Скачать или смотреть North American Ballads- I. "Dreadful Memories (After Aunt Molly Jackson)" by Fredric Rzewski

Grace Mauk's Graduate Recital
Eastern Michigan University
Pease Auditorium
March 16, 2017

Video/Sound Recording by Ian Chen
Program Notes by Grace Mauk

North American Ballads by Fredric Rzewski (1938- )

“Musicians and artists must listen to the sounds of struggle if they
are to contribute anything in the way of harmony.” -Fredric
Rzewski

Rzewski listened and responded to the cries of the impoverished
and imprisoned all over the world. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, he
was inspired by the universal social unrest to compose several
politically charged pieces including, The People United Will Never
Be Defeated, Coming Together, and North American Ballads. He
drew from many musical and historical sources to create vivid
imagery and powerful symbolism. In North American Ballads, his
1979 composition for solo piano, Rzewski used protest songs from
American history to create a set of pieces, recognizably American
and undeniably Leftist. Similar to Shostakovich, Ives, and Copland
who used folk material creatively in the classical genre, Rzewski
borrowed folk songs and incorporated them into a traditional
classical form. He used avant garde techniques and 20th century
harmony to express his personal ideological beliefs into the work.

Ballad I, “Dreadful Memories (After Aunt Molly Jackson)” is based
on an old religious hymn which later became a labor song Molly
Jackson wrote about a bitter strike in the coal mines of Kentucky.
Her family faced the oppression, poverty, and the inhuman
conditions of working in the coal mines. After the death of her son,
husband, and brother to mining accidents, Molly Jackson wrote the
text to “Dreadful Memories.” Rzewski was inspired by her grievous
lyrics to compose his arrangement in the North American Ballads.
Rzewski portrayed the disparity and atrocious working conditions
with the use of polytonal counterpoint, imitative fragmentation and
shifting meter. The piece opens with a simple melody and
accompaniment, but is quickly varied as if a lullaby suddenly
turned into a nightmare.