program/Programa
Sonatina for Unaccompanied Horn - Sergio Delgado (b. 1993)
One Sound Once, Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016)
This piece is a text score, intended to be performed by players and audience members alike.
One and only one sound will occur indivisible to the ear. When you are aware that a sound has occurred (predetermined or spontaneous, prerecorded or live, imaginary or real), focus attention on the space/time between the beginning of the silence and that single sound. Then continue to imagine silence while the equivalent space/time passes.
Esta pieza es música de texto, para ser interpretada por los músicos y el público.
Se producirá un solo sonido al oído. Cuando se note que el sonido ha aparecido (predeterminado o espontáneo, pregrabado o en directo, imaginario o real), centrar la atención en el espacio/tiempo entre el silencio y el singular sonido. Entonces, imagina el silencio mientras el silencio pasa.
A tres voces - Tania León (b. 1943)
Sonoran Storm - Nokuthula Ngwenyama (b. 1976)
Duet with Beverage - Herine Coetzee Koschak (b. 1978)
This piece is a text score, intended to be performed by players and audience members alike.
Select your vessel and place it on the table. Listen to the unique sound that this vessel makes as it contacts the surface. Play!
Listen to the conversation between you, your drink and all the others.
When you’re ready, say cheers in any language of your choice!
Enjoy your drink! Taste, slurp, savor.
The piece is over when everyone has made one satisfying sound of beverage enjoyment.
Esta pieza es música de texto, para ser interpretada por los músicos y el público.
Elija su bebida, y póngala en la mesa. Escuche los sonidos que hace su bebida cuando toca la mesa. Juegue!
Escuche la conversación entre usted, su bebida, y la gente que le rodea.
Cuando esté listo, diga “salud” en el idioma que quieras.
Disfrute de su bebida! Saboreala.
La pieza está terminada cuando todos han hecho un sonido de disfrute de las bebidas.
Oboe Quartet - W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Allegro
Adagio
Rondeau: Allegro
26.2 - Kenji Bunch (b. 1973)
Prelude: Chorale of the Orange and Blue
Mile 1
Mile 4
Mile 7
Mile 10 (faster, quasi metal)
Mile 14 (Lubavitcher Waltz)
Mile 18 (slow march tempo)
Mile 20
Mile 22: The Wall
Mile 24: Victory March
Mile 26!
musicians/músicos
Grace Hong, oboe
Parker Nelson, horn
Khelsey Zarraga, violin
Mason Spencer, viola
Herine Koschak, cello
program notes
Sergio Delgado (b.1993): Sonatina for Unaccompanied Horn (2020):
Given the lack of repertoire for the French horn in my home country of Costa Rica and even the whole of Central America, this piece is perhaps the first written for this instrument in this regional genre.
The Sonatina was composed in 2020 in the midst of the historic SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and expresses the overwhelming emotions of humanity that, for many, were within the spectrum of life and death. The first movement evokes the sound of a human voice singing; expressing its doubt and incertitude, all while grappling with the loneliness and isolation of being quarantined. Contrastingly, the second movement brings the optimism of the Costa Rican folk dance rhythm, tambito, provoking the listener to remember our collective origins and spirituality. This piece stands as a reminder: even the most dire of conflicts can be overcome by the steadfast companions of music and the arts.
Tania León (b. 1943): A Tres Voces (2012)
A Tres Voces is a work made up of unexpected passages of free development. Musical ideas undergo transformations of textures and motivic concepts, continuously expressing the idea of metamorphosis and creating the illusion of passing time at three different rates. String patterns of fluid melodies at times counter rhythmic passages. The morphing of the three string instruments propels the piece to the end in a harmonious sonic dialogue.
– Tania León
Nokuthula Ngwenyama (b. 1976): Sonoran Storm (2016)
Humidity rises in the desert. That score blaster hitting the face feels fuller and expectant upon exit. Haboob dust causes a metal gate to clang. It’s bulging brown outside. Feet scamper across parched earth as clouds approach. Expanding into the atmosphere, they amass to quench aridity’s obsession. Anti-trades carry ocean moisture across Baja California to the Sierra Madres during the monsoons. It drifts north across el Camino del Diablo and swirls above the Mogollon Rim. Cumulus giants, made stronger by el Niño, dwarf the eastern landscape. The sun sets, the ground cools, and the desert braces for thermal dynamism. Tree branches partner with updrafts, while downdrafts pelt the land. Angular veins shoot through darkness.
Thunder rumbles with an abusive baritone’s vigor while the saguaro leads succulents in thirsty supplication, arms toward the sky.
Static tendrils demand audience: jagged voltage communicates melody in joyful obeisance. The virga stop easing as ten miles of heaven drop to the floor (section A). Big weather enjoys a snail-paced game of bumper cars, reforming whilst arboreal cards stand empty. It’s calm. Is it over? Abated leaves bathe in temporary starlight (section B). But summer westerlies do not relent, and another thunderhead descends. The romp resumes, culminating in a celebration of renewal and life (section A1).
– Nokuthula Ngwenyama
W.A. Mozart (b. 1756, d. 1791): Oboe Quartet (1781)
Written in 1781 for oboist Friedrich Ramm, Mozart’s Oboe Quartet is a delightful showcase of the instrument’s personality and traditional classical composition. The piece explores and expresses the oboe’s delicate sound, using mostly the upper range of the instrument including the use of the highest note of the oboe at a very soft dynamic. Throughout the piece, all four instruments share the musical gestures, often as if they are having a conversation with the oboe by introducing a counter melody.
The quartet comprises three movements in a traditional fast-slow-fast pattern after the manner of a sonata or concerto, rather than the four-movement design of a string quartet or symphony. In the first movement, the light articulations and lilting melody will bring a smile to the face of any listener. The short and slow second movement is surprisingly powerful and expressive. Using both the high and low range of the oboe, Mozart allows the performer the space to be free and expressive with a miniature cadenza. The final movement, recalling the lilting melody of the first, shows off the performers’ virtuosi with fast and technically challenging passages. Listen for the polyrhythmic moment where the oboe plays in four while the strings play in three!
– Grace Hong
Kenji Bunch (b. 1973): 26.2 (2012)
As many runners know, 26.2 is the distance in miles of an official marathon – a distance my wife and I have run three times together. This work for horn and string trio depicts the first time we ran the legendary NYC marathon. The music begins as the sun rises to warm Staten Island’s pre-dawn chill and stir the conflicting mix of our pre-race emotions. After the start’s initial burst of energy, rapidly shifting passages evoke crowd noises and the many kinds of street music we encounter as we proceed through the different neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves along the course. After the inevitable struggles with pain and exhaustion, our mutual commitment to our goal and the crowd’s energy finally carry us across the finish line.
Fifth House Ensemble is supported in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Alphawood Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Amphion Foundation, the Arts Work Fund, a Vision Grant from Illinois Humanities, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, New Music USA's New Music Organizational Development Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.