Concert: Works of Bach, Beaser and Others
Saturday, June 23, 2012 - 5PM
Duo Musagete (Jerome Mouffe, guitar and Ben Smolen, flute)
Jordan Hall
$15 Advanced Purchase Online
$20 At the door (cash or check)
$10 Student
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Duo Musagète
Ben Smollen, flute
Jérôme Mouffe, guitar
2 Fugues from 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
- A Major
- E Major
2 Canons from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- D Minor
- D Major
Mountain Songs
Robert Beaser (b. 1954)
- Barbara Allen
- House Carpenter
- He’s Gone Away
- Hush you Bye
- Cindy
- The Cuckoo
- Fair and Tender Ladies
- Quicksilver
Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080 has come down to us in unfinished form, yet its various 14 canons and fugues, all derived from a single theme, remain a miracle of musical invention and economy. The Kunst der Fuge was begun around 1740 and was to become one of the last, great, practically encyclopedic works of the Thomas Kantor. Famously Bach did not specify instrumentation, and the debate continues as to whether this austere work was intended to be performed on a keyboard instrument, an ensemble of instruments or even if it was seen more as a set of proofs of profound musical principles, not even necessarily requiring actual performance. This controversy opens the door to various possible instrumentation such as the one proposed by the flute and guitar Duo Musagete.
Mountain Songs, by American composer Robert Beaser, composed 1984 -5, were dedicated to the duo formed by Paula Robison and Eliot Fisk. With exception of the last movement the Mountain Songs are hauntingly beautiful arrangements of folk tunes from the Appalachian Mountains. Barbara Allen is about a cruel beauty who can only be united to her lover in the afterlife. In the House Carpenter, almost an American Erlkoenig, Beaser sets the anguished syncopation of the song against a rhythmically complex moto perpetuo guitar line. This is followed by the alluring tenderness of He’s Gone Away. Hush You Bye (also known as All the Pretty Little Horses) is a famous lullaby. Cindy is a raucous dance number recalling fiddle and banjo music and truly fit for a square dance. The Cuckoo, set for piccolo and guitar, utterly transforms the original tune into a ghostly fantasy featuring virtuoso passages for both instruments. The cuckoo frequently appears in folk tradition as a representation of infidelity, a theme taken up in bittersweet fashion in Fair and Tender Ladies. The final song, Quicksilver was originally a setting for tenor and piano of the eponymous poem by poet Daniel Epstein. Composed in 1978 when the composer was residing in Rome as recipient of the coveted Prix du Rom, it offers a joyous conclusion to the work with its admonition to catch happiness while you can before it vanishes like quicksilver.
