Sunday, January 18, 2015, 2pm
Carmen Maret, flute and alto flute
Christopher Martin, violin and viola
Andrew Bergeron, guitar
Program
Bergeron/Maret: Scotch Bonnet
Bergeron: Folias Variations (world premier)
Vähi: To His Highness Salvador D.
Bergeron: Sotres
Bergeron/Maret: Cabrales
Maret: Buenos Aires Cab Ride
Troilo/Laurenz/Maret: Quejas de Bandoneón
Notes by Carmen Maret
Our co-composed piece Scotch Bonnet, was a compositional challenge I undertook in 2011. Initially inspired by Latin rhythms, the piece went in a different direction when I got stuck halfway through. Andrew helped untangle it by integrating formal structures and counterpoint from J.S. Bach’s dance suites. To these I added embellishments for the alto flute. The result is a baroque/salsa hybrid, a “what would happen if Bach ate a habanero pepper?” piece.
The Folias Variations uses the famous 16th century melody in d minor from La Folía, which is one of the oldest remembered themes in western classical music. This theme is a 16 measure structure that was formed much like the twelve bar blues in the 20th century; both were solidified through a process of melodic improvisation. Hundreds of composers have used La Folía including Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. Andrew’s variations here contain 11 permutations, each that follow continuously into the next. Andrew felt that working with La Folía was exciting because it was like being in a candy store. The theme and chords are set, so while composing, it gave him the freedom to play with each variation’s rhythm, harmony, mode, metric modulation, key, and time signature allowing the craft of composing to show in the forefront.
Andrew and I were introduced to the music of Estonian composer Peeter Vähi during a radio interview with Tony Morris on his Classical Guitar Alive show based in Austin, TX. During the interview we talked about the challenge of developing repertoire, especially for flute, guitar and violin. He immediately mentioned Vähi as well as Camerata Tallinn, a contemporary chamber group that has recorded a lot of Vähi’s works including To His Highness Salvador D. which they commissioned in 1989. Vähi follows in the linage of art music composers that emerged from Estonia in the 20th century such as Arvo Pärt and Erik-Sven Tüür. His self proclaimed “listener friendly” style shows through here as well as his experience as a pop-rock keyboardist and extensive collaboration with musicians in Asia.
Sotres is named after a tiny mountain village within the Picos de Europa National Park in Asturias, Spain where we spent a week writing music. The structure of Sotres is based on three melodies, each presented separately, then shared and morphed into one another.
The music of Susana Baca inspired Cabrales; the creamy, piquant blue cheese Queso de Cabrales provided the name. In the summer of 2013, we rode the train from France to visit northern Spain. Baca’s recordings were the soundtrack to our trip. I listened to them so often I nearly memorized the arrangements. After we arrived, I spent a week drafting this piece and learning how to eat that mysterious, spicy cheese.
While writing Buenos Aires Cab Ride, I had been studying the “Razumovsky” string quartets of Beethoven. The finished piece here is brimming with Beethoven’s rhythmic and harmonic string writing conventions. In the winter of 2012 we also visited Buenos Aires for the first time. Our cab rides all felt as if we went around the same spot too many times, a mirror for the motives in this piece which circle back around in different keys.
Quejas de bandoneón is a famous tango dance piece by the notorious bandoneònist and composer Anibal Troilo, who was known for its distinctive band members, including Astor Piazzolla, one of Argentina’s most well known tango musicians. My arrangement here is taken from Pedro Laurenz, another bandoneónist who wasn’t as popular as Troilo but who revolutionized the performance of tango back in the 1920s by introducing elements of counterpoint, incorporating fills between phrases, using percussive effects, and adding complex harmony into dance band arrangements.