Natalie Hinderas Plays Music by Black Composers

various artists compilation - Natalie Hinderas Plays Music by Black Composers

Natalie Hinderas - piano

Album statement:

Our black composers need no apology, no defense, no explanation, no patronising.

They need performance. They need to be programmed beside their fellow white composers from Bach to Berio. Hale Smith has said, "Place our music not on all-black programs. We can do that for ourselves, for the benefit of our own people. Place our work on programs with Beethoven, Mozart, Schoenberg, Copland and the current avant-gardists. We don't even have to be called black. When we stand for our bows, that fact will become clear when it should: After the work has made its own impact."

To this end this album is dedicated.

Liner notes by Natalie Hinderas:

R. Nathaniel Dett - In the Bottoms (A Characteristic Suite)

IN THE BOTTOMS is a Suite of five numbers giving pictures of moods or scenes peculiar to Negro life in the river bottoms of the Southern sections of North America. As it is quite possible to describe the traits, habits and customs of a people without using the vernacular, so it is similarly possible to musically portray racial peculiarities without the use of national tunes or folk-songs. "In the Bottoms", then, belongs to that class of music known as "Program music" or "music with a poetic basis."

Thomas H. Kerr, Jr. - Easter Monday Swagger

N: Can you write me a spiritual?

T: Like I can try, sister.

Did I do it?

This written dialogue was penned on the margin of the manuscript of the Scherzino. It was written over the Easter holiday, 1970 and the results justified the sacrifice of a holiday excursion.

Mr. Kerr's wit is again exhibited by another marginal note: A small filet of Soul."

If we put together an Easter Monday Swagger with a Scherzino effect, with Soul quality - I can answer Mr. Kerr's original question with an unqualified, "Yes."

William Grant Still - Three Visions

The piano pieces by Mr. Still, in contrast to the large orchestral works, are enveloped in an intimacy often associated with tone painters. A man whose facial features are delicate with an aura of gentleness, his compositions seem to reflect the nature of their creator.

John W. Work - Scuppernong

The Scuppernong is a river in South Carolina. This region supplied the ethnic flavor for which John Work diligently searched in order to authenticate the folk-sound of the Southern rural Negro.

George Walker - Piano Sonata No. 1

This Sonata was composed in 1953. The first movement is in sonata-allegro form. It makes use of quartal fragments harmonically and melodically. Considerable chromaticism produces a restless quality; but, sections are well-defined. The second movement is a theme and variations. The theme is based on a Kentucky folk song, "Oh Bury Me Beneath the Willow." The third movement has a rondo-like construction. The primary motive is essentially rhythmic and is characterized throughout the movement by octave transpositions. The first of the contrasting themes is also based on a folk song found in Carl Sandburg's "Songbag."

Arthur Cunningham - Engrams'

"I titled this piece "Engrams' " because the sounds are memory tracings. It has no time signature and was composed from a row in three forms ... original, retrograde and mirror of retrograde, and adjusted to please my ear. It progresses from the dark of my mind to the light of reality. It was written during the first week of July 1969."

Stephen A. Chambers - Sound-Gone (A Poetic-Philosophical Sketch)

"Atmospheres-of-sound floating above

and a round segments of

"moving-silence";

A burst of thunder here - another

moment of silence;

(now gone)

A jaunty-precision-like figure in a rapid

motion for a brief sketch;

(now gone)

A veil-like aura-of-sound,

mystifying in its layers

of introspective freedom

(now gone)

A "Sound-Gone" now com-

mences to move (from)

and then (towards) a

space-entity of other

Beings!!

(now gone is the Sound)

Hale Smith - Evocation

"The entire piece derives from the row exposed in the first stave, and in several places has faint but definite rhythmic affinities with jazz phrasing. This doesn't mean that it's supposed to swing - it isn't, but the affinities are there."

Olly Wilson - Piano Piece for Piano and Electronic Sound

The piano has sound capabilities which are being greatly extended today. Through the use of extra-musical devices placed on the strings, sound textures are changed from the normal timbre. It has been an unresolved debate as to whether the piano is basically a melodic or percussive instrument. The solution might be both, based on the produced sound rather than playing methods. Although the strings are struck by hammers, the sound-juxtapositions often are melodic. A pianist equipped with an assortment of touches can coax many types of sounds from the piano, ranging from the most flowing, singing line to a violent, jarring clang.

There are strange mutations of sound in electronic music. Its synthetic characteristic mingled with the diversified tones of the piano can create interesting counterpoint as well as a blend of the two mediums.

Olly Wilson's Piano Piece explores these capabilities with imagination.

The composer, in his performance notes, indicates carefully where keys are to be struck or played in clusters, where strings are to be plucked inside the piano with the fingernail and how the piano is to be prepared with the following items placed inside.

1. light weight wood ruler with metal edge

2. three 3" diameter metal rings (notebook type)

3. three metal protractors approximately 3 3/4" length

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. R. Nathaniel Dett - In the Bottoms {18:24}

a. Prelude, b. His Song, c. Honey, d. Barcarolle, e. Dance (Juba)

2. Thomas H. Kerr, Jr. - Easter Monday Swagger {4:30}

Side 2

1. William Grant Still - Three Visions {9:47}

1. Dark Horsemen, 2. Summerland, 3. Radiant Pinnacle

2. John W. Work - Scuppernong {7:36}

Side 3

1. George Walker - Sonata No. 1 {15:28}

2. Arthur Cunningham - Engrams' {5:58}

Side 4

1. Stephen A. Chambers - Sound-Gone {10:38}

2. Hale Smith - Evocation {3:08}

3. Olly Wilson - Piano Piece for Piano and Electronic Sounds {10:42}

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