Stomping with David Schiff

Synopsis

Okay, here’s a cocktail party question for music fans: “What do James Brown — the master of funk — and Soviet symphonic composer Dmitri Shostakovich have in common?”

The answer is Stomp, a piece by Seattle-based composer David Schiff that premiered on today’s date in 1990 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City at a concert by Marin Alsop’s Concordia orchestra.

For starters, on the score of Stomp, Schiff includes a reference to James Brown’s music, instructing the players, “Every instrument is treated like a drum.” Also, during its opening, there’s a staccato rhythm based on Brown’s iconic tune, “I Feel Good.”

And the Shostakovich connection? Well, Schiff confesses to modeling Stomp on the opening movement of that composer’s Symphony No. 9, right down to a strict imitation of Shostakovich’s repeat of the exposition, in sonata-form style.

On the origin and subsequent use of Stomp, Schiff said, “Marin Alsop conducted one of my pieces at Tanglewood in 1988 and later asked me for a new orchestral piece for her Concordia orchestra; since then, Stomp has since been played by many orchestras including the L.A. Philharmonic, who took it to high schools to demonstrate that classical music could be really loud.”

Music Played in Today's Program

David Schiff (b. 1945): Stomp; Baltimore Sym; David Zinman, conductor; Argo 444 454-2

On This Day

Births

• 1770 - German composer Friedrich Witt, in Niederstetten, Württemberg. Like Beethoven, he composed nine symphonies, and one of them, his Jena Symphony, was for a time mistakenly believed to be an early work by Beethoven.

• 1883 - English composer Arnold Bax, in Streatham

• 1945 - American composer and pianist Judith Lang Zaimont, in Memphis

Deaths

• 1599 - Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero, 71, in Seville

• 1890 - Belgian-French composer César Franck, in Paris, 67

• 1894 - Russian composer Anton Rubinstein, 64, near St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Nov. 20)

• 1924 - Russian composer Sergie Liapunov, 65, in Paris

Premieres

• 1879 - Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1, in Bonn, by violinist Joseph Joachim and the composer at the piano

• 1919 - Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale Suite (for violin, clarinet and piano), in Lausanne. The staged version had premiered in Lausanne at the Théatre Municipal on September 28, 1918.

• 1926 - Gershwin: musical Oh, Kay! at the Imperial Theater in New York City. This show featured Gertrude Lawrence, and included the classic Gershwin songs “Clap Yo’ Hands,” “Do, Do, Do,” and “Someone to Watch over Me.”

• 1936 - Jean Françaix: Piano Concerto, in Berlin.