Second Concert of the 62nd Season

John Cacavas is one of those composers whose music you have almost certainly heard many times without knowing it. He is an American composer, both in Aberdeen, South Dakota. At the age of 13, he started a dance band at his school. You probably don't remember that. Later he composerd an oratorio, The Conversion of Paul, for NBC radio. You probably don't remember that, either. But I suspect you do remember the television series, Kojak, starring Telly Savalas, and the films Airport 1975, Airport '77, the TV programs The Executioner's Song and Margaret Bourke White. Perhaps you remember the film Horror Express (starring Telly Savalas, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing). All right, you don't remember that one, either.

John Cacavas is a successful journeyman composer of incidental music. He is the kind of composer we need even if we don't notice him. In fact some people do notice him, and those who don't would miss him if they had to watch those films and TV programs without his music. To my knowledge he has not written a large scale work in which his concept of musical form would be put to the test. Background music rarely lends itself to such notions as "grand design," serving, as it must, the demands of the plot. His orchestration is clever, and the orchestral color inventive. He uses electronic devices imaginatively, but not overpoweringly. He has arranged a great deal of other people's music, including a suite called Star Spangled Spectacular with music by George M. Cohan. He has conducted orchestras world-wide, and lectured on writing music for films. He won a Grammy Award for the background score for Senator Everett Dirksen's spoken word, Gallant Men.

Waldteufel is one of those composers who is known primarily for one successful piece: The Skaters' Waltz. Waldteufel was a French composer, born into a very musical family. When he was seven, the family moved from his birthplace, Strasbourg, to Paris so that his older brother could study the violin at the Paris Conservatoire. Later, Emile also studied at the Conservatoire where one of his classmates was Jules Massenet, composer of the operas Manon, Thaïs, and Werther. His instrument was the piano, and throughout his career, he continued to compose at the keyboard, orchestrating his works later. His family had a dance band which became very popular in Paris. His compositions soon rivaled those of the older Johann Strauss in popularity. He was appointed pianist to Empress Eugénie of France, and regularly played for Napoleon III's grand court balls.

In 1874, the Prince of Wales attended an affair in Paris where he was impressed by Waldteufel's waltz Manolo, and helped launch his career in London, which spread his fame and guaranteed financial security until his death in 1915. In addition to his well-known original works such as Les Patineurs (Skaters), and Très jolie (Very Pretty), only slightly less known than The Skaters' Waltz, there were many works Waldteufel orchestrated from the music of other composers, most notable Chabrier's España.

The Skaters' Waltz is "picturesque." That is, it brings forth images of the events of a very cold day on the frozen Seine two years before it was written. Ice skating had been a popular winter activity for many years, but in 1879 Europe had the coldest winter on record. The Seine froze from bank to bank, and sleighs were used through the streets of Paris.

There is a slow introduction with a horn motif which is almost the main theme in inversion, followed by rapid flute trills and violin glissandi, suggesting the falling snow. When the main theme appears, it seems tentative, like people timidly trying the ice. The ice is firm, and the skaters gain confidence. One can almost picture the enthusiastic skaters with rosy cheeks doing double Axels and triple toe-loops. At the end, there is a hint of sleighbells before the timpani bring the work to a dramatic close.

Samuel (Hans) Adler was born in Germany in 1928. His father was a cantor and composer of Jewish liturgical music. The family came to the United States in 1939. Samuel received his B.M. in 1948 from Boston University, and his M.A. in 1950 from Harvard. He studied with (among others) Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson. He conducted with Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center.

After graduating from Harvard, Adler joined the U.S. Army and organized the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. He conducted this orchestra in over 75 concerts in Germany and Austria, and was awarded the Army Medal of Honor for his musical services. After several years as professor of composition at North Texas State University, he joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in 1966, and since 1974 has served as chairman of the composition department.

He is a prolific composer of operas, ballets, symphonies, concerti, songs, chamber works, and much liturgical music. His early works (before 1969) were mostly diatonic, but he has experimented since with serialism, aleatoric (chance) techniques, and tone clusters, à la Henry Cowell.

To Celebrate a Miracle: A Chanukah Suite is one of several Adler works written to celebrate Chanukah (or Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights). This is an eight-day event commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the defeat of Antiochus IV by Judas Maccabaeus in 164 B.C. It is called "Feast of Lights" because it is celebrated by the lighting of candles, one each night, for eight nights.