A Pleasant Musical Interlude

May 26, 2026 Stoneybrook Lodge, Corvallis, Oregon USA Cherie Gullerud, harp Kim Hall, violin Don Hall, piano PROGRAM Antonio Vivaldi, Sonata for Violin in B Minor Claude Debussy, Clair de Lune Trad., arr. Deborah Henson-Conant, Londonderry Air Marcel Grandjany, Pastorale Francois Couperin, The Harvesters (fragment) Jacques Duphly, Four Pieces for Keyboard and Violin La De Villeneuve (Gavotte) La De La Tour La Du Tailly La De Casaubon J. S. Bach, Arioso Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio in G Minor Stephen Foster, Beautiful Dreamer Arnold Schoenberg, arr. Don Hall, Notturno PROGRAM NOTES by Don Hall Today's program includes several well known composers who represent the cream of the Baroque era from several countries. Italy: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) Germany: J.S. Bach (1685-1750) France: Francois Couperin (1668-1733) From more recent times and perhaps less familiar are: Stephen Foster (American, 1826-1864) Claude Debussy (French, 1862-1918) Marcel Grandjany (French-American, 1891-1975) Much more obscure and needing introduction is Jacques Duphly (1717-1789). He was a French harpsichordist and composer of the generation following after Couperin. Even though we now regard the Baroque era as giving way to Mozart and Haydn during Duphly's life, he continued very much in the style of Couperin. Both made liberal use of various trills and frills (which we call "ornamentation") that give the French Baroque its characteristic flavor in contrast to the German or Italian. Duphly published four collections of short pieces over the span from 1744-1768, some for keyboard alone and other calling for violin as well. He habitually named each piece for one of his friends or acquaintances. Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was an Austrian composer whose career took him to Berlin from 1925 to 1933. By that time he had become well known for his rebellion against traditional rules and advocacy for new techniques of composition which deliberately avoided feelings of tonality (think of "being in the key of C Major"). It was this modernism as much as his Jewish heritage that meant he had no future under Nazi rule, so he emigrated to America, where from 1934 onward he taught at both USC and UCLA. We play today a piece from his youth (1896), well before his rebellion against lush Romanticism, so it is sweet and comforting atmospheric music. It was originally written for string orchestra with harp and violin solos, and we have given the orchestra accompaniment to the piano.