William Bolcom and William Blake

Synopsis

If the late 18th century is the Classical Age, and the 19th The Romantic, then perhaps we should dub our time “The Eclectic Age” of music. These days, composers can — and do — pick and choose from a wide variety of styles.

American composer William Bolcom was loath to rule anything out when he approached the task of setting William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience to music. Bolcom calls for a large orchestra, multiple choruses, and more than a dozen vocal soloists versed in classical, pop, folk, country, and operatic styles. There are echoes of jazz, reggae, gospel, ragtime, country and rock idioms as well.

As Bolcom put it: “At every point Blake used his whole culture, past and present, high-flown and vernacular, as sources for his many poetic styles. All I did was use the same stylistic point of departure Blake did in my musical settings.”

The massive work received its premiere performance in Stuttgart, Germany, on today’s date in 1984.

Most of the work was completed between 1973 and 1982, after Bolcom joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and it was there that the work received its American premiere a few months following its world premiere in Germany.

Music Played in Today's Program

William Bolcom (b. 1938): Songs of Innocence and of Experience Soloists; Choirs; University of Michigan School of Music Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Naxos 8.559216/18

On This Day

Births

• 1792 - American composer and educator Lowell Mason, in Medford, Massachusetts

• 1812 - Swiss composer and pianist Sigismond Thalberg, in Pâquis, near Geneva

• 1896 - Czech composer Jaromir Weinberger, in Prague

• 1899 - Russian-born American composer Alexander Tcherepnin (Gregorian date: Jan. 21)

• 1905 - Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, in La Spezia

• 1924 - Russian-American composer Benjamin Lees (née Lysniansky), in Harbin, Manchuria

• 1924 - Austrian-born American composer Robert Starer, in Vienna

• 1935 - The charismatic rock ‘n’ roll performer Elvis Presley is born in Tupelo, Mississippi

• 1937 - American composer Robert Moran, in Denver

Deaths

• 1713 - Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli, 59, in Rome

• 1831 - Moravian-born composer and violinist Franz Krommer, 71, in Vienna

• 1998 - British composer Sir Michael Tippett, 93, in London

Premieres

• 1705 - Handel: opera Almira in Hamburg. This was Handel’s first opera (see also Dec. 5 & 30 for related contemporary incidents).

• 1720 - Handel: opera Radamisto (second version), in London (Julian date: Dec. 28, 1720)

• 1735 - Handel: opera Ariodante in London at the Covent Garden Theater (Gregorian date: Jan. 19)

• 1843 - Schumann: Piano Quintet, at Leipzig Gewandhaus with pianist Clara Schumann

• 1895 - Brahms: Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (first public performance), in Vienna, by clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, with the composer at the piano, as part of the Rosé Quartet’s chamber music series. The first performance ever of this work occurred on September 19, 1894, at a private performance in the home of the sister of the Duke of Meiningen at Berchtesgaden, with the same performers. Brahms and Mühlfeld also gave private performances of both sonatas in Frankfurt (for Clara Schumann and others) on November 10-13, 1894 at Castle Altenstein (for the Duke of Meiningen), on Nov. 14, 1894 and on Jan. 7, 1895 (for members of the Vienna Tonkünstler Society).

• 1911 - Florent Schmitt: La Tragédie de Salomé for orchestra, in Paris

• 1927 - Berg: Lyric Suite for string quartet, in Vienna, by the Kolisch Quartet

• 1928 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 7, in Frankfurt, with Ludwig Rottenberg conducting and Reinhold Merten the organist

• 1940 - Roger Sessions: Violin Concerto, by the Illinois Symphony conducted by Izler Solomon, with Robert Gross as soloist. The work was to have been premiered by Albert Spalding with the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky in January of 1937, but did not take place).

• 1963 - Shostakovich: opera Katerina Izmailova (second version of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District), in Moscow at the Stanislavsky-Nemirovich-Dachenko Music Theater

• 1971 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15, in Moscow, by the All-Union Radio and Television Symphony, with the composer’s son, Maxim, conducting

• 1987 - Christopher Rouse: Phaethon for orchestra, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti conducting

• 1988 - Schwantner: From Afar… (A Fantasy for Guitar and Orchestra), by guitarist Sharon Isbin with the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting

Others

• 1923 - First broadcast in England of an opera direct from a concert hall, Mozart’s The Magic Flute via the BBC from London