Higdon's "Splendid Wood"

Synopsis

The marimba is a percussion instrument of tuned bars, usually made of wood, arranged like the keys of a piano. These bars are struck with mallets to produce resonate, rounded—and, well, "woody"—musical tones.

The marimba was developed in Mexico and Guatemala, inspired by instruments native to Africa reconstructed in the New World by unfortunate Africans brought over to Central America to work as slaves. By the mid-20th century, the marimba was showing up in jazz ensembles, and classical composers would, on occasion, even write a marimba concerto or two. More recently, massed marimbas make up a sonorous, albeit stationary, component of hyper-kinetic drum and bugle corps spectaculars.

The contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon loves the sound of the marimba, and so in 2006 wrote a piece for three marimbas, entitled Splendid Wood.

"'Splendid Wood' is a joyous celebration of the sound of wood, one of nature's most basic materials," says Higdon. "Wood is a part of all sorts of things in our world, but is used most thrillingly and gloriously in instruments. This work reflects the evolving patterns inside a piece of wood, always shifting, and yet every part is related and contributes to the magnificent of the whole."

Splendid Wood was commissioned by Bradford and Dorothea Endicott, for Frank Epstein and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, and had its New York premiere on today's date in 2007, by the Mannes Percussion Ensemble under the direction of James Preiss.

Music Played in Today's Program

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) Splendid Wood New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble Naxos 8.559683

On This Day

Births

• 1660 - Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, in Palermo; founder of the "Neopolitan School" of music and father of the composer, Dominico Scarlatti;

• 1752 - Baptismal date of German oboist and composer Ludwig August Lebrun, in Mannheim;

• 1810 - Danish conductor and composer Hans Christian Lumbye, in Copenhagen;

• 1843 - Austrian conductor and operetta composer Carl Michael Ziehrer, in Vienna;

• 1905 - English composer Alan Rawsthorne, in Haslingden;

Deaths

• 1864 - German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (Jakob Liebmann Beer), age 72,in Paris;

• 1990 - American composer William Levi Dawson, age 90, in Montgomery, Ala.;

Premieres

• 1692 - Purcell: opera "The Fairy Queen," in London at the Queen's Theater, Dorset Garden;

• 1935 - Ibert: "Concertino da Camera" for saxophone and chamber orchestra, in Paris;

• 1936 - Prokofiev: "Peter and the Wolf" at a children's concert by the Moscow Philharmonic, conducted by the composer;

• 1947 - Copland: "In the Beginning" for mezzo-soprano and chorus, at Harvard University;

• 1947 - Schoenberg: String Trio, Op. 45, at Harvard University;

• 1951 - Cage: "Imaginary Landscape No. 4" for 12 radios, in New York;

• 1951 - Ulysses Kay: "Sinfonia" for orchestra, in Rochester, N.Y.;

• 1965 - Bolcom: "Oracle" for orchestra, in Seattle;

• 1965 - Grofé: "Trick or Treat: Halloween," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, André Kostelanetz conducting;

• 1981 - David Amram: Violin Concerto, by the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting, with Charles Castleman the soloist;

• 1984 - Ezra Laderman: String Quartet No. 7, in New York City, by the Colorado Quartet;

• 1984 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical "Sunday in the Park with George";

• 1990 - Elliott Carter: Violin Concerto, by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, with Ole Böhn as soloist;

Others

• 1855 - American premiere of Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore" (The Troubadour) at the Academy of Music in New York.

• 1872 - First documented American performance of Beethoven's "Missa solemnis" in D (Op. 123), at Steinway Hall in New York , by the Church Music Association, Dr. James Pech conducting; Subsequent regional premieres of this work occurred in Cincinnati (May 19, 1880) and Boston (Mar. 12, 1897).