Notes for: July 28, 2015
Michael White has been a faculty member at Juilliard for the past 36 years. He joined the College Division in 1979 to teach music theory and analysis, and served for ten years as chair of the Department of Literature and Materials of Music. In 1991 he moved to the Evening Division where he now teaches music history and appreciation to the general public.
White has composed in virtually every medium, with an emphasis on vocal works. His output includes three operas and a large number of chamber works, song cycles, and a Concerto for Viola. For his music he has received three Ford Foundation Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, grants from the Soros and Fels Foundations, the Arts Councils of New York and Pennsylvania and UNESCO.
Born in Chicago to a prominent Jewish family, he has had a lifelong interest in Jewish music. His second opera, in fact, was The Dybbuk, based on a traditional Yiddish folk tale about a sinner whose soul transmigrates into the body of a living person.
As a late-in-life expression of that interest, he composed this piece for violin, viola and cello in 2012 for the Gesher Music Festival of Jewish music in Saint Louis. The work is based on six traditional Jewish songs. “Songs of My People,” he wrote for the occasion, “celebrates the beautiful music of the Jewish people written over the last 600 years. Each song represents a specific period. I have taken these melodies and added harmony, texture, and color, in order to bring this music back to life.”
For this concert, White has provided the following additional note:
My Russian/Jewish grandparents taught me everything I know about the Jewish religion and history. This work is dedicated to their memory - with much love and admiration.
In their long history, the Jewish people have always expressed their deepest emotions through music. At times exciting and joyous, at other times mournful and tragic, their music has always been intense and passionate. In this work I have attempted to identify several different eras of Jewish life in which the music was particularly evocative of that historical period.
“Chassidic Nigun”: An example from the ghettos of 18th century Poland. A nigun is an improvised song, a passionate outburst sung probably by a Talmudic scholar in praise of God.
“Jerusalem of Gold”: A well-known Israeli song composed by a young girl in the early days of the new State of Israel. The lyrics speak of both the beauty and the holiness of this ancient city.
“Durme, Durme”: “Sleep, sleep, my darling child” is a lullaby in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect, and was composed in the Sephardic period, probably in 15th century Spain. This era produced some of the most beautiful music and art of any period in Jewish history. One of the fascinating aspects of this music was that it contained both Spanish and Jewish influences in equal measure. The period came to a tragic end with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
“Circle Dance”: This dance, or “Hora”, comes from modern Israel where groups of young men and women came to celebrate a new (and ancient) home, freedom, at the end of the Holocaust and World War II. Now the national dance of Israel, the hora begins slowly and then builds up tremendous momentum and excitement.
“Ani M’A Amin (I Believe)”: A song that was sung by the Jews as they were led to the gas chambers in Auschwitz during the days of the Holocaust. The words express not sorrow or pain, but rather a deep belief in a God that would be their salvation.
“Children’s Marching Game”: The Sephardic period (15th century) created a “life-cycle” of poetry and music which included lullabies, work songs, love songs, funeral dirges and many other genres. This last song probably accompanied young children as they marched from room to room, playing on their toy drums.