Saturday, July 25, 2009

Scott Joplin's 'Treemonisha' Is Broadcast & Streamed by KDVS-FM, 2–4 AM Pacific Time July 26

[Scott Joplin's Treemonisha; Houston Grand Opera Original Cast Recording; Polygram 435709 (1992)]

Veteran broadcaster Ed Martin has a radio show, Cactus Corners, which airs Sunday morning on KDVS 90.3 FM, and streams on KDVS.org from 2:00 AM-4:00 AM Pacific Time, or 5:00 AM-7:00 AM Eastern Time Sunday. KDVS-FM is run by students at the University of California Davis. Ed has scheduled a complete performance of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, the 1975 production of the Houston Grand Opera, for which Gunther Schuller produced the orchestration. The music will be heard on an original cast recording, Polygram 435709 (1992). The station's website has a page on Cactus Corners and Treemonisha,
http://kdvs.org/shows/view/show_id/862/date/2009-07-26/ It links to the libretto for Treemonisha. For those who miss the broadcast, it will be archived and available for listening for several months at KDVS.org.

The Scott Joplin page at AfriClassical.com explains Treemonisha was completed in 1910 but was first staged in January, 1972 in a concert performance. It was staged in Atlanta, Georgia by the Afro-American Music Workshop of Morehouse College and the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw, conductor. The opera concludes with A Real Slow Drag. On January 30, 1972 The New York Times published a review by Harold C. Schonberg which said, in part: "This slow drag is amazing. Harmonically enchanting, full of the tensions of an entire race, rhythmically catching, it refuses to leave the mind. Talk about soul music!"
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1 comment:

  1. edJuly 25, 2009 at 9:19 PM

    Many thanks, Bill. I know I can count on Africlassical to get the word out about this broadcast.

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