Monday, July 12, 2010

'Hidden Treasures' of Irene Britton Smith, William Grant Still & Others, Northwestern College, Jan 25, 2010


[Irene Britton Smith (1907-1999)]

On July 10, 2010 AfriClassical posted: “'Sonata for Violin and Piano' of Irene Britton Smith Heard at Northwestern College Jan. 25, 2010.” Dr. Barbara J. Rogers serves on the Piano Faculty at Northwestern College, and specializes in classical music composed by women and people of African descent. She has generously provided us with a copy of the concert program:

Hidden Treasures
David Kozamchak, violin
Barbara J.Rogers, piano
Monday, January 25, 2010
7:30p.m.
Nazareth Chapel

Five Madrigal Stanzas – Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
Sonata for Violin and Piano – Irene Britton Smith (1907-1999)
Romanza, Op. 75, No. 4 – Mary Carr Moore (1873-1957)
Oror (Lullaby), Op. 1 – Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000)
Suite for Violin and Piano – William Grant Still (1895-1978)

Program Notes (Excerpts)
“Welcome to a program of hidden treasures for violin and piano. Surprisingly, each of these pieces was written during the twentieth century. All but one of the composers represented were American, and even that one spent years in this country. Thus all of this musi is part of our national heritage, and we are pleased to share it with you.”

Irene Britton Smith
“It was for a class in larger forms taught by Giannini at Juilliard in 1947 that Smith completed the Sonata for Violin and Piano, but it apparently languished unheard until 1990, when violinist Gregory Walker and pianist Helen Walker-Hill premiered it at the Denver Public Library. The three-movement work is in the traditional fast-slow-fast order. The musical language here is lush romanticism tempered with occasional spicy dissonance, deliberate 'wrong' notes and a structural reliance on tritone relationships – perhaps somewhere along the continuum between Fauré and Shostakovich.”

William Grant Still
"For the Suite for Violin and Piano, compoed in 1943, Still was inspired by three pieces of visual art: sculptures in the first and third movements; a lithograph in the second. Ethnomusicological scholarship in Africa not yet having found its bearings at this time, Still sought to evoke African music through modal harmonies and driving rhythms. His fluency in jazz and blues idioms is evident in the piece, as well as his mastery of the neo-romantic vocabulary of his day. In thefirstmovement, the violin at first carries the melodic material while the piano drives the rhythm with rapidly arpeggiated chords; later, the piano offers the same tune in blocked chords while the violin weaves filigree above them.” [Irene Britton Smith (1907-1999) and William Grant Still (1895-1978) are profiled at AfriClassical.com]
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