There are currently no audio examples for this work
Born and raised in Charleston and a graduate from the School of Music of the University of South Carolina, composer and educator Edward Hart has had a life-long interest in the art and culture of South Carolina, and especially of the Lowcountry. From 1994 to 2004, Hart was a cofounder and musical director of The Lowcountry Heritage Society, an arts organization dedicated to the production of new works of art, music, and literature about or inspired by the South Carolina Lowcountry. He is currently on the faculty of The College of Charleston Music Department.
Under an Indigo Sky is a programmatic work and requires that the audience read the composer’s program notes in order to derive the best experience of the work. Hart writes:
It is a privilege to have your music played by an exceptionally gifted musician. It is especially meaningful when that performer is your friend. That is why I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to write this violin concerto for my friend, Yuriy Bekker. Since first meeting some years ago, I have wanted to write him a substantial work not only because we are friends, but because he plays the violin the way I would want to if I could play. In short, he makes all the right musical choices. I am also fortunate that we share much in common as it relates to musical taste and style. In a way, Under an Indigo Sky is a love letter to my home state, South Carolina. I am continually amazed and thankful for the natural and cultural diversity of this relatively small place. I have attempted to musically capture three distinct yet related regions of our state with an eye not only to the landscapes, but the feel and “soul” of the places.
Movement I: Fast Flowing Rivers – Columbia and the Midlands The Broad, Congaree, and Saluda Rivers are an important part of the greater Columbia landscape. At times, especially after heavy rain, these rivers move quickly creating an impressive natural display and an interesting metaphor for Columbia’s role in our state, a place of fast flowing and powerful political, educational, and economic currents. At other times, these rivers can flow gracefully and gently through the countryside reflecting the warm and genteel nature of the people of the Midlands.
Movement II: Warm Salt Air – Charleston and the Coast With its coastal location and sub-tropical climate, Charleston’s weather can sometimes resemble a warm, wet, briny blanket. Though this might seem uncomfortable to some, these qualities in the right measurements can produce a lush and magical atmosphere. Imagine a May sunset overlooking the water with just the right temperature and a sea breeze moving softly through the Palmetto trees.
Movement III: Misty Blue Horizon – Greenville and the Upstate The Blue Ridge Mountains, which dominate the Northern horizon, seem to give Greenville and the upstate a cool verdant freshness found in no other region of South Carolina. The early morning light offers dramatic vistas filled with broad strokes of blue, green and purple. This landscape elicits a sense of awe, wonder, and reverent reflection along with a sense of gratitude toward its Creator.
As slovenly as Beethoven was in his personal life, he stored and maintained his musical ideas in sketchbooks, continually jotting down ideas that might come in handy later on. Perusing these sketchbooks today, we are provided with an insight into both his creative process and method of working. While Beethoven did not have the quick and ready inspiration of a Schubert or a Mendelssohn, two characteristics contributed to his greatness: he had the tenacity to work and rework his material many times, often over many years; and he knew when he got it right.
Ideas about the Ninth Symphony first appeared in Beethoven’s sketchbook in 1817-18, initially as material for a pair of symphonies, one of which was to have a choral finale with text from Greek mythology. He did not begin sustained work on the symphony until 1822, finally finishing it in February 1824.
During this period, Beethoven was embroiled in turmoil in his personal life. When his brother Johann, who had married a woman against Beethoven’s advice, became ill, his wife Therese shamelessly carried on with her lover. His on-again-off-again friendship with Anton Schindler, who eventually became his private secretary and first biographer, was currently off. It should be noted, however, that for all Beethoven’s irascibility and mood swings, he was often a shrewd judge of character and he did not trust Schindler, who in the end made off with the composer’s sketchbooks and conversation books, selling some and forging others.
Professionally, Beethoven was both clearly over his head in commitments and also beset by debts. He was putting the finishing touches for publication of the Missa Solemnis while trying to manipulate a secret bidding war for it among three publishers, each of whom were expecting the work. He used a bait-and-switch maneuver involving a Mass in D (that was never written), as an excuse to each publisher for not delivering the Missa Solemnis. He had also undertaken several other commissions, some of which remained incomplete or never started.
One unfulfilled commission spurred the completion of the Ninth Symphony. Always an admirer of the British, Beethoven had sent inquiries to the Philharmonic Society of London and had received a positive reply with the promise of £50 for a new symphony. Beethoven would have liked to visit London, perhaps to experience the accolades showered on his former mentor, Franz Joseph Haydn, but the visit never materialized, and the commission was never fulfilled. But it was an incentive to finish the Symphony. The score was finished in February 1824, and Beethoven, disgusted with the musical taste of the Viennese, planned to premiere the work in Berlin instead. But it had been ten years since he gave a public concert of his work, and his friends and admirers signed a petition begging him not to disappoint his public any longer. Although he eventually gave in, it took three months of haggling with the Imperial Pooh-Bahs and reluctant singers to finally schedule the concert for May 7 at the Kärntnertor Theater. Artistically the Symphony was a wild success but – because of the huge forces required and the large copying costs – a financial near-disaster.
From the mysterious descending open fifths of the first movement, the symphony must have amazed its first hearers. The powerful first theme based on the descending fifth gradually emerges and develops in classical sonata form. The contrasting second theme, like many of the composer's themes, is made up of several distinct motives that he later develops separately. A long dramatic coda with an ominous ostinato in the cellos and basses concludes the movement, setting up musical tension that will not be released until the choral finale.
The second movement, molto vivace, is a massive scherzo that opens with hammer-blow descending octaves, an oblique reference to the descending fifths in the first movement. This motive is immediately picked up by the violins as the first bar of the principal theme, which is introduced as a fugue. The driving ostinato rhythmic motif underlies the scherzo section and the timpani periodically bang out the signature octaves and motivic rhythm. A playful trio brings respite, but the insistent scherzo returns with a short coda and a final hint at the trio.
The slow third movement is a free-form transformation of two themes, its gentle intensity in marked contrast to the powerful, driving music that preceded and will follow it. If anyone ever doubted that Beethoven was a romantic, this movement will dispel the doubt, especially with the heartfelt second theme.
The long introduction to the Finale begins with a surprise, a recitative for the cellos and basses that quotes the themes from the first three movements and a snatch of the main theme in between the phrases of the recitative. But these serve merely as “false starts.” For a long time Beethoven had been unsure about the Finale; material for a purely instrumental one ended up in 1825 as part of the string quartet Op.132. The gestation of the theme for the choral finale was a long one: in its first manifestation it appeared in a song, “Gegenliebe” (WoO 118) from 1794 and, in a later form, as a main theme of the Choral Fantasia, Op.80, of 1808, the closest to the theme Beethoven ultimately settled on.
It was not until November 1823, only three months before he finished the symphony, that Beethoven decided to use Friedrich Schiller’s “An die Freude” (Ode to Joy). He had toyed with the idea of setting the Ode since 1793, when he considered it for a song. Again, in 1812, he incorporated part of it into a choral overture, a project he abandoned. Now, he took the opportunity to combine his desire and set the poem into the new choral symphony.
The long introduction to the Finale begins with a surprise, a recitative for the cellos and basses that, between recitative passages, recaps in order the first themes from the three preceding movements and anticipates a snatch of the chorale theme. But these recurrences serve as deliberate “false starts.”
After the introduction by the full orchestra, Beethoven uses his own words as a baritone recitative, initially played by the lower strings at the beginning of the movement, to introduce Schiller’s poem. As poems go it is not much, and Schiller himself did not care for it. Beethoven, by his music, coupled with judicious rearrangement and especially deletions in the text, transformed it into the cultural icon it has become. Musically, the movement is a set of variations, one for each stanza of the poem. Among the historically notable variations is the Turkish march in imitation of the Jannissary bands of Ottoman soldiers, who were a constant threat to the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However constrained in form the variations may have been, Beethoven introduces a new theme, which the composer combines with the main melody into a double fugue. At the climax of the movement, Beethoven abandons the variations for a lengthy dramatic coda in which the text of the poem is restated by soloists and chorus and musical material is freely developed. Beethoven handles the coda as an operatic finale, recalling the heady celebration that concluded his opera Fidelio in 1806.
OFreunde, nicht diese Töne! Sondern Laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen, Und freudenvollere
Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein; Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!
Freude trinken alle Wesen An den Brüsten der Natur; Alle Guten, alle Bösen Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod; Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.
Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Küß der ganzen Welt! Brüder - über'm Sternenzelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Küß der ganzen Welt!
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen? Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt? Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt! Über Sternen muss er wohnen
Tochter aus Elysium, Deine Zauber binden wieder Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder, Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Küß der ganzen Welt! Brüder, über'm Sternenzelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium, Freude, schöner Götterfunken
O friends, not these sounds! Rather let us strike up more pleasant And more joyful ones.
Joy, thou glorious spark of the gods, Daughter of Elysium, We approach fire-drunk, Heavenly One, your shrine.
Your magic reunites That which custom strictly parts; All men become brothers, Where your gentle wing alights.
Whoever succeeds in the great attempt To be a friend of a friend, Whoever has won a loving woman, Let him add his jubilation!
Yes, whoever calls even one soul His own on the earth's globe! And who never has, let him steal, Weeping, away from this group.
All creatures drink joy At nature’s breast; All the good, all the evil Follow in her roses' trail.
Kisses gave she us, and wine, A friend, faithful unto death; Even the worm was granted pleasure, And the cherub stands before God.
Glad, as his suns fly Through the Heavens' glorious plan, Run, brothers, your course, Joyous, like a hero to victory.
Be embraced, you millions! This kiss for the whole world! Brothers, beyond the star-canopy Must a loving Father dwell.
Do you bow down, you millions? Do you sense the Creator, world? Seek Him beyond the star-canopy! Beyond the stars must He dwell.
Be embraced, ye millions! This kiss for the whole world!
Daughter of Elysium, Your magic reunites That which custom strictly parts; All men become brothers, Where your gentle wing alights.
Be embraced, you millions! This kiss for the whole world!
Joy, beautiful spark of the gods, Daughter of Elysium, Joy, beautiful spark of the gods
Copyright © Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn 2011
Purchase tickets to this and other upcoming concerts.
Concerts, events, parties and more.
Ticket sales alone are not enough to keep the orchestra playing.