November 11 Program Notes
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony No. 32 in G major, K. 318

1. Allegro spiritoso
2. Andante
3. Tempo primo

Mozart had left for Paris with his mother in 1778, with the intention of establishing himself in one of Europe's great cultural centers. Apart from the ballet "Les Petits Riens," however, he found few commissions, and, to his sorrow, his mother died during the trip.

He returned to Salzburg in January, 1779, with an appointment as court organist. The position, for which he was paid 450 guilders, required him to play in church, at court, and in chapel, as well as supervise the choirboys and compose both sacred and secular music.

Obligations regarding his compositional duties were non-specific; he was to "as far as possible, serve the Court and Church with new compositions made by him." One of these compositions was the Symphony No. 32. He completed the work on April 26, 1779: the first symphony he wrote following the trip to Paris, and the first he had written since his K. 200 several years earlier.

Most editions of Symphony No. 32 give it the subtitle "ouverture," and the Breitkopf and Härtel edition calls it an "overture in Italian stile." Certainly, the symphony shows the influence of the overture; there was not a terribly great difference between the two forms in the mid-1700s.

In fact, because it so closely follows the overture style, some musicologists have attempted to identify the opera to which the work "belongs". Alfred Einstein argued that the symphony was the missing overture to the comic opera Zaide, and Hermann Dieters suggested that the work was intended for Thamos, King of Egypt.

Both theories have since been discounted, but at one point Mozart did, in fact, approve the use of the symphony in the theater; it served as an overture for a Viennese production of Francesco Bianchi's opera La Villanella Rapita (The Abducted Country Girl) in 1785.

The opening movement places the trumpets and drums to the fore, preparing the way for a charming, buoyant subject handled by the violins. This sonata-form movement offers an innovation by taking the basso of Baroque tradition and splitting it into parts for bassoon, cello, and bass. Where one would expect the recapitulation, Mozart instead places a grand pause which is followed by the brief, 98-measure andante section. The concluding movement, in the original tempo, follows the andante without pause, and the "missing" recapitulation returns, functioning as a brilliant, lively coda. If one imagines the first subject as an "A" section, the second as a "B" section, and the andante as a "C" section, the symphony is asymmetrical in structure, an A-B-C-B-A form.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony No. 3 in D major

1. Adagio maestoso - Allegro con brio
2. Allegretto
3. Menuetto
4. Presto vivace

Napoleon's occupation of Vienna in 1809 plunged the city into economic chaos, a chaos that continued after he was driven out in 1813.

During this time, the city's musical life suffered; none of the aristocracy maintained private orchestras, and the city's resources couldn't significantly support the arts any longer.

As a result, numerous amateur ensembles were formed, one of which was the Schubert family string quartet. Franz Schubert performed on viola, his two brothers took the violin parts, and his father played cello. Gradually, other musicians joined them, to the point where the ensemble was too large for the performances to be held in the Schubert home.

Violinist Josef Prohaska eventually became the ensemble's director, and the orchestra began performing large scale works, including symphonies of Mozart, Haydn, and Pleyel.

The experience with this orchestra, in addition to the work he did with the student ensemble at his school, gave Franz Schubert a wide exposure to the symphonic music of his day, and it was during these years (1813-1818) that he wrote his first six symphonies. All six were at least rehearsed by one of the two orchestras.

Schubert began composition of his third symphony on May 24, 1815, and finished it on July 9, scarcely one-and-a-half months later. He wrote an astonishing 47 bars in one day, and the original manuscripts show very little rewriting.

The fluidity in composition is matched by a fluidity in the actual work itself. Freeflowing, unhindered, sunny and optimistic, the third symphony represents an advance beyond Schubert's previous two symphonies in its maturity, restraint, and concision.

Another notable characteristic of this work: Vienna was in the grips of a Rossini craze at the time, and the airiness and speedy tempos owe a small debt to the master of Italian opera. Musicologist Mosco Carner finds Rossinisms throughout the work, particularly in the concluding movement: "In addition to the all-pervading tarentella rhythm, the movement is full of simple cadences, unexpectedand noisy tutti crashes, and frequent crescendos, all in the typical Rossini vein."

The work begins, as many of Schubert's symphonies do, with a slow, dramatic introduction (this one in ascending scales) before the clarinet introduces what Ethan Mordden calls its "slightly Tyrolean" first theme.

The second movement is considered one of the composer's best "light" symphonic movements, and, like the first movement, also puts a burden on the woodwinds. Alfred Frankenstein surmises, "obviously, a virtuoso clarinetist had joined the group as the third symphony was set down."

The menuetto movement combines a ländler-like trio with a boisterous, foot-stomping scherzo in the style of a peasant dance, and finally, the work concludes with the Rossini-esque tarantella, a perpetuum mobile with a distinct "buffo" flavor.

After the amateur orchestra disbanded, the first six symphonies went into a period of neglect. They received their formal premieres in London, at the Crystal Palace concerts, between 1873 and 1881. The third symphony was the last to be premiered, heard for the first time 66 years after its composition.

As an aside, when Johann Herbeck, conductor of the concerts of the Society of Friends of Music (in Vienna) unearthed Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony, he could not bear to perform the work "as is." He thus "finished" the "Unfinished" by adding to it the final movement of tonight's work.

Peter Schickele (1935-)
In Memoriam FDR

When composer Peter Schickele was nine years old, he witnessed the funeral cortege of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. This event served as inspiration as he began work on his cello concerto, In Memoriam FDR, which receives its world premiere tonight.

"In 1943, during the war, my family moved to Washington," he says. "My dad worked in the Department of Agriculture, and was in favor of F.D.R.'s policies.

"[When F.D.R. died], the family went downtown to Pennsylvania Avenue for the funeral cortege and that made a big impression on me. It was the first time I ever saw grown-ups crying in public. That was maybe the first inspiration for the piece."

Although the composition is informed by the composer's early impressions and subsequent reading, it is not a "programmatic" work, per se. Schickele does, however, try to capture the spirit and humanity of the president.

"F.D.R. was one of those highly educated people, from a high social background, who also got along with people from all walks of life," he says. "I've been working on a theory that the great presidents all had a good sense of humor. Lincoln did, J.F.K.- who was on his way to being great - did, and F.D.R. had a great sense of humor."

The concern and support F.D.R. demonstrated for workers and artists also provided a good reference point for the composer.

"He formulated a lot of policies that created work during the Depression," he says. "Even today I see this bridge or dam built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. I think it was an inspirational thing."

The composition was commissioned by The New Heritage Music Foundation for cellist Paul Tobias, tonight's soloist. Work on the commission progressed relatively smoothly.

"I rarely have the blank page syndrome of novelists," says Schickele. "If somebody calls me up and talks to me about a commission, I find that, by the time I hang up the phone, I already have ideas.

"I did get terribly stuck with the beginning," he says. "I wrote three or four that I threw away. One of those beginnings I still like and may use in another context, but it wasn't right for this piece."

Stylistically, the concerto draws from Schickele's eclectic interests.

"I'm very much shaped by the Western classical tradition," he says, "but I'm also shaped by jazz and rock and folk music, and world music in general.

"I see a parallel between the social quality of F.D.R. and the musical quality of the piece. Classical music isn't necessarily better than others. I love all kinds of music."

Schickele describes the opening movement as "lyrical and singing," followed by an intermezzo that is "not slow, but easygoing and sort of light-footed."

The lively third movement uses several American folk songs, "Ruby" among them, in an effort to show, in Schickele's words, F.D.R.'s "strong bond with regular folks." The piece concludes with a solemn processional.

José Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958)
Huapango

As composer, performer, and conductor, José Pablo Moncayo was at the vanguard of Mexican music in the early part of the 20th century.

He studied piano with Hernandez Moncaya, and, in his early years as a musician, earned his living playing in jazz orchestras throughout Mexico City. Eventually, he was appointed pianist and percussionist with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico, and later became its conductor.

Moncayo also studied composition with the orchestra's founder, Carlos Chavez. Inspired by Chavez's commitment to indigenous material, Moncayo formedÄ along with Daniel Ayala, Salvador Contreras, and Blas GalindoÄthe Grupo de los Cuatro (The Group of the Four), which dedicated itself to the cause of modern Mexican music. The composers' goal: to express music from their native folklore using contemporary harmonic and contrapuntal techniques.

Moncayo's earliest attempt at this synthesis is Huapango. Sixty years after its completion, it remains one of Mexico's most popular compositions.

The Huapango is a Mexican song form incorporating voice, dance, and instrumental accompaniment. The melodies and structure are generally derived from the music of 16th century Spain, yet the rhythms of the form are distinct to the Americas. Alternating between (and sometimes combining) time signatures, the Huapango offers a brilliant display of complex cross-rhythms.

As for the general tone, Paul Apel, in his Music of the Americas, offers this further insight about the song form: "The (sung) verses usually deal with women and nature. They are romantic, humorous, insinuating, and inclined to burlesque the sentimental."

Moncayo's setting of the form is based on three sones veracruzanos. Its vitality, its variety of textures, its melodic grace, its lively, spacious and powerful material particularly illustrate Moncayo's brilliance as an orchestrator.

In addition to the graceful scoring for percussion, the work offers numerous solo opportunities, notably for trumpet, trombone, and harp.