This weekend, Camerata San Antonio performs music by Andre Previn and John Harbison. On the program is "Songs America Likes to Sing"...John Harbison: I’m doing a piece for small chamber ensemble which is based on, really variations of various kinds of the most familiar songs I could think of, it’s called Songs America Loves To Sing. The variations are actually quite intricate but the fundamental material is extremely well known and I suppose it comes out of my frequent encounters with Bach cantatas which are based on chorales which at the time were very familiar with the audience. So I’m doing a similar thing, they are in a sense I think of them of chorale preludes because the idea of the chorale prelude is a very familiar cantus in very unfamiliar environment.
John Clare: Any hints to these familiar songs you’re chorale preluding?
JH: Well it ranging very ordinary, occasional like Happy Birthday to Aura Lee, and a number of other songs, really I think the basic criterion is familiarity, that something be quite well known, hoping that the presence of these canvases will guide the listener through what will sometimes is a quite an unusual environment that I sort of imagine for them.
JC: That sounds really fun!
JH: I’m enjoying it, it’s again somewhat of a found object idea.
John Clare: Any hints to these familiar songs you’re chorale preluding?
JH: Well it ranging very ordinary, occasional like Happy Birthday to Aura Lee, and a number of other songs, really I think the basic criterion is familiarity, that something be quite well known, hoping that the presence of these canvases will guide the listener through what will sometimes is a quite an unusual environment that I sort of imagine for them.
JC: That sounds really fun!
JH: I’m enjoying it, it’s again somewhat of a found object idea.
Camerata San Antonio plays Friday night in Boerne and Sunday afternoon at Travis Park United Methodist Church in San Antonio. I'll give a pre-concert talk at 2:20pm, before the 3:00pm start time.
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