RODEO

Program Notes

El Salon Mexico
Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)

In the fall of 1932 Aaron Copland visited Mexico, having been invited by Mexico's most popular composer, Carlos Chavez, who was a friend. For two months he lived in the village of Tiaxcala, immersing himself in the local culture. Shortly after that he began writing El Salon Mexico, a spir-ited dance piece containing fragments of at least nine different Mexican tunes. He reports that he visited a "Harlem-type nightclub" with Chavez in Mexico City, after reading about it in a tourist guidebook. He described it as a real hot spot, a place where "one really felt a live contact with the Mexican people…their humanity, their separate shyness, their dignity and unique charm." The grand Cuban orchestra at the Salon Mexico played Latin American rhythms that were "harsh, flavorsome, screechy and potentially violent." He completed his score in 1934 and its or-chestration in 1936. It was premiered in 1937 by the Orquestra Sinfonica de Mexico and di-rected by his old friend Carlos Chavez.

El Salon Mexico consists of two sets of tunes, each done in three musical styles. Each set be-gins with upper-class, almost formal motifs, suggestive of nineteenth century European dances. This is followed by working-class music, less formal and more vigorous, and then by the rich and powerful music of the peasantry. He suggests that his work was based on music he had heard in the Salon Mexico, where there were three halls: one for people dressed "in your way,"one for people dressed in overalls, but shod, and one for the barefoot. In fact, he actually used themes drawn from written sheet music for Mexican folk songs, creating his own segues and weaving a seamless whole.

In the 75 odd years since the piece premiered, and in spite of the efforts of countless Copland devotees, no one has ever found the actual Salon Mexico, and no trace of the guidebook men-tioned has been discovered. A Cuban orchestra in Mexico City would have been very unlikely at the time, just as unlikely as finding a Mexican band in Cuba. We must accept, therefore, Cop-land's statement that "it wasn't the music that I heard, but the spirit that I felt there, which attract-ed me." He wrote what he called a portrayal of the "visible" Mexico, the Mexico of the tourists.

El Salon Mexico was received with enthusiasm in Mexico and has become one of Copland's most performed pieces, surprising even the composer himself with its popularity. In addition to concert performances, it has been used numerous times in films when "real Mexican music" was needed.

Beryl McHenry

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Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77
Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

Brahms was known as a virtuoso pianist, not a violinist. He had composed two piano concertos that were well received and, in moving on to a violin concerto, he chose Beethoven's work as a guide. He chose Beethoven's key, D major, used the orchestra extensively, and began with a long, lyrical first movement. That he chose to write a violin concerto at all was probably because of his friendship with the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, to whom the work is dedicated. Joachim's technical expertise was needed, since Brahms was not fully familiar with the violin. Joachim's notes on annotated manuscripts suggest that Brahms did not follow his friend's advice, however, and the resulting demands on the solo violinist were truly daunting. But Brahms intent was also to produce a work that fully engaged the orchestra, not just a showpiece for the violin soloist to demonstrate technique. The soloist and orchestra are blended in a masterpiece of virtuosity and lyrical beauty.

The premiere took place in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. Brahms conducted and Joachim was the soloist. The first critiques were mixed. Other violinists considered it "unplayable," although they had just heard it played. The famous conductor Hans von Bulow remarked that Brahms had composed "a concerto not for but against the violin." Joachim deemed it one of the four best German concertos ever composed (the others being those of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Max Brüch).

The first movement, Allegro non troppo, is the longest, with the orchestra and violinist collaborating, and is lyrical and bright. The first three themes are introduced by the orchestra and it ends with a cadenza composed by Joachim.

The second movement, which Brahms referred to as a "feeble Adagio" opens with a tranquil melody by the oboe. That oboe solo is now regarded as one of the best passages in the concerto, providing a marked contrast to the violin. The violinist then elaborates on the oboe's theme, adding virtuosic touches.

The third movement, Allegro giocoso, is in a gypsy style, a tribute to Joachim's Hungarian heritage. It expands, however, into a dizzying display of virtuosity, requiring a mastery of double stops (two notes played simultaneously) and other techniques, and orchestra and violin combine to end the work with a feeling of great joy. An unusual work for the times, it has now become a popular part of both violin and orchestral repertoire.

Beryl McHenry

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Rodeo
Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990)

Aaron Copland's ballets show his commitment to musical precision wedded to dramatic action and choreography. He described himself as having a "split personality" when it came to composing, and to this split personality we owe impressive movie scores, as well as some of the most delightful light symphonic music of modern times. In his writing he has used folk songs, cowboy ballads, country dances, Shaker hymns, jazz syncopation, and traditional composition, to produce a body of work which still enjoys great popularity. In 1924 a conductor actually apologized to an audience for the dissonance of an early Copland composition. A few years later, some patrons of the Boston Symphony left the hall to escape the "hot jazz" of Copland's Piano Concerto. Copland was not discouraged, and in fact appeared to enjoy his reputation as a shocking modernist. He continued through the 1930s to produce complex music that was praised by critics and musicians, but did not find popular acceptance. In the late 1930's he began receiving film and ballet commissions and was brilliantly successful in this vein. He found that his continuing wish to compose in a uniquely American style could be satisfied by producing what he described as "more accessible" works. He said, "I had not so much the intention of writing a more popular music as writing music that would communicate with a broader audience."

It was with this in mind that Copland accepted a commission in 1942 to write a second ballet on a cowboy theme. The first was Billy The Kid four years earlier. The story of Rodeo is a simple one. A tough but tender-hearted cowgirl seeks a man she can invite to the Saturday night dance. In the Buckaroo Holiday section, all thrills and spills, the cowhands ignore her, considering her "one of the boys". In the Corral Nocturne section, with its wide open chords suggesting the great expanses of the West, she tries to attract the attention of one particular cowhand, but he is more interested in the feminine daughter of the rancher. For the Saturday Night Waltz the heroine dresses in her finest duds. Her chosen cowboy finally notices her, fends off several suitors and together they join the others for the final dance, the Hoedown, with all the foot-stomping fun of a good old Western square dance.

Beryl McHenry