LA COMMEDIA
MUSIC OF DANIEL KINGMAN innova 504
http://www.innovarecordings.org
La Commedia: Nine
pieces for solo piano
13:00
1. Harlequin
dances (1:27), 2. Columbine dances (1:16), 3. Pulcinella plays a crude
practical joke (0:58), 4. Love-sick Pierrot sings a mournful song in the
moonlight (2:24), 5. Harlequin does a
magic trick (1:46), 6. Harlequin and Columbine lull Pantaloon to sleep
with a Nocturne (1:37), 7. Pantaloon, duped by Harlequin and Columbine,
complains vehemently about the miscarriage of his designs (1:37), 8. The Doctor
delivers a tedious discourse (1:39), 9. Harlequin performs acrobatic feats
(1:13)
Richard
Cionco, piano
Scenario musical I
for viola, cello, and piano
19:04
10. Preambbule et
caprice (6:24), 11. Menage a trios (4:09), 12. Danse du batelier (2:39), 13.
Rejouissance (5:52)
James Een, viola; Susan Lamb Cook, cello; Richard Cionco, piano
14.
Fantasy-Mosaic: Homage to Stephen Foster
7:37
Richard
Cionco, piano
Dances and Ghost
Dances for two pianos
16:35
15. Allemande
(1:21), 16. Allemande Double
(2:03), 17. Courante (2:00), 18. Courante Double (1:57), 19. Sarabande (2:40), 20. Sarabande Double
(4:06), 21. Gigue (1:14), 22. Gigue Double (1:13)
Betty Woo and Justin Blasdale, pianists
Scenario musical
II for flute and piano
11:14
23. Sonatine (3:20),
24. Petite mazurka (1:11), 25. Rhapsodie sur la mazurka (3:03), 26. Petite
valse (1:52), 27. Tarantelle sur la valse (1:48)
Laurel Zucker, flute; Marc Shapiro, piano
Total Time
68:21
LA COMMEDIA is a set of pieces
based on characters from the old commèdia dell'arte, a type of
improvised comedy in which stock comic characters were placed in various
predicaments (much as in the "situation" comedy of today). Harlequin, with his costume
covered with diamond-shaped patches of many bright colors, was the
quintessential clown; yet he also had an element of mystery. His slap-stick
could become a magic wand. (In this set of pieces, Harlequin does a magic
trick
is a reminder of the ancient spectre-devils of the medieval stage from whom
Harlequin is partly descended.) To play Harlequin it was not enough to be an
actor - one had to be a dancer and an acrobat as well. Harlequin was in love
with Columbine, the clever, witty, coquettish servant,and together the two of them
hatched and carried out their schemes - resourceful survivors in a hostile
world. Pulcinella was a rude, doltish clown, cruel and malicious. Portrayed
typically as a short hunch-back with a large nose, in England he became the
brash, menacing Punch, of the Punch and Judy puppet shows. Pierrot (Pedrolino in
Italian, Petrushka in Russian) was also a clown, but a wistful one, with an air
of pathos. His costume was always white; he was the clown portrayed so
memorably in the paintings of Watteau. Pantaloon, the "first old
man" of the plays, was avaricious, miserly, lustful, slanderous,
quarrelsome, wily yet credulous, and subject to sudden vehement explosions of
fury and invective. He was
invariably mocked and outwitted by clown-servants such as Harlequin and
Pulcinella. The Doctor, the "second old man" of the plays, was the
foolish and loquacious pedant. Always a presumptuous, incompetent busybody, he
was given to making long, rambling, and irrelevant speeches full of
misquotations.
In linking together
the four contrasting movements of SCÉNARIO
MUSICAL I and giving them
titles, I was reminded of the works of the French clavecin composers of the
early 18th century (notably Couperin and Rameau), who, after the fashion of the
time, often gave fanciful titles to their keyboard works. The Préambule
sets
the stage of the musical scenario with an idea forthrightly declamatory and
serious. The Caprice which follows is a kind of fantastic scherzo which
accumulates a demonic energy, and leads to the return of the idea of the Préambule. There is no
satisfactory English translation of ménage à trois. It represents in
this case not a domestic but a purely musical arrangement. The viola projects a
long sung line, occasionally supported by the more reticent cello playing
mostly in perfect fourths. The piano is the most detached; it sings away on its
short intermittent G major phrases, almost as if in another room. This
arrangement proceeds without pause into the Danse du batelier, a movement based on
a popular 19th century American minstrel song by Dan Emmett. For me this is
brought close to home by the phrase in one version of the song "...on the banks of the
Sacramento." The accumulation
of the fugue-like entries (based on Emmett's tune) suggests the broadening of
the great river as it flows south out of the Klamaths, joined by tributary
after tributary from the Sierra Nevada to the east. Finally the Emmett tune can
no longer resist appearing in its clearly recognizable form as The Boatman's
Dance. Réjouissance was a title given to joyous and festive
finales in the 18th century. The present finale begins with another treatment
of the Préambule motive. The Réjouissance proper which follows
expresses, as the name implies, a calm joyousness which contrasts with the
bizarre witchery of the Caprice. The underlying scenario of the trio, then,
is the progression, with diversions, from the troubled fantasy of the Caprice to the tranquil
rejoicing of the Réjouissance.
Listeners to FANTASY-MOSAIC:
HOMAGE TO STEPHEN FOSTER may not, and in fact need not, be aware of the
identity of the six songs by “America’s troubadour” upon
which this brief homage is based. None of the songs is heard in its entirety;
instead, significant fragments, sometimes transformed rhythmically, form
motives which are woven into the fabric of the piece or at times are allowed to
blossom out as “new” melodies. It is not the manipulation of the songs themselves that is
the aim of this piece; rather, it is the evocation of their spirit - a spirit in
which comic gaiety and deep pathos are often inextricably mingled. This to me
constitutes the musical meaning of the familiar phrases which I have known
since childhood.
DANCES AND GHOST
DANCES
adheres to the basic plan of the Baroque suite with its four stylized dances,
each followed by a “double.” In my re-interpretation of these Baroque dances in contemporary terms, the main dances
are played at the keyboard and the doubles are played inside the two pianos.
The term "double" has, in itself, certain ghostly connotations; these
correspond perfectly with what I feel to be the "other-worldliness"
of many inside-the-piano sounds. Each "double," therefore, is a kind
of ghostly commentary on some musical aspect, or gesture, of its preceding
dance.
In SCÉNARIO
MUSICAL II, the opening Sonatine presents in succinct classical form two
distinct musical ideas contrasting in feeling and tempo. The two ideas
gradually become intertwined until they coincide in the return, beginning
pianissimo, of the original fast tempo. The rest of Scénario musical
II
unfolds around two small musical "objects" - miniatures really. The
tiny mazurka and the little valse are each heard as in a dream, and each calls
forth a musical response, the first in the form of a rhapsodie and the second in
the form of a tarantelle.
Daniel Kingman has composed
continuously since the 1940's for virtually every medium. He holds degrees from
Pomona College, the Eastman School of Music, and Michigan State University. His
awards include five resident fellowships at The MacDowell Colony. Recent works
with text include The Golden Gyre, a full evening’s work based on
letters and diaries from the California Gold Rush, and César
Chávez: Gran Hombre de la Tierra for two narrators and orchestra.
Kingman’s works have been published by Theodore Presser, Edwin Kalmus, and
Western International Music, and recorded by the Kronos Quartet, the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet, and the Camellia Symphony. Until his
recent retirement, he taught at California State University, Sacramento. His
extensive work as a conductor has included twelve seasons as Music Director of
the Camellia Symphony, a community orchestra with a reputation for venturesome
programming. Kingman’s scholarship in the field of American music is
evidenced by the publication of his American Music: A Panorama (2nd edition,
Schirmer Books, 1990).
Richard Cionco, praised by Donal
Henahan of the New York Times for his “sensitive pianism,” has
performed throughout the United States. In New York City, he has delighted
audiences in Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and at Lincoln Center.
He made his Washington, D.C.
recital debut at the Phillips Collection, and has been heard on National Public
Radio as well. A winner in many competitions, including the Prague Spring
International Music Competition, he is also a recipient of a Solo
Recitalist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a
career grant from the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts. He earned degrees
from The Juilliard School and the University of Maryland; his major teachers
include Rudolf Firkusny, Thomas
Schumacher, and Audrey Brown. Presently Mr. Cionco is serving on the piano
faculty at California State University, Sacramento.
James Een holds two
undergraduate degrees from Mankato State University, Minnesota, and a Master of
Music from Arizona State University. His teachers include Dr. William Magers,
Marilyn Bos, and Theodore Brunson. Currently in his eighth season with the
Sacramento Symphony, he has also performed with the Arizona Opera, the Phoenix
Symphony, and many chamber music groups including the Chamber Music Society of
Sacramento and Music Now.
Susan Lamb Cook holds the degrees of
Bachelor of Music and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, and a
Performance Degree from the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. She has
performed as soloist and chamber musician in Europe and the Middle East as well
as in this country. Ms. Lamb Cook has performed as soloist with orchestras
throughout northern California, and is heard frequently in solo and chamber music
recitals in the area. She currently teaches cello and chamber music at the
University of California, Davis.
Betty Woo has made major
appearances in London, New York, Beijing, and in her native Hong Kong. She
received a special prize for the best performance of a 20th-century piece in
the Gina Bachauer International Competition, and a special award in the
International American Music Competition. Ms. Woo has appeared as soloist in
recitals throughout California, at such events as the Festival of New American
Music in Sacramento and the concert series presented by the University of
California at Davis and Berkeley. She has given many world and West Coast
premieres of works by composers such as Andrew Imbrie, Donald Martino, Richard
Swift, and Daniel Kingman. At present, Betty Woo is the music coordinator and
assistant professor at Holy Names College in Oakland.
Justin Blasdale made his Carnegie
Recital Hall debut as winner of the Concert Artists Guild Annual Auditions. He
performs extensively in the United States and has also played in China and
Greece. His awards and prizes include the Joseph Lhevinne, the William Kappell,
and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Scholarship Awards, as well as prizes in
the International Bach Competition and the American Music Competition. He has
performed with the San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and China-Wuhan
Orchestras and has recorded for MMC and New World Records, Mr. Blasdale teaches
in the Yehudi Menuhin program at the Nueva Learning Center and is on the
faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Laurel Zucker graduated from The
Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Samuel Baron, and also
studied with Paula Robison at the New England Conservatory. She has performed
with numerous orchestras and festivals in Europe and in the U.S. An active
recording artist, she has brought out six CDs to date on her own label, in
addition to recording with orchestras in Hungary, Russia, and Israel. Her many
awards include ones from Artists International Competition, The New York Flute
Club Competition, and The National Flute Association Competition. She is
currently Professor of Flute at California State University, Sacramento.
Marc Shapiro received his B. M.
And M. M. from Peabody Conservatory. He has performed as principal keyboardist
with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Chamber
Music West, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, and with such distinguished
musicians as John Mack, Elaine Douvas, and Philip Myers.
Cover Art: Pat
Musick
Recording engineers: Victor
Pietrzak; Don Ososke (for Scénario musical II)
Piano technicians: Brad
Larson; Peter Clark (for Dances and Ghost Dances)
Special thanks to: Music
Dept., California State University, Sacramento
Larick
Piano and Organ Company
Design Direction: Adam Kapel
Executive Producer: Homer
Lambrecht