Foss' Renaissance Concerto

As stated in a previous post, How to Find New Music, I came upon Lukas Foss' Renaissance Concerto by having a conversation with another flutists in which I was given a list of pieces to listen to.  After listening to the Renaissance Concerto once, I was sold.  I featured it in my recital program, and below is an excerpt from my program notes pertaining to the piece.

Lukas Foss, a Renaissance man in his own right, received a well-rounded education from multiple big-name music scholars in America, Germany, and France.  A prodigy, at fifteen, he left his birth country of Germany in order to study at the Curtis Institute of Music.  Foss had already begun composing, eight years prior, under the supervision of his piano teacher in Berlin, Julius Herford.  After his family fled the Nazis, moving to Paris, he studied with Lazare Levy, Noel Gallon, Felix Wolfes, and he even studied flute with Louis Moyse, still considered one of the greatest flute players ever.  Foss also studied composition with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood Music Center (summer festival) and Yale University.  In the end, his studies would include piano, flute, composition, and conducting.  In 1953 Foss succeeded Arnold Schoenberg as Professor of Composition at UCLA.  He also worked with many professional orchestras includuing Boston, Chicago, and London Symphonies, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, and the New York, Berlin, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras.

 The Renaissance Concerto for Flute and Orchestra is a four-movement work that was commissioned by and for Carol Wincenc.  Each movement recalls a specific composer, and piece, from the Renaissance and Baroque musical periods.  Foss himself considered the piece a “handshake across the centuries.”  Because it is easy for an orchestra to overwhelm a solo flute, Foss thought carefully on how to construct the concerto and was particularly inspired by the idea of early music and the importance of the flute in the Renaissance and Baroque eras as well as Ancient Greece.  Therefore, the Renaissance became both the goal and the starting point for the composition of the concerto.  In fact, the Renaissance concerto not only quotes themes from the early composers, it transforms them; the concerto is “the invention of a Renaissance sound that never was.  It’s not modernising the Renaissance, but dreaming yourself back to it and making a piece out of that.”   Among the works quoted are Byrd’s The Carman’s Whistle,  Rameau’s L’Enharmonique, Monteverdi’s aria “Tu se’ morta” from the opera Orfeo, and Melvill’s round for four voices titled “Musing.”

So let's take a look at this piece a movement at a time.

Intrada:
Although the rhythm is altered, it is pretty clear where the melody of Tempo II (which follows a very free cadenza-like opening;  the "cadenza" and Tempo II alternate throughout the movement, i.e., ABAB...) came from.

Baroque Interlude (After Rameau):
First of all, someone once commented on how this movement sounds like a creepy "Happy Birthday" and now that is pretty much all I can think of when I play it.  However, again, this quote or inspiration is straightforward.

Recitative (After Monteverdi):
This movement is really neat.  The solo flute line sounds the mournful aria Orfeo (from Monteverdi's opera titled... Orfeo) sings after being told his love has died (from a snake bite no less!).  In this movement, Foss  distorts the rhythms and pitches a bit.  But if you compare, you can line up the lyrics with the notes...which I did because that's just how I roll.

And in case you are interested: the libretto and historically accurate score:

Jouissance:
Again, Foss' "handshake across the centuries" is laid out simply.  In fact, as this is a four-part round (originally), he also has the melody played in a round between the right and left hand of the piano and the solo flute line.  The solo flute also gets to do some flutter tongue which is always a blast.  It kind of seems like a drinking song; perhaps the flute's eighth-note-early entrance is a sign that the soloist has been having a bit too much fun (it would explain the flutter tonguing, various other extended techniques, and the cadenza!).  As you will see below, I again put the lyrics under my part, although I apparently didn't feel the need to include all the words...oops.

Sometimes even a simple comparison, like what I just did, can make a piece all the more exciting to perform.  Knowing the history or stylistic background that inspired the composer should, in theory, inspire the performance as well.  Isn't it sort of cool to see that music is a universal language that can transcend time?  That was corny, but seriously, people still want to play and/or hear the same music that was all the rage centuries ago.  Kind of an obvious statement, though, right?  Composers like Monteverdi are still just as relevant as Mozart, Beethoven, Alan Menken, and Hans Zimmer...okay, scratch that last guy.  We still study these guys in music history because they still have an impact on us today.  Old isn't quite so old.  As Foss proves, it can be quite new.

Finally, below is a recording of the Foss Concerto performed by the flutist for whom it was written: Carol Wincenc.