Orchestra - chamber/small/full
Theodore Presser, Carl Fischer, Boelke-Bomart/Schott/Mobart, Songs of Peer, and Warner-Chappell are distributors for Katherine's music.
Theodore Presser, Carl Fischer, Boelke-Bomart/Schott/Mobart, Songs of Peer, and Warner-Chappell are distributors for Katherine's music.
A tone poem, based on Nicholas Gage's moving book Eleni; combining Greek folk themes and contemporary writing.Performed by 13 orchestras, including Harrisburg, Ft. Worth, St. Joseph, Camellia and Ventura County Symphonies.
In 1948, toward the end of the Greek Civil War, Eleni Gatzoyannis was tortured and executed by Communist partisans for smuggling her children out of Greece to join their father in America. Her son, Nicholas Gage, who was eight at that time, became a reporter for The New York Times, and in the early 1980's he returned to Greece to trace the events leading to her death. The result was the extraordinary book, Eleni. I was extremely moved by Mr. Gage's book. Eleni was a heroine, and, like many in the old Greek dramas, an archetype as well.
To construct this piece, which is both a lament and a tribute, I turned to Greek folk music, in particular from the northwest area of Epiros where Eleni lived. Much of this music is based on intonation and harmony that are foreign to Western ears. Melodies move in a rhapsodic manner, flowing freely between the notes we recognize, while harmonies change little, following the melody closely. Rhythms based on 5 and 7 are common. The clarinet, played in a style resembling that of "klezmer" music, is a constant presence. The folk materials, the dances and songs of the first section eventually dissolve into an area of growing tension, climaxing with the full orchestra. Out of this climax the clarinet reappears, followed by an alto completing the "moirologhia", or funeral lament, which was begun by a solo cello in the first section. The piece ends with an orchestral lament based on motives drawn from the earlier materials.
William Glackin, The Sacramento Bee
Eleni: A Greek Tragedy evokes clearly and powerfully the heroic story of a Greek mother who was murdered by the Communists during the civil war for smuggling her son out to join his father in America...It's a well-wrought, affecting work.
Robert McClintock, Sacramento Union
A powerful and brooding piece...Hoover contrasted the deceptive charm of folk music with her own contemporary harmonies. Her terse and often harsh sonorities drove the terror and tragedy of the heroine deep into the heart.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The evening improved with the recent work ELENI: A GREEK TRAGEDY. This 15-minute tone poem manages to be mournful but never dark, drawing on folk elements in various gradations... Ambiguous pitches, meandering melodies, and hand-clappping as a musical element contributed to the effect of ELENI.
Carolann Martin, Conductor, S.E. Kansas Symphony
First standing ovation for a contemporary work in our orchestra’s history.
Leo Kraft, The New Music Connoisseur
Considerable Orchestral Imagination
…To fully appreciate the music of Eleni it is necessary to read the program note by the composer. The music is anecdotal and descriptive, so that the listener has to begin by learning the story of the heroic Greek woman whose sacrifice was recounted both in book form and in a movie. The program note explains the use of Greek folkloristic elements and indicates the overall shape of the composition. That done, the listener will find that Eleni is a dramatic and moving composition.
Four Winds considers breath as integral to flute performance through the depiction of winds at different times of the year.
The Medieval Suite was inspired by characters and events described in Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, a history of fourteenth-century France. It was a violent, bitter century of extensive wars, and Ms. Tuchman sees it as something of a reflection of our own.
The first movement, 'Virelai', uses parts of a work in that form by Guillaume de Machaut, a French composer of that era.
The "Black Knight" was a violent British prince barred from his beloved field of battle by a wasting disease.
The fourteenth century was a low point for the Catholic Church with warring Popes in Rome and Avignon, and 'the Drunken Friar' was apparently a common sight. In this movement I have freely adapted and embroidered a Gregorian chant and quoted a well-known round of the time, 'Sumer is acumin in'.
'Princess Isabelle' describes a daughter of the King of France who was engaged at the age of six, sent to England to live permanently, and wed at twelve - a common fate for royal children.
The 'Demon's Dance' was a desperate marathon dance done by some in hopes of avoiding the Black Plague.
Mark Crawford, Reno Gazette-Journal
A fine new work...The Medieval Suite realizes (its) inspiration in the language of Katherine Hoover, a language not to be confused with that of Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, or George Crumb, but equally as American as these. This is a short, uncompromising, sympathetic contemporary work.
Alfred de Jaeger, The Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV)
The highlight of the afternoon...Katherine Hoover's Medieval Suite is brilliant. Each of the five movements is exquisitely crafted, leaving the listener confident that a musical journey has taken place. Every note is placed with the same care exercised by an expert diamond-cutter, giving the work a discernable architecture which is very satisfying.
Norman Pickering, The Southampton Press
The writing is extremely imaginative and full of exciting instrumental passages displaying the composer's knowledge and skill...this is a major addition to the flute and piano literature, and every movement has a character and emotional impact that is rarely achieved in contemporary music.
Tim Page, The Washington Post
The program began with Katherine Hoover's "Medieval Suite," a five movement work dating from 1983 that was originally written for flute and piano. Hoover is herself a distinguished flutist, and so the idiomatic scoring for her chosen instrument came as no surprise. The suite itself has a stylistic diversity that is never merely clever; this is limpid, honest, attractive and appealing music, full of graceful melodies and the subtle "touches" of a natural composer.
This orchestral tone poem has grown from a fascination with a singular - and presently popular - watercolor by Henri Edmond Cross (French, 1856-1910), called Landscape with Stars. The Metropolitan Museum of New York, which owns this lovely work, has enlarged it for a poster and reduced it for a card; I particularly love it in its original size and setting. Something about the bold splashing of yellow in the sky renewed my fascination with how art can give us an intense sense of a familiar sight or experience. I began thinking of various ways that night skies affect me, and how I could portray these experiences in sound.
As I worked on this piece I was also drawn to the nightscapes of Albert Pinkham Ryder (American, 1847-1917) with their mysterious and haunting moons and hazy, sensual forms. This influence is heard in the second section of the work. As I began the third and final area, however, I searched in vain for a similar visual reference, and turned instead to the immense, dramatic stormy sky as I have seen in the Southwest; whirling and churning, then erupting in sudden surges.
Leo Kraft, The New Music Connoisseur
Considerable Orchestral Imagination
The chamber music composer-flutist Katherine Hoover has been well-known for quite some time, but that she is an accomplished orchestral composer may come as news to many. It is good news, for the works presented on this CD are strong, assertive compositions written with considerable orchestral imagination. Of the works presented here, I like Night Skies best. It is a tone poem of some 25 minutes duration, in a single movement with many contrasting episodes and several effective climaxes. Despite its length, the work maintains its momentum and holds the listener's interest from beginning to end…
Robert McClintock, Sacramento Union
A powerful and brooding piece...Hoover contrasted the deceptive charm of folk music with her own contemporary harmonies. Her terse and often harsh sonorities drove the terror and tragedy of the heroine deep into the heart.
The Harrisburg Patriot-News
Inspired by the painting "Landscape with Stars" by Henri Edmond Cross, Hoover's piece opens with a vibrant smattering of distinctive sounds against a deep, slow and moody background. An array of intriguing percussion sounds and shining brass blends into the composition's mystery-laden second section, heralded by the evocative sounds of a Japanese flute. Hoover also includes a lovely flute solo... The final part grows tumultuous, with whirling winds and rolling thunder. It's significant that Hoover chose not to end her piece in the midst of her magnificent storm. Instead she brings it back around to end calmly and beautifully with the ethereal Japanese flute. Hoover's music mixes elements of old and new, in a masterful blending of a variety of sounds into a cohesive whole.
Both of these pieces were begun in 1985 and completed in the fall of 1989. They are extremely different in concept: one is quite visual and impressionistic, and the other is a musical game.
'Winter Sands' reflects the spare haziness of a winter's walk by the ocean, accompanied by a few seabirds and the sudden rush of waves flung on the beach.
'Turnabout' is a kind of musical puzzle that fascinates composers for it requires the construction of sounds that make sense forward and backward, as in a palindrome such as 'Madam, I'm Adam' or the word 'radar'. (Bach was particularly brilliant at this, and other such musical games.) The first section begins with march-like motives in the brass, then clusters in the winds and vibraphone, all set against a soft, agitated line in the strings. This string line suddenly grows to encompass the orchestra, passing quickly by like a whirlwind. Then the section grows to a climax and breaks off. The second section begins with a slow, erratic bass line; bits of the first section appear above this and begin to build up to a large climax. As the climax finishes we find ourselves at the end of the first section, and the entire piece proceeds backward note-for-note from that point, whirlwind and all.
Timothy Pfaff, San Francisco Examiner
Hoover's Two Sketches scored with immediate accessibility and an impressive combination of depth, maturity, and power...its title notwithstanding the pieces emerged as substantial and engrossing, and strongly contrasted compositions. The atmospheric nature depiction in "Winter Sands" was painted in highly specific and deeply saturated orchestral colors. "Turnabout", a palindromic exercise, is so deftly scored that its intellectual challenge is softened by its sensuality.
Paul Hertelendy, San Jose Mercury News
Katherine Hoover is far too skilled an orchestrater to be creating mere sketches; I've heard major prizewinners who have lacked her expressive flair.
Leo Kraft, The New Music Connoisseur
…Two Sketches. Full of striking sonorities and rich orchestral invention, this highly accessible work would fit well on many an orchestral program.
