Program Notes

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Claude Debussy is sometimes seen as the first French “Impressionist” composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

                  Sonata for flute, viola and harp (1915): Near the end of his life, Debussy planned a cycle of six sonatas for various combinations of instruments. His intention was to advance French national music through a synthesis of the eighteenth-century stylistic gestures of Rameau and Couperin along with his own highly nuanced musical impressionism. Because of his poor health, he completed only the first three, among which was this Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp. Living at the time in a small cottage overlooking the English Channel, Debussy anguished over the devastation of World War I. As he completed the work, he wrote to a friend, “I am writing down all the music that passes through my head like a madman, and rather sadly”. After hearing his austere, ethereal sonata performed the following year, he stated, “It is the music of a Debussy I no longer know. It is frightfully mournful, and I don't know whether one should laugh or cry – perhaps both?” The sonata's contrasting instrumental sonorities – plucked harp, bowed string instrument and wind – throw its various motifs into clear relief. The writing is fluid and improvisational in style. The opening Pastorale movement offers six melodic ideas, but they often appear to be fragmentary rather than fully developed themes. Frequent tempo changes impart an episodic cast to the movement. The Interlude is an homage to the eighteenth-century masters who inspired the sonata. Despite its rapidity, the freely structured Finale projects a subdued mood. 

This sonata was first performed in Boston, at the New England Conservatory. 

Béla Bartók emerged as one of the most forceful and influential musical personalities of the 20th century through his far-reaching successes as a composer, performer, educator, and ethnomusicologist. Perhaps above all other elements it is the ingenious application of rhythm that gives Bartók's music its keen edge, inspired by the folk music he loved. 

                Suite Paysanne Hongroise (Hungarian Peasant Suite) is based on Tizenöt magyar parasztdal (Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs) (1914 -1917), Sz. 71, BB 79, a collection of short folk melodies for piano. In 1952 this was arranged for flute and piano by fellow ethnomusicologist Paul Arma (who was Bartok's pupil). Arma’s arrangement has had the piano part adapted by Sivan Magen for harp, enhancing its delicate, folk-like atmosphere. The original  work drew on authentic folk melodies Bartók collected during his travels across the Carpathian Basin. It is divided into three main sections: Quatre chants populaires tristes (Four sad popular songs); Scherzo; and Neuf vieilles danses (Nine old dances). Originally there were 15 movements, but the Ballad movement after the Scherzo was not adapted. The flute beautifully mimics the improvisational, vocal quality of folk players (traditionally heard on wooden flutes or furulya), while the harp lays down rhythmic and harmonic textures that capture the resonance of a folk cimbalom (type of hammered dulcimer), especially in the old dances.

Toshio Hosokawa, a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music, began his musical training in piano and composition in Tokyo. He then studied composition in Germany at Berlin University of the Arts and subsequently at Freiburg. He returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, and instrumental music. 

                 Arabesque (2018) was commissioned / written for Tre Voci, who performed the premiere at the New England Conservatory, celebrating the school's 150th anniversary that year. The composer notes:

"The Arabesque is an Arabian-style ornamental design.... The Arabesque I would like to draw with sounds, draws two plant-like curves where the flute and viola have a yin-yang relationship. Yin-yang was the principle of cosmic creation of ancient China. In this principle, opposing elements create a lively universe and transform it by coexisting without killing each other. Behind the two lines, the harp provides and supports the place where those two instruments create sounds. I wanted to entrust the Arabesque, where eastern-like sounds are lively born, to these three instruments."

Manuel De Falla was one of the most distinguished Spanish composers of the early 20th century. In his music he achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism and ardor that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest. Falla first took piano lessons from his mother and later went to Madrid to continue the piano and study composition. Moving to Paris in 1907, he met Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel (whose orchestration influenced his own) and published his first piano pieces and songs. Having established himself in Paris for seven years, the sudden onset of the World War l forced him to return to Madrid, where his compositional works established him internationally.

Suite Populaire Espagnole (1914): Originally Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Spanish Folksongs) was a set of traditional Spanish songs for soprano and piano. Besides being Falla's most-arranged composition, it is one of the most popularly performed sets of Spanish-language art songs. They were dedicated to a patron whom Falla met while living in Paris. The year after Falla returned to Spain the work was premiered in Madrid by Luisa Vela, a well known zarzuela singer of the time, with Falla at the piano. The styles and provenance of the songs are strikingly diverse. El paño moruno: Originating from Murcia, this Andalusian song of solitude is bitter and jeering; Asturiana: Originating from the northern region of Asturias, this is a deeply somber and lyrical lament; Jota: A passionate and rhythmic Aragonese dance that shifts dynamically between rapid bouncing and more restrained sections; Nana: An Andalusian lullaby characterized by haunting, Moorish-influenced melodies; Canción: A light-hearted, lyrical melody that suddenly turns anguished and contrite; Polo: A fierce and dramatic Andalusian flamenco piece.

Sergei Prokofiev was born in an isolated area of the Russian empire.  Displaying unusual musical abilities by the age of five, his first piano composition was written down by his mother.  At the age of nine he was composing his first opera, as well as an overture and miscellaneous other pieces. In 1904, while Prokofiev was in Saint Petersburg with his mother exploring the prospect of the family's moving there for his education, they were introduced to the composer Alexander Glazunov, a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Glazunov was so impressed by the young Prokofiev's work that he urged the parents to have him apply for a student position. Several years younger than most of his classmates, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, and he often expressed dissatisfaction with much of the education, which he found boring.  He developed a reputation as a musical rebel, making a name for himself as a composer, though frequently causing scandals with his forward-looking works.  During the revolutionary upheaval of 1917-1918, Prokofiev saw no room for his experimental music and fled to America. He spent the next several years living both there and in Europe, moving back to the Soviet Union in 1933 following a self-imposed exile of fifteen years.

Suite from Romeo and Juliet (1935. Arr. 2015 by Cohen; commissioned by Tre Voci). Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet  ballet in four acts was based on Shakespeare’s tragedy. 

Of this arrangement Cohen states:

“Prokofiev’s classic ballet Romeo and Juliet from 1935 brings together folk-like melodies, unexpected harmonies, pounding rhythms and a wild collage of colors. Translating the music from the richness of the symphonic orchestra to the intimacy of a flute, viola and harp is neither a natural choice nor an easy task. As a result, Prokofiev’s masterpiece takes this chamber instrumentation to unexpected places. 
The harp stomps dance rhythms that are seldom found in trios for the same instrumentation by the French impressionists, while the flute and viola sing captivating tunes that are quite far from similar pieces by avant-garde composers. A central challenge in the arrangement process was to preserve the coloristic variety that Prokofiev masterfully created with the orchestra (as well as to find ways to reproduce brassy melodies and percussive patterns). A moment of revelation came when I looked at the composer’s own arrangement of selections of the ballet for piano solo and realized how much freedom he took when adapting the piece. As much as timbre is central for Prokofiev, the musical themes in this piece are so strong and idiosyncratic that they seem to work surprisingly well through different instrumental lenses…”.

Masks describes the stealthy arrival of Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio in the enemy stronghold; Juliet as a Young Girl captures the rapidly changing moods of the character’s adolescent personality, highlighting Juliet’s innocence, youth, and growing emotional depth; The Montagues and The Capulets is made up of two widely spaced moments from the ballet: the threatening music which accompanies the Duke’s order that the warring families must cease fighting on pain of death - and the menacing fierce family feud; Morning Dance is a graceful and lighthearted movement; The Street Awakens reveals a bustling, lively portrayal of Verona's populace.
Gilad Cohen has created a unique and colorful rendition of Prokofiev’s epic orchestral score pushing all three instruments to their limits.