ASO has Internet CD release party for Woody Guthrie-Inspired album
ALBANY, N.Y. » Every day we are finding new ways to use the internet as a connecting device.
The latest is tonight’s Albany Symphony Orchestra’s CD release party via Facebook. The CD is a NEXOS’ release of Michael Daugherty’s “This Land Sings: Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie.” It is musically supported by the ASO’s contemporary ensemble, Dogs of Desire.
At 7 p.m. the ASO is asking people to join them to meet and ask questions of the composer Daugherty and the conductor David Alan Miller, the ASO’s music director. The site is the ASO Facebook site, (Facebook.com/albanysym/live) and there are promises of contests, games and sampling of the music.
The unique event seems proper for what sounds like an equally unique recording. Folksinger Woody Guthrie does not seem typical subject matter for classical music.
But Michael Daugherty is not a typical composer. He is a leading American composer, whose work is performed by every major orchestra in the United States and who has a global reputation to boot.
Miller says of him, “He is a wonderful composer who loves all aspects of American pop culture. He is in love with the American vernacular. This is why he is the perfect person to compose a tribute to one of our country’s great folk music icons.”
In a telephone interview, Daugherty proves Miller right. Speaking about Guthrie’s prodigious output of music that he created before his early death at the age of 54, he says, “It’s amazing how many artists created a body of work over only 10-15 years.” He goes on to name, “Mozart, Schubert and Bobby Darrin.”
I stopped the conversation to joke that it was the first time I ever heard Bobby Darrin’s name used in the same sentence with Mozart and Schubert. Daugherty immediately made the point that creativity was not limited to genres or what might be considered high art. It is his belief that the ability to excel in your field and connect with the person for whom you are writing is the measure of creativity.
Which brought us back to Guthrie. Daugherty points out that Guthrie was only an average musician and his singing voice never won acclaim. He adds, surprisingly, that Guthrie rarely wrote his own music. “He used familiar folk tunes and added his own words. He was a genius as a poet who spoke to the common man.” He says that his passion, his gift of language and a personality that won over the masses was what made him a spokesman for his generation.”
The CD’s musical overture pays tribute to the historical importance of a songs that left its imprint on a nation’s collective memory. It has elements of an old folk hymn “O My Loving Brother.” Then it takes on the form of the Carter Family’s 1930’s recording of “When the World’s on Fire.” Eventually it morphs into what Daugherty calls “Guthrie’s iconic American anthem, ‘This Land is Your Land.’” The point is made throughout the overture that the same melody can be shaped at will.
To some degree, Daugherty has done the reverse with this work, which was originally commissioned by the Tulsa Camerata in 2016. He researched the work by roaming the areas of Oklahoma and Texas that Guthrie had travelled. He consumed Guthrie’s output of music and completed other research on the political, social and environmental issues for which the folk troubadour spoke for the common man.
Back in his own Michigan studio, Daugherty composed the music that was inspired by his research and reflected Guthrie’s view of society. He was struck by how much that view is present today. Daugherty says that it is his hope that anyone listening to “This Land Sings” will realize that “the issues that figures of the past grappled with are still with us today.”
To make connections with that past Daugherty went to several pieces of 20th century literature which he incorporated into the lyrics. “Graceland” not only uses a bit of whimsey through a touch of music associated with Elvis Presley, but it includes excepts of Carl Sandburg’s 1916 poem of the same name that emphasizes the issue of exploited workers by greedy bosses.
The piece “Bread and Roses” takes some of it lyrics from James Oppenheim’s 1911 suffrage poem pleading for equal rights. And “Forbidden Fruit” uses the wry humor of Mark Twain to give a twist to the moral of the biblical tale of Adam and Eve.
Daugherty says his intent was to make the recording feel as if it were a radio show presented at the legendary Grand Ole Opry. In order to capture the leanness of the era and the style of performance he opted to use a small musical ensemble rather than a full orchestra.
Daugherty is a favorite of the ASO and he discussed “This Land Sings” with Miller. They both agreed that ASO’s 18-piece contemporary ensemble dogs of Desire, would be an ideal fit. The original singers soprano avant-folk vocalist Annikia Socolofsky and baritone John Daugherty
(no relation) were also available and are on the CD.
Miller says, in 2017, a few days after the annual American Music Festival presented by the ASO in Troy, they were inside EMPAC on the campus of RPI, recording the album.
Daugherty says he is thrilled with the final product. “I think we caught the spirit of Woody Guthrie and all that he represents as a musician and as a social activist.”
If you have any questions for the composer or conductor – tonight at 7 p.m. talk to them personally at facebook.com/allbanysym/live