Folk Songs (2020)

Duration: 17:00 minutes

Instrumentation: solo piano

$10.00

Premiere: November 19, 2020 by Michael Ippolito at Texas State University Performing Arts Center Recital Hall (livestream)

Folk music has played an important part in my musical life for many years, but I found myself turning to familiar folk songs in a new and specific way during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuck at home, with tremendous anxiety and uncertainty about the future, I found myself wanting to compose, to feel productive or at least to take my mind off everything by working. I found I didn’t have the mental clarity or focus to be able to write anything new, but what did keeping coming to mind were various songs I learned and played over the years. Each song reminded me of a specific time and place, and the person who taught it to me. Maybe the social isolation had something to do with it, or a longing for a time before all this mess, but as I played these songs, I found myself responding, as if in conversation, adding variations ranging from subtle to more unusual or abstract. These began as private improvisations, then a few became compositions written for no one but myself (my own musical memories), but as I lived with them, I gradually began to think of them as something to share with others. I chose three songs which seemed the most complete: a Macedonian song I learned in Cincinnati (the first piece I learned on the accordion), a Jewish song I learned in Weimar, and a waltz I learned while playing in a Klezmer band in Minneapolis. I rounded out the set with a transcription of my wind ensemble piece, Cuckoo Variations, which is based on a British/American folk song sung by Jeanne Ritchie.

Notes:

     Folk music has played an important part in my musical life for many years, but I found myself turning to familiar folk songs in a new and specific way during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuck at home, with tremendous anxiety and uncertainty about the future, I found myself wanting to compose, to feel productive or at least to take my mind off everything by working. I found I didn’t have the mental clarity or focus to be able to write anything new, but what did keeping coming to mind were various songs I learned and played over the years. Each song reminded me of a specific time and place, and the person who taught it to me. Maybe the social isolation had something to do with it, or a longing for a time before all this mess, but as I played these songs, I found myself responding, as if in conversation, adding variations ranging from subtle to more unusual or abstract. These began as private improvisations, then a few became compositions written for no one but myself (my own musical memories), but as I lived with them, I gradually began to think of them as something to share with others. I chose three songs which seemed the most complete: a Macedonian song I learned in Cincinnati (the first piece I learned on the accordion), a Jewish song I learned in Weimar, and a waltz I learned while playing in a Klezmer band in Minneapolis. I rounded out the set with a transcription of my wind ensemble piece, Cuckoo Variations, which is based on a British/American folk song sung by Jeanne Ritchie.