{"id":1036,"date":"2017-02-15T05:58:43","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T05:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waltersaul.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2017-02-17T01:24:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T01:24:36","slug":"reflections-on-the-national-conference-of-christian-fellowship-of-art-music-composers-cfamc-october-6-8-2016-mississippi-college-clinton-mississippi-part-viii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/15\/reflections-on-the-national-conference-of-christian-fellowship-of-art-music-composers-cfamc-october-6-8-2016-mississippi-college-clinton-mississippi-part-viii\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the National Conference of Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC), October 6-8, 2016, Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi, Part VIII"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we conclude our series, let me invite you, if you are in the area, to the Pacific Artist Series concert next Friday, February 24, 2017, at, 7:30 PM in the Ashley Auditorium of Fresno Pacific University, 1717 S. Chestnut Avenue, Fresno, California. I will be performing my Quiltings, <\/em>a 46-movement work for piano based on my sister-in-law Ann Harwell\u2019s stunning art quilts. I will accompany a magnificent video of 118 of these masterpieces of fabric art created by my sweetheart, Daphne Saul. (Thirty-nine years ago today [yes, on Valentine\u2019s Day] I told her for the first time that I love her.) Hope to see you there. Please call (559) 453-2267 for more information.<\/p>\n

Also, CFAMC, on its Listening Page #147, has posted a marvelous work by member Heather Savage,\u00a0Three Short Pieces for Unaccompanied Saxophone,\u00a0<\/em>that were performed in this conference. Please see part III of this blog, released on November 4, 2016, for my review. You may hear the piece at\u00a0http:\/\/williamvollinger.com\/audio\/Savage.mp3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, back to the conference!<\/p>\n

Saturday, October 8, 2016, 1:30 PM, Feedback Session<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the unique things of Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers conferences is the Feedback Session. Composers will simply bring scores and their best recordings of works that, for various reasons, could not be performed live in the other concerts. Thanks to top-notch organization by Benjamin Williams and his wonderful colleagues at Mississippi College, much music did<\/em> get performed, so we had only one work, Emily Custer\u2019s Seelenruhe,<\/em> at this year\u2019s Feedback Session.<\/p>\n

You may recall that I reviewed Custer\u2019s exquisite arrangement of My Jesus, I Love Thee<\/em> on November 9, 2016, on Part IV of this series, so it should not be surprising that I would enjoy her new orchestral work. It is difficult even to pronounce the title (\u201cstate of calm, peace of mind\u201d according to the composer) without going back into the German Romantic era in its love for nature as an escape from the grit of urban life. And this tone poem is indeed a reflection on Custer\u2019s love of fishing with family in a practically inaccessible central Minnesota lake. It also onomatopoeically depicts the images of the lake through well-chosen musical figures.<\/p>\n

The maturity displayed in this work belies the reality that this is her first orchestral work, and that it was finished only four weeks after her initial sketches, literally graphic pictures of the musical shapes she would use in depicting the forest around the lake (strings), the light reflecting off the lake (high winds and brass), the winds blowing the tops of the trees (even higher woodwinds), and other imagery.<\/p>\n

One striking feature of the work is a nine-tone ostinato that includes Aleksandr Scriabin\u2019s Mystic Chord which so beautifully depicts the water. In the lively conversation that followed we also mentioned Arnold Sch\u00f6nberg\u2019s \u201cSummer Morning by a Lake\/Colors,\u201d Impressionism, and the music of Joseph Schwantner. All of these influences color this wonderfully crafted score, and certainly are great company for Custer to keep. The music was beautifully read by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in its reading session at Bowling Green State University in November, 2015.<\/p>\n

Saturday, October 8, 2016, 2:30 PM, Chamber Concert II<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final concert of the CFAMC National Conference featured four highly contrasting works by Jesse Ayers, myself, Douglas Brown, and Benjamin Williams.<\/p>\n

In Part VI which I blogged on December 5, 2016, we discussed Ayers\u2019 dramatic The Passion of John Brown<\/em>, featuring a stellar narrator up against a huge wind ensemble showcasing this aspect of the Civil War. Now Ayers\u2019 switches to a more intimate ensemble \u2013 only two sopranos, a lone violin, and piano \u2013 but just as intense drama as before. Beneath Suspicion<\/em> is, in fact, a mini-opera that tells the story of, in Ayers words, \u201ctwo bold, 19th<\/sup> century American women who crossed social, racial, and economic barriers to work together, risking their lives to fight against slavery.\u201d Elizabeth Van Lew, also known as \u201cCrazy Bet,\u201d had inherited her wealthy father\u2019s slaves, but freed them all, including the extremely intelligent household servant Mary Bowser, whom she sent to college in Philadelphia. But Bowser returned home to serve Van Lew, and used her photographic memory to transmit the contents of Confederate President Jefferson Davis\u2019 writings in code to General Ulysses S. Grant, who regarded them as his best intelligence. Truly a \u201chidden figure\u201d of her time! I wonder if she did not inspire the three Hidden Figures<\/em> of the new movie (which, yes, you must see!).<\/p>\n

Ayers, with his slender forces on stage, keeps us on the edge of our seats in this drama that, like The Passion of John Brown,<\/em> features a triumvirate of minor-major seventh chords that circle around each other to darken the mood, which is complemented by ingenious weaving of \u201cMust Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?\u201d and \u201cLet My People Go.\u201d The drama is sweetly released by a final quiet solo low on the violin, ably performed by Emily Williams. The stunning sopranos were Desiree Hargrave and Jessica Crowell, and Jessica Kapraly supported all so well at the piano. All three of these fine musicians are students at Malone University, where Ayers teaches.<\/p>\n

I then performed my Tapisseries, <\/em>based on my sister-in-law Ann Harwell\u2019s exquisite quilt art since 2010. There were six short pieces based on the new fabric art works Overreaching for the Stars; Yes, Money Really Does Grow on Trees; Susanna\u2019s Family Tree; Climate Change; Pluto;<\/em> and Moth Orchid.<\/em> I think these will soon take their place alongside my major work Quiltings<\/em>, but will let others speak more about these short pieces!<\/p>\n

Yet another \u201chidden figure\u201d emerges in Thoughts on the Works of Providence<\/em>, in which Douglas Brown sets a poem by Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston who was freed just three years before the American Revolution. This magnificent poem is such a paean of praise to God that Brown requires four very divergent songs to set it. While much of the harmonic language recalls the church modes, there is a gorgeous bitonality in the second song, \u201cAdor\u2019d for ever be the God unseen,\u201d that so beautifully reflects the multi-faceted glory of the Lord. Brown\u2019s wife, Jennifer Brown, capably brought these songs to life and was skillfully accompanied by Tyler Kemp on the piano.<\/p>\n

In the Sonata in E, <\/em>composer Benjamin Williams joined wife, violinist Emily Williams, at the piano for what I will say is a long overdue piece \u2013 namely a piece he wrote especially for the two of them! Now, that\u2019s a Valentine\u2019s Day treat to contemplate. Within the traditional sonata cycle, Williams treats us to late German Romantic harmonies, invoking Brahms especially, with wonderful modulations that remind us of Schubert. There is an infectious joy to this lovely composition, especially the ebullient finale, cast in rondo with variations and featuring powerful syncopations. It was a terrific, climactic end to the Conference.<\/p>\n

After this, amazingly enough, we then all went downtown and heard the Mississippi Symphony play an all-Berlioz program before our last encounter with the civil rights drama at the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport on our way home. What a rich time to go back in history and face our shortcomings, so we can go truly forward into the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before we conclude our series, let me invite you, if you are in the area, to the Pacific Artist Series concert next Friday, February 24, 2017, at, 7:30 PM in the Ashley Auditorium of Fresno Pacific University, 1717 S. Chestnut Avenue, Fresno, California. I will be performing my Quiltings, a 46-movement work for piano based… Read More »Reflections on the National Conference of Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC), October 6-8, 2016, Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi, Part VIII<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,26,27,12,18,1,25,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cfamc","category-civil-rights","category-hidden-figures","category-music-reviews","category-piano-music","category-uncategorized","category-valentines-day","category-walters-new-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1044,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltersaul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}