[Concert programme: Serenada Schizophrana World Premiere]
Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra, 2005.02.23
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CARNEGIE HALL
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at 8:00 PM
Isaac Stern Auditorium
CARNEGIE HALL Presents
AMERICAN COMPOSERS
ORCHESTRA
ROBERT BEASER, Artistic Director
DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, Conductor Laureate
STEVEN SLOANE, Music Director and Conductor
ANDY SUMMERS, Electric Guitar
BENJAMIN VERDERY, Classical Guitar
ACO SINGERS
JUDITH CLURMAN, Director
_____________________
MANLY ROMERO (b. 1966) Blanco, Azul, Rojo (World Premiere, ACO/Whitaker
Commission) (2005)
I. Bolero
II. El Gardin del Eden
III. Balajú
INGRAM MARSHALL (b. 1942) Dark Florescence: Variations for
Two Guitars and Orchestra
(World Premiere, Yale University, Irving S. Gi,more Music Library Commission)
(2005)
ANDY SUMMERS, electric Guitar
BENJAMIN VERDERY, Classical Guitar
Intermission
DANNY ELFMAN (b.1953) Serenada Schizophrana (World Premiere,
ACO Commission) (2005)
I. Pianos
II. Blue Strings
III. A Brass Thing
IV. Quadraped Patrol
V. "I forget"
VI. Bells
ACO SINGERS
PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
This is the third concert in the 2004-2005 season's American composers Orchestra
series.
_____________________
DANNY ELFMAN Serenada Schizophrana
Elfman was born on May 29, 1953, in Los Angeles, California, where he currently
resides. He composed Serenada Schizophrana in 2005.
Serenada Schizophrana is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo),
3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (doubling E-flat, bass clarinet
and alto saxophone), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 6 French horns,
3 trumpets, 3 trombones (3rd doubling bass trombone), bass/contrabass trombone,
tuba (doubling cimbasso), timpani, percussion, 2 pianos, synthesizers, harps,
strings and small female chorus. Performance time is approximately 37 minutes.
Orchestrations by Steve Bartek and Edgardo Simone. Spanish lyrics by Claudia
Brant. MIDI realization by Rob Vermillion.
Tonight's performance marks the world premiere of Serenada
Schizophrana.
Over the last 20 years, Danny Elfman has established himself
as one of Hollywood's leading film composers and has written close to 50 film
scores including Batman, Spider-man, Men in Black, Beetlejuice,
Edward Scissorhands, and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. His range has
covered such diverse scores as Big Fish, Good Will Hunting, Dolores
Claiborne, Midnight Run, To Die For, Dead Presidents,
Sommersby, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Chicago.
For television he has created the themes to The Simpsons and Desperate
Housewives. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won a
Grammy.
Elfman's first performing and composing was for a French theatrical troupe,
"Le Grand Magic Circus," at the age of 18. He continued a year later
in California in collaboration with his brother Richard doing musical street
theater until finally moving indoors doing a "surrealistic musical cabaret"
for another six years. It was during this time Elfman began exploring different
musical genres. He then formed a rock band, Oingo Boingom for which he wrote
and performed for almost 17 years with such his as "Weird Science"
and "Dead Man's Party."
Elfman is currently working with longtime collaborator Tim Burton
on the highly anticipated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as
the stop-motion animated musical, corpse Bride. Elfman will also be scoring
the Disney CGI animated feature, A Day in the Life of Wilbur Robinson
as well as Paramount's adaptation of Charlotte's Web. He is creating
music for a full-scale ballet of Edward Scissorhands for the director/choreographer
Matthew Bourne.
Elfman is self-taught and has had no formal musical training. This is his first
orchestral composition written especially for the concert hall.
About this work the composer writes:
Serenada Schizophrana is a completely new experience for
me. Except for my early music/theater work, I've always had visuals to drive
my orchestral music. Beginning was quite daunting. I began composing several
dozen short, freeform compositions, none of them related. Some of them began
to develop themselves until I had six separate movements that, in some abstract,
absurd way, felt connected. I really let myself wander into a musical stream
of consciousness, which, in my case, is the way my brain works. It is not necessarily
a very smooth ride. Many of my musical influences come from mid-century film
composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota, and Alex North. In terms of classical
music, I was hugely influenced by Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Orff, and Bartók.
Early Duke ellington also had a major role. I consider myself to be a musical
throwback. with the exception of a few more recent influences like Harry Partch
and Philip Glass, I am forever attached to the music of the early 20th century
when, for me, orchestral music flourished alongside the creation of jazz in
a unique and remarkable way. I suppose this piece mixes up all my influences
in a kind of musical "gumbo." I hope it's interesting and perhaps
even entertaining.