At the Schermerhorn
A Night in Space
This past weekend, our Nashville Symphony came together once again for an evening of exquisite music. The newest event in their classical series featured a space themed program. Joaquín Rodrigo’s A la busca del más allá (In search of the beyond), and James Lee III world premier of his saxophone concerto Abiding Legacy served as the preface for Holst’s magnum opus, The Planets. Led by Tito Muñoz, the symphony used these pieces to explore the astronomical and the astrological, and gave a lesson on how composers can paint pictures through their music.
The concert opened with Tito Muñoz speaking to the audience about the pieces, giving us some background into each one and the significance that it holds. Joaquín Rodrigo’s A la busca del más allá has a fascinating background. Rodrigo was born in 1901 and blinded at the very young age of three by diphtheria. He overcame this and became one of the most celebrated Spanish composers, critics, and teachers of the 20th century. Sometime during his career he had residence in Los Angeles and decided to explore America which caused him to visit the space center in Houston. He was given a VIP treatment and was allowed to feel several of the space rocks and moon rocks that were collected there so he could experience the grandeur of the missions. This experience stuck with him so much that in 1976, when the Houston Symphony Orchestra commissioned him for the bicentennial celebration of the United States, he wrote A la busca del más allá completely based on this visit.
The piece is very reflective of his time at the space center and often paints the imagery of the sensations he had feeling several rare space materials. Set for orchestra with timpani, xylophone, harp, and celesta, the size of the ensemble is just as grand as the experience. The piece opens and closes with long cymbal rolls crescending and descrescinding from nothing which Rodrigo intended to “arouse in the listener to the mystery of the beyond.” Between these cymbal rolls, the piece uses several different melodic motives and apparitions in conjunction with faster sections breaking up the melodies. I have no doubt that many of these motives were heavily influenced by Holst as many of them brought to mind different movements from The Planets, especially with how abrupt some of the transitions were. The combination of all the aforementioned aspects of the piece painted the experience that Rodrigo had at the space center. Thinner and faster sections depicted his blind travels between exhibits and experiences while also depicting the journey through the vast emptiness of “the beyond.” The motives introduction and returns with clear, thicker orchestration depicted his interactions with several materials, rockets and other exhibits at the space center while also depicting the confrontation of new places, things and people in the ethereal “beyond.”
Following Rodrigo’s piece was the world premiere of James Lee III’s Saxophone Concerto, Abiding Legacy. This piece was commissioned by and written for saxophonist Timothy McAllister, the son of a NASA engineer. The piece also commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy. It recognizes and creates an abstract musical biography, through sonata form, of the astronaut and saxophonist Ronald Erwin McNair who tragically passed in the Challenger explosion.
The first movement, “Resilience,” reflects on McNair’s upbringing in the segregated south reflected by extremely fast and tumultuous passages in the saxophone. McAllister masterfully executed these daring technical passages. They were more advanced than a lot of material I came across during my saxophone studies and are a true testament to his technical ability. Between these abstract passages there are a couple lyrical motives that persist throughout the entire piece. The piece loosely progresses through McNair’s life as he pursues his dream as an astronaut and erupts into a loud forte recapitulation showing perseverance through the hardships of his upbringing. I also thought that this ending could be reflective of the launch of the Challenger shuttle with how the orchestra erupts in the coda.
The second movement, “Remembered among the stars…” opens with more lyrical passages, possibly reflecting the 73 seconds between launch and explosion. The program notes indicate that it is an intended soundscape of space and an allusion to plans of having McNair play his saxophone in space in collaboration with French composer Jean-Michel Jarre. This can definitely be heard but I also think that the painting of the launch is further reinforced by the trading motives between orchestra and saxophone creating a communication similar to what would be between the shuttle and launch command. This movement also features a very loud, erupting section that made those around me and I discuss if that was intended to be the explosion of the shuttle. I think that these first two movements, despite not being stated, do illustrate the tragedy of the Challenger shuttle. The titles of the movements and the music are indicative of a musical double entendre that not only celebrates Dr. Ronald McNair but portrays his life story.
The third and final movement, “Resolute Dreams,” is then a celebration of McNair’s legacy and ambition. Composed into a five part rondo form it inherently returns to several themes across the movement, perhaps pointing out the constant, strong determination required by McNair to achieve his dreams. Lee encapsulates the emotion of the first two movements into a message of perseverance and accomplishment through a lifetime of tribulations. While this concerto may not reach standard repertoire like the Ibert or Glazunov, I expect it to become a great test and practice for young saxophonists in their studies. I am eager to listen once more when there are recordings available and even make my own stab at playing it, though I won’t touch the expertise McAllister brought to the stage this weekend.
The final piece of the evening was Holst’s magnum opus, The Planets. Composed between 1914 and 1916, it is not programmatically astronomical but rather astrological despite the name of the piece. Muñoz did well to explain this to us in the audience before the concert began. The piece is set in seven movements, each named after a planet but also portraying an emotion or feeling associated with the modern view of astrology. It opens with one of the most famous movements, “Mars, the Bringer of War.” This movement is famously 5/4 meter and relies on a long build spanning most of the piece. Honestly, I was concerned that the low brass specifically would begin the piece too strong and it would take away from the final, quadruple forte statements of the principal theme. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the orchestra and their conservative dynamics in the beginning of the movement.
The two movements following “Mars” are less famous, but still recognizable. “Venus, the Bringer of Peace” was pleasantly set for orchestra and audience cough, as it seemed no one could hold their coughs back any longer. “Mercury, the Winged Messenger” served as the fast, scherzo transition bringing new textures to the orchestra as they eagerly pushed towards the center of the piece. “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” was, and undoubtedly should’ve been, what most of the audience was eagerly waiting for. Everyone who had dozed off or zoned out during the previous two movements immediately snapped back into the concert when fluttering strings and commanding brass demanded their attention for this movement. I thought Muñoz did extraordinarily well preparing the orchestra for this movement, especially during the hymn section in the center. During the second statement of the hymn the orchestra backed off dynamically drawing the listeners in closer, literally. While the crowd leaned forwards to listen to this famous hymn the orchestra crescendoed into the third statement of exuberance which was fascinatingly beautiful. As I feel with every recording of The Planets, the moment was gone too soon as the flurry of strings returned driving the movement to its end.
Following the beauty of “Jupiter” comes the wisdom of “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” which, personally, is my favorite movement and also Holst’s favorite movement. That being said my expectations were set high with bias and I was very pleased. Similar to “Mars,” there is a very long build of tension across the entire movement. This tension is played with the swells of the orchestra and a metrical ticking that portrays time passing before a triple forte climax in the bass trombone and tuba that was perfectly abrasive and thunderous. Following my beloved climax the piece fades into nothingness once more before moving forward to the next movement. “Uranus, the Magician” is uniquely disjunct and set into what feels like a clumsy dance. The best part of this movement was the organ and its role in the climax. However, it felt almost placeholder to prepare us for the final movement. “Neptune, the Mystic” is another personal favorite from this piece. It is another movement that rises from nothingness to a light, edgy beauty with shifting textures fading in and out of the concert hall. I found it quite humorous when the choir entered. Those who were unknowing and unexpecting spent the rest of the movement frantically looking around for the offstage women’s choir. The choir itself was beautiful and played a major role in portraying the mysticism of this movement, especially when they faded into the end of the piece.
The entire night was a joy to behold. I most appreciated Tito Muñoz special attention to these pieces, providing special care to each one and specific movements in each. I also found his preface to the concert especially informational and helpful to understanding the grandeur of the pieces, most notably the first two. The Rodrigo piece was a personal favorite from the night as the musical illustrations shined very well through our Nashville Symphony. James Lee III’s concerto was a joy to hear, especially as a potential saxophone repertoire. Finally, The Planets are always welcome in a concert in my opinion, the icing on the cake of a space themed evening. Exciting things are happening with the Nashville Symphony and I’m looking forward what the future holds and what new beauty they will bring to the stage.
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My name is Brennan Wagner, I am currently a Music Industry student at Middle Tennessee State University and planning on pursuing Musicology in graduate school. I am from Nashville and have been playing saxophone for almost 10 years and love attending local concerts of all genres.
