Creative Minds’ Music’s Musings

The Adagio was composed in 1936 as part of Barber’s “String Quartet, Op. 11.” It was first performed and given its most remembered performance by the NBC Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Arturo Toscanini in November 1938.

This was a most turbulent time in our world, with Nazism and Fascism on the rise in Europe. Maestro Toscanini had already fled from Mussolini and Italy because of the cancer that was Fascism. It is not surprising that in the intervening years, the Adagio has been performed during a notable number of significant events and gatherings, including the funeral of Albert Einstein. Years later in 1967, the composer transcribed the piece for an eight-part vocal ensemble.

I first decided to learn this piece before I moved to St. Louis, MO (USA) in 1995. Prior to my return to Huntsville, AL (USA) from St. Louis in 1998, I completed my first, MIDI-only version of this piece. I played each instrument on keyboard: Violins1, Violins2, Violas, Cellos, and Double-Basses referencing an online version of the piece’s notation that I found. It was clear to me that the MIDI file had been transcribed from the (paper) notation/score — and, every note had the same dynamic. And when I played it, the viola part sounded quite discordant and wrong. I was amused when I discovered that the MIDI-file transcriber had neglected to account for the use of alto clef by the violas and had transcribed the viola part using treble clef without performing the necessary transposition.

During my tenure as organist at First Christian Church Huntsville, AL (Oct. 2000 – Sept. 2002) and after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 — without knowing that an organ arrangement existed, I arranged Adagio For Strings for organ. I performed that organ arrangement for the first and last time on Nov. 11, 2001 in celebration of Veterans Day. Ironically, I was scheduled to perform the piece again during a special 9/11 “Remembrance Service” at FCC in September, 2002. Unfortunately (for me only, I suppose…) I was released from my organist post two days before the scheduled performance.

I revised the performance in 2008 for the third time while producing and posting audio versions of most online Creative Minds’ Music MIDI performances. For more than a year the 2008 version has been the most accessed recording at CreativeMindsMusicMusings Blog.

This (2010) is my fourth revision/rendition. While performing research for this blog post, I discovered that the piece’s meter is actually 4/2 and varies throughout. “Aha!,” I thought. The still-unknown-to-me meter changes promised to explain some of the difficulties I had trying to make musical sense of the notation’s meter in certain places. I almost immediately ordered the conductor’s score. Thanks to the marvel of modern-day Internet ordering, I was able to obtain the score for the bargain price of $7.95 with reasonable 4-day shipping. Score in hand, I corrected metric issues, re-recorded, and produced the current version.

I have taught music students that “adagio” specifies a “walking-speed” tempo. Formally, the term “adagio” (It: “at ease”) indicates that the music should be played at a slow and stately speed. My performance is approximately five minutes and thirty-six seconds (5:36.01). However, the conductor’s score specifies that the performance should have a duration of seven to eight minutes. This indicates that my performance may be considered too fast.

I used both Synful Orchestra and Kurzweil K2500 custom sound programs to create the audio for this version.

The animation depicts the on-stage location of Violins 1 (far-left), II (mid-left), Violas (mid-right), Cellos (far-right), and Double Basses (mid-far-right). The lowest frequencies produced by the double-basses may be inaudible without headphones or extended-range speakers.

To place the sound into a specific sound-space, I selected an Altiverb impulse-response (IR) that imparts an acoustic signature from Mechanic’s Hall in Worcester, MA (USA).

Hopefully, the video animation will engage listeners throughout an unusually long Internet performance. I produced the animation using Apple Snow Leopard’s screen (video) capture, Digital Performer’s QuickScribe window(s) , the iTunes visualizer, and the (Mac only) Kinemac animation program.

I hope that you enjoy my performance and production to honor this American musical masterpiece.

Although he was world-famous at one time, today Billy Mayerl (1902 – 1959) is much better known in Great Britian than by other world audiences. Mr. Mayerl was a child-prodigy who by his teenage years was able to secure employment playing as accompanist for then-still-silent films in his local cinema. Unsubstantiated sources write that the enterprising young Billy sold chocolates during intermission to supplement his playing wages. After attending Trinity College of Music on scholarship, he played in a number of the prestigious London hotels of the day, including the Savoy.

It was particularly interesting to me, as a great admirer of George Gershwin, to learn that Billy Mayerl performed as piano soloist for the London premiere of “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1926. The editor of my copy of “The Jazz Master” notes that George Gershwin was in the audience of this historic performance.

During Mr. Mayerl’s career, he composed an extensive number of piano pieces, orchestral works, and several musical comedies for theater and radio. He rendered a body of work that exceeded 300 piano pieces, numerous technical studies, and more than a hundred transcriptions. Although he is often remembered as a composer of novelty pieces of light character, his orchestral works ensure his legacy as much more.

The four Mayerl pieces that I have recorded are ones I have played since my “Huntsville Hilton Days” (1976). It was during that productive period of my career that I constantly searched for solo piano material to fill the luncheon and dinner periods during which I played in the long-defunct “Pepper Tree” restaurant. These pieces are some of the ones I performed at the “Pepper Tree.”

Loose Elbows – I cannot avoid thinking of George Gershwin when I play this composition. The irregular rhythmic syncopation and inner harmonic lines that employ the chord’s fifth, sharpened fifth, and sixth degrees, seem more than a coincidental allusion to Gershwin. To me, this piece does at times conjure an image of a pianist with quite loose elbows…

Marigold is perhaps Mr. Mayerl’s best known and best-selling composition. It is a great study in tricky right-hand fingering—utilizing parallel fourth intervals throughout much of the piece. The composer’s choice of the key of Eb is a testament to his proclivity to compose melodies and structures that are both playable and that “fit the hand.”

Honky-Tonk is a rollicking-frolicking piece that I hope will be as amusing for you to hear as it was for me to play. It is another example of Gershwin-like syncopation. Like other of the Mayerl works, these pieces were not written for pianists with small hands. As is customary with much “Stride” style piano pieces, the left-hand requires spans of a tenth (one octave plus two notes). I am fortunate in this regard—because, if I stretch (a little) I am able to reach most of the piano keyboard elevenths (an octave and a fourth). This has been very helpful in my study of these and other styles requiring such devilishly large key-spans.

Look Lively is suitably named and was the first of the Mayerl pieces that I learned in 1976. I previously recorded an earlier version of Look Lively as part of my “Great Strides” collection of solo, jazz-piano favorites. I re-recorded the version for this recital using my current-day Ivory Steinway.

I used video production techniques akin to the “Ken Burns effect” with several pictures that I photo-copied from my personal copy of the “The Jazz Master” music book (copyright, Sam Fox, 1972) to produce this animated recital.

I hope that you enjoy the music and its presentation.