Concert Series II

November 2009

Friday, November 5, SOU Recital Hall, Ashland, 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 6, Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, Medford, 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 7, GPHS Performing Arts Center, Grants Pass, 3 pm

frogSchubert: Symphony No. 4
Jacobs: Las Ranas de Katanchel: The Frogs of Katanchel
Elgar: Enigma Variations

All are invited to a pre-concert talk one hour before each performance. Free.

 

Mark Eliot Jacobs, composer

Mark Eliot Jacobs, Instructor in low brass at Southern Oregon University, is the principal trombone in the Rogue Valley Symphony. He plays trombone and euphonium with various performance organization throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California. He also plays early low brass instruments: the sackbut, the serpent, the English bass horn, and the ophicleide. Mark also teaches low brass privately in Medford and Ashland, Oregon.

Born in 1960, Mark Eliot Jacobs began composing at age eleven in the course of his piano lessons. In time, he went on to earn his Doctor of Music degree in composition from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1987. His major teachers included Stephen Syderud, Peter Gena, and Ben Johnston. He is experienced in composition for a wide range of ensembles and media, including computer and electronic music. His recent major works for wind quintet, brass quintet, and saxophone quartet are eclectic in style. Recent performances by SOU and regional ensembles of these pieces are sparking interest in his music.

[Back to top]

 

Schubert, Symphony No. 4 “Tragic”

Schubert was only 19 years old when he wrote his fourth symphony in 1816. He named it “Tragic” and chose the key of C-minor, which Mozart and Beethoven before him had used to express melancholy. Nobody knows for sure what kind of tragedy he had endured, but critics today consider this piece “a small miracle” of classical music. Its delightful melodies and lively mood changes have kept it fresh and vibrant for two centuries.

[Back to top]

 

World premiere
Mark Eliot Jacobs, Las Ranas de Katanchel (The Frogs of Katanchel)

Las Ranas de Katanchel brings together three major themes: the supernatural underworld of Xibalbá in Mayan mythology, the song-filled visible real world of today in the Yucatan peninsula, and humankind’s eternal role as nature’s steward. In this piece, written for the Rogue Valley Symphony, Jacobs has incorporated sounds he recorded in Katanchel—thunderstorms, birds, and especially, the remarkable frogs that have inspired Mayan art for hundreds of years.

[Back to top]

 

Elgar, Enigma Variations

The man who gave us Pomp and Circumstance was a master at expanding a simple idea into a whole universe of music. One evening in 1899 while Elgar was doodling at the piano, he came up with a tune he liked. Joking with his wife, he commented that if he played it a little differently, it would sound just like one of their friends. Out of that small moment came this stunning piece—one theme with 14 variations, drawing musical cartoons of the Elgars’ well-known friends. Who were they? To Elgar’s surprise, London society quickly solved the enigma and the joke was over. But the music lives on. Its flashing orchestral color and high good humor have made it a permanent concert hall favorite.

[Back to top]

Program notes by Nancy Golden