The WWNO Classical Network is thrilled to present selections from the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's Holiday Concert, recorded at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans in December of 2022.
Listeners will have two opportunities to hear the program:
- Friday, December 22nd at 7pm on Classical 104.9|WWNO HD2
- Christmas Day at 12pm on 89.9FM
(*Don't forget, if you're out of town but still want a taste of local music, you can tune in online at wwno.org)
PROGRAM NOTES
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) - Ballad of the Brown King (1961) LPO premiere
Margaret Bonds was an American composer, arranger, and teacher, and one of the first African American composers to gain notoriety in the United States. She was best known for her collaborative friendship with author Langston Hughes, and her musical settings of his poetry. Bonds learned to play the piano at a young age, first under the tutelage of her mother, and later under Florence Price, a well-known pianist, composer, and music educator. Margaret grew up in a musical home in Chicago that was frequently visited by area musicians and writers who made an impression on Bonds. Her talent was revealed at an early age and she wrote her first composition, Marquette Street Blues at the age of five. Bonds later worked as an accompanist for Chicago area dancers and singers.
She eventually took her talents to Northwestern University, where she earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music before studying composition at Juilliard in New York. While at Northwestern, Bonds was one of only a few black faces on campus and she experienced racial prejudice regularly. Bonds wrote of the experience, “I was in this prejudiced university, this terribly prejudiced place….I was looking in the basement of the Evanston Public Library where they had the poetry. I came in contact with this wonderful poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and I’m sure it helped my feelings of security. Because in that poem he tells how great the black man is. And if I had any misgivings, which I would have to have – here you are in a setup where the restaurants won’t serve you and you’re going to college, you’re sacrificing, trying to get through school – and I know that poem helped save me.” Margaret eventually met the author of that pivotal poem, Langston Hughes, in 1936. They began a fruitful collaborative relationship in which she arranged many of his poems for voice and accompaniment.
Hughes also provided the libretto for Ballad of the Brown King, a Christmas cantata written by Bonds in the early 1950s. This piece is a retelling of the Nativity Story, with specific focus on Balthazar, one of the famed three “kings” or “wise men” who made the pilgrimage to the birthplace of Jesus by following the star of Bethlehem. Balthazar has been depicted as having dark skin or being from Africa in legends and folklore dating back to the Middle Ages. Racialized images of the black king appear as early as the 15th century, most notably in French artist Georges Trubert’s work Adoration of the Magi, c.1480-1490.
Ballad of the Brown King was first performed in 1954, although this original version was shorter and only accompanied by piano. In 1960, inspired by the events of the Civil Rights Movement, Bonds expanded the piece to include orchestra accompaniment and two new movements and dedicated the piece to civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The fourth movement “Mary Had a Baby” became quite popular and was published separately with new arrangements. This movement also piqued the interest of singer Nina Simone, who began negotiating with the publisher to record the song, although the project never came to fruition. Ballad of the Brown King features traditional black musical expressions ranging from jazz, blues, and gospel, to Caribbean rhythms.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) - Messiah
During the last decades of his life, beginning in the 1730’s, Handel began to turn away from the world of opera in order to devote more and more of his effort to oratorio. The oratorio was a similar and closely related kind of musical presentation to opera; it differed little outwardly in structure and content from opera musically, but it required no costumes, scenery or staging, and the subjects, generally elevated and noble, were more often taken from the Bible, or classic myths or other legends. Most importantly, it was written for public entertainment, not for religious services.
Handel’s oratorios (and Messiah in particular) became the first “immortal masterpieces,” and were performed over and over again long after their novelty was gone, even after their composer’s death. Unlike today, until some seventy-five years after Handel’s death, novelty was a supremely important factor in musical life. Music of the past, even of the recent past, was performed only with a sense of participating in a revival of something long gone. The then current repertoire was always contemporary and thus always in flux, but Handel’s Messiah broke the mold with its immediate and consequent perennial popularity. At once, Handel’s oratorios captivated the English people, and their fame inspired Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven when the oratorio’s popularity spread to the European continent. Gradually, oratorios established the new idea that some “old” music was too good to abandon, and that, in fact, sometimes established pieces should actually be given precedence over the new.
Handel composed Messiah during the few weeks from August 22 to September 14, 1741. Presumably, his friend Charles Jennens assembled the text from the Bible, assisted by his private chaplain and in consultation with the composer. This theory is not definitive; some believe that the text was the careful work of Handel’s secretary, a clergyman named Pooley. A few weeks after the score was complete, William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, invited Handel to give some benefit concerts of his music in Dublin for several charities. Handel left London early in November, spent a few days in Chester awaiting good weather for the Irish Sea crossing, and arrived in Ireland on November 18th. In December, he began his successful series of subscription concerts.
On March 23, 1742, a notice appeared in two Dublin newspapers: “For the Relief of the Prisoners in the several Gaols, and for the Support of Mercer’s Hospital, in Stephen’s-street, and of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inn’s Quay, on Monday, the 12th of April, will be performed at the Musick Hall in Fishamble-street, Mr. Handel’s new Grand Oratorio, called Messiah, in which the Gentlemen of the Choirs of both Cathedrals will assist, with some Concertos on the Organ, by Mr. Handel.” A public rehearsal of Messiah was held on April 8 before a large audience, and the next day a newspaper reported, “It was allowed by the greatest Judges to be the finest Composition of Musick that ever was heard.” The paper also suggested that ladies should come to the concert without hoops and the gentlemen without swords in order to make room for a larger than normal audience. The public cooperated and seven hundred people attended the premiere, although the hall really accommodated only six hundred.
Handel returned to London in the fall, and in March 1743, he began a series of performances of Messiah at Covent Garden. London did not immediately share Dublin’s enthusiasm; the clergy even attempted to close the theater on the grounds that “any Work about the Omnipotent should never be performed in a playhouse.” However, Handel’s old patron, George II, attended the London premiere, and legend has it that he was so moved by the Hallelujah Chorus that he rose and remained standing until its end. Of course, when the King stood up, the rest of the audience stood too, and since that time, almost all audiences have traditionally risen at that point in the performance. Handel said of the Hallelujah that while composing it, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” It is a glorious musical moment, but cynical historians think that if the reputed incident took place at all, the King probably thought that intermission came before, not after it.
Handel divided Messiah into three parts. Part I contains the prophet’s prophecy and the Nativity. It is made up of a sequence of Christmas movements and a final chorus, ‘Glory to God’. Part II is the passion dealing with Christ’s suffering and death, but it ends on an optimistic note; the trumpets, drums and chorus exult in a triumphant ‘Hallelujah!’ For Christmas, it became traditional to perform Part I and the Hallelujah Chorus from Part II. The final section, Part III, which is usually considered the Easter portion, includes the resurrection of all mankind to the glory of God.
Program notes by LPO Music
Many thanks to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for their collaboration on this radio program. Visit theLPO for tickets and more information about their upcoming season.
Crescent Classical is made possible thanks to the generous support of local classical music lovers Ann and Dr. Richard Strub and Dr. Bob Watzke.
