March 24, 2011

  • Review: 18th Century American Overtures (Naxos)

     

    The 18th Century American Overture
    Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla/Patrick Gallois
    Naxos 8.559654
    Total Time:  68:25
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The title for this new Naxos CD might be the first of several things to make one pause.  Musicologist Bertil van Boer has pulled together performing editions of the seven surviving works from three immigrants forging a life in the New World during the 18th century.  In some respects, the music would seem to have more in common with English tastes of the period.  Where the fun, and uniqueness, comes in these pieces though is in their collections of popular tunes and marches of the time.  While there were some immigrant orchestras beginning to appear in primary city centers, the orchestra societies were still a ways off.  The pieces here mostly survive in piano transcriptions for parlor enjoyment and Boer needed to examine period documents to arrive at an essential sound for these works. 

    The pieces on the disc are of a particular type that is similar to a pastiche.  The overtures are essentially musical themes strung together from a genre that was in vogue in London during the period.  These “occasional” or “medley” overtures were to the 18th century what pops arrangement of nationalist tunes might be to our own time.  What is interesting is that the opportunity to hear these works helps create an early foundation for the sorts of nationalist music that would be an integral part of America’s musical heritage into the 19th Century as the nation forged its identity.  The pieces reveal political intentions as well by using titles such as “Federal” or “Federalist.”  Of course the real tantalizing pieces, like a battle work, have been lost to history.  Instead, we do get to hear any number of permutations of “Yankee Doodle” which at times border on the hilarious.

    The CD opens with the 1798 Medley Overture in D minor-major by James Hewitt (1770-1827) which begins with a quotation from Mozart’s Piano Concerto in d.  Some adjustments include shifting oboe parts to clarinets.  The piece then moves on to a series of dance-like segments featuring interesting dotted rhythms—including a popular Irish jig that breaks up a slow waltz-like section.  The effect is perhaps intentionally humorous with a sort of Haydn-esque wit shining through.  If you know your early American folksong and popular tune book, there are plenty of them here to test yourself.  The appearance of “Yankee Doodle” is inevitable.  Imagine it in a late-Classical dress and you will get a sense of what this, and other works on the recording will be like.  Hewitt’s New Medley Overture (1799) is essentially more of the same now in C-major.  After all why would you perform the same piece from last season!  The little snap rhythms are in abundance here with often simple melodies played against string accompaniment. 

    Benjamin Carr’s (1768-1831) Federal Overture from 1794 has Mozart in mind as well and its little take on “Yankee Doodle” is part of a near-Beethoven like opening.  It includes an arrangement of “Le Marseillaise” as well.  Whether some of the woodwind work is Carr’s invention or Boer’s arranging of parts remains to be seen, but they are in that late-18th century style that was at least in the air.  Imagine the song, “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be” in this serious sounding clothing alongside “The Irish Washerwoman” and again you will get a feel for the thrust of the piece.  Coming a couple years later, Hewitt’s New Federal Overture still inserts some Mozart into the plethora of popular tunes heard also in Carr’s work. 

    The Scottish immigrant Alexander Reinagle is represented by three works all saved for the final portion of the CD.  As one would expect, Reinagle’s roots are on firmer display with more music from his own homeland being integrated into the new found melodies of America.  His string writing wavers between an early Classical style and that of the later period often within the same piece.  But, again it is the rhythmic vitality that makes the pieces fascinating to listen to and in a couple of spots the harmonic and melodic movement of the tunes is quite unlike anything heard in European 18th century music.  It creates room for more open harmonies and musical directions that seem rather odd for the period, though not in the context of the pieces themselves.  At times, the suggestion of a drone appears briefly in the music as well.  In the Miscellaneous Overture in D (1801—the “newest” work on the release), harmony surprises abound, especially in the first movement’s final folk tune.  There is more work for solo strings and the paired winds have a greater function in this piece.  The 1794 Occasional Overture and the Overture in G (1787) are cast more in a Mozart-ian orchestral style.  All three of his works are cast in three movements.  The 1794 work feels a bit more serious in tone but there are still those wonderful inclusions of Scottish and Irish folk songs that are simply fascinating to hear in this style.  The transitions into and out of ideas is always well-handled in these pieces that feel less like strung-together medleys than the pieces that make up the first half of the CD.

    If nothing else, this release is yet another reminder that what often makes American music unique is that the “popular” and what we would now term “classical” music were always on an equal footing when it came to borrowing a tune.  The blurred lines may seem quaint when we hear what we think of as children’s songs are in such classical music.  “Yankee Doodle” was a hugely popular song so much so that we forget that it was essentially new when these pieces appeared and hearing it alongside Mozart and Beethoven is truly fascinating.  But, what a great way for orchestras to introduce classical music today to a younger generation!  Boer’s performing editions would make the perfect complement to orchestras  involved in bringing classical music to young audiences.  And for music educators, this disc will provide a great entry point to helping young people appreciate the style of the 18th century and perhaps find some humor in the way familiar songs made their way into classical music. 

    Gallois and the Finnish orchestra are no strangers to the Mozart and Beethoven sounds being imitated in these works.  It is in their fine performances of the folk rhythms that one notes how good this ensemble is and that the recording sessions must have been a bit of fun.  Lest we be too dismissive, one is reminded that even in these early works America’s immigrant roots found ways to honor their heritage and their new home.