Saturday August 23
“The Mask of Agamemnon,” c. 1550–1500 B.C.E. (gold) by unknown sculptor. National Archaeological Museum of Athens/Wikimedia Commons. A famous example of archaeological interpretation: Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist, uncovered this burial mask at Mycenae in 1876 and believed it to belong to Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek armies in the mythical Trojan War. Schliemann believed this to prove that the War was a real historical event. More recent research dates the mask to the sixteenth century B.C.E., centuries before the Trojan War.
Chirstopher Stark
Prehistoric Songs and Dances That Never Existed
When Christopher Stark was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2022–23, he found himself hanging out with archeologists. He was immediately struck by “how creative they were and how often they relied on their (extremely educated) imaginations to fill in the missing bits and pieces of their enigmatic puzzles.” He had assumed that “you’d have to defend [every little factual claim] within an inch of its life in some kind of academic court of law”; he was surprised to learn that wasn’t the case. It was an inspiring alternative for the creative process, a way for Stark to reimagine his approach to composition after many years of working on commission. Moreover, using deductive and empirical methods to craft narrative from fragmentary materials connects Stark with twentieth-century Modernists whose approach to spirituality in music was also based on empirical experience.
In the piece, Stark casts himself as a musical archeologist from the distant future who has come upon a set of five random sonic artifacts from our time, stripped of all their original context and their meaning for their “prehistoric” users/creators. He then reconstructs, with an educated imagination, what the “folk music” of such “fictional lost civilizations” might have been like. These “reconstructions” unfold in an alternating series of songs and dances. In the latter, Stark lets the logic of the beat dictate the way a given fragment develops, leaning into syncopated, additive processes. In the former, he lets the flexible, improvisatory potential of melodies and the looser spaces they provide dictate how the material unfurls.
Stark claims he’s not “creating” this music, just “discovering” it. That distinction contains profound implications for a world where “creativity” and “originality” are often considered intrinsic requirements for musical value. Stark notes that, paradoxically, those expectations themselves can be mundane; he calls the assumption of a certain mode of creative profundity “boring,” “unproductive in a way that I don’t think helps me make good work.” “I think this feeling of discovery feels more mutable, like things can change,” he continues. “Why don’t I find this great sound and just chase it rather than having this idea that I’m going to impose upon it and lessen it in some way with my ego or my concept?”
He’s also quick to point out that he’s not making “fake indigenous music or something like that.” “I am thinking about where this music comes from,” he says. “Does it come from bird sounds? Does it come from warning signals? Does it come from our heartbeats? There is something kind of human about it.” This excitement, and the flexibility of scientific inquiry, brought him to an engaged and idiosyncratic curiosity. Or, in his own words, “I have this weird freedom to make it weird.” — © Dan Ruccia
A Northern Night, 1917 (tempera over graphite) by Franz Johnston. National Gallery of Canada.
Jocelyn Morlock
Vespertine
Colors and suggestions of natural phenomena are often found in the titles of work by Jocelyn Morlock, a celebrated Canadian composer who, at the time of her tragic death in 2023 at age fifty-three, left behind an impressive oeuvre of evocative works for a range of forces, from chamber to orchestral. Morlock trained as a composer at Brandon University and the University of British Columbia, and she went on to become the first woman to serve as composer-in-residence for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Morlock composed the two-movement Vespertine for flutist Lorna McGhee and harpist Heidi Krutzen. The composition’s title, which bears no direct connection to Icelandic pop star Björk’s album of the same name but shares its qualities of sonic miraculousness, “refers to night-blossoming plants, and to nocturnally-active creatures, the mysterious flora and fauna that inspired my music,” Morlock wrote. In the first movement, titled Twilight, Morlock “wanted to explore the darker sounds of the harp; a sense of ritual, anticipation, and nervousness at the opening gives way to a growing feeling of tension and energy.” After a spacious introduction, faster figures in the harp and a switch from alto flute to standard concert flute suggest a kind of opening up toward a nocturnal vista, or perhaps a hidden world of bustling activity. “At the climactic point” of the movement, Morlock writes, “I imagine seeing trails of bright sparks wheeling through the air.” After this buildup ends, the return to the alto flute marks what Morlock called the movement’s “peaceful ending, in which we calmly await the morning light.”
Morlock described the second movement, Verdigris, as having been “written in the style of a postlude,” and she called it “melancholy and full of existential solitude, like a lone bird crooning to itself in the night.” A slowly pulsating harp figure, built largely on a repeating pattern of four ascending notes, sets an unsettling, dreamlike stage for the flute’s forlorn song in this shorter movement, which at times clearly suggests birdsong. The flute seems to soar far away from the more grounded harp. When the bird’s “crooning” disappears, none but the lonely harp remains to close the piece, echoing the opening of Twilight. — © Matthew Mugmon
A Summer Evening in the Salzkammergut, 1877 (oil on canvas) by Fanny Meyer. Auktionshaus Wendl.
Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, op. 87
Brahms enjoyed spending his summers in some locale of physical beauty which might inspire him to musical creation. During the early 1880s, his favorite resort was Bad Ischl, amid the breathtaking mountain scenery of the Salzkammergut. This area was renowned especially as the summer residence of Emperor Franz Joseph. Brahms’s friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg was appalled that he should choose such a fashionable location to spend the summer. “Doesn’t half of Vienna stay there?” she asked. The composer replied that half of Leipzig or Berlin might drive him away, but “half of Vienna is quite pretty and need not be ashamed of itself.” There he enjoyed the companionship of several musicians, among them the once-famous Ignaz Brüll and the still-famous “Waltz King” Johann Strauss, whom Brahms sincerely admired.
It was in Ischl in 1882 that Brahms completed two major chamber compositions: the magisterial C-major Trio and the joyous String Quintet in F. He had actually written the Trio’s broad first movement in March 1880, just before his first summer in Ischl. After that, the work seems to have been dormant for nearly two years or, perhaps, to have percolated subconsciously in the composer’s imagination, so that when he arrived at Ischl in June 1882 he quickly finished the remaining three movements.
The work is conceived on a grand scale. Throughout much of the piece, the piano part is cast in such a heroic mold as to force the two string instruments to band together against it, playing in octaves or at least in the same rhythm against the keyboard. Yet the first movement’s main theme is so perfectly conceived for the strings that they take the reins, playing it at each of the major formal statements in the sonata form movement. The piano begins accompanying rather hesitantly, but soon begins to sing in exuberant rapture. The strings wind down gently before the piano brings in the lush second theme, which is a marvel of imaginative and unexpected phrases. A climactic arrival back in the home key suggests an expositional repeat, but, as often happens, this leads us instead into an expansive development.
The slow movement in A minor is a classical variation that strictly retains the theme’s shape with each recurrence. After three variations in A minor developed from the melody originally presented by the strings, the fourth turns to the major and develops the piano’s accompaniment figure in a rich harmonic elaboration. The last variation returns to the minor mode, but converts the original theme into the preceding section’s 6/8 meter before expanding into the coda’s quiet afterthought.
The Scherzo is a dark and shadowy C minor—anything but the joke that the word scherzo would lead us to expect. Thus when the Trio’s music moves into the sunshine of C major, the effect is all the stronger. Brahms does not often use the word “Finale” in his scores; when he chooses to, it means that he is ready for action. The Finale’s muscular energy, with its humor and mystery, brings the Trio to a splendidly sonorous conclusion.
— © Steven Ledbetter
Timothy Weiss, composer and conductor, has gained critical acclaim for his performances and adventurous programming throughout the U.S. and abroad. His repertoire in contemporary music is vast, including masterworks, recent compositions, and many premieres and commissions. He was the recipient of the Adventurous Programming Award from the League of American Orchestras. Recent engagements include the Arctic Philharmonic in Bodø, Norway; Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia; Eastman Broadband Ensemble; BBC Scottish Symphony; Britten Sinfonia in London; International Contemporary Ensemble; and the Melbourne Symphony in Australia. In his three decades as music director of Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), Weiss has brought the group to a level of artistry and virtuosity in performance that rivals the finest new music groups. During his tenure with the CME, he has helped launch the International Contemporary Ensemble and Eighth Blackbird, as well as mentoring many other leading performers of contemporary music. Weiss is a professor of conducting and chair of the division of contemporary music at Oberlin. He holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium; Northwestern University; and the University of Michigan. The residency of Timothy Weiss is made possible by an endowment gift from Susan and Ford Schumann.
Demarre McGill is internationally recognized as one of the premier flutists of his generation, celebrated for his lyrical expressiveness and technical prowess. Winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, McGill has appeared as a soloist with the renowned orchestras of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park, San Diego, Chicago, and Baltimore. Currently serving as the principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, McGill has previously held principal positions with the Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and as acting principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. As an educator McGill is committed to inspiring and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He has coached and presented master classes in South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Quebec, and throughout the United States. He has served on the faculties of institutions including the National Youth Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival, and Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. McGill spent seven years as the associate professor of Flute at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has been an artist-faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2017. Born in Chicago, McGill began studying the flute at age seven and attended the Merit School of Music before studying with Susan Levitin. Demarre received his bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s degree from The Juilliard School. McGill is a Yamaha Performing Artist. For additional information please visit www.demarremcgill.com.
Harpist Emily Levin has forged a multifaceted career as soloist, orchestral musician, chamber collaborator, and advocate for new music. Principal harp with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2016, Levin has served as guest principal harp with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony. As soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at venues throughout North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, the Ojai Music Festival, the Kimmel Center, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2021 she founded GroundWork(s), an initiative commissioning fifty-two American composers—one from each state, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico—to write new works for harp. Commissions have included works by Angélica Negrón, Reena Esmail, Michael Ippolito, Aaron Holloway Nahum, and Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Levin is the only American to receive top prizes at two of the most prestigious international harp competitions: the U.S.A. International Harp Competition and the International Harp Contest in Israel. She was also a winner of the 2016 Astral Artists National Auditions and was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s 2017 Young Musician of the Year for her debut album, Something Borrowed. Levin is adjunct associate professor of harp at Southern Methodist University and is a proud alumna of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Kathleen Winkler, violin, has earned critical plaudits since her solo debut at seventeen with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has performed with the Detroit and Pittsburgh symphonies, the Danish Radio Orchestra, the Odense Byorkester, the Polish Slaska Philharmonic, and others. She has toured throughout North America and Europe, and won first prize in the first Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, which led to debuts at Lincoln Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, the Kennedy Center, and the Library of Congress. The United States Information Agency selected her as an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. on concert tours to Southeastern and East Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa. An active chamber musician, Winkler has appeared at major music festivals throughout the country and for seven years with the Amabile Piano Quartet. A devoted mentor, Winkler is the recipient of Rice University’s Julia Mile Chance Award for excellence in teaching. Her students have received such awards as the Watson Fellowship, the Fulbright award, and the Pulitzer Prize in Music. She has served on the faculties of Oberlin Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California. She is the current Dorothy Richard Starling chair of violin at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Michael Mermagen, cello, made his solo debut at age sixteen with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra after receiving their Young Soloist Award. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Juilliard with principal teachers Stephen Kates and Zara Nelsova. He has also performed in the Violoncello Society of New York Master Classes led by Yo-Yo Ma, Janos Starker, and Bernard Greenhouse. Mermagen has toured and given recitals, concerto performances, master classes, and chamber music performances around the world, most recently with the Aspen String Trio. As an artist-faculty member and alumnus of the AMFS, Mermagen has been principal cellist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony for over twenty-five seasons. He has recordings on Arabesque and Warner Brothers and has been heard live on WQXR Concerts Plus, WNYC Around New York, APM Performance Today, and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Mermagen is currently associate professor of cello at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. This appointment follows his twelve-year tenure as associate professor of cello at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He performs on a Nicolo Gagliano cello, Naples, 1774.
Winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Highlights in the U.S. include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit symphonies as well as coast-to-coast recitals. Overseas he has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and major concert halls in China, Korea, and South Africa. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, where he heads the division of keyboard studies. He also teaches annual masterclasses at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and the Manhattan School of Music. During the summers he is on the artist-faculties of the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival and the Orford Music Academy in Quebec. Nel also frequently performs as a harpsichordist and fortepianist. His teachers have included Adolph Hallis at the University of the Witwatersrand and, at the University of Cincinnati, Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. He first appeared at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 1988 and joined the faculty in 1997. More information at www.antonnel.com.
