Music Around the Corner @ Youthful Vengeance
November 14, 2024
Program Notes
William Grant Still (1895-1978) - Lyric Quartet (1960) -15 min
‘Musical Portraits of Three Friends’
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The Sentimental One
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The Quiet One
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The Jovial One
William Grant Still, a conductor and composer from Mississippi, was one of the most significant musical trailblazers of the 20th century. In a time where discrimination against African-Americans in classical music (and in everyday society) was rampant, he managed to achieve an impressive series of firsts- the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera, the first African-American composer to conduct a major American orchestra, and the first to have an opera performed on national television- this list goes on. He is most well known for his ‘Afro-American Symphony’ (1930), which was hugely popular and widely played in his lifetime.
Well respected by his traditional classical peers, having studied with renowned contemporary composer Edgard Varèse, he was also well connected with many significant African-American literary and cultural figures, and is considered a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance. The three friends for which his ‘Lyric Quartet’ was written are unnamed, but one can imagine that he was surrounded by colourful and fascinating characters from many different worlds, whose personalities were easy to capture with a musical paintbrush.
During the fall of 2022, I took the train from Toronto to London (Ontario). Between periods of dozing, and periods of idle wakefulness spent watching the scenery rush by, I sketched a series of musical ideas. Most of these ended up on the cutting room floor, but I did preserve one idea: a rapid, sparkling figure in the violins that I later dubbed the 'train motive.'
At once virtuosic and slightly dream-like, my Fifth String Quartet (cast in a single movement) opens with a rigorous development of this train motive before veering off into stranger pastures. A handful of locomotive associations are present, like the 'doppler-effect' glissandos or the chugging accelerations. But there are also incongruous elements, such as quotations from the scherzo movement of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2 (of which my 'train motive' rhythmically resembles), and a climactic stretch that improbably evokes a flash mob of Celtic fiddlers.
The subtitle is an homage to P.G. Bell's middle-grade fantasy series The Train to Impossible Places. Although my music bears little relation to the author's narrative, the playful image conjured by the title was impossible to resist. As for my substitution of the word ‘improbable’ in place of ‘impossible’, I can only say that I was intrigued by the possibility of connecting (via train, of course) strings of fantastical sonic landscapes that were unlikely to be found anywhere in ordinary experience...unlikely, but not impossible.- Kevin Lau (kevinlaumusic.com, 2023)
Kevin Lau (1982-) String Quartet No.5 (2023) - 9 min
‘The Train to Improbable Places’
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Hailed as a "self-assured voice" (Barczablog) with a "masterful control over his idiom" (Classical Music Sentinel), ), Kevin Lau is one of Canada's most versatile and sought-after composers. Awarded the prestigious 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, Kevin's creative output is often inspired by the surreal and the fantastical, and is unified by the search for deep connections amidst surface diversity - connections that serve as a metaphor for the reconciliation of seemingly fundamental differences.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) String Quartet Op.127
in E flat Major (1825)- 40 min
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Andantino Maestoso
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Adagio, ma non troppo e molto cantabile
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Scherzando vivace
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Allegro
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Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets, each representing a monumental musical evolution from the art form originally perfected by Haydn and Mozart. The oeuvre of Beethoven is typically split into three ‘periods’- Early, Middle, and Late- and this work, his 12th quartet, is the first quartet of his ‘Late Period’, composed after a 10 year hiatus from quartet writing. This period, from 1812 until his death, is associated both with his incredible departure from tradition and convention, as well as his total deafness. This disability left him extremely socially isolated and depressed, but also seemed to spur him towards innovation free from academic propriety, and the final form of his genius.
The first performance of this quartet was apparently an abject failure. The hapless quartet Beethoven employed had only 2 weeks to prepare this brand-new work -Beethoven having missed several previous writing deadlines- and the new musical ideas had no time to marinate before being foisted on the unprepared audience. Beethoven, who was very proud of his work, was furious when he learned of the bad premiere (which he did not attend. Even if he did, he would not have heard a single note). However, this performance is now just a funny footnote in the remarkable piece’s history, as its next performance, by the Bohm Quartet, quickly turned around the public reception. It is important to note that this work was composed simultaneously with his enormous and iconic Symphony No. 9, the ‘Ode to Joy’- perhaps that is why Beethoven struggled to finish his quartet on time.
