Venus Rising

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939) has several important firsts to her name. She was the first woman to receive the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in composition. She was also the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music. She studied composition with Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter, two of the pivotal composers of mid twentieth century American music. Initially, Taaffe Zwilich wrote in the more dissonant atonal musical style typical of post-war American composers. Like many of her colleagues in the late 1970’s, she turned to a more accessible musical style. Episodes, for Violin and Piano (2003) shows Taaffe Zwilich in her mature compositional style. The first movement entitled Arioso (Singing) presents pulsating chords in the piano supporting a lyrical, yet mysterious, melody in the violin. At one point, the violin plays strummed chords like a guitar while the piano takes up the melody. The second movement entitled Vivace (Lively), explores a playful rhythmic interchange between violin and piano. At one point the slower melodic idea from the first movement briefly returns before the more animated rhythmic material concludes the movement.

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) belongs to the group of composers, including Mozart and Schubert, whose prolific compositional lives were tragically cut short by illness. She was the first woman to win the coveted Prix de Rome, one of the most prestigious musical competitions in Europe. Lili’s sister, Nadia Boulanger, was also a composer and legendary composition teacher in Paris through much of the twentieth century. D’Un Matin de Printemps (Of a spring morning) is a short but intense work for piano, violin and cello. Written in 1917 and 1918, this work employs many of the more adventurous harmonic and melodic ideas used by Boulanger’s fellow French composer Debussy.  Her music has a lyrical passionate intensity also typical of French music of this period.

Libby Larsen (b. 1950) is one of the most prolific living American composers.  She has written over four hundred works, including fifteen operas. A co-founder of the Minnesota Composers’ Forum, now the National Composers’ Forum, Larsen is committed to the idea of music communicating directly with audiences and performers. Her musical language draws from Jazz, Rock, and Boogie-Woogie. Four on the Floor (1983) is scored for the unusual instrumentation of piano, violin, cello, and double bass. The work is infused with the rhythmic propulsive energy of Boogie-Woogie. All four musical parts are equally demanding and call for virtuoso technique as well as a sense of fun and whimsy.

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a musical renaissance woman. She was a piano prodigy, composer, legendary teacher, and scholar. She was appointed professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire at a time when Clara Schumann was the only other woman in Europe to hold such a position. Her Quintet No. 2, for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass employs the same unusual instrumentation as Schubert’s Trout Quintet written two decades earlier. The opening movement begins with a stately introduction, Andante Sostenuto (a steady walking tempo).  It then moves into a quicker main section Allegro Grazioso (quick and graceful), with a memorable theme exchanged by all five instruments. The second movement Grave (Solemn), in a slower more relaxed tempo shows Farrenc’s gift for sweet melody and musical proportion.  The third movement Vivace (Lively) Is in the fast triple time of a scherzo and evokes the music of her contemporary, Mendelssohn. The fourth movement Finale Allegro, concludes the work in bright sunshine.