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Notes by Roger Ruggeri © 2021

Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)

“Gabriel’s Oboe,” from The Mission

A celebrated modern Italian composer, Morricone is well known for his more than 400 film scores. Particularly memorable are the scores he created for such Sergio Leone “spaghetti Westerns” as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. “The notion that I am a composer who writes a lot of things is true on one hand and not true on the other hand,” he said in a 2007 interview with the New York Times. “Maybe my time is better organized than many other people. But compared to the classical composers like Bach, Frescobaldi, Palestrina, or Mozart, I would define myself as unemployed.”

“Gabriel’s Oboe” is the main theme for the 1986 film The Mission, whose score subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Early in the film, Father Gabriel attempts to launch his missionary effort by playing his oboe for Guarani tribesmen, an effort which proved less than successful.

John Tavener (1944-2013)

The Lamb

Often credited with reviving the British choral tradition in modern times, John Tavener was born into a church music family. By the time he was a teenager, Tavener was leading the choir and playing organ at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Kensington. Inspired by words, he has gone on to create many works of mystic devotion.

One of Tavener’s best known works is this 1982 setting of a William Blake poem from his collection Songs of Innocence. Immediately successful when premiered at Kings College on Christmas Eve of that year, this music was later featured in the film soundtrack of the The Great Beauty.

George Theophilus Walker (1922-2018)

Lyric for Strings

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., composer-pianist George Walker studied at Oberlin College, the Eastman School, the Curtis Institute, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau (the second time as a Fulbright Fellow). His composition teachers include Norman Lockwood, Gian Carlo Menotti and Nadia Boulanger. Walker also studied with such noted pianists as Robert Casadeus, Clifford Curzon, and Rudolf Serkin. For a number of years, he combined compositional activities with a career as a concert pianist. Walker ultimately became involved with teaching and served on the faculties of such schools as Smith College, Rutgers, and the Peabody Conservatory. In 1966, his Lilacs for soprano and orchestra won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Soon after the death of his maternal grandmother, Walker was inspired to rescore the slow movement of his 1946 string quartet for string orchestra as Lyric for Strings. He always called it “my grandmother’s piece” and it remained among his most prominent works.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Overture to The Impresario, K. 486

Rivalry on several levels was the order of the day on February 7, 1786, when the Governor-General of the Netherlands visited the Emperor Joseph II at the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. The Emperor ordered performances by his Italian and German theatrical troupes; Salieri created Prima la musica e poi le parole (“First the Music and then the Words”) for the Italian company, while Mozart obliged with his charming one-act comedy, Der Schauspieldirektor (“The Impresario”).

The entire action of this tiny farce takes place in the office of an impresario, as he and an opera composer (a little self-portrait by Mozart) deal with two sopranos who are vying for a role in an upcoming opera. Well aware of the timeless machinations of singers, Mozart obviously enjoyed writing this lampoon of operatic politics. Mozart also indulged himself a bit in the overture, a sparkling parody of Salieri's Italian style. In the words of Otto Jahn, this effervescent overture “resembles a comedy, with the different characters and intrigues crossing each other, until at last all ends well.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No. 31 in D major, “Paris,” K. 297 (K. 300a)

Eager to make his own way in the world, the twenty-one-year-old Mozart petitioned his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, for a leave of absence on August 1, 1777. His plea was ignored. In response to a second request, the Archbishop fired both Wolfgang and his father. Wolfgang’s father, Leopold, was soon rehired, but the younger Mozart decided that his unemployment provided a perfect opportunity to venture into the outside world. Although Mozart was certain that he could safely travel alone, his father insisted that Frau Mozart accompany him. With mixed emotions and high hopes, son and mother got into a carriage which rumbled out of Salzburg on September 23, 1777.

Their first stop was in Mannheim, where they remained for four months, enjoying an active musical life which centered around that city’s marvelous court orchestra. Under the direction of Johann Stamitz, the ensemble had risen to unparalleled heights of technical achievement. While there, Mozart fell in love twice: first with the clarinet, whose dulcet tones enhanced the Mannheim orchestra, and then with Aloysia Weber, whose younger sister he would eventually marry. Wolfgang and his mother might have been content to remain in Mannheim, had they not received a letter from Leopold commanding them on to Paris.

The Mozarts arrived in Paris with the hope of reviving the fame that Wolfgang had enjoyed there as a prodigy. The problem was that everyone continued to regard Wolfgang as a mere lad who need not be taken seriously. Musical circles were very pleasant to him but were more immediately concerned with the operatic feud that was raging between the fans of Gluck and Piccinni. To make matters worse, Mozart’s mother was stricken by a mysterious illness that resulted in her death a few months later.

Although troubled by all of these matters, Mozart—when requested by Jean Legros (or “le Gros”), Director of the fashionable Concerts spirituels, to write a symphony for the beginning of the Corpus Christi Day concert (June 18, 1778)—responded with the cloudless D major symphony, K. 297. Influenced by what he had heard in Mannheim and impressed by the orchestra of the Concerts spirituels, Mozart catered to the tastes of French audiences with this brilliant three-movement work containing minimal repeated material.

The work begins with a premier coup d’archet (“the first stroke of the bow”), a stentorian full orchestra chord which was then very popular in Paris for demonstrating an ensemble’s ability to play together. A week before the concert, Mozart wrote to his father concerning his new work: “…I too am quite pleased with it. But I cannot say whether it will be popular—and, to tell the truth, I care very little, for who will not like it?”

I. Allegro assai, D major, 4/4. Begun by the premier coup d’archet, the first theme is continued by the violins. After a brilliant second theme is presented, a variant of the first theme forms what is sometimes identified as a closing theme. Following Parisian conventions, the exposition section is not repeated. The development is interesting, but straightforward. Recapitulation is not strict, offering some further development before the opening theme returns to close the movement.

II. Andante, G major, 6/8. Violins begin a sweet, cantabile theme which is taken up by flute. Some have considered this theme to have three parts and thus can regard the whole movement as a minute sonata form.

Legros is alleged to have complained about the length of the slow movement that Mozart provided. The eager-to-please young composer quickly replaced it with another, 25% shorter Andante (in a draft labeled Andantino) in 3/4 meter. The performance of either movement has artistic and musicological support.

III. Allegro, D major, 4/4. Mozart begins the last movement softly, gradually adding the sonority of full orchestra. His second theme has a contrapuntal nature; a compositional device he notably used again in later symphonies. The materials are developed and then restated (without the second theme) as the finale whirls to its final measure.

Notes by Roger Ruggeri © 2021

Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)

“Gabriel’s Oboe,” from The Mission

A celebrated modern Italian composer, Morricone is well known for his more than 400 film scores. Particularly memorable are the scores he created for such Sergio Leone “spaghetti Westerns” as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. “The notion that I am a composer who writes a lot of things is true on one hand and not true on the other hand,” he said in a 2007 interview with the New York Times. “Maybe my time is better organized than many other people. But compared to the classical composers like Bach, Frescobaldi, Palestrina, or Mozart, I would define myself as unemployed.”

“Gabriel’s Oboe” is the main theme for the 1986 film The Mission, whose score subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Early in the film, Father Gabriel attempts to launch his missionary effort by playing his oboe for Guarani tribesmen, an effort which proved less than successful.

John Tavener (1944-2013)

The Lamb

Often credited with reviving the British choral tradition in modern times, John Tavener was born into a church music family. By the time he was a teenager, Tavener was leading the choir and playing organ at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Kensington. Inspired by words, he has gone on to create many works of mystic devotion.

One of Tavener’s best known works is this 1982 setting of a William Blake poem from his collection Songs of Innocence. Immediately successful when premiered at Kings College on Christmas Eve of that year, this music was later featured in the film soundtrack of the The Great Beauty.

George Theophilus Walker (1922-2018)

Lyric for Strings

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., composer-pianist George Walker studied at Oberlin College, the Eastman School, the Curtis Institute, and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau (the second time as a Fulbright Fellow). His composition teachers include Norman Lockwood, Gian Carlo Menotti and Nadia Boulanger. Walker also studied with such noted pianists as Robert Casadeus, Clifford Curzon, and Rudolf Serkin. For a number of years, he combined compositional activities with a career as a concert pianist. Walker ultimately became involved with teaching and served on the faculties of such schools as Smith College, Rutgers, and the Peabody Conservatory. In 1966, his Lilacs for soprano and orchestra won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Soon after the death of his maternal grandmother, Walker was inspired to rescore the slow movement of his 1946 string quartet for string orchestra as Lyric for Strings. He always called it “my grandmother’s piece” and it remained among his most prominent works.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Overture to The Impresario, K. 486

Rivalry on several levels was the order of the day on February 7, 1786, when the Governor-General of the Netherlands visited the Emperor Joseph II at the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. The Emperor ordered performances by his Italian and German theatrical troupes; Salieri created Prima la musica e poi le parole (“First the Music and then the Words”) for the Italian company, while Mozart obliged with his charming one-act comedy, Der Schauspieldirektor (“The Impresario”).

The entire action of this tiny farce takes place in the office of an impresario, as he and an opera composer (a little self-portrait by Mozart) deal with two sopranos who are vying for a role in an upcoming opera. Well aware of the timeless machinations of singers, Mozart obviously enjoyed writing this lampoon of operatic politics. Mozart also indulged himself a bit in the overture, a sparkling parody of Salieri's Italian style. In the words of Otto Jahn, this effervescent overture “resembles a comedy, with the different characters and intrigues crossing each other, until at last all ends well.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No. 31 in D major, “Paris,” K. 297 (K. 300a)

Eager to make his own way in the world, the twenty-one-year-old Mozart petitioned his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, for a leave of absence on August 1, 1777. His plea was ignored. In response to a second request, the Archbishop fired both Wolfgang and his father. Wolfgang’s father, Leopold, was soon rehired, but the younger Mozart decided that his unemployment provided a perfect opportunity to venture into the outside world. Although Mozart was certain that he could safely travel alone, his father insisted that Frau Mozart accompany him. With mixed emotions and high hopes, son and mother got into a carriage which rumbled out of Salzburg on September 23, 1777.

Their first stop was in Mannheim, where they remained for four months, enjoying an active musical life which centered around that city’s marvelous court orchestra. Under the direction of Johann Stamitz, the ensemble had risen to unparalleled heights of technical achievement. While there, Mozart fell in love twice: first with the clarinet, whose dulcet tones enhanced the Mannheim orchestra, and then with Aloysia Weber, whose younger sister he would eventually marry. Wolfgang and his mother might have been content to remain in Mannheim, had they not received a letter from Leopold commanding them on to Paris.

The Mozarts arrived in Paris with the hope of reviving the fame that Wolfgang had enjoyed there as a prodigy. The problem was that everyone continued to regard Wolfgang as a mere lad who need not be taken seriously. Musical circles were very pleasant to him but were more immediately concerned with the operatic feud that was raging between the fans of Gluck and Piccinni. To make matters worse, Mozart’s mother was stricken by a mysterious illness that resulted in her death a few months later.

Although troubled by all of these matters, Mozart—when requested by Jean Legros (or “le Gros”), Director of the fashionable Concerts spirituels, to write a symphony for the beginning of the Corpus Christi Day concert (June 18, 1778)—responded with the cloudless D major symphony, K. 297. Influenced by what he had heard in Mannheim and impressed by the orchestra of the Concerts spirituels, Mozart catered to the tastes of French audiences with this brilliant three-movement work containing minimal repeated material.

The work begins with a premier coup d’archet (“the first stroke of the bow”), a stentorian full orchestra chord which was then very popular in Paris for demonstrating an ensemble’s ability to play together. A week before the concert, Mozart wrote to his father concerning his new work: “…I too am quite pleased with it. But I cannot say whether it will be popular—and, to tell the truth, I care very little, for who will not like it?”

I. Allegro assai, D major, 4/4. Begun by the premier coup d’archet, the first theme is continued by the violins. After a brilliant second theme is presented, a variant of the first theme forms what is sometimes identified as a closing theme. Following Parisian conventions, the exposition section is not repeated. The development is interesting, but straightforward. Recapitulation is not strict, offering some further development before the opening theme returns to close the movement.

II. Andante, G major, 6/8. Violins begin a sweet, cantabile theme which is taken up by flute. Some have considered this theme to have three parts and thus can regard the whole movement as a minute sonata form.

Legros is alleged to have complained about the length of the slow movement that Mozart provided. The eager-to-please young composer quickly replaced it with another, 25% shorter Andante (in a draft labeled Andantino) in 3/4 meter. The performance of either movement has artistic and musicological support.

III. Allegro, D major, 4/4. Mozart begins the last movement softly, gradually adding the sonority of full orchestra. His second theme has a contrapuntal nature; a compositional device he notably used again in later symphonies. The materials are developed and then restated (without the second theme) as the finale whirls to its final measure.