Congratulations to the Oberlin Sinfonietta, conductor Tim Weiss and soloists Drew Pattison, Bassoon and Alexa Still flute/piccolo for their performances of INSCRIPTIONS. The wonderful program also included works by Melinda Wagner, Brian Nabors and Stephen Hartke, whose SONS OF NOAH featured Oberlin’s soprano Martha Guth. Oberlin is among the many commissioners of INSCRIPTIONS and it is nice, now to hear the piece being played in. Compliments to the students and their faculty mentors in this crack ensemble.
INSCRIPTIONS premiere. (This is the U South Carolina performance)
Stephen Hartke’s SONS OF NOAH: Three Lost Chapters from the Bible has been a favorite of mine for twenty years since I heard the New World recording by Lisa Stidhams, soprano and an ensemble led by Donald Crockett. There are so many levels in which this is an interesting composition. To mention a few: the instrumental ensemble, comprised of four guitars, four flutes, and four bassoons; the vocal writing, which is spritely, quick-paced, wry, playful and changeable. (Very few contemporary scores reveal such deft lightness of vocal writing, quick word delivery and delight in the words). Hartke’s rich style is so inviting and yet very complicated in harmony and counterpoint. Wow! Every moment of this very original score offers a new surprise, something different to remember. At times the orchestration reminds me of Milhaud’s L’homme et son désir, or the mocking and sometime sarcastic tone of scores like Rénard by Stravinsky, some movements of Unsuk Chin’s Achrostichon Wortespeil, or even Henze. But really, it sounds like Hartke! The text, by Philip Littell, is preposterously fabulous: fashioned on a story by Machado de Assis (Na arca), the tale “traces all human contact back to the sons of Noah, who in this telling, already started squabbling about who would get what in the newly purged world before landfall had been achieved.” (Hartke). There is not a sentimental note in this tale, something else I admire. Yet every turn of phrase is great. Young composers: get to know it. bit.ly/4u8V9yn
