Hoover for flute and guitar

Synopsis

The intimate combination of flute and guitar has proven to be an attractive one for a number of composers -- and if the composer herself plays the flute, so much the better.

This music is from a four-movement suite for flute and guitar, entitled “Canyon Echoes,” written by the American composer and flutist Katherine Hoover. This music was premiered on today’s date in 1991 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van.

Katherine Hoover gave her “Canyon Echoes” a subtitle: “An Apache Folktale.”

“This piece,” explained Hoover, “was inspired by a book called The Flute Player, a simple and beautifully illustrated retelling of an Apache folktale by Michael Lacapa. It is the story of two young Apaches from different areas of a large canyon. They meet at a Hoop Dance, and dance only with each other. The next day, as the girl works up on the side of the canyon in her father's fields, the boy sits below by a stream and plays his flute for her (flute-playing was a common manner of courtship). She puts a leaf in the stream which flows down to him, so he knows she hears.”

Like most legendary love stories, this Apache legend ends sadly, with the young lovers first separated, then rejoined, by death. A melancholy tale, perhaps, but one admirably suited to the introverted, dreamy tones of flute and guitar.

Music Played in Today's Program

Katherine Hoover (1937 - 2018) Canyon Echoes Duologue (Susan Morris De Jong, flute; Jeffrey Van, guitar) Gasparo 336

On This Day

Births

• 1919 - American composer and arranger Hershy Kay, in Philadelphia;

• 1930 - American composer, French horn player and conductor David Amram, in Philadelphia;

Deaths

• 1959 - Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, age 72, in Rio de Janeiro;

• 1982 - Estonian composer Eduard Tubin, age 77, in Stockholm;

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 55 ("Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht") performed on the 22nd Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1839 - Verdi: opera "Oberto" in Milan at the Teatro all Scala; This was Verdi's first opera;

• 1866 - Ambroise Thomas: opera, "Mignon,"in Paris at the Opéra-Comique;

• 1876 - Tchaikovsky: “Marche slav” in Moscow (see Julian date: Nov. 5);

• 1877 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, "The Sorcerer," at the Opera Comique Theatre in London;

• 1888 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, in St. Petersburg, with the composer conducting (se Julian date: Nov. 5);

• 1924 - Ernst von Dohnányi: "Ruralia Hungarica" in Budapest, with composer conducting;

• 1937 - Daniel Gregory Mason: "A Lincoln Symphony," John Barbirolli conducting the New York Philharmonic;

• 1955 - Bernstein: incidental music for "The Lark" (play by Jean Anoilh adapted by Lillian Hellman) in New York City at the Longacre Theater, performed by New York Pro Musica conducted by Noah Greenberg; A trial run of this show had opened in Boston at the Plymouth Theater on October 28, 1955;

• 1977 - Vincent Persichetti: "Concerto for English Horn & Strings," soloist Thomas Stacy, Erich Leinsdorf conducting New York Philharmonic;

• 1991 - Katherine Hoover: "Canyon Echoes," by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis;

• 1996 - Michael Torke: “Chrome” for flute and piano, at Colden Center in Queens, N.Y., by Marina Piccinini (flute) and Andreas Haefliger (piano).