PROGRAM
Ballade........................................Claude Debussy
Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38.........................................Frédéric Chopin
Ballade.........................................Sarah Kirkland Snider
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Ballade in D Minor, Op. 10 No. 1........................................Johannes Brahms
"Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" from North American Ballades.........................................Frederic Rzewski
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Ballade........................................Kaija Saariaho
Hypoballad*.........................................Theresa Thordarson
Balada Mexicana.........................................Manuel Ponce
*commissioned for this project.
Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38.........................................Frédéric Chopin
Ballade.........................................Sarah Kirkland Snider
-----------
Ballade in D Minor, Op. 10 No. 1........................................Johannes Brahms
"Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" from North American Ballades.........................................Frederic Rzewski
-----------
Ballade........................................Kaija Saariaho
Hypoballad*.........................................Theresa Thordarson
Balada Mexicana.........................................Manuel Ponce
*commissioned for this project.
Click here for the full program notes.
The ballade is a narrative form. It can draw from literature, poetry, song, or reflect a composer's own musical narrative arc. Yet the inspirations for many ballade's are unknown, unclear, or unspecified. The stories they tell change with the times, reflecting the experiences of the listeners.
This program explores the possibilities of this genre through the ages, beginning with a set based on Sarah Kirkland Snider's Ballade. Her piece takes influence from both Chopin's original ballades (themselves possibly inspired by the poems of Adam Mickiewicz) and Debussy's Ballade–an early composition, originally titled 'Slavic Ballade.'
Both of the ballades by Brahms and Rzewski have explicit programmatic influences. Brahms's ballade depicts the Scottish ballad "Edward," a tragic tale of murder and destruction. "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" is a protest song based on the worker's songs at a textile plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina, combining aural depictions of the mill and American folk songs.
The final set of ballades are based on song. Saariaho's spectralist ballade, written for Emmanuel Ax, borrows musical material from her "Quartre Instants." Thodarson's borrows influences from Icelandic rímur and Bjork, while Ponce's Balada Mexicana is based on two Mexican folk songs.
The ballade is a narrative form. It can draw from literature, poetry, song, or reflect a composer's own musical narrative arc. Yet the inspirations for many ballade's are unknown, unclear, or unspecified. The stories they tell change with the times, reflecting the experiences of the listeners.
This program explores the possibilities of this genre through the ages, beginning with a set based on Sarah Kirkland Snider's Ballade. Her piece takes influence from both Chopin's original ballades (themselves possibly inspired by the poems of Adam Mickiewicz) and Debussy's Ballade–an early composition, originally titled 'Slavic Ballade.'
Both of the ballades by Brahms and Rzewski have explicit programmatic influences. Brahms's ballade depicts the Scottish ballad "Edward," a tragic tale of murder and destruction. "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" is a protest song based on the worker's songs at a textile plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina, combining aural depictions of the mill and American folk songs.
The final set of ballades are based on song. Saariaho's spectralist ballade, written for Emmanuel Ax, borrows musical material from her "Quartre Instants." Thodarson's borrows influences from Icelandic rímur and Bjork, while Ponce's Balada Mexicana is based on two Mexican folk songs.