Arnold Schoenberg (born in 1874) wrote Pierrot Lunaire in 1912. It is in 21 parts; 3 groups of 7 and uses the poems of Albert Giraud. It's weird. And wonderful. The sprechstimme vocal part is a bit eerie and the small instrumental accompaniment changes with each poem. The first set of seven deals with love, sex and religion. That is enough for this concert!
William Walton (born in 1902) wrote his 21 part piece on poems of Edith Sitwell. It premiered in 1923 (the poems were written in 1918) And the vocal parts in this are spoken. This isn't sounding like a coincidence! We know that Walton had heard Schoenberg's music because he criticized his own string quartet from 1923 as "full of undigested Bartok and Schoenberg". Yet he borrowed the form of Pierrot Lunaire very closely. Presumably it was well digested.
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Next Concerts
March 18….Sebastopol, Ca.
June 9, Berkeley, Ca.
a-zed concerts
The Alphabet Concerts started as a 2 year project. We presented 23 concerts in 2010-2011 with composers names representing every letter of the alphabet (ok, 2 months will double-up).
The fun was finding more repertoire than we had known before, and just putting more music on the map! It stared in January, 2010, with composers whose last name (or lack of one, Anon) starts with "A".
And......everyone who came to that got a card with a lovely "A" on it. In February a "B" card.... The cards are designed by different local artists starting with Andree MacColl, Bonnie Boren......and Bonnie is also designing the "U" card. "V" was designed by Victoria Ehrlich, and "W" by Emily Roeder. "XY" was by Elly Lichenstein and David Bowes supplied the last card;"Z".
At the final concert and party, we ate alphabet soup and zwetschendatschi, drank wine from the A-Z winery, and gave prizes for the best collections of letter cards. In April, Roger and Eileen Weeks, Paul Besco and Gary Shepard were our guests for a very enjoyable lunch at Chez Panisse. VERY enjoyable!
It was all so much fun that we decided to continue the frivolity with A-Zed through the centuries. This time we are collaborating with Cinnabar Theater and we very much appreciate their support! After the September concert, all others will be held at Cinnabar Theater. We look forward to seeing you there!
Alphabet Players
David Abel, violin
Cynthia Albers, violin
Erin Ashe, chorister
Greg Barber, bassoon
David Barnett, recorders, chalumeau
Terrie Baune, violin
Letitia Berlin, recorders
Frances Blaker, recorders
Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin
David Bowes, viola
Kelley Boyer, cello
Peggy Brady, violin
Bonnie Brooks, soprano
Maria Caswell, violin, viola, kazoo, drum
Karen Clark, contralto
Phebe Craig, harpsichord
Gwyneth Davis, cello and viola da gamba
Rachelle Davis, violin
Sally deLormier, supernumerary
Poppea Dorsam, cello
Joe Edelberg, violin
Victoria Ehrlich, cello
Adam Farmer, supernumerary
Jeff Fields, baritone
Leighton Fong, cello
Aja Gianola-Norris, soprano
Dan Gianola-Norris, trumpet
David Goldblatt, cello
Nancy Hayashibara, piano, chorister, comedienne
Corey Head, tenor
Beth Heid, viola
Carrie Hennessey, soprano
Natalie Herman, chorister
Lynda Higson, mezzo-soprano
Judiyaba, cello and dragon
Kathleen Kraft, baroque flute
Kati Kyme, violin
Ruth Lane, cello
Molly Larsen, chorister
Tyler Lewis, violin
Elly Lichenstein, reader
Bonnie Lockett, flute
Betsy London, viola
Larry London, clarinet
Leslie Ludena, violin
Carol Menke, soprano
Eileen Morris, soprano
Rufus Olivier, bassoon
Hilary Powers, violin
Kathleen Reynolds, flute
Richard Riccardi, piano
Wayne Roden, viola
Marion Rubenstein, recorder, harpsichord
Beni Shinohara, violin
Mariko Smiley, violin
Zachariah Spellman, tuba
Mary Springfels, viola da gamba
Julie Steinberg, piano
Yuko Tanaka, harpsichord
Marilyn Thompson, piano, tambourin
Karen Van Sant, violin
Heidi Wilcox, violin
David Wilson, violin
Roy Zajac, clarinet
Charlie Lucke, photographer
Margaret Lucke, program editor
Dru Simms, archivist
About Me
- Yaba
- Well...the backround for the a-zed concerts... After many years of playing opera (SF) and Symphony (SF) and various other orchestra, solo and chamber music concerts, it seemed time for a substantial project that involves lots of playing, lots of friends, and searches for music that we had not known before. Now, more than half way through, it turns out that all those things are happening and it is even more fun than we had imagined. So many wonderful musician/friends are jumping in with ideas and a willingness to play for, frankly, very little renumeration. And the audience is a gas! So great to see friends on a monthly basis! So...more ideas are always appreciated! And thanks to all!!