Season 38 Concert Reviews
April Concert review, The Delaware Gazette, Thomas K. Wolber
On April 22, the Central Ohio Symphony concluded its 38th subscription season with another spectacular concert in Gray Chapel on the Ohio Wesleyan campus. Entitled “Hear Ohio,” it assembled various composers, soloists, and ensembles with Ohio connections.
The concert began with a piece for orchestra and recorded voices by Clint Needham, from Baldwin Wallace University. “We Are All from Somewhere Else” is based on interviews with 25 men and women from around the world who settled in Ohio.
They initially experienced culture shock, but eventually started to develop roots and now consider the Buckeye State their home. Needham’s music deftly illustrates the harsh conditions and turbulences some of these voyagers faced, using brass and African marimbas as well as complicated rhythms and sounds that are full of tension.
Trumpet tremolos sounded from both sides of the room to depict the distant origin of some of the newcomers. Needham’s music is filled with tumultuous energy and wild dynamism.
Of the four pieces on the program, it was clearly the one that challenged the audience the most. However, the human voices provided a narrative and framework that helped people understand the meaning of the music.
Ernest Bloch was the first Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920 to 1924. His symphonic rhapsody “Schelomo” for cello and orchestra from the year 1917 is a complex and interesting work, somewhat outside the mainstream.
Bloch (1880-1959) explored “the Hebrew spirit” and his own Jewish identity in a number of musical pieces at that time. Schelomo is, of course, the Hebraic name for King Solomon of the Talmudic portion of the Old Testament who is believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes. Wise as he was, the king came to the melancholy conclusion that worldliness is vanity. It is a brooding and deeply moving piece that dwells much in the dark and low registers of the cello, which represented King Solomon. Bloch originally conceived the rhapsody as a vocal work, but eventually settled for the cello and its powerful ways to express the human psyche.
The relationship between the cello and the orchestra is a conflicted one – each seems to have its own agenda. The dialogue is more of a monologue by the cello, which stubbornly tries to find and steer its own path in the midst of a chaotic world at war. Soloist Michael Carrera, faculty at Ohio University, had the spiritual focus, emotional depth, and mechanical technique to do justice to this great work, which remains somewhat enigmatic.
After intermission, the concert continued with the world premiere of a new arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in G major by Michael Carrera. In the program notes, the soloist explains that it was his goal to give the cello “a much bigger role throughout the entire concerto.”
Baroque composer Vivaldi may have rejected this approach as individualistic hubris, but it did allow Carrera to show off not only his great virtuosity throughout the concerto but also his lyrical and musical sensitivity in the song-like aria of the slow second movement.
He played the work with supreme confidence. The orchestra and the accompanying harpsichord had more of a supporting role instead of being equal partners, but they performed their duties flawlessly.
John Paul Stanbery’s “Music for Mass” concluded the concert. It is an ambitious work that involves not only a full orchestra, but also the organ, guest choirs, a handbell ensemble, a vocal soloist, and – to some extent – even the audience. To find the right balance between all these moving parts took time and effort during the rehearsals, but the result was certainly impressive and memorable.
Ohio-born Stanbery, music director of the Hamilton Fairfield Symphony, saw the need to create a modern mass and deliberately set to compose a work that would be “easily accessible.” Finding “a balance between high art and effective liturgical application” was his express objective.
Dissonances, to the extent they occur at all, are slight and short-lived. Written in a single key, C major, all seven segments contain simple phrases and tunes that can be quickly and easily understood, learned, and remembered. In fact, upon leaving the concert, many people were still singing or humming some of the memorable tunes. Despite these self-imposed limitations, the sound of “Music for Mass” was rich and dense, in part due to the many layers of voices and instrumentalists.
Some 120 musicians were on stage when the work was performed – approaching late-Romantic proportions. Scott Wyatt’s beautiful tenor filled the entire great hall, and the student choirs from Cincinnati Christian University and Ohio Wesleyan University backed him up with their angelic voices. The majestic organ, however, had to be pulled back somewhat lest it dominated everything.
Despite the fact Stanbery wants his music to be accessible and singable, portions of the orchestral score were actually quite sophisticated. “In the Cathedral” (from his award-winning Symphony No. 2) combined melodic phrases with rhythms that were difficult to follow and to perform, but the Symphony under the baton of Jaime Morales-Matos rose to the occasion and handled the challenge well. The appreciative audience responded with a standing ovation.
The concert covered a broad range of human feelings. There were expressions of hopelessness and despair, of pain and suffering. There were earnest cries of mercy and forgiveness. And even hope and happiness could be found in some of the chants and songs, prayers and poetry. Swaying from agony to ecstasy is what makes us human.
This is what the Symphony celebrated on the night of the concert — the apotheosis of the human spirit in a world that values material treasures more than immaterial ones. Taken together, the many disparate tunes and melodies that resounded from the stage formed a rich tapestry in which every voice, even the smallest, played an equal and indispensable role.
Thanks to everyone who made the concert possible. There are too many to name them all, but they were listed in the concert program and can also be found on the Symphony’s website. Please mark the dates for the 39th season 2017-18: Oct. 14, 2017; Dec. 10, 2017; March 11, 2018; and April 28, 2018. In the meantime, there is the Summer Solstice Festival from June 18-24 and, of course, the July 4 outdoor concert on the OWU campus.
Thomas K. Wolber teaches foreign languages at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has an undergraduate degree in music from a German university, plays the piano, and is passionate about classical music. His email is tkwolber@owu.edu.
On April 22, the Central Ohio Symphony concluded its 38th subscription season with another spectacular concert in Gray Chapel on the Ohio Wesleyan campus. Entitled “Hear Ohio,” it assembled various composers, soloists, and ensembles with Ohio connections.
The concert began with a piece for orchestra and recorded voices by Clint Needham, from Baldwin Wallace University. “We Are All from Somewhere Else” is based on interviews with 25 men and women from around the world who settled in Ohio.
They initially experienced culture shock, but eventually started to develop roots and now consider the Buckeye State their home. Needham’s music deftly illustrates the harsh conditions and turbulences some of these voyagers faced, using brass and African marimbas as well as complicated rhythms and sounds that are full of tension.
Trumpet tremolos sounded from both sides of the room to depict the distant origin of some of the newcomers. Needham’s music is filled with tumultuous energy and wild dynamism.
Of the four pieces on the program, it was clearly the one that challenged the audience the most. However, the human voices provided a narrative and framework that helped people understand the meaning of the music.
Ernest Bloch was the first Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1920 to 1924. His symphonic rhapsody “Schelomo” for cello and orchestra from the year 1917 is a complex and interesting work, somewhat outside the mainstream.
Bloch (1880-1959) explored “the Hebrew spirit” and his own Jewish identity in a number of musical pieces at that time. Schelomo is, of course, the Hebraic name for King Solomon of the Talmudic portion of the Old Testament who is believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes. Wise as he was, the king came to the melancholy conclusion that worldliness is vanity. It is a brooding and deeply moving piece that dwells much in the dark and low registers of the cello, which represented King Solomon. Bloch originally conceived the rhapsody as a vocal work, but eventually settled for the cello and its powerful ways to express the human psyche.
The relationship between the cello and the orchestra is a conflicted one – each seems to have its own agenda. The dialogue is more of a monologue by the cello, which stubbornly tries to find and steer its own path in the midst of a chaotic world at war. Soloist Michael Carrera, faculty at Ohio University, had the spiritual focus, emotional depth, and mechanical technique to do justice to this great work, which remains somewhat enigmatic.
After intermission, the concert continued with the world premiere of a new arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in G major by Michael Carrera. In the program notes, the soloist explains that it was his goal to give the cello “a much bigger role throughout the entire concerto.”
Baroque composer Vivaldi may have rejected this approach as individualistic hubris, but it did allow Carrera to show off not only his great virtuosity throughout the concerto but also his lyrical and musical sensitivity in the song-like aria of the slow second movement.
He played the work with supreme confidence. The orchestra and the accompanying harpsichord had more of a supporting role instead of being equal partners, but they performed their duties flawlessly.
John Paul Stanbery’s “Music for Mass” concluded the concert. It is an ambitious work that involves not only a full orchestra, but also the organ, guest choirs, a handbell ensemble, a vocal soloist, and – to some extent – even the audience. To find the right balance between all these moving parts took time and effort during the rehearsals, but the result was certainly impressive and memorable.
Ohio-born Stanbery, music director of the Hamilton Fairfield Symphony, saw the need to create a modern mass and deliberately set to compose a work that would be “easily accessible.” Finding “a balance between high art and effective liturgical application” was his express objective.
Dissonances, to the extent they occur at all, are slight and short-lived. Written in a single key, C major, all seven segments contain simple phrases and tunes that can be quickly and easily understood, learned, and remembered. In fact, upon leaving the concert, many people were still singing or humming some of the memorable tunes. Despite these self-imposed limitations, the sound of “Music for Mass” was rich and dense, in part due to the many layers of voices and instrumentalists.
Some 120 musicians were on stage when the work was performed – approaching late-Romantic proportions. Scott Wyatt’s beautiful tenor filled the entire great hall, and the student choirs from Cincinnati Christian University and Ohio Wesleyan University backed him up with their angelic voices. The majestic organ, however, had to be pulled back somewhat lest it dominated everything.
Despite the fact Stanbery wants his music to be accessible and singable, portions of the orchestral score were actually quite sophisticated. “In the Cathedral” (from his award-winning Symphony No. 2) combined melodic phrases with rhythms that were difficult to follow and to perform, but the Symphony under the baton of Jaime Morales-Matos rose to the occasion and handled the challenge well. The appreciative audience responded with a standing ovation.
The concert covered a broad range of human feelings. There were expressions of hopelessness and despair, of pain and suffering. There were earnest cries of mercy and forgiveness. And even hope and happiness could be found in some of the chants and songs, prayers and poetry. Swaying from agony to ecstasy is what makes us human.
This is what the Symphony celebrated on the night of the concert — the apotheosis of the human spirit in a world that values material treasures more than immaterial ones. Taken together, the many disparate tunes and melodies that resounded from the stage formed a rich tapestry in which every voice, even the smallest, played an equal and indispensable role.
Thanks to everyone who made the concert possible. There are too many to name them all, but they were listed in the concert program and can also be found on the Symphony’s website. Please mark the dates for the 39th season 2017-18: Oct. 14, 2017; Dec. 10, 2017; March 11, 2018; and April 28, 2018. In the meantime, there is the Summer Solstice Festival from June 18-24 and, of course, the July 4 outdoor concert on the OWU campus.
Thomas K. Wolber teaches foreign languages at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has an undergraduate degree in music from a German university, plays the piano, and is passionate about classical music. His email is tkwolber@owu.edu.
Concert Review, The Delaware Gazette, Tom Wolber, reviewer
Symphony Education program: “The Orchestra Sings”
On Tuesday, May 16, the Central Ohio Symphony welcomed almost 800 fourth-graders from Delaware County to an interactive concert in OWU’s David S. Gray Chapel. John Deliman was the guest conductor, and Kristen Basore served as host and song leader. Gray Chapel has probably never seen this much excitement before. Not only was this a welcome field trip for the kids, but it was also the climax of many weeks and months of preparation for the event. Thanks to a generous grant from The Ohio Arts Council and a remarkable partnership between the Symphony and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, they had learned a number of vocal and instrumental pieces and were already familiar with the words and tunes. Hundreds brought their recorders and played along while the orchestra performed.
First, the kids were introduced to the sections of the orchestra – the strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Then, they learned about proper tuning. “The orchestra tunes to the oboe,” Kristen Basore explained. After the introduction, ten pieces were on the program. Some were songs with words such as “Come to Play,” the old Shaker song “Tis a Gift to Be Simple,” “To Make Words Sing,” and “I Bought Me a Cat.” Curious parents can find them sung on YouTube if they type in “Carnegie” and the title of the song.
After this first round, the students learned that musical instruments too can play a melody and tell a story – songs without words. Examples were Dvorak’s “Symphony from the New World” and Stravinsky’s ballet “The Firebird.” Of course, the Symphony played only excerpts, not the entire works. Then, 16-year-old Hayes High School sophomore Adryán Rojas played the famous “Chaconne” on the violin, accompanied by the full orchestra. The piece was his choice, his father explained in an a subsequent interview. It is immaterial if the “Chaconne” is indeed by Vitali or not. What matters is that Adryan Rojas played with emotional depth and technical skill. He is a talented musician whose award-winning quartet has already performed in a number of national competitions. The young violinist is seriously contemplating a career in music and hopes to attend a music conservatory after his graduation from high school.
All the kids had great fun at the concert. Not one looked distracted or bored. Not only that – they also learned a lot about orchestras and classical music during the event. They may forget names like Vitali and Beethoven, Dvorak and Stravinsky again, but what they won’t forget is the power of music and how it can unite even disparate people and build community. The last song, sung by everyone in Spanish and English, was the jazzy and rhythmically inspiring “Oye”: “I am all alone,” the song starts, “in tears and in the dark.” But others call out to her and reach out to him, ready to embrace the lost child and lift it up. With music, no one is alone. Music brings together and unites; it also gives hope and empowers. That is an experience the fourth-graders will not forget.
Thanks are due to the Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and the Ohio Arts Council for funding the project. The schools also paid a small fee to attend. Thanks are also due to the many active participants , especially the kids themselves. Kristen Basore’s strong leadership and beautiful voice deserve special recognition. Her job may have been the most demanding of them all, but as a professional studio teacher of piano, voice, and acting she handled it with grace. Lastly, our thanks also go to the various school districts in Delaware County that supported the initiative. Events of this nature inspire not only the children, impacting their future in unknown and immeasurable ways, they also enrich the families, communities, and society as a whole. As Lyndon B. Johnson said in his remarks when he signed the bill to create the NEA and NEH in 1965, “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage.” Without the vision and mission that the arts, including music, provide, the people perish and will be condemned to loneliness, tears, and darkness. There is no greater gift we can give to our children than the arts.
Symphony Education program: “The Orchestra Sings”
On Tuesday, May 16, the Central Ohio Symphony welcomed almost 800 fourth-graders from Delaware County to an interactive concert in OWU’s David S. Gray Chapel. John Deliman was the guest conductor, and Kristen Basore served as host and song leader. Gray Chapel has probably never seen this much excitement before. Not only was this a welcome field trip for the kids, but it was also the climax of many weeks and months of preparation for the event. Thanks to a generous grant from The Ohio Arts Council and a remarkable partnership between the Symphony and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, they had learned a number of vocal and instrumental pieces and were already familiar with the words and tunes. Hundreds brought their recorders and played along while the orchestra performed.
First, the kids were introduced to the sections of the orchestra – the strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Then, they learned about proper tuning. “The orchestra tunes to the oboe,” Kristen Basore explained. After the introduction, ten pieces were on the program. Some were songs with words such as “Come to Play,” the old Shaker song “Tis a Gift to Be Simple,” “To Make Words Sing,” and “I Bought Me a Cat.” Curious parents can find them sung on YouTube if they type in “Carnegie” and the title of the song.
After this first round, the students learned that musical instruments too can play a melody and tell a story – songs without words. Examples were Dvorak’s “Symphony from the New World” and Stravinsky’s ballet “The Firebird.” Of course, the Symphony played only excerpts, not the entire works. Then, 16-year-old Hayes High School sophomore Adryán Rojas played the famous “Chaconne” on the violin, accompanied by the full orchestra. The piece was his choice, his father explained in an a subsequent interview. It is immaterial if the “Chaconne” is indeed by Vitali or not. What matters is that Adryan Rojas played with emotional depth and technical skill. He is a talented musician whose award-winning quartet has already performed in a number of national competitions. The young violinist is seriously contemplating a career in music and hopes to attend a music conservatory after his graduation from high school.
All the kids had great fun at the concert. Not one looked distracted or bored. Not only that – they also learned a lot about orchestras and classical music during the event. They may forget names like Vitali and Beethoven, Dvorak and Stravinsky again, but what they won’t forget is the power of music and how it can unite even disparate people and build community. The last song, sung by everyone in Spanish and English, was the jazzy and rhythmically inspiring “Oye”: “I am all alone,” the song starts, “in tears and in the dark.” But others call out to her and reach out to him, ready to embrace the lost child and lift it up. With music, no one is alone. Music brings together and unites; it also gives hope and empowers. That is an experience the fourth-graders will not forget.
Thanks are due to the Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and the Ohio Arts Council for funding the project. The schools also paid a small fee to attend. Thanks are also due to the many active participants , especially the kids themselves. Kristen Basore’s strong leadership and beautiful voice deserve special recognition. Her job may have been the most demanding of them all, but as a professional studio teacher of piano, voice, and acting she handled it with grace. Lastly, our thanks also go to the various school districts in Delaware County that supported the initiative. Events of this nature inspire not only the children, impacting their future in unknown and immeasurable ways, they also enrich the families, communities, and society as a whole. As Lyndon B. Johnson said in his remarks when he signed the bill to create the NEA and NEH in 1965, “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage.” Without the vision and mission that the arts, including music, provide, the people perish and will be condemned to loneliness, tears, and darkness. There is no greater gift we can give to our children than the arts.
The 32nd July 4th concert, July 4, 2017
Symphony Creates Magical Moment, by Thomas K. Wolber
Delaware’s annual July 4 concert is a treasured tradition and a true community event. Over the past 32 years, some 150,000 people have enjoyed the shows put on by the Central Ohio Symphony. In recent years, attendance has numbered between 6,000 and 8,000. The free concerts are the Symphony’s way to thank Delaware for the strong support it has always given to the orchestra.
For the 32nd time, the Symphony performed another riveting concert on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University on July 4, 2017. Once again thousands were in attendance at the outdoor event, enjoying patriotic American songs, marches, and orchestral works. Jaime Morales-Matos was the musical director and conductor, with Ric Stranges (Principal at Delaware Hayes High School) as host and commentator.
The concert offered a representative cross-section of folksy and lighthearted American music, as the occasion warranted. Some of the pieces went deeper and hinted at battles and bloodshed. The evening started appropriately with Aaron Copland’s memorable “Fanfare for the Common Man” that featured trumpets. It was followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Jeanette Ferguson. The Columbus native, a cancer survivor, is not a professional singer, but her strong and confident voice filled Phillips Glen. She later also sang “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s musical “Porgy and Bess.” Other openly patriotic pieces included “The Armed Forces Salute,” in the arrangement by Bob Lowden and performed without words, and Edwin Bagley’s “National Emblem March.” No Fourth-of-July concert would be complete without at least one work by “March King” John Philip Sousa. The Symphony played both the “Washington Post March” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Both the brass and percussion section got a good work-out with all these patriotic fanfares, salutes, and marches, but they sounded consistently clear and crisp.
Brooklyn composer Ben Goldberg has collaborated with the Symphony for many years. He values the interaction with audiences and came to Delaware to conduct the first live public performance of “Walk of Champions” himself. Another interesting choice was the theme music that Elmer Bernstein wrote for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” one of America’s iconic films. On July 4th, the U.S. celebrates the emancipation, freedom, and independence of all Americans, including minorities. The piece is quiet and beautiful, but unfortunately if you didn’t sit close enough to the orchestra you may not have heard some of the subtleties. Additional musical pieces included “Horse and Buggy” by Leroy Anderson, composer of “Sleigh Ride,” a “Salute to the Big Apple” in the arrangement by Calvin Custer, and Morton Gould’s jazzy “Pavanne from his Symphonette No. 2.
It also was a joy to hear the rarely performed official state song, “Beautiful Ohio.” The languid waltz evokes a canoe trip on the Buckeye State’s rivers and lakes and was composed by “Mary Earl” (Robert A. King) early last century. Unfortunately, the 1989 update of the original lyrics did not improve the official state song, and so it was perhaps best that it was played without words.
The only two pieces not composed by Americans were Hector Berlioz’ “Hungarian March” from his “Damnation of Faust” and Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which the Symphony has been performing for many years, complete with a dozen or more “cannon shots” at the end, expertly set off by the Delaware Fire Department. The piece celebrates Russia’s victory over Napoleon in 1812. It is also musically an interesting battle between Russian and French imperial tunes as well as a church hymn. In the end, the French “Marseillaise” is vanquished, and the Russian anthem emerges as the triumphant victor. Ric Stranges said the overture had patriotic significance for all who hope “to live without oppression.” Historically speaking, it is an open question whether the peasantry would have been better off under French emperors or Russian tsars. But as is often the case, the symbolism imbued in the music trumps the historical truth. Although the “1812 Overture” was followed by the “Stars and Stripes Forever” march by John Philip Sousa, it clearly was the culmination of the evening and a transition to the fireworks that followed the Symphony.
The audience was clearly an integral part of the show. There was constant coming and going, eating and drinking. Children were playing, dogs were barking, and people had animated conversations with friends. Somehow, however, all of the commotion and merriment was an expected part of the festivities. In 2015, a concertgoer complained in a letter to this newspaper about people being too loud and disrespectful to the music. It is certainly true that not everyone paid attention to every note, but people were clearly appreciative of the music being brought to them and eager to partake in the positive spirit of Independence Day. They came not just for the music. They also came for the fellowship it offered and the transcendental experience it involved. The Symphony helped create a magical moment of community spirit in a sylvan setting, under an almost full moon, complete with lighting bugs and cicadas.
The political climate is not exactly civil at the moment, but events such as this one prove that America’s inner core is still intact and robust. Decent Americans are united in their opposition to ruthless tyrants such as the British King George III who flouted the law, curtailed free trade, restricted immigration, and was “not fit to lead a free nation,” as the 1776 Declaration of Independence pointed out. On July 4, the bitter partisan divide was temporarily suspended. Men and women, whites and blacks, Republicans and Democrats were momentarily of the same heart and mind. The star-spangled banner does still proudly wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Thomas K. Wolber, Ph.D., teaches foreign languages and literatures at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has an undergraduate degree in music from a German university, plays the piano, and is passionate about classical music. His email address is tkwolber@owu.edu.
Symphony Creates Magical Moment, by Thomas K. Wolber
Delaware’s annual July 4 concert is a treasured tradition and a true community event. Over the past 32 years, some 150,000 people have enjoyed the shows put on by the Central Ohio Symphony. In recent years, attendance has numbered between 6,000 and 8,000. The free concerts are the Symphony’s way to thank Delaware for the strong support it has always given to the orchestra.
For the 32nd time, the Symphony performed another riveting concert on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University on July 4, 2017. Once again thousands were in attendance at the outdoor event, enjoying patriotic American songs, marches, and orchestral works. Jaime Morales-Matos was the musical director and conductor, with Ric Stranges (Principal at Delaware Hayes High School) as host and commentator.
The concert offered a representative cross-section of folksy and lighthearted American music, as the occasion warranted. Some of the pieces went deeper and hinted at battles and bloodshed. The evening started appropriately with Aaron Copland’s memorable “Fanfare for the Common Man” that featured trumpets. It was followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Jeanette Ferguson. The Columbus native, a cancer survivor, is not a professional singer, but her strong and confident voice filled Phillips Glen. She later also sang “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s musical “Porgy and Bess.” Other openly patriotic pieces included “The Armed Forces Salute,” in the arrangement by Bob Lowden and performed without words, and Edwin Bagley’s “National Emblem March.” No Fourth-of-July concert would be complete without at least one work by “March King” John Philip Sousa. The Symphony played both the “Washington Post March” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Both the brass and percussion section got a good work-out with all these patriotic fanfares, salutes, and marches, but they sounded consistently clear and crisp.
Brooklyn composer Ben Goldberg has collaborated with the Symphony for many years. He values the interaction with audiences and came to Delaware to conduct the first live public performance of “Walk of Champions” himself. Another interesting choice was the theme music that Elmer Bernstein wrote for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” one of America’s iconic films. On July 4th, the U.S. celebrates the emancipation, freedom, and independence of all Americans, including minorities. The piece is quiet and beautiful, but unfortunately if you didn’t sit close enough to the orchestra you may not have heard some of the subtleties. Additional musical pieces included “Horse and Buggy” by Leroy Anderson, composer of “Sleigh Ride,” a “Salute to the Big Apple” in the arrangement by Calvin Custer, and Morton Gould’s jazzy “Pavanne from his Symphonette No. 2.
It also was a joy to hear the rarely performed official state song, “Beautiful Ohio.” The languid waltz evokes a canoe trip on the Buckeye State’s rivers and lakes and was composed by “Mary Earl” (Robert A. King) early last century. Unfortunately, the 1989 update of the original lyrics did not improve the official state song, and so it was perhaps best that it was played without words.
The only two pieces not composed by Americans were Hector Berlioz’ “Hungarian March” from his “Damnation of Faust” and Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which the Symphony has been performing for many years, complete with a dozen or more “cannon shots” at the end, expertly set off by the Delaware Fire Department. The piece celebrates Russia’s victory over Napoleon in 1812. It is also musically an interesting battle between Russian and French imperial tunes as well as a church hymn. In the end, the French “Marseillaise” is vanquished, and the Russian anthem emerges as the triumphant victor. Ric Stranges said the overture had patriotic significance for all who hope “to live without oppression.” Historically speaking, it is an open question whether the peasantry would have been better off under French emperors or Russian tsars. But as is often the case, the symbolism imbued in the music trumps the historical truth. Although the “1812 Overture” was followed by the “Stars and Stripes Forever” march by John Philip Sousa, it clearly was the culmination of the evening and a transition to the fireworks that followed the Symphony.
The audience was clearly an integral part of the show. There was constant coming and going, eating and drinking. Children were playing, dogs were barking, and people had animated conversations with friends. Somehow, however, all of the commotion and merriment was an expected part of the festivities. In 2015, a concertgoer complained in a letter to this newspaper about people being too loud and disrespectful to the music. It is certainly true that not everyone paid attention to every note, but people were clearly appreciative of the music being brought to them and eager to partake in the positive spirit of Independence Day. They came not just for the music. They also came for the fellowship it offered and the transcendental experience it involved. The Symphony helped create a magical moment of community spirit in a sylvan setting, under an almost full moon, complete with lighting bugs and cicadas.
The political climate is not exactly civil at the moment, but events such as this one prove that America’s inner core is still intact and robust. Decent Americans are united in their opposition to ruthless tyrants such as the British King George III who flouted the law, curtailed free trade, restricted immigration, and was “not fit to lead a free nation,” as the 1776 Declaration of Independence pointed out. On July 4, the bitter partisan divide was temporarily suspended. Men and women, whites and blacks, Republicans and Democrats were momentarily of the same heart and mind. The star-spangled banner does still proudly wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Thomas K. Wolber, Ph.D., teaches foreign languages and literatures at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has an undergraduate degree in music from a German university, plays the piano, and is passionate about classical music. His email address is tkwolber@owu.edu.