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Saturday, 8 November 2003 The Metropolitan Museum of Art 6:30 P.M. New York City
AN EVENING OF VICTORIAN PARLOUR MUSIC
THE NEW YORK VICTORIAN CONSORT Julia Grella, mezzo-soprano Allan Atlas, English concertina David Cannata, piano Francesco Izzo, piano
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The Programme
Bernhard Molique (1802-1869), Six Characteristic Pieces, Op. 61 (1859)
Allan Atlas & David Cannata Known in his own day primarily as a violin virtuoso and as the "leader" of the orchestra at Stuttgart (1826-1849), the German-born Molique emigrated to England in 1849, and was appointed professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in 1861. Molique enriched the English concertina repertory with two concertos—No. 1 in G (composed in 1853 for the concertina-guitar virtuoso Giulio Regondi [1822-1872], who paid him £21 for it) and No. 2 in D (1860/61, never published)—as well as a Sonata in B flat, Op. 57 (1857), a set of six pieces whimsically titled Flying Leaves, Op. 50 (1856), and the Six Characteristic Pieces from which we perform Nos. 1, 5, and 6 this evening, and in which the central section of the "Serenade" in particular hints at the instrument’s chordal and polyphonic capabilities.
Fabio Campana (1819-1882), Red Jacket: A Soldier’s Song (1878) W.H. Jude (1851-1992), Deep in the Mine (Descriptive Ballad) (1882) Traditional air, The Confession of Devorgilla (arr. Benjanim Bierman)
Julia Grella, Francesco Izzo & Allan Atlas Having met with indifference as an opera composer in Italy, Fabio Campana moved to London in 1850 and enjoyed a successful career as a voice teacher and composer of (mainly Italian) salon songs. His Red Jacket is a tribute to the British fighting man, and could refer to any one of the imperial battles in which the British were engaged in the nineteenth century. The song was popularized by the basso "Signor Foli," who was born Allan James Foley in County Tipperary, grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, and eventually enjoyed a successful career on both the opera and concert stage. William Herbert Jude was a major figure in the musical life of Liverpool, where he was well known as a composer of hymns, ballads,and operettas, as a lecturer on music, and as the founder of that city’s Purcell Society. Deep in the Mine is a parlour-like version of the two-part Italian aria: a slow cantabile section is followed by a faster, cabaletta-like conclusion. Though everyone will recognize the famous tune to which the young Devorgilla offers her confession, her words will no doubt be new to most. Yet dating from 1814, when they appeared in Edward Fitzsimons’s Irish Minstrelsy, they represent what is certainly the earliest extant—and quite possibly the original—text for that tune (it was only in 1912 that Fred Weatherly wrote the well-known words to which we now generally sing the melody). Victorian audiences in particular would have known Devorgilla’s confession by the opening words of its first line: "Oh! Shrive me, father. . ." The fascinating biography of this famous song is told brilliantly by Robin Audley in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 125/2 (2000). Our arrangement is by Ben Bierman, currently a Research Fellow at The Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College, CUNY, and a candidate for the Ph.D. in Composition at the CUNY Graduate Center.
J.B. Antony, Dancing with Ma Baby (arr. Henry Stanley) Allan Atlas It was around 1850 that the English concertina began to find a home in the London music halls, where it would thrive until the halls went into decline around World War I. About J.B. Antony we know nothing (he goes unlisted in the catalogues of both the British Library and the Library of Congress). Yet Dancing with Ma Baby, written in the style of a schottische, must have been popular enough to catch the ear of Henry Stanley (1880-1972), one of the last of the music hall concertinists, and it is his arrangement of the tune that serves as the basis for this evening’s semi-improvised performance.
Gaetano Braga (1829-1907), La serenata (1875) Fabio Campana (1819-1882), Quando da te lontano (before 1872) Angelo Mascheroni (1855-1905), For all Eternity (1891)
Julia Grella, Allan Atlas & Francesco Izzo We end the programme with pieces for voice, piano, and obbligato instrument by three Italian composers who resided in Victorian London. It was La serenata (known also as the Leggenda Valacca and the Angel’s Serenade) that sustained the reputation of the prolific, Neapolitan-trained Braga into the early twentieth century, when it (the song) was taken up by the likes of Alma Gluck (who often performed it with her husband, Efrem Zimbalist) and John McCormack and transcribed for violin by Fritz Kreisler. Though Braga originally wrote the obbligato part for cello (his own instrument), he noted that it could just as well be performed on violin or flute; it transfers nicely to the English concertina. The obbligato part for Quando da te lontano is the work of Giulio Regondi, whose virtuosity on the English concertina was often compared to that of Paganini on the violin. Unfortunately for the concertinist, the sometimes thick, finger-twisting writing does not sound as hard as it is. Finally, had late-Victorian London kept an official "hit-parade," Mascheroni’s For all Eternity may well have topped the charts. A staple of Adelina Patti’s repertory, the song was published with Italian, English, French, German, and Danish texts, arranged for vocal duet, full chorus, voice and orchestra, solo piano, violin and piano, organ, and military band; one arranger even changed the time signature and transformed it into a waltz. The obbligato part was originally for violin.
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