Paulus Exotic Etudes
Stephen Paulus was born at Summit, NJ on 24 August 1949 and died in Arden Hills, MN on 19 October 2014. Exotic Etudes, scored for solo viola and piano quartet, was premiered on March 12, 2000 at the Tucson Chamber Music Festival with Cynthia Phelps as the featured soloist with a piano quartet consisting of Elissa Lee Koljonen, violin, Nicole Divall, viola, Peter Rejto, cello and Rick Rowley, piano. The work was a result of the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music Commissioner’s Circle Program with a commission sponsored by John and Helen Schaefer. Prior to writing the Exotic Etudes Paulus also wrote Seven for the Flowers Near the River, scored for viola and piano, with Phelps as the dedicatee. Stephen Paulus has been hailed as “…a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift.” (The New Yorker) His prolific output of more than two hundred works is represented in many genres, including music for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, solo voice, keyboard and opera. He has been commissioned to write works for some of the world’s great solo artists, including Thomas Hampson, Håkan Hagegård, Doc Severinsen, William Preucil, Cynthia Phelps, Evelyn Lear, Leo Kottke and Robert McDuffie. Chamber music commissions have resulted in works for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Friends of Music at the Supreme Court, the Cleveland Quartet and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. He has been a featured guest composer at the festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, and, in the U.K., the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals.
In a review of Stephen Paulus’ opera The Veil of Illusion, Bret Johnson spoke of how Paulus’ music succeeds because it insists on a close rapport between the composer and performer and therefore appeals to the audience as well:
During the lecture after the performance the composer spoke of the ever-closer relationship developing between composer and performers, which inevitably leads, he believes, to a more direct rapport between composer and audiences…. Paulus is in the vanguard of this movement in the USA, a composer who writes music abundantly, which is played all over his country and which is accepted as music within an expanding tradition, rather than in a state of permanent upheaval and revolution. He is a member of a platform of blossoming American talents [who] write music in a manner true to themselves. And it works.
These pieces were written as studies for the composer, although the idiomatic writing reveals the fact that Paulus had the performers in mind while writing as well. Each movement evokes a certain mood, and the choice of musical texture and pitch relations helps define the mood. The first movement, Energetic, features short motivic gestures, sharp articulations, stepwise chromatic motion and tonal ambiguity that keeps the listener on edge: what is the tonal center? Two keys are implied at the beginning by the two violists: C major and A minor. Although there are points within the movement where this tension is somewhat relieved, there is a constant presence of some sort of dissonance that really is not resolved until the end of the movement, when all of the players state one note, A, which finally resolves the question stated at the beginning of the movement and dissipates the energy that has pervaded the movement thus far.
The second movement, Dark and Austere, starts with the solo viola in the lower registered accompanied by the cello playing pizzicato an octave below, creating a stark mood and evoking a sound world reminiscent of Shostakovich. The movement starts in G minor and as each voice enters the music builds up to a climactic sad lament. The stark opening theme then returns, this time with an added lower octave in the left hand of the piano and a semitone lower than the opening, creating a sense that we have sunk even deeper into the darkness. Then hope arises as the piano plays a G major sonority and the strings rise out of the darkness. A tinge of sadness is found near the end as the piano states an A against the G major sonority, but the mood is still one of relief.
The piano creates the texture from the outset the third movement, Shimmering. Above the sheen of alternating fourths the solo viola enters with a soft melody riding atop the piano. The rest of the voices enter in response to a sweeping upward gesture in the solo viola and gradually work to redefine the texture in the piano. They succeed, and we then transition to a middle section which is marked secco (dry) in the piano and is characterized by heavier gestures in the strings, a contrast to the shimmering texture of the opening. The accompanying strings then enter into a dialogue with the solo viola; it is as if the solo viola is somewhat perturbed that the texture of the beginning has been taken away and wants it to return. The argument is resolved in the next section where the strings take up the sixteenth note texture although the prevailing intervalic relationship is that of a third instead of a fourth. The solo viola sings a new melody atop this texture bringing us to the next section of the movement where the violin and viola state the sixteenth note texture in fourths. The rest of the voices state new thematic material over this texture, and at the end of the movement a soft sustained chord gives us a final variation of how the composer can evoke a shimmering texture.
Paulus is well known for his vocal works, and the fourth movement, Melodious, is a testament to his strengths in this area. This movement is definitely the most tonal of the piece and begins in an Ab major sonority. The solo viola states a simple plaintive melody over an arpeggiated bass line in the piano and then the rest of the strings join in to augment the texture. As the movement progresses we move through a variety of keys gradually building up tension until we reach the final key area, Db major. In retrospect we find that the movement started on the dominant and the driving force that pulled us through the movement was a gradual journey towards this home key.
The final movement, Vibrant, brings the entire piece together by tying up some loose ends, especially the question of the tonality of the piece. Motivically it recalls materials from previous movements and treats them in this new mood. Mixed meters abound which helps keep both performers and listeners on the edge of their seats. More so than in any of the other movements there is a constant dialogue between the solo viola and the piano quartet. This movement can be divided into three sections clearly delineated by activity in the piano. The first section is very contrapuntal with all voices participating in a dialogue. The beginning of the second section of the piece is characterized by the piano constantly playing on beats one and two while the solo viola and strings participate in a dialogue. The piano briefly joins in on the conversation but then returns to stating chords. The final section occurs when the piano plays repeated As, driving home the fact that the piece is in some sort of A tonality. As the piece drives to its conclusion A major is implied, and finally at the end the ensemble states a loud A major chord.
-Program notes by Dr. Daniel Doña