Program Notes

MADE IN AMERICA – Saturday, March 12, 2011 

Fanfare for the Common Man………………………………………Aaron Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man has anything but common origins.  It began with an early 1940s request from Eugene Goossens (the director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) to write a fanfare powerful enough to serve as the opening piece for each concert of the symphony's 1942-43 concert season. Goossens had asked British composers to do the same during World War I, and wanted to ask American composers for the same during World War II.  He ended up with eighteen overture submissions, but Copland's is the only one that remains a part of modern standard orchestral repertoire.  Although Goossens suggested titles such as Fanfare for Soldiers, Fanfare for Sailors, and Fanfare for Airmen, Copland contemplated very different titles, such as Fanfare for a Solemn Ceremony and Fanfare for Four Freedoms. When he chose Fanfare for the Common Man, Copland received a letter from Goossens that remarked, "Its title is as original as its music, and I think it is so telling that it deserves a special occasion for its performance.  If it is agreeable to you, we will premiere it 12 March 1943 at income tax time."  Copland replied, "I [am] all for honoring the common man at income tax time.”  The original piece is scored for four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, and tamtam, but since its premiere is has also been used by artists including Bob Dylan, Styx, and the Rolling Stones.

Fanfare for an Uncommon Woman…………………………………...Joan Tower
Pioneering in the 1960s as one of very few female composers in the male-dominated composition scene, Joan Tower began work on Fanfare for an Uncommon Woman in 1986 and the first fanfare premiered with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1987.  The composition grew into five fanfares by 1993, when the fifth fanfare was commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival.  The first remains the most popular, with its explosive opening and a use of rhythm that creates a sense of each note rushing down a swift stream to the conclusion.

Three Black Kings (Les trois rois noirs)……………………………Duke Ellington
Three Black Kings was Duke Ellington’s last composition.  His son, Mercer, explains, “He intended it as a eulogy for Martin Luther King and he decided to go back into myth and history to include other black kings. Primitivity, the opening movement, represents [Balthazar,] the black king of the Magi. King Solomon is next, with the song of jazz and perfume and dancing girls and all that, then the dirge for Dr. King. The piece owes its inspiration to a stained glass window of the three Kings Ellington saw in the Cathedral del Mar in Barcelona.”  It was unfinished when Ellington died, which Mercer attributed to his father’s superstition never to finish writing a piece until the day of its first performance. Eventually the symphonic work was arranged as a concerto grosso for jazz band and symphony orchestra by Luther Henderson.

Concerto with winner of Kristo Orthodontics Young Artist Competition 

Symphony No 2………………………………………………………...Charles Ives
Ives began work on his second symphony from 1897 and completed the five-movement work in 1901. Somewhat estranged from the American classical music scene, Symphony No 2 did not premiere until 1951 with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Even then, Bernstein took many liberties with Ives' original score. It was not until 2000 that the Charles Ives Society produced a critical edition of the original score.  It is said that Ives himself was ambivalent about the debut performance, not even attending it but instead listening to a live radio broadcast from a neighbor's house. A highly innovative piece, Symphony No. 2 is an excellent example of an American composition, with melodies loosely built on folk songs.  

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