** IAIN BURNSIDE ADRIAN THOMPSON MARY KING • SONGS FROM THE OLD & NEW World's PROGRAMME 23-3-92 Supptal by ARTS COUNCIL

IAIN BURNSIDE (PIANO) ADRIAN THOMPSON (TENOR) MARY KING (MEZZO SOPRANO) KESAN 932 Two leading British singers team up with the Scottish-born pianist lain Burnside in this exciting and unusual programme. Mary King has become well-known for her roles at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and at Glyndebourne, and she also appears regularly on the concert platform in Europe and America. Adrian Thompson is a regular visitor to the PROGRAMME TCHAIKOVSKY I think of youOp 47 no 6 Serenade Op 63 no 6 In my thoughts Op 27 no 1 Through the window Op 63 no 3 RAKHMANINOV Day to Night Such a fate Music Arion BARTOK Village Scenes BARBER Nocturne Op 13 no 4 According to Hugo Riemann, writing in 1882, song is "the union of a lyric poem with music, in which the sung word replaces the spoken word, while the musical elements of rhythm and cadence inherent in speech are heightened to... rhythmically ordered melody". While such a definition is concerned primarily with the European song tradition since the Renaissance, the relationship between words and music which it suggests, and the response of a composer to his or her chosen text are broad features common to the song traditions of many different cultures across the ages. In some cases, this has manifested itself through word-painting that is, the use of a particular musical idea to depict a word or phrase of the text - but it is more commonly the emotion or overall mood of the text which the composer province. He is much in demand as a soloist throughout Britain and Europe in operatic, oratorio and recital work. Both singers appear regularly with Iain Burnside whose innovative recitals have received great critical acclaim in the U.K. As accompanist and chamber musician Iain has become especially associated with St. John's Smith Square and the South Bank. I hear an Army Op 10 no 3 In the Wilderness Op 41 no 3 Monks and Raisins Op 18 no 2 AGUSTIN FERNANDEZ The Song of the Morrow MONTSALVATGE Canto negro GINASTERA Triste Zamba GUASTAVINO La Rosa y el Sauce GINASTERA Gato seeks to capture through the music. As Samuel Barber said: "(when) I'm writing music for words, then I immerse myself in those words and I let the music flow out of them". Vocal music formed a significant part of Barber's output (one of his earliest compositions was a short opera called "The Rose Tree'). He was a fine singer himself and even considered a career in singing for a while. For many other composers, however, instrumental composition has taken precedence over song, though the flowering of nationalism during the 19th century and the growing interest in, and research on the folk music and folk songs of different countries this century have had an influence in both genres. Bartok was one of the first composers this century to pursue a

and as a nd Europe cital work ☛ly with tive recitals acclaim in nd chamber -specially Emith : D3 no 2 Z e music. As :n) I'm en I ords and I lem". ificant part his earliest pera called a fine singer ed a career in any other umental cedence over of h century 1, and and folk s this tice in both the first ursue a ST thorough investigation of indiginous folk musics, concentrating particularly on those of his native Hungary and Rumania, which was to have a direct effect on his own compositional style. In particular, the natural rhythmic inflections peculiar to the Hungarian language dictated the rhythmic and melodic contours of his melodies both. in his songs and in his instrumental compositions. Bartok's research had its fruits not least in a large output of songs, often collected into ethnically. consistent groups to be performed together. 'Village Scenes' is a typical collection depicting the customs of peasant life (the individual numbers are entitled 'Haymaking', 'At the bride's', "Wedding', 'Lullaby' and 'Lad's dance'). In Russia, collections of native folksongs had gained popularity during the late eighteenth century in opera and domestic music making, and continued to be favoured throughout the nineteenth along with French style 'romances'. These were typically simple, often strophic forms, in which composers sought freedom from affectation: in France, the form was eventually superceded by the 'melodie' but continued to have an influence in Russia into the early twentieth century in the music of Rakhmaninov and others. Not suprisingly, Rakhmaninov's songs are characterised by simple melodic lines and balanced, sensitive accompaniments: of his op. 21 set (1902), from which tonight's song 'Such a Fate' is taken, no. 5 ("Lilacs') was later transcribed as a piano solo. Tchaikovsky demonstrated a similar talent for melody - "the lyrical idea", as he put it - in his songs, though generally speaking these form a less characterful strain of his composition than his instrumental music. Nationalistic features and a general interest in native musical styles are also evident in the music of the Spanish composer Montsalvatge. His desire to incorporate certain Catalan qualities in his music led to the composition in the 1940s and early 50s of his 'West Indian' works, of which the 'Canciones negras' are typical. He described these works as written "in West Indian musical style, which was itself originally Spanish, exported overseas and then reimported into our country, and which finds a place at the periphery of our traditions as a new, vague and evocative manifestation of musical lyricism". The Argentinian composer Ginastera has displayed a similar interest in national musical styles, particularly in his earlier works where the rhythms and melodies are modelled on types of Argentinian folk song and dance music. Programme Notes by Pamela Smith AGUSTIN FERNANDEZ - 'The Song of the Morrow' The words are a free adaption of RL Stevenson's fable. The original story is faithfully preserved and so is, wherever possible, Stevenson's wording. Some changes were, however, unavoidable. In order to shorten an otherwise unsuitably lengthy text, I left out some atmospheric description, hoping that the music would make up for the lost words. Also, I chose to simplify some convoluted turns of phrase so as to make them more intelligible to the ear. However, I respected some unusual words and phrases which I thought too closely connected with the spirit and the style of the story to bear replacing, such as 'crone' for old witch or 'widdershins', a mysterious word meaning 'contrary to the apparent course of the sun'. I also sacrificed a character the nurse - so as to simplify the plot, again, for the sake of intelligibility. It is very difficult to summarise this fable without breaking the magic that pervades it, and well-nigh impossible to replace certain phrases which recur, literally, like spells. Yet the outline below is designed to help the audience follow the story. A King's daughter lives in a stone castle by the sea, and she has 'no thought for the morrow' and 'no power upon the hour'. One day she finds a crone sitting on the beach and the crone asks her what the point is of living in a stone castle, without thought for the morrow or power upon the hour. The crone predicts that one day the man will come who will bring her these gifts. Upset, the King's daughter goes home, shuts herself in her castle and thinks upon the thought of the morrow. She spends nine years. thinking. Then, aroused by a sound of distant pipes, she goes again to the beach, where she finds the crone dancing widdershins. The morrow has come that she herself has thought upon, the crone explains, and the hour of her power. With these words the crone disappears in the sand. A stranger approaches with a hood covering his face, playing a pipe. The King's daughter realises that this is the arrival the crone had foretold. The hooded stranger plays the song of the morrow and he has power upon the hour. They go to her castle and sit down, and he pipes the song of the morrow, which is long like years. After nine years, the

King's daughter asks to see his power upon the hour. A gust of wind blows the hood off his face, and lo! There is no man there only the hood and the pipes. The King's daughter goes to the beach and she sits on the sand, whereupon a King's daughter comes walking down the beach. She has no thought for the morrow and no power upon the hour, and the cycle begins again. The Song of the Morrow' by Agustin Fernandez specially commissioned by the Belfast Music Society with funds provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Agustin Fernandez was born in Bolivia in 1958. At the age of seventeen he won the National Composers' Competition with his Rapsodia, which has been performed repeatedly by the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia. He also had an early start as a performer, winning the Golden Charango at the First Interprovincial Charango Competition in his native Cochabamba in 1971. In 1976 he became principal viola at the National Symphony and the following year he began to teach composition at the National Conservatoire in La Paz. In 1978 he made his conducting debut for the premier of his Misa de Corpus Christi with the National Symphony and the Bolivian Choral Society. After obtaining the degree of Licentiate in Music from the Bolivian Catholic University, he spent three years in Japan, studying composition with Takashi Iida and Akira Ifukube and violin with Takeshi Kobayashi. To finance these studies he worked part-time as private secretary to the Ambassador of Bolivia in Tokyo and later he taught Spanish to the trainee volunteers of JOCV (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers). Back in Bolivia he took up the post of leader of the La Paz Municipal Orchestra and resumed teaching at the National Conservatoire. In 1984, he went to England, studying at Liverpool University for an MMus and at City University, London for a PhD. In London he founded the ensemble City Lights and became its musical director. In a period of freelance work he started the Fernandez and Lee Duo, giving performances of Latin American music in several tours of England and Wales promoted by Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now. He also taught music to dancers and the Royal Ballet School and electronic composition at Morley College. In 1990 he was appointed Composer-in-Residence at Queen's University, where his duties include teaching composition and promoting twentieth-century music in the Province. OMAGH, ROYAL ARMS HOTEL Wednesday 18 March His recent works include "Teoponte", an electroacoustic opera first performed at the 1988 London International Opera Festival; 'Danza de la loma', recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and broadcast on Radio 3; 'Pajaro negro', written for City Lights; 'Passacaglia', written for Takeshi Kobayashi, who performed it in Tokyo; and 'Botanic Spider', written for Sequenza with funds from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. DERRY, MAGEE COLLEGE Thursday 19 March PORTSTEWART, FLOWERFIELD ARTS CENTRE Friday 20 March BELFAST, ELMWOOD HALL Saturday 21 March Supported by the ALL PERFORMANCES BEGIN AT 8.00P.M. EXCEPT BELFAST 7.30P.M. ARTS COUNCIL PROMOTED BY DISTRICT/BOROUGH COUNCIL ARTS COMMITTEES, AND IN BELFAST BY BELFAST MUSIC SOCIETY, TUNE WITH THE ARTS 4 BASS LTD