SonataPalooza I – Vol. IV

Turning the traditional arrangement of sonata movements (fast-slow-fast) inside out, Hubeau’s slow-fast-slow pacing incorporates a Baroque form, a humorous, burlesque march, and raises a bluesy, hymn-like song to an inspired, tessitura-elevated, all-hands-raised conclusion. Following Baroque traditions of ornamentation, the trumpet will embellish Hubeau’s original composition with ornaments on each of the first repeats of the Sarabande. As a nod to Maurice André’s recording with Hubeau (Erato, LP – STU 70730 or CD #4683219), some of the trumpet articulations used in the Intermède are adjusted to follow his musical choices.

Hubeau was a prodigy on the piano, and though his compositional output numbers just ten or so important works and two film scores, all written in the 1940s, his recordings of pieces by Fauré, Dukas, and Schumann are historically noteworthy. Written in Paris and Annecy in the same year as the Allie’s invasion of Normandy, the Trumpet Sonata was published a year later, one month before the liberation of Paris. The publisher, Durand Editions Musicales, has provided historical details written by Edmond Lemaître. “The work is dedicated to Jean Bérard, then director of the recording company Pathé-Marconi, whose personality might have played a part in the interest shown here by the composer for jazz music. It should be mentioned that the collaboration between Jean Bérard and the Hot Club de France [“QHCF” (1934-1948), a jazz group founded in France by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli] resulted in the so-called ‘swing’ music – Swing being, moreover, the name of the first French recording company exclusively specializing in jazz music.” Jazz was on the mind and in the ears of the citizens oppressed by an occupied France. Luckily, jazz and blues were not eliminated on the radio, and following the Americans’ invasion, the influence of jazz continued to sweep across the European continent.

In April of 1997, a few years after Jack Sutte graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music, where “Mr. Loeb” was one of his teachers, he had the opportunity to interview the composer in New York City. The interview was recorded on cassette tape; with the help of Jack’s friend Chris Clark, the analog source material was eventually transferred to a digital format. Jack has regularly performed Loeb’s music over the past 20 years and continues to enjoy the challenge of realizing his scores. What follows are some insights into his music, and highlights from the interview.

Loeb describes his music as peaceful and quiet, with occasional climactic points, mitigating against loud for the sake of being loud, all the while using counterpoint, canonic, and fugal elements. His aesthetic is natural, sincere, and devoid of theatricality. He admires the counterpoint of Bach, the orchestration of Bartók, and scores by Brahms, Dvořák, Hindemith, and Mozart. The “classicist” in him ties his composition and teaching from the earliest of Western music to composers of the 20^th century. In addition to writing compositions for all of the modern orchestral instruments, Loeb has written works for lute, harpsichord, recorder, viol da gamba, Japanese flute, and other traditional Japanese instruments. Loeb has a mathematical background, and yet serialism and minimalism never influenced his style despite his growing up during the WWII era. His music is essentially tonal in nature.

Starting in the mid-1960s he developed a strong interest in the music of Japan. Consequently, he has lived in both the United States and Japan for more than forty years. The influences of living in Japan continue in his compositions today. His use of rhythmic pace and harmonic movement, or the sense of time and direction based on the active thematic and consequent resting points are intuitive, both for him and the listener. Loeb’s phrasing often descends to resolution by half-step intervals, giving temporary closure to a phrase without a traditional, harmonically planned Western cadence. In other words, someone listening to Loeb’s music will naturally grasp a sense of musical time, i.e. the ebb and flow of the music. As the score moves through time, the listener’s ear may be pleasantly surprised by a non-traditional, tonal harmonic language, supported by classical composition techniques. Jack’s favorite quote by Loeb, referring to the difficulty of writing a good canon, is “nothing is easy.”

Loeb writes that his Trumpet Sonata “was composed in Kyoto, Japan, during the summer of 2015. It follows the time-honored, four-movement principles, and the traditional concept of creating subtle relationships between movements. Thus, the slow second movement grows out of the introduction to the first movement, and the two last movements share a festive atmosphere, although the actual themes are quite different. I have always marveled at how historic composers had managed to create interesting music within the limitations of the old, valve-less brass instruments. This is reflected in the thematic materials of the first movement, which each begin using only the ‘natural’ tones of the trumpet. The third movement reflects the place of origin since the main theme comes from a shamisen (a Japanese lute) melody taken from a piece for an orchestra of Japanese instruments which I had written almost forty years earlier.”

Loeb’s Trumpet Sonata was written for Jack Sutte, and the premiere took place on October 26, 2016, performed by Sutte with pianist Christina Dahl, at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. Loeb’s works can be heard on the Vienna Modern Masters, Musical Heritage Society, Koch International, and Centaur labels.

Jack has performed in numerous solo and chamber music premieres of works by Loeb, including Remembrances (2015) and Distant Carillons (2016) for brass trio and piano, Madrigaletti (2016) for brass trio, Nightscapes (2010) for trumpet and organ, Arias and Dances (1997) for trumpet and string quartet, and Partita (1994) for trumpet quartet. He also recorded Litany (1976) and Moresca (1975), both for trumpet and piano; Tre Romanze (1996) for solo trumpet; and Romanze e due Scherzi (1974) for solo trumpet on his CDs Beyond the Moon, Fanfare Alone, and BENT. Distant Carillons, a CD featuring Loeb’s aforementioned works for brass trio, recorded by Factory Seconds Brass Trio and pianist Christina Dahl, is on the Centaur label.

Sowerby’s Trumpet Sonata, in contrast to all the other sonatas performed in this series, follows the Classical sonata form most closely. This is an immense work for both the trumpet and piano, as Sowerby’s pen powers the trumpet through only a few rests in the entire work, challenging the trumpeter’s flexibility, strength, and endurance. The piano part is written in the grand Romantic tradition, reminiscent of Liszt and Brahms. This is the first recording of this little-known, now out-of-print and lost-in-time treasure – a seldom-displayed American jewel. Special thanks to Francis Crotiata of the Sowerby Foundation for providing the following:

Leo Sowerby’s Trumpet Sonata could be said to be the last work of his years of widespread fame, when Sowerby was the most frequently performed American symphonist. Or, it could be said to be the first work of his descent into obscurity, except for the comfortable pigeonhole to which he was consigned for his final two decades: “Dean of American Church Musicians.” 1945 was the least productive year of Leo Sowerby’s creative life. Only two works are known: a large, rather sinister-sounding concert work for organ titled Rhapsody, and this Sonata for Trumpet. Sowerby may be the originator of the line, “There is one difference between a request to write a piece and a commission to write one. The difference is money.”

The money for the Trumpet Sonata came through one of Sowerby’s most loyal admirers, the clarinetist-conductor-musicologist Burnet C. Tuthill. Tuthill had personally commissioned a clarinet sonata from Sowerby, a coincident with authoring (in 1938 for The Musical Quarterly) the most comprehensive article on the life and music of Sowerby to appear during his lifetime. From his post as Chair of the music faculty at Southwest Tennessee State College (now Rhodes University), Tuthill was an organizer and a force in the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and, in 1944, was put at the head of a committee to do a comprehensive review of solo instrumental music, specifically to identify areas where new works were needed, and to commission new compositions to fill the gaps. For trumpet, NASM commissioned a concerto from Vittorio Giannini and this sonata from Sowerby. Eventually four additional trumpet commissions followed, works by George Antheil, Kent Kennan, Halsey Stevens, and Tuthill himself. Sowerby began the sonata in early June and finished it at his summer cottage on Lake Michigan in Palisades Park, Michigan, on July 17, 1945.

It is in three movements and is very consistent in harmonic language of Sowerby in the 1940s, with perky (“sprightly”) outer movements and a rather somber slow movement. The cover of the first publication by Remick Music identified the piece as Sonata for Trumpet (with piano accompaniment), which would have incensed its composer. The title page, replete with a facsimile of the composer’s signature gave the sonata its proper name, Sonata for Trumpet and Piano. All of Sowerby’s instrumental sonatas were conceived as having the piano as an equal voice in the collaboration, which is very evident in this sonata. The first performance was given at the 1949 NASM Conference in Chicago, by the young, then-newly appointed principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony, Adolph (“Bud”) Herseth.

Leo Sowerby had one rather interesting association with the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Conservatory Orchestra presented a program that was to comprise Leo’s Second Piano Concerto played by Joseph Brinkman, its dedicatee and a piano professor at the University of Michigan, and Howard Hanson’s “Romantic” Symphony, conducted by the composer.  The Concerto was played, but the Pearl Harbor attack was reported at intermission, and Hanson’s Symphony was not performed.