

Holst, The Planets – astrological and astronomical

I have been wishing for the opportunity to conduct The Planets by Gustav Holst ever since a friend suggested I listen to it. We had just seen Star Wars (1977) and I was raving about the music saying that no one had ever written anything like that before. Naïve Marlene learned pretty quickly that I was totally wrong!

Mars, the Bringer of War

During the time of writing, Holst was interested in astrology. He was also living in a world about to unleash the horror of WWI.  Mars is the Roman god of war, whose red color symbolizes blood.   Holst wrote “hackles-raised” music using an unrelenting, brutally rhythmic motive in 5/4 time which the string players execute with the wood of their bows. The sound of wood on strings conjures an image of an approaching army bearing spears and shields.

Venus, the Bringer of Peace

The contrast between Mars and Venus is striking. The goddess of love and beauty is depicted right off the bat with a gorgeous horn solo. Throughout the work there are lovely solos for violin, cello and oboe. This is sensual, loving music with a backdrop of celestial, heavenly sounds from celeste, glockenspiel and harps. The music is not simple, far from it.  How interesting that Holst wrote music of great complexity to describe peace.

Mercury, the Winged Messenger

Fast, light, short. We wouldn’t expect any less from a winged messenger! Aside from the speed of the piece, a further challenge resides in the fact that there are two different keys (Bb and E) and two different rhythms right on top of each other throughout most of the piece. Holst loved this technique and did it often in his works. One would think it would feel unsettling or discordant – NOPE!  Just, really interesting!

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

This is one of my favorite pieces in the entire orchestral repertoire, in fact, at our wedding, my husband and I processed to the Hymn that is at the center of the movement. And, while I was Artistic Director at GTCYS, I made an arrangement of the Hymn for all 500 kids to play en masse at Orchestra Hall for the year-end concert.

There are at least five jolly themes spun in glorious ways and offered to every section within the orchestra.  In Roman terms, Jupiter was the leader of all the Gods and represented divine authority and was associated with freedom, exploration and merrymaking. Holst described him perfectly!

Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age

The youthful exuberance of Jupiter is now replaced by the inevitable coming of old age. Holst first describes the approach of life’s last years – worry about being alone, the vanishing of friends, the failing of our earthly bodies, the closing of a familiar chapter. The basses play a very slowly moving theme that seems to suggest defeat. Then, Holst bestows the trombones with a chorale that is the voice of wisdom. There is a sense of acceptance of an ordered hierarchy of nature. The piece ends so beautifully with harps, celeste and high strings bringing things to an apotheosis.

Uranus, the Magician

This is such a fascinating piece for a conductor to study. There is one four-note motive that opens the piece. Immediately it is repeated in the tuba at double speed and then repeated again, in the timpani, at quadruple speed. Holst IS the magician because throughout the entire movement that same four-note motive is heard at many speeds and iterations – even played upside down, 12 times in a row, in a flurry of woodwind writing. At the end, there is a sudden collapse of sound as if the magician has made himself disappear. The music is slow and very quiet. But, the motive returns for a couple seconds to remind us of our magician’s dramatic skill.

Neptune, the Mystic

Neptune, in Roman mythology, is the god of the sea, and the deep blue color of the planet reflects this. Holst subtitles it the Mystic. Astrologers associate the planet with illusion, confusion and deception. No wonder, then, that Holst uses the composition technique of bitonality. There are many chords that are made up of a minor chord playing simultaneously with a major chord (e minor plus G# major, for example). There are no real melodies, just bits and pieces of melodies. At the end a woman’s chorus begins to sing without words. They are the ones who end the piece imperceptibly, suggesting the ongoing universe, far beyond our current ability to explore it.

 

 

Youthful Inspiration

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Marlene’s Musings
July 25, 2016

During the summer when the WSO is off, I do other fun stuff.

For the past 7 years, I have been very fortunate to conduct the showcase concert for the Young Artist World Piano Festival held in St. Paul each summer. Two winners are chosen from the competitors who come from all around the globe: one winner age 8 to 12, and one winner age 13 to 18.

Every contestant plays the same piece. This year, it was Mozart Piano Concerto #17, 1st movement and Schumann Piano Concerto.

Finale Concert-54The talent is incredible.  Everything is in place from each competitor – no one makes mistakes or plays wrong tempi or has memorization lapses. These are young people who have gone way deeper than the tip of the iceberg. Their fingers fly! And their personalities emerge so clearly. That’s what happens when you go deep. Notes, rhythms, articulation, dynamics – that’s the beginning. When you can get beyond all that (after hours of practice, of course) the magic starts and the muse, who now knows you’re serious, visits you with an invitation to let your heart and soul speak. To be a listener when that happens is to feel something indescribable. You feel privileged to be present. Perhaps you can imagine the humble joy I feel as conductor of the orchestra whose job it is to accompany these wunderkinds.

Next up for me:

LAMF-LogoI’m gearing up to conduct a program called Bedtime Stories for the Lakes Area Music Festival. I get to conduct some of my favorites – Berceuse and Finale from Stravinsky Firebird; Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade; Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Libby Larsen’s wind octet, Jack and the Beanstalk based on Roald Dahl’s irreverent telling of the age-old tale.

This orchestra is made up of musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and many other national orchestras who come to Brainerd to enjoy the beauty of our lakes.

If you’re in Brainerd on Sunday, August 7 at 2:00, come to the free concert but come early – it’s always a packed house.

Bedtime Stories

Why do family concerts?

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Marlene’s Musings
April, 2015

The Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, had never heard an orchestra until his father took him to St. Petersburg to enroll in the College of Naval Cadets. He was 12 years old. When he went to the opera it was not the stage spectacle or the singing, but the great sound rising from the pit that excited him most. Early in 1857, he wrote home:

Imagine my joy, today I’m going to the theater! I shall see Lucia! I shall hear the enormous orchestra and the tam-tam!

That is the kind of experience many musicians tell of their first exposure to music. For me, it was hearing Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite for the first time. For others, it was when the MN Orchestra came to their elementary school to give a concert. And for many young New Yorkers, attending Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic established a life-long love of music.

KidsThat is why I love conducting family concerts. To present to young ears the incredible spectrum of sound in the orchestra, to welcome them in to the sensory experience that only music can provide, to draw attention to the fact that all those instruments are “speaking” volumes of meaning without words. And, most importantly, to let them know that it is their birthright to participate. Robin Williams once said,

“You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in the universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, everywhere, even in the stars.”

Music is organic to the earth and therefore, to us.

MarleneJackLR

For our family-friendly concerts on May 3 and May 9, we will feature all those glorious sounds, section by section, and then join forces for Rimsky-Korsakov’s masterfully orchestrated Capriccio Espagnol and Klaur Badelt’s, Pirates of the Caribbean. There might even be a visit from Jack Sparrow!

World Premieres by Daniel Kallman

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Marlene’s Musings
April, 2014

Studying scores is a blast for me. But, studying a score that is brand new is even better. Holding a new score in your hands is a humbling thing, sort of like holding a new-born baby in your arms. You feel the wonder of a new creation and you feel the tremendous responsibility to try and nurture its path forward. The task is to figure out what is there, beyond notes, rhythms, articulations and dynamics. You try to get deeper. It takes a long time of study to begin to do that but when the desire is there, the time to do it becomes inconsequential.

Sea Creatures
DanKallmanI have known of Daniel Kallman’s music since hearing a piece he wrote years ago, performed by Plymouth Music Series (now Vocalessence) under the direction of Philip Brunelle. Since then I have heard many more of his masterful creations, performed by MN Orchestra and many other ensembles. In 1997, I commissioned Dan to write a work for Halama Wind Octet. We premiered Sea Creatures at Wayzata Community Church and it was recorded by MPR. It is a fabulous piece that has been published by Boosey and Hawkes and is now performed all over the world.

Dan and I have talked for several years about trying to procure the funding for the full orchestration. With help from the MN State Arts Board, the dream has come to fruition. Sea Creatures is a six-movement work. Prior to each movement, there is narration concerning aspects of the earth’s oceans. The four middle movements – Dolphin, Puffer Fish, Moray Eel and Shark – are musical descriptions of those remarkable creatures of the sea.

Jabberwocky
MNBoyChoirWSOAs part of the MSAB grant, Dan has also written a piece for the amazing MN Boychoir, directed by Mark Johnson. The piece, Jabberwocky, uses the text from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. The text uses lots of portmanteaus. For example, “galumphing,” “frumious,” and “huffish.” Dan’s music brilliantly ‘paints’ the made-up words. I’m certain this piece, along with the fully orchestrated Sea Creatures, will get many future performances by ensembles nationally and internationally.

What a thrill to be the facilitators of their first performances!