2024 En Masse Program Notes

I Mandolini a Congresso! Pezzo Sinfonica,

by Calogero Adolfo Bracco (1860? – 1905)

Born ca. 1860, Bracco was a conductor, mandolinist, and violinist based in Genoa and Orvieto, Italy. In Genoa he conducted the mandolin and guitar ensemble “Club Musicale Genovese” to whom I Mandolini was dedicated. Originally scored for romantic quartet (two mandolins, GDAE mandola, and guitar), I Mandolini won the gold medal in a composition competition in Turin in 1902.  Almost overnight, the work became a sensation, and it quickly entered the repertoires of all of the major (and not-so-major) European groups of the period. In his classic book, The Guitar and Mandolin, the British mandolinist Philip J. Bone praised the work for its “tuneful melodies, and interesting changes of tempo, its artistic and effective scoring for each instrument individually…it maintains to the present day [ca. 1914, when the book was first published] its exalted position among original works for mandolin bands.” We will be performing I Mandolini in a terrific new edition by En Masse guest artist Carlo Aonzo. If you haven’t already, check out the website for Carlo’s publishing company – outstanding and diverse selection, world class production quality, and easy on the wallet.

Neeznádiin,

by Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon is one of the world’s leading contemporary composers. The first composer of Diné ancestry to win the Pulitzer Prize in music (in 2022), he was also named a MacArthur Fellow in 2023. His music is frequently texture-based and, consistent with this, the piece that he has written for the CMSA’s MMAD (“Mandolins Make a Difference”) commission uses extended techniques throughout. The title, “Neeznádiin,” means “100” in the Navajo language and refers to the expected size of the En Masse orchestra. More information about Raven can be found on his informative (and visually spectacular) website. Raven will be attending the convention on Friday and Saturday. There will be videos posted to the convention website explaining and demonstrating the various extended techniques. These are expected to be completed and uploaded by early-to-mid September (watch for a CMSA email). Be sure to watch the video carefully IN ADVANCE of the convention (as much as you need to understand the techniques); rehearsal time at the convention will be limited.

Unalome,

by Aftab Darvishi

Born and raised in Tehran, Aftab Darvishi moved to Holland in her early 20s where she is now based in Amsterdam, and also pursuing a PhD in composition from the University of Birmingham (England). She grew up in a musical family (her father is a composer and her mother a music teacher) surrounded by traditional folk music and instruments, later studying piano performance at university. Her music has been very widely performed at contemporary music festivals in Europe and the United States, and her wonderful debut recording, A Thousand Butterflies, was released in 2022. More information about Aftab’s life and work can be found at her informative website . Commissioned under the CMSA’s MMAD (“Mandolins Make a Difference”) program, Unalome is her first piece for plucked strings ensemble. Aftab will be attending the convention in Rochester. Aftab’s tempos tend to be slow, with utterly gorgeous melodies and harmonies inspired by her folk music background, filtered through contemporary techniques. An especially good introduction to her music is Absence, for clarinet and piano (Aftab is playing piano in the video), astonishing beautiful. Also recommended is her string quartet Daughters of Sol, written for the Kronos Quartet’s 50 for the Future project, and the piece that brought her to the attention of the CMSA.

The Church of Termites,

by Philip DeWalt

Philip DeWalt is the director of the Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City (MOOKC) and the co-composer in residence at last year’s convention (in Kansas City). In 2022 the CMSA held the inaugural New Music Reading session that included a selection of three works from Philip’s Moments of Zen, a collection of twelve pieces for mandolin orchestra, one of which was The Church of Termites, moody and atmospheric.

Au Café Cardamome,

by James Kellaris

Professor Kellaris’ works have featured in En Masse performances in several prior conventions, most recently at the convention in Kalamazoo. Originally written for an international competition and the composer’s latest work for mandolin orchestra, Au Café was premiered by the Providence Mandolin Orchestra (PMO) in 2022 (see below for a link to this performance).   About the work the composer writes that

“Café Cardamome is a fictitious restaurant, where the scent of exotic spices from the East dances in the air, haunting and taunting and delighting the senses. The ethnicity of the place is (purposefully) ambiguous, but clearly ‘somewhere not here’ — I’m a regular customer in my synesthetic dreams, wherein scents become colors, and colors become sounds. The music is intended to transport listeners to a joyful, peaceful-but-stimulating, colorful, sensual place. There is no programmatic storyline – only a vague setting. But the percussion in the introduction (measures 1 – 32, roughly the first minute) can be construed as kitchen noises. The ‘A theme’ begins at letter A, stated in unison. A ‘misterioso’ transition (measures 49-56), based on a recurring Middle-Eastern motif, leads to an accompanied version of the A theme, which melts into a dreamscape in measures 74-78. Letter B begins some developmental episodes based on melodic fragments of A. The last three notes before C (measure 118) are the DNA that spawns the B theme, which begins at letter D. The piece finds its way back to the A theme and concludes with a coda that starts at measure 220. Tempo remains at 108 BPM throughout.”

The composer will be attending the convention.

Buyōshi (“Dance Poem”),

by Hiroshi Ohguri

Hiroshi Ohguri (a.k.a Oguri, 1918 – 1982) was one of Japan’s leading composers in the twentieth century. The son of a prominent merchant who was also a skilled amateur performer on the gidayū samisen, a plucked instrument, Ohguri grew up surrounded by traditional Japanese music. In high school he learned to play French horn and, after working in the family’s business for a few years, joined the Tokyo Symphony as a hornist. After World War Two he returned to Osaka, where he played horn with the local Philharmonic until 1966, and also taught music. Ohguri was a prolific composer for standard symphonic instruments and for wind band. Stylistically, his work combines traditional Japanese music with influences from twentieth century European composers such as Bartok, Kodaly, and Shostakovich.

At some point Ohguri became deeply interested in the mandolin, and over a fifteen-year period from 1967 to 1982 wrote 14 extraordinary large-scale works for mandolin orchestra. Until recently, these works were unheard outside Japan but through performances on social media (YouTube) have become more widely known (and occasionally performed outside the country). Through the assistance of the Ikegaku music store in Tokyo, the CMSA was put in touch with the Ozaki Library Management Committee who hold copies of several of Ohguri’s most important mandolin scores, and who agreed to provide these to the CMSA because, as the Committee put it, “[w]e want you to spread the good music of Japan and the music of Hiroshi Ohguri to the U.S.” Our conductor, Maestro Jim Bates, selected one of these for the Rochester En Masse: Buyōshi (Dance Poem), written in 1979, and a very powerful work. This will be a US premiere!