Rebecca Hunter, violin
Lynn Kompass, piano

IN DULCET TONES by Jesse Jones

(world premiere performance)
Tanglewood Winds 
Karina Canellakis, conductor

Seiji Ozawa Hall, (Lenox, Massachusetts) 

So Eden Sank to Grief

Sonata: Movement II

Molly Barth, flute
Dieter Hennings, guitar

Jones: Sonata ii. Scherzoso

For solo viola & chamber orchestra
	I. Moderato—movendo  (starts at 0:00)
	II. Scherzoso—funky  (starts at 11:59)
	III. Larghissimo—molto lirico  (starts at 17:52)
	IV. Andantino—Jig—Finale   (starts at 23:40)

Kirsten Docter, solo viola
Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble
Tim Weiss, conductor

(Live Recording of the Premiere, Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin, OH)

PROGRAM NOTE:

I have been a mandolinist for nigh on twenty years, playing everything from bluegrass, folk, and roots music to solo Bach partitas and Mahler symphonies. Along the way, I have composed dozens of little fiddle tunes, quaint and simple melodies that seemed simply to fall as gifts from the instrument as I played it. Some of these tunes have been fleshed out and performed in the various bands/ensembles I’ve been in over the years. But most of them have only been heard or played in the comfort and privacy of my own living room. In fact, many have never been written down and exist only precariously in the muscle memory of my fingers. 

This concerto uses several of those original fiddle tunes, one or two per movement. I treated the tunes as source material and tried to employ them much as Bartok might have employed Hungarian or Macedonian folk songs into his own musical language: morphing the tunes’ melodic and rhythmic essence into something flexible and accepting of chromaticism. I found this compositional process rather refreshing, as working with full-fledged melodies is not something I have done much within the context of contemporary concert music. The result is a concerto that is basically a fiddle fantasy, only one written for a finer and fatter fiddle: the viola.

The first movement begins as a lethargic march, slowly filling out a large 25-beat cycle comprised only of major chords. These chords eventually solidify into a grounding passacaglia over which funkier fiddle gestures emerge. The second movement is an expansion of a tune called Jangled (searchable on Youtube), so named because it was written on an out-of-tune mandolin that somehow suggested a jazzy character. Levity is at its core, as is flagrant virtuosity. The third movement uses a lullaby I wrote eleven years ago for my all-time favorite violist, my daughter Lindsey Maretta. And finally, the sprightly fourth movement, which uses a simple-themed, quasi-Celtic jig to draw the whole thing to a close.

Many sincere thanks to Tim Weiss and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, to Bill Quillen and the Oberlin Conservatory, and most especially to Kirsten Docter who has worked so tirelessly to prepare and premiere this finger-buster of a piece. 

—Jesse Jones
  
(Premiered on 27 September 2019 in Warner Concert Hall)

VIOLA CONCERTO (2019), Op.68

THRESHOLD (fco)

Soprano Sharon Harms & pianist Daniel Anastasio perform Margaret. Seiji Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood) 2011.  

MARGARET

A duet for violin and viola performed by Tema Watstein (vln.) and Derek Mosloff (vla.) at Seiji Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood)

PROGRAM NOTE:
In recent years I have taken interest in different musical tuning systems, especially quartertone microtonality; this system consists of not only the twelve common pitches of western classical music, but also every pitch directly in between them.  About Tuning began as an exercise in understanding the quality of microtonal intervals, and developed into an exploration of the beautiful—though sometimes strident—harmonic atmospheres those intervals can create.  The result is a floating cloud of strangely tuned chords that take on their own identities, and which, over the course of the piece, begin to sound natural and “in tune.” 

—Jesse Jones    


Seesaws

for choir SATB a cappella. Performed by the Eastern Oregon University Chamber Choir, Peter Wordelman conducting 

Program Note

Molly Bahn is an ancient folk tale from the British Isles.  It revolves around a young hunter and his one true love, Molly Bahn.  The story and the original folk melody vary greatly from region to region, even in title.  However, a general narrative can be gathered from all of them.  It goes something like this: 

A young woman is walking in the forest, wearing a white shawl.  It begins to rain and she seeks shelter under a bush.  Her lover happens to be hunting in those same woods.  The young man sees Molly’s white shawl concealed behind the shrubbery, and, mistaking it for a swan, shoots.  His aim is true, and he is soon horrified to find his love dead, at his own hand.  

This tragic tale is told here by means of a composite text taken from among several original versions.  The melody is also an amalgam of many traditional versions, but is treated throughout with compositional and stylistic liberty.


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