Classical Special Sep. 14, 2024 Digital Program

Echoes of America

Concert Hall

Runtime

Approx. 80 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission
View Details

Program

Eugene Rogers, conductor
Morris Robinson, bass-baritone
The Washington Chorus
- Eugene Rogers, Artistic Director

Jessie Montgomery
(b. 1981): Banner for solo string quartet and chamber orchestra (8’)

Aaron Copland
(1900–1990)

Old American Songs (6’)

Zion's Walls
Simple Gifts
At the River
Morris Robinson, bass-baritone

Aaron Copland
(1900–1990)

Suite from Billy the Kid (21’)

Introduction: The Open Prairie
Street in a Frontier Town
Mexican Dance and Finale
Prairie Night (Card Game)
Gun Battle
Celebration (After Billy's Capture)
Billy's Death
The Open Prairie Again

Intermission

Carlos Simon
(b. 1986)
Libretto by Dan Harder: Here I Stand: Paul Robeson**
^{(NSO Co-Commission)}(30’)

+ Artist’s NSO classical debut at KC
** First performance by the NSO

Patrons are requested to silence cell phones and other electronic devices during performances.

The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in this venue.
Program order and artists are subject to change.

Season Sponsors

The NSO Music Director Chair is generously endowed by Roger Sant and Congresswoman Doris Matsui

Noseda Era Fund Supporters

The Amici di Gianandrea, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Truist

All events and artists subject to change without prior notice.

Meet the Artists

Meet the Composers

Program Notes

Banner

The national anthem of the United States of America, The Star-Spangled Banner, is a symbol. It’s a musical abstraction of the values and principles of the country it represents, freely available to all who live here and unbound by the creative red tape and intellectual property law. The ease with which we can access the anthem makes the song ripe for reimagining and experimentation. Just continuous challenges to the traditions and systems and moral strictures push the republic to be the best version of itself (in theory, at least). Why take its musical values and traditions at face value? Just something for your consideration as you listen to Jessie Montgomery’s Banner, for string quartet and chamber orchestra.

In her own original notes, she describes it as a “rhapsody” on the anthem. The piece premiered in 2014, 200 years after Francis Scott Key penned his poem from a ship in harbor during the Battle of Baltimore. A couple centuries removed from the Battle, Montgomery considers the music and meaning behind The Star-Spangled Banner with a new question. “Drawing on musical and historical sources from various world anthems and patriotic songs,” writes Montgomery in her original program notes, “I’ve made an attempt to answer the question: ‘What does an anthem for the 21st century sound like in today’s multicultural environment?’” It’s a thought process that Key could not have possibly comprehended (and—could he comprehend it—would almost certainly oppose, considering his status as a slaveholder).

As she looks for an answer to that question, Montgomery does not only course through the music borne from Baltimore waters. A modern anthem reflects a demographic and political reality that is quite different from the young republic’s. And so, the strains of The Star-Spangled Banner, dominant throughout this music are accompanied by musical inspirations from other American folk songs and anthems—most notably, perhaps, James Weldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing, long referred to as “The Negro National Anthem.” Its introduction on the middle section is an agitated meditation on the phrase “we have come,” which, with repeated listens, can melt into the question “where are we still to go?”

The marching band is another American tradition that brings this anthem up to speed, using the rhythmic extended techniques of the strings as a backbone that supports the finale section. And while the wrap of the drum can imply a militaristic step, the American marching band tradition—especially from the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities—is one infused with ferocious competition, pride, and jubilation. It’s no accident that Montgomery’s performance notes instruct the musicians to play the “Drumline” section “aggressively as possible.”

Towards the end of the piece, The Star-Spangled Banner once again comes into view. The contrasting and distinct elements—those melodic strains and rhythms and silences—regroup and transform into the unmistakable final bars of the U.S. national anthem, suggesting that contemporary look at song is impossible without carrying the unresolved tension and baggage with which the nation is saddled. If America is The Star-Spangled Banner, then the Banner is everything that America is.

Selections from Old American Songs

The pieces found in Old American Songs are simple. In a manner of listening, the music is unadorned, but it’s another unambiguous home run from Aaron Copland, the gay, Jewish New Yorker who wielded a sound that was undeniably American. The music included in both books of Old American Songs have made their way into many corners of life and pop culture of the United States and its citizens, in one form or another, in both the past and future: the Westerns of John Ford, the stages of minstrelsy, a presidential inauguration. And it does help to think of Old American Songs as a book—a compendium and chronicle of the music from the republic.

The selections here are religious in nature and origin. “Zion’s Walls,” subtitled “revivalist,” appeared in John McCurry’s 1855 shape note hymnal The Social Harp. “Simple Gifts,” credited to the Shaker Joseph Brackett, was unknown to many outside of that community until Copland’s Appalachian Spring positioned it in front of new ears. And “At the River,” subtitled “hymn tune,” is exactly that—an arrangement of Robert Lowry’s 1864 hymn composed during his tenure at the Hanson Place Church in Brooklyn, New York.

The songs presented here are born of varying churches and religious traditions, but beyond the Christ-ness of it all is a theme of fellowship and community: the personal pronoun “I” doesn’t appear in these three songs. There is collective action here, and the plural takes over. Sisters and brothers are joining us in the praises of Zion; the turning will be our delight; we shall gather by the river. By the late 19th century, the United States had gone through several waves of revivals and religious awakenings, and at the heart of many of these movements was a social element, emphasizing anything from shared virtue (abolition, temperance), to a turn from excess and corruption.

And that simpler time (though flawed in memory), or that sense of shared responsibility and collective action (which, ironically, American politics has had a difficult time figuring out) might be the appeal of these songs. Copland began these arrangements in 1950 and finished the second book two years later. Baritone William Warfield recorded performances of both books in 1953, later performing book one with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and book two with Copland himself. In a way, this music was a respite from unbearable geopolitical tension. The 1950s had the carnage of the second World War in rear view, but the decade ushered in the semi-permanent anxious state that comes with a Cold War, underscored by the creation of even more nightmarish instruments of death that could, supposedly, be deployed at a moment's notice.

But music like this, rooted in the fundamental and at its best, familiar and inviting, can make us wish for the times we lost. Or even, for our future’s sake, to create the perfect past that never was.

Suite from Billy the Kid

The United States of America’s cultural exports are never-ending: fast food, jazz, education, baseball, blue jeans, cowboy hats. Those last three are tied up in another cultural behemoth, admired and mythologized the world over, from fashion to spaghetti westerns: the Wild West. It’s a fitting musical and artistic setting too, whether it’s Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West or Aaron Copland’s ballet about the life and exploits of outlaw Henry McCarty, more widely known as Billy the Kid.

Or rather, Billy the Kid is Copland’s platform from which to use America’s musical language to illustrate a story that is unique to the vast western frontier. The orchestral suite from the ballet is cinematic in its scope. If for whatever reason the listener ‌doesn’t know the music is pulled from an opera about an infamous New Mexican criminal, but has spent any meaningful with time with art and culture of the United States, said listener would quickly figure out that something about this music carries the stamp of America, if not guessing that it is undeniably “Western.”

By the late 1930s, when Copland wrote this ballet, the frontier had been closed for several decades. The mythmaking was becoming even more solidified. With Billy the Kid, we hear the composer leaning into the campfire legend with a musical language that seems so specific to a particular American sound. We see the vast open prairie, intimidating in its endless expanse, come to life and set this story into motion. We hear the tin whistle, the sound of woodblock, the quiet echo of orchestral call and response—which, in concert, has somehow become an auditory signal for the quick step of a small yet bustling town. The jarring strikes of the timpani and skitters of percussion are our gunfire. Billy captures sounds almost like the law making a cartoonish mockery of the 21-year-old; the death is the somber ebb and flow of strings fit for a dramatic death.

But Copland was a student of the game, doing much more than feeding us audio cues to bring the story to life. The composer was familiar with folk music and cowboy songs, and he incorporated that into the score itself in several places. The street scene, in which Billy is unknowingly spending his final moments with his mother, introduces “Git Along, Little Dogies.” “Goodbye Old Paint,” credited to Black cowboy Charley Willis, makes an appearance in the third movement, first appearing in a moment of quiet after a trumpet concludes its Jarabe Tapatío. During the consequential card game, we hear “The Dying Cowboy.” Copland peppers the entire ballet with a number of Western songs like these, using them as a melodic vocabulary to even better describe a world so many listeners already somewhat know. It’s mythmaking on a grand scale, sure. But the pieces were there, and they had been for decades.

Here I Stand: Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson has a legendary status in conversations surrounding art and activism. The bass-baritone’s accolades are long—All-American, Rutgers valedictorian, NAACP Image Award recipient, Spingarn Medal Winner. Film actor, stage actor, and—perhaps most famously—singer. One who introduced America to a number of songs and spirituals that its Black population had known for decades, or was a powerful voice for popular show tunes and parlor songs. But there’s also the writing, like the monthly newspaper he cofounded with W.E.B. Du Bois, Freedom. And of course, the autobiography Here I Stand.

In 2024, well over half a century after the book was published, composer Carlos Simon (with librettist Dan Harder) borrowed the title for a new work, an oratorio that probes the internal conflict present in the artist or entertainer who feels a necessary compulsion to use their platform to do more.

The piece was commissioned by the Oakland Symphony and received its world premiere earlier this year. Writing his own program notes for Oakland, Simon explains the course of the work. The music begins with a scene of an elder Robeson in Sydney, singing at the construction site of the Sydney Opera House. As he introduces himself to the laborers to whose cause he is devoted, we are taken into his chamber of memories as he recalls his political clashes with the United States government. During his rapid ascent to global visibility—and perhaps at the height of his fame —Robeson was on the receiving end of a negative congressional testimony by baseball player Jackie Robinson. The paranoia of prejudice and McCarthyism came down hard on Robeson, who found himself blacklisted and his passport voided.

Simon explains in his notes Robeson’s grappling with feelings of failure. With his own government against him, it’s not surprising that the activist could only think of what could have been, if not for those lost years. However, “unbroken by Congressional restrictions imposed on his ability to travel and perform, Robeson continues to fight in print for ‘liberty, equality, and justice,’” concludes Simon. “And though he will die without having fully achieved his lofty goals, he will rise with the Chorus to a Spiritual apotheosis.”

Apotheosis—the making of a god. It’s how legends are born. What’s more American than that?

Libretto by Dan Harder

SCENE 1: LAST TOUR, 1960–1961

ROBESON:: Ahhh – to sing for workers again – workers building the great Sydney Opera
House, a perfect to return to the stage after ten years of being silenced for my
thoughts, but on we go cause there’s work to be done, lots of work.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me.
Says I, “But Joe, you’re ten years dead” “I never died”, says he
“I never died”, says he.
“In Salt Lake City, Joe”, says I, him standing by my bed,
“They framed you on a murder charge.”
Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead”, says Joe, “but I ain’t dead.”
And standing there as big as life and smiling with his eyes,
says Joe, “What they can never kill went on to organize,
Went on to organize.”
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night alive as you and me.
Says I, “But Joe, you’re ten years dead.” “I never died,” says he.
“I never died,” says he, “I never died says he.”

CHORUS:: Who are you?
A singer?
actor?
athlete?
activist?
socialist?
husband?
father?
worker?
writer?
thinker?
Negro?

ROBESON:: Here I Stand as an American Negro!
I speak as an American Negro!
I have dedicated my life to winning full freedom,
and nothing less than full freedom, for my people in America.

CHORUS:: Go Down Moses, way down in Egypt land

ROBESON:: I am an American Negro!
I have sought to present my ideas
about a subject that is infinitely more important than any other personal story –
the struggle of my people for freedom.

CHORUS:: Go Down Moses way down in Egypt land, go

ROBESON:: Neither the promise of gain nor the threat of loss
has ever moved me from my convictions.
I only hope that I can see them realized
in the lives of those they are intended to serve,
those I hope to deliver.
Change a word, change the world…
fighting for the freedom of my people.
But in Moscow—last stop on my tour—I realized, sadly, I haven’t been successful—
haven’t fulfilled my promise, haven’t been equal to my task. I am not worthy, I am not worthy, here I stand, I am not worthy—the tallest tree in the forest, but unworthy, I am not worthy. If I can’t make things better, if I can’t help my people, if I can’t change things, if I can’t make things better, if I can’t help my people, if I can’t change things, I am not worthy, not worthy, unworthy of the cause, unworthy, unworthy, I am unworthy if I can’t make things better to help my people, to mend my people—I am unworthy.

CHORUS:: How did this happen to you?
Who did this to you?
How did this happen?
Who did this?
Who…?
Who…?
How!?
Who did this to you?

ROBESON:: I did… I have failed

CHORUS:: We remember our tallest tree.
You showed us—you would be our tallest tree,
our tallest tree.

SCENE 2: Our Tallest Tree, 1920–1950

CHORUS 1:: He lifts us,

CHORUS 2:: How—

CHORUS 1:: he touches

CHORUS 2:: we gotta know—

CHORUS 1:: every pain,

CHORUS 2:: how

CHORUS 1:: every joy

CHORUS 2:: can a negro

CHORUS 1:: with his voice

CHORUS 1/2:: do all this?

CHORUS 1:: He tells a story with his voice,

CHORUS 1/2:: He holds our story in his voice.

ROBESON:: Who am I?
I am a singer of the folksongs of my people,
songs of love and longing,
songs of trial and triumph,
songs of flight and the stubborn fight
of my people, of all people.

I’m like you, you’re like me,
divided, we’ll never be free -
we’ll never be free.

I sing
for the Welshman toiling in the dark,
for the patriot fighting in fascist Spain,
for the worker who is struggling to make ends meet,
For the Black girl trying to go to school, who’s stopped,
stopped with her dreams at the door.

I’m like you, you’re like me,
divided, we’ll never be free
we’ll never be free.

Who am I?
An actor
Eugene O’Neill, William Shakespeare,
Made the people laugh, made the people cry,
Made the people wonder and ask themselves why…

So who am I, you ask?
I am an activist for freedom,
freedom from prejudice, from inequity,
freedom from oppression,
freedom from poverty,
freedom for our people

It’s time to speak up,
and speak the truth.

Change the words, change the world.

I’m like you, you’re like me,
divided, we’ll never be free,
we’ll never be free, divided we'll never be free.

Change the words, change the world.

I’m like you, you’re like me.
And so, I changed the flow of Old Man River.
I’m not tired of living or scared of dying.
I’ll keep fightin’ till I’m dyin’….
Change the words, change the world.

SCENE 3: I Am Here Because…, 1950s

CHORUS:: Know your place, play your part.
Who do you think you are, Negro?

ROBESON:: I was Othello, Moor of Venice,
“I have done the state some service,
and they know it…’

CHORUS:: Stirring the hopes of the poor?

ROBESON:: “When you shall these deeds relate,
speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate…”

CHORUS:: An enemy of the State. We know who you are.
You a rebel and a menace…

ROBESON:: “… you must speak of one who loved not wisely, but too well!”

CHORUS:: And who do you love too well, Mr. Robeson??

ROBESON:: The worker, the poor, the black…
people robbed of justice and equality,
human dignity and fulfillment.

CHORUS:: Even in Russia?

ROBESON:: In Russia, for the first time, I felt like a full human being,
no color prejudice, like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington…
It was the first time I felt like a human being where I did not feel the pressure of
color as I do in this Senate committee today.

CHORUS:: Why do you not stay in Russia?

ROBESON:: Why? Because my father was a slave,
and my people, my people died to build this country.
I’m gonna stay right here! Stay and have a part in it,
just like you.
And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it.

CHORUS:: You are here because you are promoting the Communist cause.

ROBESON:: I am here because I am opposing the Neo-Fascist cause.
You and your forebears are responsible for millions and millions of black people
dying in slave ships and on the plantations.
Nothing could know more about slavery than this society, I assure you.

CHORUS:: The hearing is now adjourned.

ROBESON:: I think it should be.

CHORUS:: Know your place.

ROBESON:: Can I read my statement now?

CHORUS:: No! The meeting is now adjourned!

ROBESON:: It should be.

CHORUS:: Know your place.

SCENE 4: Apotheosis

ROBESON:: It’s all about power.
They took away my stage
Tried to muzzle me and cut me short,
(I know I’ve been changed.)
But silence doesn’t suit me, I know.
(The angels in heaven done signed my name.)
Power is what it’s all about.
I couldn’t sing, but I could react,
Here I Stand -- and will forever stand;
for liberty and justice we must act..
(I know I’ve been changed)
I know I’ve been changed.
I know I’ve been changed.
I know I’ve been changed.

ROBESON AND CHORUS:: The angels in heaven done signed my name.

ROBESON:: If you don’t believe I’ve been redeemed

ROBESON and CHORUS:: The angels in heaven done signed my name.

ROBESON:: Well, if you follow me down to that ol’ Jordon stream.

ROBESON AND CHORUS:: The angels in heaven done signed my name.
I know I’ve been changed.
I know I’ve been changed good lord,
I know I’ve been changed.
The angels in heaven done signed my name.

ROBESON:: The angels in heaven done signed my name, sing it with me…

CHORUS AND AUDIENCE:: The angels in heaven done signed my name. (X6)

ROBESON:: The angels in heaven done signed my name.

END

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Arts & Wellbeing
Ask a Scientist: Explore connections between music and science.

: A: Most of us have probably had the experience of hearing music that suddenly triggers a memory. For example, a snippet of your favorite song from high school could prompt a vivid image of driving around your hometown on a hot summer night with your friends, singing along to the radio with the windows open. This seems almost effortless at times—it may be a song you haven’t heard or a memory you haven’t thought about in years, but it all comes flooding back with just a few notes.

Research on the connections between music and memories—these types of memories are what researchers refer to as “autobiographical memories”—is in fairly early stages. We’ve realized music-evoked memories are more detailed, vivid, and emotional than memories evoked by images, words, TV shows, or food. Music has also been shown to be effective at triggering memories in people with dementia, including individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

While we are still trying to figure out the how and why, one idea is that music can be a highly emotional cue and emotions can facilitate memory retrieval. Music is also usually present at emotional moments in our lives, which are in turn likely to be stored in our memory. There is still much work left to be done, but I guess we’ll put on a good record and get started.

–Dr. Amy Belfi, Associate Professor of Psychological Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology

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Program

Eugene Rogers, conductor
Morris Robinson, bass-baritone
The Washington Chorus
- Eugene Rogers, Artistic Director

Jessie Montgomery
(b. 1981): Banner for solo string quartet and chamber orchestra (8’)

Aaron Copland
(1900–1990)

Old American Songs (6’)

Zion's Walls
Simple Gifts
At the River
Morris Robinson, bass-baritone

Aaron Copland
(1900–1990)

Suite from Billy the Kid (21’)

Introduction: The Open Prairie
Street in a Frontier Town
Mexican Dance and Finale
Prairie Night (Card Game)
Gun Battle
Celebration (After Billy's Capture)
Billy's Death
The Open Prairie Again

Intermission

Carlos Simon
(b. 1986)
Libretto by Dan Harder: Here I Stand: Paul Robeson**
^{(NSO Co-Commission)}(30’)

+ Artist’s NSO classical debut at KC
** First performance by the NSO

Thank you for supporting the Kennedy Center’s efforts to reduce paper. For a full program, scan this QR code. We also ask that you please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. Thank you!

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Echoes of America

Echoes of America

Sat. Sep. 14, 2024 8p.m.

Program

Season Sponsors

The NSO Music Director Chair is generously endowed by Roger Sant and Congresswoman Doris Matsui

Noseda Era Fund Supporters

Terms and Conditions

Meet the Artists

Meet the Composers

Program Notes

Banner

Selections from Old American Songs

Suite from Billy the Kid

Here I Stand: Paul Robeson

Libretto by Dan Harder

SCENE 1: LAST TOUR, 1960–1961

SCENE 2: Our Tallest Tree, 1920–1950

SCENE 3: I Am Here Because…, 1950s

SCENE 4: Apotheosis

Staff

Staff for the National Symphony Orchestra

Executive Team

Artistic

Community Engagement

Development

Education

Human Resources

Marketing & Advertising

Orchestra Operations & Concert Production

Public Relations

Kennedy Center Executive Leadership

Staff for the Concert Hall

Arts & Wellbeing Ask a Scientist: Explore connections between music and science.

Thank You to Kennedy Center Supporters

Program

Arts & Wellbeing
Ask a Scientist: Explore connections between music and science.