Filed under: Reviews | Tags: James Pellerite, Lawrence Golan, William Hill
There is an old saying that I have drawn attention to in past articles which says that the further away an individual is, or has to come from to arrive at any given spot, the greater his expertise. So many people believe this old rubric that when important musicians are mentioned or searched for, they immediately look to New York, Bloomington, Indiana, or Europe. This review concerns a recording made by two powerfully artistic individuals that live – are you ready for this? – in Denver, and a third who truly does live in Bloomington, Indiana. This review is about a CD that was released by these individuals in 2007. The three individuals are William Hill, who is on the Composition Faculty at the Lamont School of Music at DU, Lawrence Golan who teaches conducting at the Lamont School of Music, and last, but certainly not least, is the remarkable flautist, James Pellerite, who is now retired from the woodwind faculty at the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington.
The CD that I am referring to has the somewhat unusual title, “Funky Little Crustaceans.” All of the music on this CD was composed by William Hill, who as most of you should by now know, is not only a composer, he is also the timpanist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The title of the CD is also the title of the first composition on the CD. It came from a stroll that Mr. Hill and his violinist wife, Natalie, were taking on the beach on the Outer Banks. As they walked along, some enormous waves crashed on the beach, and after each one, myriad crustaceans were washed onto the sand. After only a few seconds of wobbling about, they vanished into the sand as quickly as a fox can disappear into the mist. These small creatures of the sea did this in perfect unison. Mrs. Hill exclaimed, “What funky little crustaceans!”
Do not be misled by the title. This eleven minute work is a wonderful tone poem for full orchestra that Mr. Hill completed in 1990. As a matter of fact, he conducted five performances of the work with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in 1993. Funky Little Crustaceans begins with big chords which paint us a picture of huge waves crashing on the beach. This enormous opening then gives way to a “disjointed calypso,” which truly does describe the crustaceans as they move across the sand, startled by being out of the sea. In the liner notes for the CD, Mr. Hill explains that in the score “humorous and unconventional directions are given to the players: creeping along, suddenly skittering erratically ahead, apathetically dawdling”, etc. (Do any of you recall the “eye music” of Robert Schumann?). But most certainly this work encompasses humor and seriousness. I use the word seriousness, because even though this work is generally lighthearted, the orchestration is something to behold. For those of you not familiar with the term of orchestration, it means the assignment of different instruments of the orchestra to the various themes as well as accompaniment. The orchestration in this work is absolutely remarkable. I have come across many people in my life who think that composers don’t really have to work at orchestration, but that idea, of course, is because they do not understand the process. They also seem to believe that anyone who is trained in music can write it – they do not understand that a composer loves music so much that they have to own it, and that the music is pulled from very deep within. It takes years of study.
The next composition by Hill on this CD, entitled “Aurora Borealis,” is another tone poem of twenty-seven minutes written for orchestra and Native American flute. This composition gives us a fine example of a Native American instrument being used for serious music as it was originally intended and used. Let us hope that this CD helps give the Native American flute a newborn legitimacy other than shallow New Age music of the last few years.
The flautist on this recording is one of the all-time great flute players in the world. As a performer on the modern flute, Mr. Pellerite is well-known as an orchestral musician. He succeeded his renowned teacher, William Kincaid, as solo flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has held the position of principal flute also with the symphony orchestras of Detroit and Indianapolis and performed with orchestras of Chautauqua (NY), Radio City Music Hall (NYC), L’Orquestra Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, as well, the San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra. His performances have included those under such eminent conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Pablo Casals, Neville Mariner, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski and Igor Stravinsky.
For many years he served as Professor of Flute at Indiana University, and many of his students now hold prominent university and symphony positions. During much of his career as a classical flutist and artist teacher he has appeared throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and abroad. Numerous residencies have included tours to Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and People’s Republic of China. For a return invitation by the National Youth Orchestra of Hong Kong he offered classes and woodwind seminars.
Of this work, Mr. Hill says in the liner notes, “Aurora Borealis is very much a tone poem in the genre of the works of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. Bits of the almost minimalist techniques of Jean Sibelius are also recognizable. An impressionistic musical language used to depict the icy monochromatic stillness of the far north, with gradual hints of color developing into more subtle shadows of the spectrum as the piece evolves. An almost organic growth of material, from the first isolated harmonics strings and single tones of the flute, takes the music through very slow changes of harmony, melody, and tone color.” There is no specific program for Aurora Borealis but it was dedicated to and written specifically for Pellerite. I am quite familiar with James Pellerite’s performance ability because I was an undergraduate student at the Jacobs School of Music from the late 1950s to the early 1960s while Pellerite was on the faculty. After listening to this CD, I cannot imagine anyone else performing Hill’s composition. There is no question that Pellerite’s playing was world-class then, and it has gotten better over the years. There is a lesson to be learned here for any young person attempting to be a performing musician: practice. Once again, the orchestration in this work attracts immediate attention. I have been fortunate to hear several of Mr. Hill’s compositions, but again the orchestration on this CD in these pieces has left an indelible impression. I think that most composers cannot abide having their output compared to other composers – especially by reviewers, because the reviewer invariably compares the music to the wrong ‘other’ composer. Therefore, I hope that Mr. Hill will forgive me when I say that his orchestration is reminiscent of Ravel, Gershwin, and Prokofiev. Please understand that I am not saying Hill copied from these composers. He is certainly his own man, and he is so gifted that he does not need to copy from anyone. I am saying that in his orchestration ability, he is equal to them. This whole work shimmers with incredible beauty.
The last composition by Mr. Hill’s on this CD, “Seven Abstract Minatures,” is a suite of seven pieces based on seven out of eighteen pen and ink drawings that were also done by William Hill. He has always been interested in the relationship between the visual arts and composition, and he has been trained in drawing and painting as well as composition. Both his drawings and the music itself are most remarkable, and it is actually quite difficult to describe the drawings with the remainder of the space in this article. Suffice to say that I most certainly do have some favorites. They are (2) “Moebius?,” (3)”Prism,” (4) “On the Mall,” and (6) “Mountain Twilight.” The second work in the suite, Moebius, is pastoral like, and yet it soars. Prism begins very softly with celeste and vibraphone, but it gathers strength as the full orchestra enters. On the Mall, which is a parody of wealth and commercialism set against the blues depicting street people, is a wonderfully descriptive piece. Mountain Twilight, Number 6, captures that time of day as well as the oncoming chill of nighttime. Mr. Hill could have called this suite a “Tone Poem Suite” because every single piece opens our imagination, as do the drawings which are in the booklet accompanying the CD.
The music on this CD is excellent and extremely satisfying to hear. William Hill has been critically acclaimed as a composer, soloists, visual artist, recording artist, and conductor. Currently he is Principal Timpanist with the Colorado Symphony and teaches composition and counterpoint at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Mr. Hill has served as a composer with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, National Music Festival, Denver Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Colorado and Denver Symphonies, and the Nova Series of Salt Lake City.
Hill’s music has been chosen four times as a winner in the Percussive Arts Society International Composition Contest, and an ASCAP Plus winner every year since joining the organization. Commissions and grants have been awarded to Mr. Hill from organizations such as Meet the Composer, The Denver Foundation for the Performing Arts, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Academy in the Wilderness, the Colorado and Denver Symphonies, and University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. William Hill has been chosen as the Composer of the Year for 2007 by the Colorado Chapter of the Music Teacher’s National Association.
William Hill holds the Bachelor of Music with High Distinction from Indiana University, and the Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was awarded the Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University, and the Maurice Abravannel Music Director’s Award from the Music Academy of the West.
But you must understand this: the success of a recording such as this, requires not only artistic excellence from the composer, but also from the conductor and the orchestra. These are very difficult pieces rhythmically and musically, and Dr. Lawrence Golan and the Moravian Philharmonic have made this breathtaking performance possible. A native of Chicago, Lawrence Golan holds degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and the New England Conservatory of Music (D.M.A.). In addition, he studied at all of the major conducting festivals including Aspen and Tanglewood, where, in 1999, he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship. The long list of distinguished conductors with whom Dr. Golan studied includes Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, David Zinman, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Murray Sidlin, and Harold Farberman. Golan teaches at the Lamont School of Music in Denver, and has conducted worldwide and throughout the United States, conducting symphonies, ballets, and opera. He is also the Resident Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony as well as the Music Director and Conductor of the Portland Ballet Company.
All three of these musicians have created an album of new music which, most certainly, will have very broad appeal. It belongs in everyone’s personal library where it will be a constant source of pleasure.
This was recorded by Albany Records. The catalog number is TROY924.
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