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Background
This is the first
such work that I have created specifically for web reception, and
thus it has had no previous live performance with 35-millimeter slides.
Like my first such work, Verlaine Variations, this one consists
of images that have been specifically designed to cross-fade with
each other at particular durations at specific junctures in the music.
Alexej Steinhardt was crucial to its success as a sequence or, as
I like to call it, choreography.
The musical work titled
Ostinato is from the Prelude, Ostinato, and Fugue for Piano by
Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994). The performance used here is that of
Peter Vinograde from the CD titled Nicolas Flagello (Albany,
NY: Albany Records, 1997).
The Music
Intended for solo
piano, Prelude, Ostinato, and Fugue was composed in 1960 and
is one of Flagellos first works in his mature compositional
style. Its title and thematic material, e.g., in the Ostinato, are
reminiscent of César Franck.
The Prelude begins
with a restless searching, then builds to a massive climax, and then
subsides. The Ostinato consists of a set of variations over an ascending
minor scale, which functions as a basso ostinato that appears in
several different keys. Beginning with a melancholy lyricism, it,
too, builds to a tempestuous climax. The Fugue is a propulsive piece
that subsumes contrapuntal intricacies within a vehicle for virtuoso
pianism. A three-voice exposition is followed by several developmental
episodes, culminating in a chordal augmentation of the subject, marked
furiosamente, that leads to a stunning coda.
The work was first
recorded in 1964 by Elizabeth Marshall. Subsequent recordings were
made by Joshua Pierce and Peter Vinograde, which were released in
1991 and 1997, respectively. Mr. Vinograde has become an active protagonist
for the work, performing it on recital programs all over the world.
Adapted from Walter
Simmons, Voices in the Wilderness: Six American Neo-Romantic
Composers (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004).
The Slides and Choreography
As I have said before,
the slides and their sequencing function like any choreography for
live dancersi.e., without the music, they would not be meaningful
and would have no independent existence.
There are twenty-one
slides in all, including the title slide. Autumnal scenes abound,
these photographed by me in Woodstock, Hurley, and Fleischmanns,
NY. The curious graveyard in slide 14 is part Hurley, part swampland
in Central Florida. The bell in slides 20 through22 is part of a
collection belonging to set designer Salvatore Tagliarino, who is
a Lark Ascending Board member. Among other photos of mine appearing
in the slides are a pair of horses, a cat, a leopard, and a duck
The dancers are from old photos in the New York Public Library Picture
Collection. The pianist, Peter Vinograde, is featured in slide 13,
thanks to photographer Susan Johann.
I must make special
mention of my photographs of four sculpted heads from old buildings
in the West 20s of Manhattan. These were the work of poor Italian
stone masons who came here in the early twentieth century and used
their wives, mothers, siblings, and children as models. I have photographed
these sculptures extensively and have used a number of them before,
in other slide choreographies, but it seemed especially appropriate
to use some of them in this work.
The compositing and
arrangement of slides was done by me in Photoshop 8. The sequencing
was done in Macromedias Flash MX-2004 by Alexej Steinhardt
with me assisting. But to him belongs the lions share of the
credit.
Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994)
Born in New York City,
Flagello grew up in a highly musical family that had deep roots in
Old-World tradition. He was composing and performing publicly as
a pianist before the age of ten. While still a youth, he began a
long and intensive apprenticeship with composer Vittorio Giannini,
who further imbued him with the enduring values of the European tradition.
His study continued at the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned
Bachelor's and Master's degrees; upon graduation, he joined the faculty.
In 1955, Flagello won a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Rome and
earned the Diploma di Studi Superiori the following year at the Accademia
di Santa Cecilia under the tutelage of Ildebrando Pizzetti.
During the years that
followed, Flagello composed at a prodigious rate, producing a body
of work that includes six operas, two symphonies, eight concertos,
and numerous orchestral, choral, chamber, and vocal works. He was
also active both as a pianist and conductor, making dozens of recordings
of a wide range of repertoire, from the baroque period to the twentieth
century. He died in 1994 at the age of 66 after a long, deteriorating
illness.
As a composer, Flagello
held with the view that music is a personal medium for emotional
and spiritual expression. His music is characterized by passionate
melodies, rich harmony, and driving rhythms, all integrated into
tightly woven musical forms.
Some Useful References
Simmons, Walter.
Voices in the Wilderness:
— Six American Neo-Romantic Composers.
— Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
http://www.Flagello.com
Nancy Bogen
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