Music on Your Lunch Break in Downtown Wilmington

By Margaret Darby

Copeland String Quartet & Grant Youngblood
at Market Street Music. Photo by Joe Gawinski.

If you have never been to one of Market Street Music’s Thursday Noontime Concerts, it is worth organizing a trip to First & Central Presbyterian Church.  The concerts are only 30-minutes long, so they would serve as a gentle introduction for a person who is new to classical music. The selections are varied and intriguing – a taste of music by local performers. 

On March 30, the Copeland String Quartet and baritone Grant Youngblood performed Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach, which Barber composed at age 21. The piece starts with a quiet repeated pattern by the first and second violins, evoking the rocking tide of a quiet ocean. Youngblood began with a soft yet penetrating “The sea is calm” over that pattern. The sound became louder as the poem evokes Sophocles’ comparing the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the ocean to the sound of misery. The music builds to its climax, “Let us be true to one another!”  

The performance was beautifully controlled and the quiet attack and gradual build to the climax and fading away to nothing was also like an ocean wave, but this was slightly different from what Mr. Barber had originally put in his score. When I listened to a 1983 Nonesuch recording of the work with Leslie Guinn and the New York Art Quartet, the cover notes by Phillip Ramey quoted his 1977 interview with Mr. Barber. Barber said of Dover Beach, “Originally, I cut the middle part about Sophocles. Soon after Dover Beach was finished, I played it at the Owen Wister house in Philadelphia and Marina Wister exclaimed, ‘Be where’s that wonderful part about Sophocles?’ (Conversation was at a high level at those grand Philadelphia houses – if you said Sophocles when you meant Aeschylus, you simply didn’t get another drink.) I realized that Philadelphians, who are infinitely more educated than New Yorkers, would know their Matthew Arnold, and that she was quite right, so I wrote a contrasting middle section. The piece was better for it.”  And I agree.

The second piece in this mini-concert was String Quartet No. 1, which Charles Ives composed when he was 21. He used some well-known tunes, in particular hymns.  Ives’ harmonizations in this early work were exploratory and sometimes use clashing dissonances. The Copeland Quartet, with Ross Beauchamp as their guest cellist in this concert, unfurled the canonic harmonies of the fugal first movement and took their time ro permit clarity in the very acoustically live sanctuary. Ives became more daring with his harmonies with each successive movement. The fourth and final movement was a glorious experiment in harmonic changes and 3/4 over 4/4 meter – reprising the Shining Shore theme from the second movement, the Coronation from the first, and a smattering of the hymn tune Stand up for Jesus. The effect was described by my companion as ‘a sandbox of harmony”. The quartet played the difficult piece with panache, showing us how, as another member of the audience noted, that without Charles Ives there would have been no Aaron Copland. 

Upcoming Market Street Music concerts are Minas on Thursday, April 6 and OperaDelaware Sneak Preview on Thursday, April 20, both at 12:30. 

See www.marketstreetmusicde.org.

Delaware Historical Society Celebrates Harriet Tubman

As part of its Untapped History Series, on Friday, March 24, the Delaware Historical Society presented Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, a one-woman show featuring well-known re-enactor Kathryn Harris, who is the President of the Abraham Lincoln Association and former Library Services Director at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois. (Side note: Prior to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library opening in 2004, the Illinois State Historical Library was located underneath the Old State Capitol.)

Delaware Arts Info sat down for a chat with Ms. Harris to discover more about her performance this weekend. Check out our interview below...

*Did you write this piece and what moved you to create it? Or, what is the work's origin and how did you come to find it?

Kathryn Harris as Harriet Tubman

Yes, I wrote the piece. I wrote it around the late 1990's for presentation to an Illinois 5th Grade class as part of their study of the Antebellum and Civil War era. I had "...made another historical woman come alive" for our local Historical Society Cemetery Walk, and the President of the Society, who was also involved with the 5th Grade program, asked if I would make Harriet come alive, as the students wanted to know more about her. Since I was in the Library, I was extraordinarily positioned to have access to resources, including Harriet's 1869 biography by Sarah H. Bradford.

*What drew you to performance of this work? What is your favorite part of the performance?
I was drawn to create this piece in response to the request from my friend and colleague. (She asked me to develop and deliver the presentation as a part of the 5th Grade program.) My favorite part is the Q&A, where I answer in first person narrative, as Harriet. I never know what I'll be asked, so each performance is different.

*Do you have any special inspiration or influence that you tap into in preparation for this piece?
I have admired Harriet Tubman since I was in elementary school, when I read her biography. She was a truly remarkable woman. When given the opportunity, I was eager to develop this presentation. Originally after my monologue, I did not answer questions in first-person, but with the help and encouragement of a theater friend, I grew more comfortable answering questions in that scenario. Of course, all of this was because of my continual reading and research on Harriet.

*Can you talk about Harriet Tubman's connections here in Delaware?
The most significant story that I know about Harriet Tubman's Delaware connections is her relationship with Thomas Garrett and their subsequent relationship with William Still of Philadelphia. Garrett was a staunch and radical abolitionist who was thoroughly committed to the abolition of slavery. He risked his life and livelihood in the fight for abolition, and opened his home as a safehouse for hundreds of fugitives that traveled with Harriet.

*What do you feel is the greatest message or experience that you'd like audiences to take with them after seeing your performance?
After my performance, I hope the audience will not only learn something new about Harriet Tubman, but also that they will respect her commitment to a supremely righteous cause. She valiantly showed that she "...put her feet were her belief was." With a strong faith and trust in God, she tirelessly worked for the greatest possession: LIBERTY and FREEDOM. She was determined to have them or death — that was the only alternative in her view. What a woman! If only everyone today could have the courage of conviction to act for a cause in which they so fiercely believe — how much different would our world be? Sitting on the sidelines does not bring change or make our society better!

See www.dehistory.org. 

The Nymphs and the Shepherd Close Brandywine Baroque's 16-17 Season

By Christine Facciolo

BrandywineBaroque warmed a late winter night and concluded its 2016-17 season with an all-Vivaldi program.

There was no grand thought or theme unifying the concert at The Barn at Flintwoods on March 10, unless it was the sheer delight in virtuosity and the delightfully relaxed approach to the music by all concerned.

The centerpiece of the evening’s program was a performance of La ninfa e il pastore (The Nymphs and the Shepherd). This rare and beautiful gem was composed in 1715 when the thirty-something Vivaldi became music director of the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, a charitable institution dedicated to the care of orphaned and abandoned girls.

The work is not an opera but a related dramatic genre — the serenata. Serenatas first appeared in the mid-17th Century and were often composed to mark a festive or celebratory occasion. They usually consisted of two acts presented “in concert” by two or more soloists who did not wear costumes or act. In fact, there was no action to speak of. Rather, serenatas employed laudatory texts that featured discursive debates between allegorical figures. In this instance, the text refers to the trial and imprisonment of Jansenist propagandist Abbe Jean de Tourreil for his refusal to accept papal authority regarding the doctrine of predestination.

The Serenata a Tre: The Nymphs and the Shepherd paints a pastoral scene in which lust triumphs over reason. The lovelorn nymph Eurilla (soprano Laura Heimes) discovers that Alcindo (tenor Tony Boutte) with whom she is smitten is perfect in every respect save one: He is incapable of love. Encouraged by her friend Nice (soprano Julianne Baird) she sets out to correct this flaw. Passion gets rebuffed by false humility, love feigned becomes love in earnest and the chickens come home to roost.

Singers and players gave concertgoers ample opportunity to enjoy Vivaldi’s melodic gifts. The instrumentalists — Eileen Grycky (flute), Martin Davids and Edwin Huizinga (violins), Amy Leonard (viola), John Mark Rozendaal (cello) and Karen Flint (harpsichord) — played with enthusiasm and tonal finesse.

Laura Heimes was a pure-toned Eurilla, singing with lightness and agility while exercising consistent control and vocal precision throughout her impressive range.

Nice was a figure of wisdom as portrayed by Julianne Baird. Her soprano is lush and full-bodied, but she judiciously restrained her instrument to convey a steadfast sagacity.

Tony Boutte was delightful in the role of the hapless protagonist Alcindo who gets his comeuppance at the hands of the cunning nymphs. His tenor was secure and convincing as he negotiated the lion’s share of the virtuosity.

Both acts of the serenata were preceded by performances of flute concertos in G Major (RV 435) and D Major (RV 427). Soloist Eileen Grycky managed everything with her customary technical fluency and charm. These are hardly routine pieces and Grycky points up every turn with playing that uncovers the originality of Vivaldi’s idiom. The accompanying ensemble complemented with playing that was both spirited and superb. 

See www.brandywinebaroque.org.