Following up on yesterday’s article, the second new album released last month by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) on its BMOP/sound label surveyed three compositions by Samuel Barber. This seems to be another situation in which Amazon.com is only offering this release through MP3 download, and the download does not include a PDF of the accompanying booklet. This is yet another case of negligence at its worst, since the booklet provides the texts for the first and last tracks on the album, “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” and the chamber opera “A Hand of Bridge.” The relationship between music and words is a critical one in both of these compositions. Fortunately, BMOP/sound has created its own Web site for selling CDs; and there is a hyperlink to the PDF file of the booklet on the Web page for the Barber release (from which one can order the CD but not a download).
Martha Graham dancing the role of Medea (photograph by Philippe Halsman, from the booklet for the album being discussed)
Between these two relatively short vocal offerings is the “main attraction” of the album, a performance of the original ballet score Medea, a suite in nine movements. Barber composed this music for the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC) with Graham (who probably would have objected to the noun “ballet”) in the title role. The dance was first performed on May 10, 1946; and the other dancers included Erick Hawkins in the role of Jason, Yuriko as the Young Princess, and May O’Donnell serving as chorus. The work was originally entitled “Serpent Heart;” but that title was changed to “Cave of the Heart,” by which is it is still known.
Since he had to work with a “pit orchestra,” Barber scored his resources for reduced instrumentation (as Aaron Copland had done for Graham’s “Appalachian Spring”). Barber’s resources consisted of flute-piccolo, oboe-cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, and a string section of four violins (divided into two parts), two violas, two cellos, and a bass. In 1947 Barber prepared a full-orchestra seven-movement suite based on his original score. He was not shy about “full” instrumentation: two flutes (second doubling on piccolo), two oboes (second doubling on cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horn parts (both of which could be doubled during the forte passages), two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, harp, three percussionists managing cymbals, side drum (without snares), tom-tom, bass drum, and xylophone, piano, and a large enough string section to balance all those resources. This version was first performed in December 5, 1948 with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1955 Barber pared down these seven movements into a single-movement version entitled “Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, expanding the instrumentation to include more percussion, winds, and brass, along with a harp.
Those of my generation probably know this music best from the recording of the 1947 suite made for Mercury with Howard Hanson conducting the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra. About a decade passed between my acquisition of this album and my first encounter with the MGDC performance of “Cave of the Heart.” By that time I had begun to tire of the raw vulgarity in Hanson’s sprawling account of the music. The bare-bones quality of the original instrumentation struck me like a bolt of lightning, which I found far more suitable to the Medea narrative. Indeed, I was fortunate enough to see this dance performed several times; and each time I was drawn more and more to the role that Graham had created for the chorus figure.
In that context I have to wonder to what extent listeners unfamiliar with Graham’s choreography will be able to relate to Barber’s original score. The booklet notes provided by Barbara Heyman do their best to provide useful description. However, the most compelling text is an excerpt from Don McDonagh’s biography of Graham. The fact is that, even when a good video document is available (and I have yet to find one for this dance), the performance is so visceral that there is no viable substitute for “being there.”
While the emotional dispositions are radically different, I am afraid that my reaction to “A Hand of Bridge” is the same as that for Medea. By way of disclaimer, I should observe that this one-act has figured significantly in the opera curriculum at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a result, I have seen this opera in performance many times and never tired of it. I suspect that my enjoyment has much to do with how different vocalists approach the staging of middle-class angst in their respective roles. There are any number of ways in which the ironic texts may be expressed, but expression has as much to do with staging as with the music. Following the words in the booklet is just not an adequate substitute for the immediacy of performance.
As a result, “Knoxville” is the most satisfying offering on this album. Here Barber is dealing with an extended text, a prose poem by James Agee that served to introduce his novel A Death in the Family. This is a case in which I can easily lose myself in a recorded performance, even after have enjoyed this work several times in concert. On this recording Kristen Watson captures the many nuances one finds in Agee’s capacity for narration; and, while I have several satisfying “historical” accounts of this composition in my collection, I was still easily drawn into Watson’s “present day” delivery.
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