Upcoming Events ofthe SeventySixth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, all programs

take place in the West Building,

West Garden Court.

The Westerlies

The Songs We Sang: American Vocal

Music ofthe 20th Century

In celebration of InternationalJazz Day,

the Westerlies premiere four pieces by

Duke Ellington adapted for brass quartet.

April 29, 3:30

Julia Bullock, soprano

John Arida, piano

Music by Schubert, Barber, Faure,

and more

May 6, 3:30

Ranky Tanky

Celebrating Outliers andAmerican

VanguardAn

May 13, 3:30

Christina and Michelle Naughton

Piano music by Mozart, Schubert,

Bolcom, Bach/Kurtag, Debussy, 

Chopin, and Lutoslawski

May 20, 3:30

Admission to the National Gallery ofArt

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the performance is not

allowed. Please be sure that all portable

electronic devices are turned off.

The department of music produced

these program notes. Copyright © 2018

Board ofTrustees, National Gallery of

Art, Washington

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to

the National Gallery ofArt through

The Circle. Reserved seating is available

in recognition of their support. Please 

contact the development office at 

(202) 842-6450 or circle@nga.gov for 

more information.

Cover American 19th Century, Cutout of

Animals (detail), National Gallery ofArt,

Washington, Gift of Edgar William and

Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

nga.gov/music

76TH SEASON OF CONCERTS

APRIL 22, 2018 / NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Program

Inscape Chamber Orchestra

Richard Scerbo, Artistic Director

Amanda Brown, Soprano

Marc BamuthiJoseph, Poet and Narrator

APRIL 22, 2018/3:30

WEST BUILDING, WEST GARDEN COURT

DaleTrumbore (b. 1987)

Allthe Folded Wings (2016)

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

Carnival ofthe Animals (1886)

Introduction and Royal March of the Lion

Hens and Cocks

Wild Asses

Tortoises

The Elephant

Kangaroos

Aquarium

Personages with Long Ears

The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods

Aviary

Pianists

Fossils

The Swan

Finale

Intermission

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Symphony no. 4* (1899/1900)

Bedachtig, nicht eilen

In gemachlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast

Ruhevoll, poco adagio 

Sehr behaglich

‘Arranged for chamber orchestra in 2007 by Klaus Simon

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The Ensemble

Founded in 2004 by Richard Scerbo, Inscape Chamber Orchestra is pushing the

boundaries of classical music in riveting performances that reach across genres and

generations and transcend the confines of the traditional classical concert experience.

With its flexible roster and unique brand of programming, this critically

acclaimed, Grammy-nominated group of high-energy master musicians has quickly

established itself as one of the premier performing ensembles in the Washington, DC,

region and beyond.

Inscape has often worked with emerging American composers and has a commitment to presenting concerts featuring the music of our time. Since its inception,

Inscape has commissioned and premiered over twenty new works. Its members

regularly perform with the National, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Virginia, Richmond,

and Delaware Symphonies and the Washington Opera Orchestra. Its musicians also

perform with Washington’s leading military service bands. Inscape’s roots can be

traced to the University ofMaryland School ofMusic, where Scerbo and other music 

students collaborated at the Clarice Smith Center as the Philharmonia Ensemble.

Inscape regularly performs as the ensemble-in-residence at the Episcopal Church

ofthe Redeemer in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as at the National Gallery ofArt,

Strathmore Music Center, the Kennedy Center, and other local and national venues.

Allie Osborne and Sarah D’Angelo, violins

Megan Yanik, viola

Kathryn Hufnagle, cello

AlexanderJacobsen, bass

Susanna Loewy, flute

Bethany Slater, oboe and English horn

Evan Ross Solomon, clarinet and bass clarinet

Elizabeth Schurgin, bassoon

Chandra Cervantes, horn

Danielle DeSwert Hahn and R. T imothy McReynolds, keyboards

Eric Plewinski and John Patton, percussion

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MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH

Marc BamuthiJoseph is a curator of words, ideas, and protagonists. His work

investigates social issues and cultural identity and reflects his belief in empathy as

the most valuable currency in building community. He seeks to spark curiosity

and dialogue about freedom, compassion, and fearlessness through pioneering arts 

stewardship and education.

Bathumi was a 2017 TED Global Fellow and appeared on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine as one ofAmerica’s top young innovators in the arts and sciences.

He was artistic director for HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Brave New Voices and is

an inaugural recipient ofthe United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which

annually recognizes fifty of the country’s greatest living artists. Dance Magazine

named him a Top Influencer in 2017.

Bamuthi’s evening-length work, red, black and GREEN: a blues, was nominated

for a 2013 Bessie Award for “Outstanding Production (of a work stretching the

boundaries of a traditional form),” and he has won numerous grants, including from

the National Endowment for the Arts and Creative Capital Foundation. His latest

touring work /peh-LO-tah/is inspired by both soccer and Bamuthi’s first-generation

American experience; the work intersects global economics, cross-border fan culture,

and the politics ofjoy. Recent commissions include the libretto for Home in 7 for

the Atlanta Ballet and theater work for South Coast Repertory Theater. Bathumi

recently collaborated with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain on a newr opera

co-commissioned and produced by Opera Philadelphia, New York’s Apollo Theater,

and London’s Hackney Empire, which premiered under the direction of Bill T.Jones

in October 2017.

Bamuthi is the founding program director of the nonprofit Youth Speaks and

is a co-founder of Life is Living, a national series of one-day festivals that activate

under-resourced parks and affirm peaceful urban life. His essays have been published

in Harvard Education Press and he has taught at Stanford and Lehigh Universities.

He currently serves as chief of program and pedagogy at Yerba Buena Center for the

Arts in San Francisco.

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ALL THE FOLDED WINGS

All the Folded Wings was begun in Taos, New Mexico, where I was struck by the noisy

abundance of magpies outside my window at an otherwise quiet artist residency.

While magpies are a boisterous and sometimes mischievous bird, they’re also highly

intelligent, one of the few species to practice what we’d call a funeral. One bird,

discovering a dead magpie, will call for others; the birds will gather for several 

minutes, surrounding the dead bird and continuing to call before they all fly away.

As I sketched out ideas for a new piece at my residency, the quirky traits ofthe

birds outside my window found their way into the music. The title of this piece is

taken from the final lines of Barbara Crooker’s poem “All Souls’ Day”:

...cold air

settles like a blanket.

The sky tucks itself in.

Everywhere, the silence of all the folded wings.

All the Folded Wings was commissioned by the Lhiiversity of Maryland for the 2016

NextNOW Fest. The work was premiered by Inscape. Program note by Dale Trumbore.

CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS

Despite Camille Saint-Saens’s efforts not to be remembered primarily as the composer of Carnival ofthe Animals, his “Grand Zoological Fantasy” remains one of his

most popular works today. Composed during a few days in 1886, as a means to

entertain his friends during carnival, it contains fourteen distinct movements, mimicking sounds and personalities of creatures found in nature. The work was so widely 

performed, that in 1949 Ogden Nash wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany

each movement for a recording on Columbia Masterworks. These poems are often

recited with the piece, but since then, several other versions of poems, narration, and

responses have been created, including a 1998 narration written by Johnny Morris

for the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and a 2014 set ofmusical responses

commissioned by New Music in the South West. Because ofits humorous aspect and

subject, it’s often programmed on “family” or “children’s” concerts, and in 2016, the

children’s group “The Wiggles” released a version with verses written and performed

by Simon Pryce.

Program Notes

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Today we’ve invited Marc BamuthiJoseph to add his poetry for a new version

that reflects a different, contemporary voice, and that shows how more than

130 years later, the Carnival ofthe Animals is still relevant on the concert stage for 

audiences of all ages. On being asked to take part in this project, Bamuthi reflected:

In recent weeks, the planet has seen the passing ofthe last male 

white rhino. Over the course of the last several years, many

less celebrated species have become endangered or extinct as

the effects of our industrialized planet make fatal incursions

upon the natural world. The celebration of animal life in our

work is whimsical and evocative, and it’s important that animals 

themselves continue to play a role in our sense ofjoy and myth.

Some of our hope is to place animal life within the context of a

political menagerie less and less inclined to protect the wild that

roam among us. We make art not to make light of our issues,

but to shed light and a little laughter at the classic behavior of

modern beasts.

SYMPHONY NO. 4

This symphony represents a culmination and distillation ofMahler’s previous three.

It is the shortest of his symphonies, with a reduced orchestra and a style consciously 

archaic in its evocation of classical models. Yet it is redolent ofthe Wunderhorn

aesthetic that imbues this period ofMahler’s career. The entire symphony grew out

of the final movement, which Mahler originally composed for his orchestral song

collection on poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Young Boys’ Magic Horn).

Mahler originally planned to use this song, “Das himmlische Leben” (Heavenly Life),

as the Finale for his Third Symphony, but withdrew it, probably because its theme

was so similar to that ofthe fifth movement. At any rate, the other three movements

were extrapolated from this long and joyful folk song and were calculated to culminate in its childlike vision of heaven. This in part explains the relatively lighter mood

ofthe symphony as a whole, as well as its tendency toward a more classical balance 

in its style, proportions, and scoring. In spite ofthe greater popularity of the Second

Symphony, which in some ways is more typically Mahlerian, the Fourth Symphony

was his best composition to date and entirely more refined and subtle in expression

and technique.

Bedachtig, nicht eilen (Moderately, not rushed). From the very outset, we have

Mahler’s evocation of nature, with sleigh bells and bird calls leading into a flirtatious

melody, so unlike the pretentious horns of the Third Symphony. There are dark

moments later in the movement, but they appear as if through the veil of childhood’s

vision, unreal and imagined. The movement is in a clear sonata form.

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Gemachlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast (Leisurely moving). This movement was

originally called Freund Hein spielt auf (Friend Hein strikes up), representing a

sinister character out of German folklore roughly analogous to the Pied Piper. His

fiddle (as opposed to a pipe) is brilliantly depicted by Mahler with the use of a violin 

purposely tuned a full step up to give it a fiddle sound. The movement itself is a

wryly grotesque Scherzo alternating with more earthy Landler-like trios.

Ruhevoll, poco adagio (Peacefully). Beginning as a gentle lullaby, the principal

form of the movement is an alternation between this peaceful opening and a more

searching and anguished theme. An impassioned variant of this theme leads to a

series of brief variations in quickening tempos followed by a reprise ofthe opening.

A sudden and ecstatic climax ensues and leads directly to the quiet coda.

Sehr behaglich (Comfortably). The song for soprano is “Das himmlische Leben”

and depicts a child’s view of heaven in this folklike setting. Ingenuous melodies 

alternate with a hymn-like stanza representing the child’s occasional awe. An animated

interlude that recurs between many ofthe stanzas is the source for the opening ofthe

first movement, but in the symphonic context it functions as a cyclic reference backward to that movement.

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