Charles H Ruggiero

Viola

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble, Boppish Blue Tinged, 2010 (Ruggiero Publishing Company)
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble, Boppish Blue Tinged, 2010 (Ruggiero Publishing Company)
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Instrumentation: One player per part: Fl, Ob, Bb Cl, T Sax (doubling Sop Sax), Bsn, Hrn, C Tpt, Trb, Tuba, Perc, Pn (doubling Cel), Harp, A Sax, Vln 1, Vln 2, Vla, Vlc, DB, Cond

Duration: ca. 19-20 min.

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Large Chamber Ensemble - Boppish Blue Tinged (2009)

Dedicated to Joseph Lulloff and Raphael Jimenez

Program Notes

Boppish Blue Tinged

The title of this concerto, Boppish Blue Tinged, is meant to be suggestive rather than unambiguously descriptive. Tinged refers, in part, to trace influences from jazz and other twentieth-century American musical genres that may be heard throughout the concerto, but especially in the first movement. One of my goals for the chaconne-like opening movement is to create variable textures and composite rhythms that suggest some of those created by the inspired improvised interplay of the great jazz combos (like the piano-bass-drum trios lead by Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, etc., and the quartets and quintets of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Gary Burton, and so many others.), but its not my intention for much of this composition to sound like traditional jazz or any other familiar style of music.

Although its not based on a blues form or harmonic progression, I hope the second movement, Blue, conveys the kinds of emotional meanings that often are such an important part of blues performances. If the attitude of the first movement morphs from something like confident energy to menacing force, then the blue mood of the second movement might be thought of as sorrowful or soulful or, perhaps more accurately, seeking solace and enlightenmentbut such linguistic translations of musical phenomena, I feel, always must be taken with a grain of salt.

Boppish, the last movement, like much of the music of the tragically self-destructive Charlie Parker and other troubled bebop masters, is intended to be infectiously animated and life affirming. Although little melodic or rhythmic material is shared among the different movements of Boppish Blue Tinged, and each movement is more-or-less complete in itself, the third movement is, nevertheless, intimately connected with the music and emotions of the previous two movements of the concerto. All three movements, in fact, are based on the same fundamental musical foundations and form a three-movement emotional arch.

To suggest some of the emotional meanings (a vague choice of words, to be sure) of this concerto, I have fashioned several questions for each movement.

Tinged: Tinged with what? Why does desire often lead to pain? Why do vitality and power sometimes overwhelm our better selves? Is the purpose of certain truth too often intolerance?

Blue: When and why do weeping for joy and weeping to wash away our pain meet?

Boppish: Why boppish? Why not the march or the hip-hop beat? Where (to what spiritual dimension or level of enlightenment) does the Parker train lead us? (March 3, 2010)

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard, for large chamber ensemble (17 players), 2009
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard, for large chamber ensemble (17 players), 2009
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Instrumentation: One player per part: Fl (doubling Picc), Ob, Bb Cl (doubling B Cl), A Sax (doubling Bari Sax), Bsn, Hrn, C Tpt, Trb, Tuba, Perc, Pn (doubling Cel), Harp, Vln 1, Vln 2, Vla, Vlc, DB, cond

Duration: ca. 25:00 min.

Dig 2: From Tunes My Grandmother Heard (2009)

Dedicated to Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie (1893-1972)
Program Notes

Why, you might ask, would a serious composer writing in 2008 choose to base a new composition on American popular music from the period of 1902 to 1918? There are several reasons I've done this. First, this composition, Dig 2, is part of an ongoing project that began with my trio, Collage-1912, and continued with my saxophone quartet, Dig, in which I explore the relationships between twin interests of mine, arranging and composing. Each of these three compositions (which, with equal validity, could be thought of as elaborate and fanciful arrangements) includes borrowed material that is presented in a more-or-less straightforward manner (i.e., arranged for a particular instrumental ensemble) but also transformed, in some cases so radically that connections with the source material are very much obscured. The process of moving from arrangement to composition (and back) in these works fascinates me.

Another reason Ive used popular songs and instrumental pieces from the first two decades in Dig 2 is that this music provides a means (or so I believe) to connect and explore in my work two vast bodies of musical literature that I very much admire: music of some early 20th-century avant-garde composers (Debussy, Ives, Ravel, Stravinsky, and others) and the jazz of the first half of the same century, much of which borrowed heavily both from early 20th-century popular music and contemporaneous European art music.

Finally, I simply like much of the American popular music of the first few decades of the 20th century, and developing compositional projects that involve this literature gives me a good excuse to study it, play it, and play with it.

The Movements

Each movement of Dig 2 is based almost entirely on two songs or instrumental pieces (Dig 2 could be described as an "entertainment in four double arrangements"), and each movement is dedicated to one or more individuals or groups. Any printed programs distributed for performances of Dig 2 should include the movement titles; the titles, dates, and composers names of the source compositions for each movement; and, the dedications for both the entire composition and each movement.

Movement 1: Afterthoughts and Reminiscences

Based on Somebody Sole My Gal (1918) by Leo Wood and After Youve Gone (1918) by (Henry) Creamer & (Turner) Layton

Dedicated to Charles Ives, Creamer & Layton, and Gil Evans

Duration: ca. 4:10

Movement 2: Set to Rag

Based on Tiger Rag (1917?) attributed to Nick La Rocca and Alexanders Ragtime Band (1911) by Irving Berlin

Dedicated to Michigan State Universitys Musique 21 Ensemble

Duration: ca. 4:40

Movement 3: Melancholia

Based on Poor Butterfly by Raymond Hubbell (1916 and My Melancholy Baby (1912) by Ernie Burnett

Dedicated to Dr. Andreas Sidiropoulos

Duration: ca. 3:50

Movement 4: Thank You, Mr. Handy

Based on The St. Louis Blues by W(illiam) C(hristopher) Handy (1914) and The Memphis Blues by W. C. Handy (1909, 1912 & 1913)

Dedicated to Professor Raphael Jimenez

Duration: ca. 6:25

Duration of the Entire Composition: ca. 20 minutes

About Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie

Few people have had a greater influence on my development than my maternal grandmother, Susan Richardson Cook Wyllie (1893-1972). For much of my childhood, Grandma Wyllie lived with my family in Fairfield, Connecticut, near where she, my mother, and I were born and raised. For many years, while she was living with us, I thought of my grandmother as a unique combination of grandma, second mother, teacher, babysitter, playmate, and co-conspirator (when my parents werent home, we often broke the house rules together).

Grandma Wyllie was one of the sharpest persons Ive ever met; she was resourceful, energetic, quick-witted, and full of basic wisdom. Although she was forced to leave elementary school at an early age, never to return, she did eventually teach herself how to read (as an adult, reading was something she enjoyed doing), but throughout her life, Grandma Wyllie regretted her lack of formal education and was self-conscious about not being able to write much more than her name.

Both of Grandma Wyllies parents came to America from Scotland, and despite being born in Connecticut, my grandmothers speech would often slip into a distinctly Scottish brogue, especially when she would get excited about something (which was often). Her mother, Margaret Richardson, died in childbirth when my grandmother was only two years old. After that, Grandma Wyllies childhood was traumatic. Her coal-miner father, Charles Cook, apparently an alcoholic, was not able to provide for his large family, some 13 children (I dont think there ever have been any coal mines in Connecticut!), and the family decided that my grandmother would have to leave school after the third grade, to work. By the age of 10, Grandma Wyllie found herself working in a soap factory from six AM to six PM, six days a week, earning literally pennies a day. These early years certainly took their toll on her, but Grandma Wyllie wasnt a fundamentally dour or bitter person; to the contrary, she often was a fun-loving ball-of-fire, at least she seemed so to me at times.

Grandma Wyllie had no musical training, but she loved to sing, especially when she was young, and she claimed to have had a very good voice and to have performed in church-sponsored operettas when she was a young woman. At dances and parties that she attended when she was a teenager and young adult, surely she would have heard many of the pieces that this composition, Dig 2, is based on.

I think one of the reasons I fell in love with my wife, Pat, is that she got along so well with my grandmother and even shares some of her qualities and mannerisms. In honor of my grandmother, my wife and I named two of our four children after her, Charles Cook Ruggiero and Susan Elizabeth Ruggiero.

Intimate Recollections, for violin, viola, cello, and piano, 2008
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Intimate Recollections, for violin, viola, cello, and piano, 2008
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Instrumentation: Vln, Vla, Vlc, Pn

Duration: ca. 12:00 min.

INTIMATE RECOLLECTIONS was commissioned by the Atlantic Ensemble and is dedicated to its members: Wei Tsun Chang, Violin; Seanad Dunigan Chang, Viola; Kirsten Cassel, Cello; and, Leah Bowes, Piano
* * *
Intimate Recollections (2008)

Program Notes

In 2005, the Atlantic Ensembles leader, violinist Wei Tsun Chang, invited me to compose a quartet for the Ensemble. Although in 2005 I had not yet heard the Atlantic Ensemble, I was delighted to accept this commission, knowing that Wei Tsun is an exceptionally talented and accomplished performer who seems to have an ear for my music, based on his response to a work I composed for the Verdehr Trio, Collage-1912. Walter Verdehr, a co-founder of the Verdehr Trio, was Wei Tsuns violin teacher at Michigan State University.

* * *

Intimate Recollections is a very personal and intensely felt work. The title is meant to be suggestive and somewhat vague. Recollections of what? Although the music of Intimate Recollections is quite varied in mood and style, with some passages that must be performed with great emotional intensity and others that are lighter (even playful) in nature, this work is essentially serious and reflective. Parts of Intimate Recollections are meant to have qualities that might be described as nostalgic, sorrowful, and even emotionally wrenched. In experiencing a performance of this composition, I hope the listener will sense that the intimate recollections explored in this work (and which, ideally, the listener will partially construct and experience for him- or herself) are renewed and made more vivid through this music. Musical recollections (or hints of Western art music from earlier centuries) are pervasive in Intimate Recollections, but no specific composition is quoted in this quartetat least not consciously!

Charles Ruggiero September 18, 2008

Blues, Time, Changes, for bassoon and string quartet, 1999
Instrumentation, Program Notes

Blues, Time, Changes, for bassoon and string quartet, 1999
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Instrumentation: Bsn, 2 Vln, Vla, Vlc, cond (optional)

Duration: ca. 15:00 min.

Blues, Time, Changes - for Bassoon and String Quartet (1999)

Blues, Time, Changes is the second in a projected series of compositions based substantially on blues (more precisely, blues elements as they are manifested in jazz). The first work in this series, Three Blues for Saxophone Quartet (written in 1981), inhabits a large niche in my compositional output where stylistic labels don't stick well. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle about a 1985 performance of the quartet, Robert Commanday opined:

Three Blues for Saxophone Quartet by Charles Ruggiero was something of a misnomer; only the third piece really exploits blues ideas. No matter, it's a pleasing set, . . .

Chances are that Blues, Time, Changes will be received with similar bafflement in some quarters, frustrating both blues purists and concertgoers intent upon finding apt musicological catch phrases to stick to the composition. Some may feel that Blues, Time, Changes is, like my saxophone quartet, stylistically adrift. The hard-core jazz fan might think Blues, Time, Changes is too complex, too dissonant, too diverse, too contrived, etc. to be a "true" blues or jazz composition, while the aficionado of advanced "art music" might consider Blues, Time, Changes to be too simple, too tonal, too conventionally shaped, too straightforward to be a "serious" work. To put it succinctly: Blues, Time, Changes may be too much like a simple blues for some, and not enough like an authentic blues for others.

Aware as I am of the potential pitfalls of writing a piece that might be called a "misnomer," I'm willing to risk it, especially if I can offer up a "pleasing set." Jazz and blues music, especially the latter, are pervasive in twentieth-century world culture. Few musical genres of any time have found such wide and enthusiastic acceptance around the globe as blues. Live and recorded blues performances, by such masterful artists as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and countless other talented singers and instrumentalists, as well as blues pieces by such distinctive composers as W. C. Handy, Maurice Ravel, Duke Ellington, Samuel Barber, and Thelonious Monk (not to mention the tens of thousands of blues tunes written by waves of rural blues, R&B, soul, pop, etc. writers over the decades), have had a constant presence in American culture throughout the twentieth century. One consequence of this is that probably most people raised in North America in this century (and many people from other parts of the world) have some seemingly innate feeling for blues.

I believe that nearly every American, trained in music or not (including those who are disdainful of blues styles), can hear (perceive) certain aspects of blues music. It is as a common thread in an otherwise disjointed musical culture, that blues music interests me. In Blues, Time, Changes I rely upon the listener's familiarity with blues to build moderately complex structures that, it is hoped, are subtly expressive and relatively accessible (not dirty words, in my lexicon).

The title Blues, Time, Changes is intended to be suggestive. The three words, of course, have common meanings and uses that I hope will have relevance to someone trying to develop an understanding of aspects of my composition. For instance, one connotation of the ordering of these three words is that a blues form (involving varied repetitions of a harmonic progression) might change over time during the piece. That is, certain blues materials (including rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic elements) might be transformed as the composition unfolds. Another connotation of the title suggests that listening to blues music, including this piece, might be capable of having an effect on one's perception of time in interesting ways-a matter for speculation.

In addition to their common meanings, blues, time, and changes each has a fairly well-defined technical meaning (or set of meanings) for a jazz musician. Blues (or the blues) often refers to standardized forms and harmonic progressions used by jazz musicians as bases for improvisation. And the term has other meanings-blue note, for example, is a phrase used by many jazz musicians to refer to special tones and certain pitches that fall outside the standard equal temperament of Western classical music.

Time, an elusive jazz term, refers to the unique rhythmic framework of a jazz performance, including such interrelated variables as meter, tempo, rhythmic vocabulary, swing, etc. In Blues, Time, Changes, which is in one continuous movement, each of the two main sections of the piece is delineated primarily by its distinct embodiment of time, or, in jazz parlance, by its own time feel.

To a jazz musician, changes refers to the progression of chords upon which a jazz performance or arrangement is based. These chords often are taken from a popular song and typically change at the pace of one or two chords per measure. In Blues, Time, Changes two fundamental, though often obscured, sets of changes are essential in creating the architectonics and formal processes of the composition.

Blues, Time, Changes was composed for bassoonist Barry Stees, my talented colleague at Michigan State University; it was written during the summers of 1998 and 1999. (2000)

Compositions and Arrangements