Chamber Music Concert

All over our seven-town universe, people are practicing. Amid the flurry of winter sports, plans for town meetings, school activities, and seed-ordering, music is filling homes. These musicians will share their winter's work on Friday, March 13, at Fryeburg New Church.

The acoustics in that church's sanctuary make it an ideal place to listen to chamber music. The room is resonant and the piano is good. Some of the musicians have recently participated in a chamber music class designed to teach students how to be independent musicians. In the program, students work with their peers to perfect duets or trios. Students get the chance to run some rehearsals themselves, learning such skills as how to count in, how to communicate about dynamics, and how to develop an interpretation together.

Daniel Strahler, piano, and Jasper MacDougall, trombonist, are performing a piece by composer and organist John S. Dixon. This piece, an arrangement of a prelude for pipe organ, is aptly titled “Aria” and combines majestic and lyrical phrases with beautiful harmonies. Mr. Dixon graciously shares his compositions with musicians who want to perform them. Sparrow Bickford, pianist, will play the bass part of a piano duet called Judy's Waltz with the program's teacher Ellen Schwindt. Silas Krautman and Tristan Roll will play a piano duet called “Lost in the Wind,” Lilah and Tristan Roll will create some frivolity in their rendition of Bartok's “Frolic.” One piece includes three pianists: Caroline Lichtman, Sparrow Bickford, and Daniel Strahler. Along with the duos, two students will perform chamber music solos. Honora Geier sings the most famouse song of Robert Schumann's “Widmung” or “Dedication” from the cycle “Myrthen.” Theo Gray, pianist, performs the allegro movement of Beethoven's F minor piano sonata.

Some adult players will join the students with selections of their own. Charlotte Gill, Phil Marshall, and Ellen Schwindt perform a Handel trio sonata. Ethan Chalmers, violinist and violin teacher, performs a selection from Prokofiev's 5 melodies for piano and violin. The concert begins at 7 PM on Friday, March 13 at 12 Oxford Street. Admission is free. Fryeburg New Church generously shares the use of its space with many community organizations. Donations to Fryeburg New Church for the upkeep of their building will be gratefully accepted.

Out of the File Cabinet and Into the World

 

Last September I turned 60. Somewhere along the way it dawned on me that I've been writing music seriously for more than 20 years. I have three file drawers crammed full of scores from musical compositions completed and performed long ago. I don't want them to languish in the file cabinet, I want them out in the world where musicians might find them, like them, and perform them. 

Now I'm getting serious about publishing and telling the world about my music. I'm going about this work in digital age fashion. This post is all about my efforts to make my compositions available. It's complete with links for listening and for scores. 

I've posted many compositions on two sites that allow people to download scores and parts. I've had a page on the site International Music Score Library Project for years. In fact almost 4000 downloads of my scores on that site have occurred. That has allowed a couple of people to find some music of mine and perform it. Violinist Mari Targo programmed a set of duets calle Five Rhythmic Recreations for a concert in Tallin, Estonia. 

More recently, I began a page on MusicaNeo.com .  Right now it holds my viola sonata and my recently completed album of student pieces. That viola sonata also exists on a site called Music4Viola , but that's the only piece I've managed to get there. 

I am hopeful that this dabbling around in the sea of websites will result in at least a few of my pieces reaching open ears. I am not aiming to be famous, I just want the works I've put my heart and soul into to be available to musicians and listeners. I think my music is accessible to players and I strive to make it as clear and consistent as I'm able; sometimes I taste that bit of sense that these particular notes, in this particular configuration are just the right notes. Those moments of certainty are why I really want to share what I do. 

I have a few recordings out in the world already and I'm working on getting more available. I'm using three different platforms for that. You can find me on Youtube, and on bandcamp, and on soundcloud. I haven't yet figured out how to get on streaming platforms, but perhaps that's in my future. It feels like a whole new (and slightly befuddling) world. 

 

     Lately, I've been making my way to Mountain Top Music on Friday mornings to rehearse with my friend and colleague Chris Nourse. We are preparing a program of music for violin and piano. I've lost track of how many such concerts we've prepared together, but I am enormously grateful to get another chance to undertake this work, or is it play? After all, we don't call it "working" the violin or piano. 

     Our program includes a brand new sonatina of mine that I finished this past summer. It's a set of four movements in different moods that all seem to relate to an idea I've been playing with for a very long time: that we are all in the same situation in this very temporary and changeable life. The title of the sonatina is "We are all in one Pond." The title came from some art-therapy I engaged with a few years back. The photo below might give you a hint about the themes that were running through my mind when I made that piece of art. Then somehow, similar themes emerged when I began writing this sonatina last spring. I crafted them into a piece that includes these movements "We are all in one pond,"  "Heaven is a resting place," "There is always time for adagio," and "We might as well dance." 

After this new sonatina, we'll play two excerpts from a Keith Jarrett sonata for violin and piano. You did read that correctly, even though you may be thinking "isn't Keith Jarrett a jazz pianist?" That is certainly true, but Jarrett wrote some interesting chamber music as well and played with other classical musicians of his day. We've had fun making sense of two movements from his sonata: "Song" and "Dance." The first movement reminds me somehow, of Hindemith's Trauermusik; it has depth and a certain inexorableness in it. Both the violin and the piano get to explore the edges of their instrument's sound range. The dance movement is quite fun and might be taken in as a form of contemplative movement in the interpretation we've developed for it. 

We'll end the program with an old favorite of ours: Antonin Dvorăk's sonatina for violin and piano. Dvorak wrote this for his own children to play. Chris and I have worked on this music many times with various students over the years. It's been a great joy to play it together. 

We'll be performing this program on Friday, December 5 at 1 PM at The Majestic Theater in Conway. This is part of Mountain Top Music Center's First Friday series: a brainchild of Chris's which began in 2016 or so. Admission is free and donations support Mountain Top Music Center. 

Music for Earthlings 

All of us here live surrounded by another living being—the forest around us. Mary Edes and I are weaving together the sounds of the earth and forest with those of local musicians for a concert titled “Music for Earthlings.” On Thursday, June 12 at 7 PM many community musicians convene at The Brick Church for the Performing Arts in Lovell, Maine, to share celebratory music about living in our forest.

“This Forest is Alive,” a classical work I composed for narrator, forest sounds, string trio, and woodwind trio makes up most of this concert. My good friend Mary Edes narrates this work while a string trio (Tim Arnold, myself, and Chris Nourse) and a woodwind trio (Julia Edwards, Mike Sakash, and Nancy Goldenhar) play miniatures depicting the life of the forest around us. Recorded bird song, including a Robin who summered on Davis Hill in 2020, complete the mix. Later in the program, the chorus will join the instrumentalists for hymns to the beauty of the earth. Serena DiNucci, marimba, and Jenny Huang-Dale, cello, also join the instrumental ensemble.

Tickets to the concert are $15 and are available at the door. The Brick Church for The Performing Arts is at 502 Christian Hill Road in Lovell, ME. The building is air conditioned. 

 Musical Renewal

On Sunday February 2nd at 3:00 PM, I get to play chamber music with friends and students at Fryeburg New Church. Playing music I love with others is a great path to renewal for me. 

Music lovers should expect Vivaldi's Concerto in a minor for violin and, in this case, viola. This piece is usually played with a string orchestra but Ellen and one of her students will perform the work with two stringed instruments. Also on the program is a piano solo by the composer Margaret Bonds; an African American composer who gained recognition in the 1930s and continued composing through the 1960s. The title of the solo to be played is The Valley of the Dry Bones. It relates to the biblical text in the book of Ezekial that describes dry bones coming to life and dancing. It is a jubilant work merging idioms from classical piano and jazz and capturing the spirit of renewal. When I play it, I try to think the words of the spiritual on which it is based: “These old bones of mine shall rise together in the morning.”

Ethan Chalmers, violinist, joins me to present Eugene Ysaye's piece Reve d'Enfant. This very late romantic work includes extended harmonies and haunting melodies. Jane O'Brien, flutist, will join me to perform Nino Rota's Five Pieces for Flute and Piano. Several of my teen students will present pieces they have been polishing over the last few months.

Fryeburg New Church houses a beautiful piano and offers concerts open to everyone. Donations are welcome but not required. Donations support the work of Fryeburg New Church in the community.

 Forest Scenes

Forest Scenes is the final concert of my summer season at The Little White Church in Eaton. The concert is on Sunday, September 15th at 4 PM. Admission to this concert is $20, with an invitation for students and seniors to pay what feels comfortable to them. Tickets are available here and at the door. 

What a summer of music it's been this year. I've had the privilege of playing with old friends and new friends, with grown students, and now, at the turn of seasons, with a whole string quartet plus a singer. More than a year ago, now, I wrote a set of miniature pieces called Forest Scenes. It is scored for string quartet, mezzo soprano, and piano. The piece of music came about during a late winter and early spring of walking through the woods behind my home--noticing the path of melting water and the lay of the land and the early beginnings of the growing season. Although I was trying to write a piano quintet, words kept coming to my mind embedded in melodies. Finally I gave in to my intuition and scored those words for a singer. 

Now, as we prepare to head into another winter in these woods, I get to announce the premier of this work. The Lakes Region String Quartet is premiering the work along with vocalist Julia Edwards. Quartet members are all principal players in The Lakes Region Symphony. 

Julia is a fine musician and educator. She spends her school year as a choral director in Maine. She says that her musical education began "in the womb" as she was born into a musical family and listened to Bach and other serious music from a young age. She is a sensitive singer and I look forward to hearing the words in my mind come to life in the resounding space of The Little White Church.

Other works on the program will be quartet repertoire and Mozart's Kegelstatt trio, featuring Margaret Hopkins on violin and Sally Wituszynski on viola. Margaret and Sally have both played pieces of mine in the past and I'm excited to work with them both again. 

As if that wasn't enough joy, my friend Dana Cunningham contributes her piece "Homecoming" from her album of the same name. I had the fun of arranging that piece for piano and string quartet and I will enjoy listening to the quartet and Dana bring it to life at the concert. I hope you can join me.

Summer Music

   Two friends who love classical music as much as I do are joining me for a concert. Julia Howell, violist from Wonalancet, Chris Nourse, violinist from Tamworth, and I are rehearsing music that reminds us of summer including Vivaldi's iconic piece by that name. The concert will take place at The Little White Church in Eaton on Sunday, August 25 at 4:00 PM. (Please note, in case of temperatures in the 90s, the concert will begin at 7 PM). Admission is free and donations support The Little White Church and the musicians.

Duos and trios make up the program. Chris and I will play two pieces by Henry Cowell. Both have the feel of church music, full of deep harmony and counterpoint. Julia and I get to play Rebecca Clark's “Morpheus.” Rebecca Clark was a composer in the 1920s and was also a violist. Her composition teacher told her to take up the viola so that she would be in the middle of the sound. Clark crafted music rich with the sounds of the early 20th century and formed with romantic grace.

Two much older trios round out the program. Scholarship has it that George Frederick Handel didn't actually write the Church Sonata published as Opus 2, number 8. It is beautiful music, nonetheless, and has made its way into the canon of chamber music for violins and piano. The pièce de résistance is Vivaldi's “Summer” arranged for piano viola and solo violin. Chris will play the solo violin part while Julia and I fill in the music usually played by the rest of the orchestra. For more information about this and other classical music programs please get in touch with me at ellen.m.schwindt@gmail.com.