Sunday, April 10, 2005
By Dr. Steven Romano Mento

Montclair State University. Janet Somers (flute), with Dmitri Korneev (piano) and Koren Cowgill (mezzo-soprano). All-New Jersey composers. A.Louis Scarmolin: Sonatina (1952); John Sichel: Ballade (1994); Randall Svane: Sonata (2003); Patrick Valentino: Sonata583 (2003); Paul Somers: New Jersey Camp Meeting: a Bloomfield Sabbath (2004); Cowgill: The Dance (2005). McEachern Recital Hall, MSU, Montclair.

The graduate flute recital of Janet Somers at McEachern Recital Hall at Montclair State University on April 10 was anything but what you might expect. The intimate hall is perfect for chamber music, and this was an intimate gathering of New Jersey composers as an audience of the listening elite, all seated while their works were bravely programmed and masterfully performed by Mrs. Somers and a brilliant piano accompanist, Dmitri Korneev. Five of the six works on the program were written by composers who were present at this event. In addition, four other New Jersey composers attended [Robert Aldridge, David Sampson, Trent Johnson, and Dr. Mento - ed.] thus becoming part of an important historical New Jersey event with the added irony of there being too small a turn-out to truly celebrate our important though marginalized sector of modern society.

The first work by Anthony Scarmolin (1890-1969, Union City) was a three movement Sonatina which opened on a *tonicized E modal/minor with unprepared *modulations to E-flat, C minor and many more keys. The flute outlined shapes through lyric and active upward leaps and scales which displayed Somers' virtuoso technique. The second movement opened with some nicely voiced chords in free tonality shadowed by somber minor triads over which a beautifully singing flute gave purpose and expression to the line. The Vivace contained a walking bass below interesting piano figuration which was a foil to the lively and well written flute narrative.

The Ballade of John Sichel (Mountainside) begins with stepwise lines that burst into disjunct leaps of fourths and sevenths while the piano outlines movement such as consecutive downward thirds in an underpinning of gloom. The program notes explain: "The Ballade begins with a somber and antique sounding preamble. There follows a sinuous allegro punctuated by impudent fanfares and mysterious chords. The allegro eventually gives way to a languid melody in the bass of the piano heard against arpeggiated chords in the flute, and then the succession of disparate elements works its way backwards to a dark ending."

Randall Svane's Flute Sonata was well written for both flute and piano, with colorful flute phrases and idiomatic piano figurations. The slow and rather dark opening movement presented a liquid pool of motifs. The next movement, "fast and agitated," built chords hinging on voice leading, yet taking one to surprising places. Often a melody line in the piano was fleshed out by ornamentation underneath, creating two or more lines out of one. The next was another slow movement, this one opening around "A" and flirting with "C" but going to D major and F-sharp minor. The last movement was a spirited dialogue between flute and piano, with effective flourishes in the upper register of the piano. The piano responded supportively and sympathetically, but was occasionally biting and provocative.

The next work was for solo flute, Sonata583 by Patrick Valentino. Forlorn calls stop and start, then quicken and intensify. Then the work returns to the broader lengths of the opening, all of it offering glimpses of tonality within an *atonal base. The work overcame the obstacle of writing for a single line through drama and imaginative use of some *multiphonic effects.

Paul Somers paid a double homage to composers Charles Ives and William Bradbury in his premiere, New Jersey Camp Meeting: A Bloomfield Sabbath. As his notes explained, the piece "uses as its material severral hymn-tunes by the famous 19th century chhoral composer William Bradbury, who lived in Montclair. He is buried in Bloomfield only a few blocks from the Presbyterian Chuirch on the Green, where charles Ives held his first organist position after graduating from Yale. ives certainly knew Bradbury's very popular hymntunes (Jesus Loves Me, Sweet Hour of Prayer, Jesus Like a Shepherd Lead Us, and many more),m which were used in churches and camp meetings all around New Jersey. So this work is a double homage to the two composers and to Somers' childhood memories of Ocean Grove Camp Meeting."

This is a fresh and complex work that uses several hymn tunes, often with ethereal crystalline figures in the upper register of the piano just under the melody, while the flute is playing an entirely different melody. After listening to this marvelous modern variation of the Ives effect comes a clear break in character with a change to the piccolo flute in the middle of the piece with a different Bradbury hymn tune. Upon the return of the performer to the flute, the piano resumes with upper register sound clusters in bitonal settings of Bradbury hymns for flute and piano.

The other premiere composed for this recital was Koren Cowgill's "The Dance" written on poems by William Carlos Williams, and sung by the composer, a mezzo-soprano, with flute and piano. "The Storm"was bold and colorful, with
dissonant parallelism between voice and flute over driven piano writing. "To Waken an Old Lady" wove dark meandering harmonies evoking wanderlust and pungent madness. "Trees" grinds a morbid *ground in the bass of the piano. This underlies an expressive vocal tale, but it occasionally seems a little too close to the piano writing and squares it's motion, which may have been the point. In "Arrival" pregnant repeated Bs in the piano support a lithe "spoken" sounding vocal line that announces the "arrival". Finally, "The Dance," which opens with the words "In Breugel's great picture, O The Kermesse,'" immediately brings a smile to meet this frolic in humor and absurdity through sound and syntax. This was among the most adventurous romps of the afternoon.

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This review was unsolicited. We would not usually include a review featuring the editor's wife and his own music. But we run this because Dr. Mento has given his technical description of the works as he perceived them at first hearing.

 

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