For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000b South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-seventh Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,695th Concert

VERGE Ensemble

Lina Bahn, executive director

Ignacio Alcover, cello

Audrey Andrist, piano

Barry Dove, percussion

David Jones, clarinet

Jenny Lin, piano and harpsichord

James Stern, violin

David Whiteside, flute

Fatma Daglar, oboe

November 30, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)

Catenaires (2006)

Carter

From Eight Piecesfor Four Timpani (1950, revised 1966) 

vii. Canaries

vi. Canto

Carter

Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux 11 (1994)

(Rough Breathing/Smooth Breathing 11)

Jeffrey Mumford (b. 1955)

a garden offlourishing paths (2008), World Premiere Performance

I. Capriccioso

II. Molto appassionato e rapsodicamente

hi. Capriccioso—Maestoso

iv. Sonoro

v. Capriccioso—Maestoso ed espressivo

vi. Con eleganza

vii. Impulsivo

viii. Sparso—delicatissimo

INTERMISSION

Carter

Duofor Violin and Piano (1973-1974)

Carter

From Eight Piecesfor Four Timpani (1950, revised 1966) 

viii. March

11. Moto Perpetuo

Carter

Sonatafor Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Eiarpsichord (1952)

I. Risoluto

II. Fento

hi. Allegro

The Musicians

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FORUM----VERGE ENSEMBLE

The Contemporary Music Forum has been presenting concerts ofnew music

to Washington audiences for thirty-four years. Throughout its existence, the

Forum has pioneered the performance ofworks involving music and technology and has supported music by African American composers, American

women composers, and Native American composers, verge ensemble, the

performance group ofthe Contemporary Music Forum, is the new music

ensemble in residence at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

The ensemble recently performed an all-John Cage concert at the National 

Gallery as part ofthe Gallery’s 62nd American Music Festival and in conjunction with the Gallery’s exhibition Jasper Johns: An Allegory in Painting,

1955-3965. In May 2007, the ensemble joined Ensemble Aleph at Theatre

Dunois in Paris for four concerts in the Festival de Musique Americaine.

In the 2007-2008 season, the Contemporary Music Forum worked with

the Embassy of France to create a unique yearlong collaboration, promoting

new American and French music. Other members ofthe consortium participating in these events were the Corcoran Gallery ofArt, La Maison Fran^aise, 

Loyola College in Baltimore, and the National Gallery, which hosted the

November 2007 world premiere of Sanctuary, a work for percussion and

computer by Roger Reynolds. Future projects ofthe verge Ensemble include

two concerts of contemporary music at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City

and a residency at the 2009 June in Buffalo Festival.

3
The Composers

ELLIOTT CARTER

Elliott Carter was born in New York City on December n, 1908. His serious

interest in music developed while he was attending the Horace Mann 

School. He was encouraged at that time by Charles Ives (who had sold insurance to Carter’s parents while in the early stages ofhis parallel career as an 

insurance salesman and executive). As a protege of Ives, Carter was exposed

to a new sonic landscape that included the music of Harold Schoenberg,

Igor Stravinsky, and Edgard Varese, as well as Ives’ own compositions. Carter

attended Harvard from 1926-1932, where he studied with Walter Piston and

received a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in music.

After graduating from Harvard, Carter went to Paris where, like many

ofthe great composers of his generation, he honed his technique under the 

tutelage ofthe legendary French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He studied

privately with her from 1932-1935, and received a doctorate in music from

the Ecole Normale in Paris upon completion ofthose studies. He then

returned to America to teach and compose. He held teaching posts at Saint 

John’s College in Annapolis, the Peabody Conservatory, Columbia University,

Queens College, New York, Yale University, Cornell University, and the 

Juilliard School of Music.

Elliott Carter has received the highest honors available to a composer: the 

Gold Medal for Music awarded by the National Institute ofArts and Letters,

tiie National Medal ofArts, membership in the American Academy ofArts

and Letters and the American Academy ofArts and Sciences, and honorary

degrees from many universities. Hailed by Aaron Copland as “one ofAmerica’s most distinguished creative artists in any field,” Carter has received

commissions from many prestigious organizations. In i960 he was awarded 

his first Pulitzer Prize in music for his visionary and groundbreaking String

Quartet No. 2, and the same honor was bestowed on his String Quartet No. 3

twelve years later.

4

Born in Washington, DC, composer Jeffrey Mumford was the winner ofthe 

inaugural National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition in 1994. He has received numerous other fellowships,

grants, awards, and commissions, including the Academy Award in Music

from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellowship from the 

Guggenheim Foundation, and awards from the Alice M. Ditson Fund of

Columbia University, the American Music Center, the ascap Foundation, 

the dc Commission on the Arts & Humanities, the Martha Baird Rockefeller

Fund for Music, Meet the Composer, Oberlin College, the Ohio Arts Council,

and the University ofCalifornia.

In addition to the commission from the National Gallery and the Contemporary Music Forum for a garden offlourishing paths, Mumford has received

commissions from Chamber Music Columbus, the Chicago Symphony

Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Fromm 

Music Foundation, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt in Vienna, the McKim Fund ofthe 

Library ofCongress, the Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/usA program (for the core Ensemble), the Miller Theatre (New

York), the Nancy Ruyle Dodge Charitable Trust (for the Corigliano Quartet), 

the National Symphony Orchestra, the Network for New Music, the Phillips

Collection, the Schubert Club (Saint Paul, Minnesota), and the Walter W.

Naumburg Foundation.

Mumford’s works have been performed by major orchestras including

the American Composers’ Orchestra, the Atlanta, Detroit, and National

Symphony Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, 

and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. His chamber works have been

performed by the Amelia Piano Trio, the Aspen Wind Quintet, the Borromeo,

Corigliano, Maia, and Pacifica Quartets, the core Ensemble, the Da Capo

Chamber Players, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary 

Music, Imani Winds, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Ensemble, 

the Mann Duo, the Network for New Music, the New Music Consort, the

JEFFREY MUMFORD

5
New York New Music Ensemble, and Voices ofChange. In the summer of

2008, he was composer-in-residence at both the Alba Music Festival in Italy

and The Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum ofthe East in 

Bennington, Vermont.

6

The Program

This concert is part of a city-wide project ofthe Contemporary Music Forum 

and the verge Ensemble, the “3gen festival.” It includes special concerts 

celebrating the centenaries of Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiaen, the 

eightieth birthday of Charles Wuorinen, and the ongoing work ofseveral

younger composers, whose works will be premiered at the festival. Collaborating institutions are the Corcoran Gallery, La Maison Franchise, the Library

ofCongress, and the National Gallery. Further information about the 3gen

festival can be found at http://www.cmf-verge.org/3genfestivalh0me.html.

About Catenates Elliot Carter writes: “When Pierre-Laurent Aimard,

who performs so eloquently, asked me to write a piece for him, I became

obsessed with the idea of a fast one line piece with no chords. It became a

continuous chain of notes using different spacings, accents, and colorings,

to produce a wide variety of expression.” Catenaires received its world

premiere on December 11, 2006 (Carter’s 98th birthday), at Zankel Hall in 

New York City, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the piano. Along with Intermittences (2005), Catenaires forms the piano set Two Thoughts about the

Piano. The title refers to the curves formed by a wire or chain hanging freely

from two points that are on the same horizontal level, such as one would see

on a suspension bridge. Carter reduces the keyboard texture to flowing

left-hand and right-hand lines that form arcs, eliminating the vertical

harmonic element. Marked in the scorejaillissant (gushing), the rapid 

stream of notes constantly fluctuates in register, reaching the highest note

on the piano just before the end ofthe piece, then disappearing seamlessly 

into the instrument’s lowest sonority.

Again quoting the composer: “The Canto and Adagio ofthe set, Eight

Piecesfor Four Timpani (One Player) were written in 1966, while the other six

[movements] were composed in 1949 .... [The six movements from 1949]

were revised with the help ofthe percussionist, Jan Williams, of the New

York State University at Buffalo. In gratitude for his advice, the Canto and

Adagio were composed for him and included the set. Unlike the others, each

7
ofwhich is a four-note piece based on different tunings ofthe drums, these 

two employ the possibilities ofthe pedal-tuned chromatic timpani.”

Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux n (1994) (Rough Breathing/Smooth Breathing 

11) was written to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Pierre Boulez. It differs

from Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux 1 (1985), which is a flute and clarinet duo, in 

that a marimba part is added. In his preface to Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux 1,

Carter wrote, “The title refers to the pronunciations of classical Greek words

beginning with a vowel or an R, called in English Tough breathing/smooth

breathing.’ With Tough breathing’ (esprit rude), the initial vowel or R is

preceded by a sounded H and is indicated by a reversed comma above the 

letter. With ‘smooth breathing’ (esprit doux), the initial vowel is not to be

preceded by H and is indicated by a comma above the vowel.... Both

instruments have some rough breathing and some smooth breathing.”

As a tribute to Boulez, Carter incorporated into both pieces an honorific 

musical motto: B-flat—C-A—E = B(0)ULE—using both the French and

German names ofthe notes. (“B” in German notation denotes the note

B-flat; “C” in the European system ofsight-singing is “Do” or, according to

ancient practice, “U(t)”; “A” comes from “L(a)”.) The motto closes Esprit

Rude/Esprit Doux 11, where Carter punctuates it with a flutter-tongue, which 

he equates with “Z.”

Jeffrey Mumford’s a garden offlourishing paths was commissioned by the 

National Gallery and the Contemporary Music Forum/vERGE Ensemble to

celebrate the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter. The composer extends his

thanks to Philip Berlin, Nancy Ruyle Dodge, and Otho Eskin for their

generosity and to Stephen Ackert, head ofthe National Gallery music department, and Steve Antosca, artistic advisor ofthe verge Ensemble, for their

vision and support.

The work is cast in eight short movements, each featuring a particular

instrument or group ofinstruments. The title evokes the space for which it

was written (the West Garden Court ofthe National Gallery). In addition, it

refers to the expressive character ofthe developmental paths taken by the 

instruments in relation to one another. The composer writes, “It has been

my pleasure to have known Mr. Carter for many years, since being a student

ofhis during in the early 1980s. I am pleased to add my small piece to the 

many that will be written to honor this marvelous creative artist.”

Carter’s Duofor Violin and Piano derives its character and expression 

from the contrast between its two very dissimilar instruments: the bowstroked violin and the key-struck piano. The mercurial violin music—sometimes intense and dramatic, at other times light and fanciful—constantly 

changes its pace and tone of expression, while the piano part features long

stretches ofmusic of consistent character and is much more regular, both in 

rhythm and in style. As the piece begins, the pianist makes extensive use of

the pedal to mask one sonority with another and then gradually to uncover 

the hidden sonority. The long opening section for the piano forms a quiet,

almost icy background to the dramatic violin music, which seems to fight

passionately against the piano. As the duo unfolds, the violin often focuses

on two or more motifs at a time, playing in a rhythmically irregular fashion

while the piano constantly plays regular beats, sometimes fast, sometimes

slow. Toward the end, while the violin is involved in a very fast impassioned

passage, the piano becomes more and more detached, playing a series of

regular rhythmic patterns, each successively slower than the previous one.

As the piano reaches a point of extreme slowness, the violin is heard increasingly alone, isolating for a few measures at a time its various motifs, with

the quiet and more lyrical ones given more prominence than they had earlier 

in the piece. Composed in 1974 and commissioned by the McKim Fund of

the Library ofCongress, Duofor Violin and Piano was first performed by

Paul Zukofsky and Gilbert Kalish on March 21,1975, at a New York Philharmonic Prospective Encounter Concert and is dedicated to Elliott Carter’s

wife, Helen.

About the Sonatafor Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord, Carter writes:

“[It] was commissioned by the Harpsichord Quartet of New York, which consisted ofthose four instruments. My idea was to stress as much as possible 

the vast and wonderful array oftone colors available on the modern harpsichord (the large Pleyel, for which this was first written, produces 36 different 

colors, many ofwhich can be played in pairs, one for each hand). The three

9
other instruments are treated for the most part as a frame for the harpsichord.

This aim ofusing the wide variety ofthe harpsichord involved many tone

colors which can only be produced very softly and therefore conditioned very

drastically the type and range ofmusical expression, all the details ofshape,

phrasing, rhythm, texture, as well as the large form. At that time it seemed

very important to have the harpsichord speak in a new voice, expressing

characters unfamiliar to its extensive baroque repertory.

The music starts, Risoluto, with a splashing dramatic gesture whose subsiding ripples form the rest ofthe movement. The Lento is an expressive

dialogue between the harpsichord and the others with an undercurrent of

fast music that bursts out briefly near the end. The Allegro, with its gondolier’s

dance fading into other dance movements, is cross-cut like a movie—at times

it superimposes one dance on another.”

The Hubbard-Broeckman harpsichord used in this concert has been graciously

loaned to the Gallery by the music division ofthe Library ofCongress

10

The Sixty-seventh Season ofConcerts

at the National Gallery ofArt

December 2008

Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

DECEMBER

7 Till Fellner, pianist

Beethoven: Sonatas nos. 16,17,18, and 28

First concert in a cycle of Beethoven’s complete

piano sonatas

14 New York Opera Society Soloists from Norway

Norwegian Christmas Festival Concert

21 Alessandra Marc, soprano

With the National Gallery Chamber Orchestra 

Stephen Ackert and Dingwall Fleary, guest conductors

Danielle DeSwert, pianist 

Music by Ernest Bloch and other composers

Presented in honor of Oceans, Rivers, and Skies:

Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz

28 National Gallery Orchestra

Manfred Knoop, guest conductor

Eva Lind, soprano

New Year Concert