Folk Songs (2020)
Duration: 17:00 minutes
Instrumentation: solo piano
Premiere: November 19, 2020 by Michael Ippolito at Texas State University Performing Arts Center Recital Hall (livestream)
Notes:
Folk music has played an important part in my musical life for many years, but I found myself turning to familiar folk songs in a new and specific way during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuck at home, with tremendous anxiety and uncertainty about the future, I found myself wanting to compose, to feel productive or at least to take my mind off everything by working. I found I didn’t have the mental clarity or focus to be able to write anything new, but what did keeping coming to mind were various songs I learned and played over the years. Each song reminded me of a specific time and place, and the person who taught it to me. Maybe the social isolation had something to do with it, or a longing for a time before all this mess, but as I played these songs, I found myself responding, as if in conversation, adding variations ranging from subtle to more unusual or abstract. These began as private improvisations, then a few became compositions written for no one but myself (my own musical memories), but as I lived with them, I gradually began to think of them as something to share with others. I chose three songs which seemed the most complete: a Macedonian song I learned in Cincinnati (the first piece I learned on the accordion), a Jewish song I learned in Weimar, and a waltz I learned while playing in a Klezmer band in Minneapolis. I rounded out the set with a transcription of my wind ensemble piece, Cuckoo Variations, which is based on a British/American folk song sung by Jeanne Ritchie.