{"id":85341,"date":"2023-04-17T14:47:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=85341"},"modified":"2023-04-17T14:47:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:47:10","slug":"uri-symphony-orchestra-concert-to-feature-overture-by-underperformed-19th-century-composer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/uri-symphony-orchestra-concert-to-feature-overture-by-underperformed-19th-century-composer\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra concert to feature overture by underperformed 19th-century composer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 17, 2023 \u2013 If you haven\u2019t heard of 19th<\/sup>century, German composer Emilie Mayer, you\u2019re probably not alone. While her work was popular in her time, it\u2019s pretty obscure today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But thanks to a special project, the 溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra will play Mayer\u2019s 1850 Overture No. 3 in C major \u2013 alongside standards by Mozart and Copland \u2013 at its concert Saturday, April 22, at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organized by music professor Vilde Aaslid and orchestra director Sam Hollister with the help of music students Caleb Hilyard, Megan Rees and Chloe Lovell, the project not only champions underperformed music by a great composer but also creates an edition of the piece that other orchestras can access online and perform for free. (The project was funded by a grant from the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Emilie Mayer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuch of this unsung music is still either in manuscript form only or, if it has been published, is only available for a steep rental or purchase charge,\u201d said Hollister, who is dedicated to uncovering, performing and creating new editions of works by great composers who often have been ignored. \u201cThe mission with projects such as this is to bring a public-domain publication of these pieces into the performance sphere so anyone can download the sheet music and perform it for free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaslid became aware of Emilie Mayer\u2019s work while searching for symphonies by female composers for a class. \u201cI\u2019d never heard of her,\u201d said Aaslid, who will give a talk on Mayer before the concert. \u201cThe students listened to one of her symphonies and absolutely fell head over heels in love with the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayer (1812-1883) began serious compositional study relatively late in life but she still was a prolific composer, writing at least seven overtures, numerous chamber works and a staggering eight symphonies. At the time in the 19th century, symphonic composition was a man\u2019s world, Aaslid says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A page of Emilie Mayer\u2019s 1850 Overture No. 3 in C major.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the exception of Louise Farrenc, most women composers of the time \u2013 such as Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Schumann \u2013 didn\u2019t really write symphonies,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was thought of as the ultimate masculine genre. But right from the start, Mayer\u2019s orchestral works were celebrated by critics. As a woman who never married and who could support herself with an inheritance she had some freedoms in her life that allowed her to focus on composition, especially for the orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her life, Mayer\u2019s work was very popular with critics and audiences, but publication was harder to come by. She sent out her manuscripts to conductors to advocate for their performance. \u201cWhen she died, there was no one left to champion her work,\u201d Aaslid said. \u201cIt fell into obscurity pretty soon after she died.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 20 years, there\u2019s been increased interest in Mayer and her work has started to get published. But the cost of the published editions is prohibitive, Aaslid says. Thankfully, the Berlin State Library holds the bulk of her manuscripts, which are available for download.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That presented a different problem. An 1850s manuscript is not ready for prime time.  \u201cYou can\u2019t really perform from a manuscript,\u201d said Aaslid. \u201cIt\u2019s not practical. It\u2019s hard to read. It\u2019s messy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter Hilyard, Rees and Lovell. Aaslid and Hollister turned to them to take the digitized manuscript of Overture No. 3 in C major and enter it \u2013 note by note \u2013 into music notation software to produce a score the 溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra could perform. It\u2019s a painstaking process, Aaslid says, where the students had to enter every single dynamic marking, slur, and articulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilyard transcribed the first third of the 10-minute overture into the software, which provides a computerized playback. He says the process actually went a little faster than he expected. While he found Mayer\u2019s handwriting neat and detailed, he had to figure out a couple of missing notes and faint pencil marks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was lucky to engrave the first third of the overture,\u201d said Hilyard \u201923, a music education major who lives in Portsmouth. \u201cIt\u2019s great music and like any good Romantic overture, there\u2019s a sense of anticipation for what\u2019s coming next. This really encouraged me to work on it as I couldn\u2019t leave off on a cliffhanger!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rees \u201924 found the process a little more time consuming, including deciphering Mayer\u2019s handwriting and determining her intentions at times. But Rees says the project is one of the \u201cmost amazing things\u201d she\u2019s done. \u201cMultiple times when hearing the overture, I have been brought to tears by how beautiful the music is.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall my biggest takeaway is that there are so many compositions out there from the Classical and Romantic eras that have not been published or accessible simply because of the composer\u2019s race or gender,\u201d added Rees, a music education major from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. \u201cThis piece is incredibly thought out in terms of form, harmony, and texture between instruments, so it is not a matter of skill as to why these works are not published.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovell, an exchange student from Cardiff University in Wales, says the project has shown her the importance of making female composer\u2019<\/del>s‘<\/ins> works available, while also giving her insight into the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a composition student, I was able to learn more about the writing for a big orchestral work,\u201d said Lovell, who\u2019s from the village Ystrad Mynach in South Wales. \u201cI have only written for small ensembles and although I listen to symphonic works, notating it from the manuscript really helped me to recognize how Emilie Mayer used different ideas and techniques to develop and create this piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollister, the orchestra conductor, praised the students for their work on the overture. The orchestra started practicing in early April to prepare for the April 22 concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been inspiring to hear how quickly the orchestra has picked up on the style and sound of the piece,\u201d Hollister said. \u201cIt\u2019s as if it were written for this group specifically. There\u2019s been much to polish but we will get there in no time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s finished work on the overture will eventually be uploaded to IMSLP.org<\/a>, the global hub for public domain sheet music sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concert \u2013 which includes the world premiere of Costa Rican composer Jose Mora-Jimenez\u2019s concerto for guitar and orchestra featuring 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate student Adrian Montero Moya<\/a> on guitar \u2013 starts at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. Aaslid\u2019s talk on the Emilie Mayer project starts at 7:15 p.m. Tickets \u2013 $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors \u2013 can be purchased on the event website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 17, 2023 \u2013 If you haven\u2019t heard of 19thcentury, German composer Emilie Mayer, you\u2019re probably not alone. While her work was popular in her time, it\u2019s pretty obscure today. But thanks to a special project, the 溏心vlog免费B站 Symphony Orchestra will play Mayer\u2019s 1850 Overture No. 3 in C […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85341"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85900,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85341\/revisions\/85900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}