a musical tribute to
Mark Twain
Performed
Sunday - March 20, 2005
7:30 pm
Hofmann Theatre
Dean Lesher Regional Center
for the Arts
1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek, California
A musical journey along the mighty Mississippi
in a salute to the legendary Mark Twain
with special guests
* Robert Hirst (left), Curator of the Mark Twain Project, The Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley, in highlights about the author, his views on music and his rich contributions to American literature.
* Tim Hockenberry, a musician recognized as “one of the best singers in the Bay Area,” in a unique medley of Twain-era tunes.
(Click on titles/composers for program notes and bios)
(Remarks during the performance by Mark Twain authority Robert Hirst)
Highlights from Showboat ............................... Jerome Kern/Arr. Howard Cable
Shenandoah ............................................................................ Arr. Frank Ticheli
Tom Sawyer's Saturday ............................... John Dankworth /Arr. Glynn Bragg
Narrator: Robert Hirst
Serenade For A Picket Fence ................................................. Norman Leyden
Mallet Percussionists: Sandy Chiang, Lisa Counts, Gordon Gore
Tom Sawyer Suite ...................................................................... Franco Cesarini
I. Tom Sawyer
II. Huckleberry Finn
III. Becky Thatcher
IV. Injun Joe
V. Happy Ending
Medley performed by Tim Hockenberry
Bein' Green (from Sesame Street) - Joe Raposo
The Jumping Frog of Calaveras - Hugh Watt/Clarence Winchell
Sweet Betsy From Pike - Traditional
Deep River ........................................................................Arr. James Swearingen
Huckleberry Finn Suite (U.S. Premiere) ..................................... Franco Cesarini
I. A Lazy Town
II. Jim
III. The King and the Duke
IV. Huckleberry's Rag
MARK TWAIN, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, wrote to please everyday Americans. This musical program celebrates America’s most popular author.
Mark Twain was one of our great representative men. He fulfilled the promise of American life. He proved the virtues of the land and the society in which he was born and fostered. He epitomized the spirit of an American as it enlarged, both in territorial and spirit, and entered lustily upon new adventures. He looms for us with Whitman and Lincoln, out of the shadows of the Civil War. Twain was an unmistakable native son of an eager, westward-moving people, unconventional, self-reliant, mirthful, profane, realistic, cynical, boisterous, popular, tender-hearted, touched with chivalry, and fully embracing democratic American society.
Mark Twain found his literary voice a few years after the Civil War. He was actually the founder of written American Humor. On the surface Twain was a literary Norman Rockwell of 19th Century life. Yet his entertaining stories are laced with enduring moral values.
His work was so popular and thoughtful that by the dawn of the 20th Century, he had become America’s unofficial Philosopher Laureate. Again, this program celebrates his life and times.
---- Chuck Carroll
{Back to Top}
Highlights from Showboat ----
It is generally believed that Mark Twain was a Mississippi river boat pilot. This is technically true, as he earned his license. This was an unbelievably difficult feat: it required memorizing both the east and west banks of the river. All 2,357 miles of it. Pilots could then safely navigate and dock both at night and in the fog. Fortunately for us, the Civil War intervened. So Twain never worked as a pilot. He had to look for other work and eventually moved into writing. Nevertheless, the riverboat remains a central image in Twain lore.
A special type of riverboat is celebrated in “Showboat" (1927). Considered the great American musical, it was the first with full-fledged story, plot and characters. In 1890 the Cotton Blossom, a showboat that travels the Mississippi to anchor to put on plays. Cap’n Andy is the friendly owner, and Magnolia his sweet daughter. Her best friend is Julie, an older actress who has to leave the boat with her white husband once a nasty sheriff reveals that she’s half black, half white (inter-racial marriage was illegal then). Magnolia falls for a shifty gambler named Gaylord Ravenal (bad marriage choices were not illegal then, either), marries him and leaves for Chicago. Gaylord deserts her and Magnolia fends for herself as a singer. Selections from Showboat include the memorable American standards “Why Do I Love You?” "Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man," "Make Believe," and “Ol’ Man River”. [Jerome Kern’s music, Oscar Hammerstein II’s lyrics and book, based on a novel by Edna Ferber.] {Back to Program}
Shenandoah ----
Popular during the early part of Twain’s lifetime, Shenandoah was a shanty used with the windlass, capstan, and with winches for loading cargo. It was sung during work on the Missouri , the Mississippi and other American rivers.
The origin of the song is mysterious. Some believe the song originated among the early American river men or Canadian voyagers. Others believe it was a land song before it went to sea. Most agree that it incorporates both Irish and African-American elements.
Shenandoah was tremendously popular both on land and sea and was known by countless names, including: Shennydore, The Wide Missouri, The Wild Mizzourye, The World Of Misery-Solid Fas (a West Indian rowing shanty that may be older than other versions), The Oceanida and Rolling River.
From the arranger, Frank Ticheli: “In my setting of Shenandoah I was inspired by the freedom and beauty of the folk melody and by the natural images evoked by the words, especially the image of a river. I was less concerned with the sound of a rolling river than with its life-affirming energy - its timelessness. Sometimes the accompaniment flows quietly under the melody; other times it breathes alongside it. The work's mood ranges from quiet reflection, through growing optimism, to profound exaltation.” {Back to Program}
Whitewashing Aunt Polly’s fence is a best-remembered episode in Tom Sawyer. Both entertaining and clever, this story line covers a typical boyhood problem: stuck doing character-building chores, while one’s friends are off having fun. A leading commentary suggests that in this incident
“Tom reveals his basic knowledge of human psychology; that is, that a person most desires what cannot be easily attained. Tom is also a fine actor, and he cleverly uses this ability in handling his friends. Thus, Tom is able to use this basic understanding of human nature to get others to do his work for him and to pay for the privilege of doing it. Instead of being able to join the others at the town center, he brings the center of the town to him, has others do his work for him, and he ends up with all sorts of treasures. In this way, Twain reveals Tom as a natural leader.”
By resolving this dilemma to everyone’s satisfaction, young Tom demonstrates the can-do attitude of a blooming American nation.
Narration is actual text from the novel, Tom Sawyer. {Back to Program}
Serenade for a Picket Fence ----
19th Century American children had to occupy themselves as best they could. Kick-The-Can and Tap-The-Fence were favorite past times. Continuing the fence motif from the previous work, composer Norman Leyden develops a staccato symphony of sound depicting three youngsters passing a musical picket fence. {Back to Program}
In his childhood, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was the favorite book of the composer Franco Cesarini. With his memories of the magic of joy, fear and freedom, Cesarini seeks to bring the figures of the book musically to life in his "Tom Sawyer Suite". Each of the first four movements describes a figure from the story.
I. Tom Sawyer
“He was not the model boy of the village. He knew the model boy very well and looted him.” Tom Sawyer is depicted in the first movement, where the characteristic "cake walk" rhythm is used.
II. Huckleberry Finn
“Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, and vulgar, and bad…” The second movement is Huckleberry Finn's. The well-known American folk song "Ring, Ring de Banjo" is present in this movement on Tom Sawyer's best friend.
III. Becky Thatcher
“A lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two long tails, with summer frock, and embroidered pantalettes.” The third movement is slower, more expressive and more melancholic. It is dedicated to Becky Thatcher.
IV. Injun Joe
“Injun Joe infested all his dreams, and always with doom in his eye.” Injun Joe, is the murderer who tries to catch the two witnesses, Tom and Huck in order to kill them. Joe's secret must not be given away; correspondingly sinister tones can be heard in this fourth movement.
V. Happy Ending
“’My goodness Huck, look here!’ It was the treasure box, sure enough occupying a snug little cavern…” The fifth movement leads to a "Happy Ending." All themes of the preceding movements harmonize together cheerfully up to the climax where the themes of Tom and Becky merge splendidly.
[Twain quotations and comments from the composer.] {Back to Program}
Sesame Street was in its first season when a soon-to-be-famous amphibian bared his insecurities in this wistful ballad about self-acceptance written by the show’s music director, Joe Raposo. “The show really grew out of idealism, and this is an idealistic song,” says former exec producer Dulcy Singer. “It has a meaning for everybody.” Even for the Chairman of the Board: Frank Sinatra recorded Kermit's theme, proving that the show's seminal use of music as a teaching tool wasn't lost on grown-ups. {Back to Program}
The Jumping Frog of Calaveras ----
Narrative folk song referring to the 1870 story of an epic contest among the miners in Angels Camp, California. The story is vital for two firsts in American literature:
* First in which characters spoke in American dialects. Prior to this American characters spoke as if they were taking tea in London.
* First to have a sense of humor. Previous American writing had been serious. The country was founded on good Puritan stock. Heavy moral writing was meant to improve us. In fact, the first American novel Wieland; or the Transformation (1798) reads like a flinty Stephen King opus.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was extremely popular in its day and launched Twain’s writing career. {Back to Program}
Sweet Betsy From Pike ----
Used as recurrent theme in Ken Burns' PBS documentary Mark Twain. "Sweet Betsy from Pike" extends a gold rush song called "Joe Bowers." Bowers, the song tells us, "came from old Missouri, all the way from Pike." The song has many variations and was a favorite California immigrant song in the 1850’s. Carl Sandburg says this about the song: "It has the stuff of a realistic novel. It is droll and don't-care, bleary and leering, as slippery and lackadaisical as some of the comic characters of Shakespeare." {Back to Program}
Negro spiritual yearning to cross over the “deep river” to the Promised Land. This piece continues the river motif for Twain. More importantly, it reminds us that the noblest character in American literature is an African-American man, the slave Jim in Huckleberry Finn. Whenever questioned about his elevation of a black to this high hero status, Twain would reply that blacks were so ill-treated by white society that they survive “with a dignity that most white people cannot even imagine.” {Back to Program}
I. A Lazy Town
“One morning, when we were pretty well down the State of Arkansaw , we come in sight of a little one-horse town. The stores and houses was most all old shackly dried-up frame concerns that hadn’t ever been painted…” The music celebrates the lazy town with an ironically energetic country dance.
II. Jim
“Jim had a hair-ball as big as your fist, wich had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox. He said there was a spirit inside of it, and he knowed everything…” Brooding melodies remind us that African-Americans maintained animistic traditions in contradiction to mainstream organized religion.
III. The King and the Duke.
“One of these fellows was about seventy, or upwards and had a bald head and a very gray whiskers. The other fellow was about thirty and dressed about as ornery…” The King and the Duke were con men. Their type was a problem in rural 19th century America. Small town folk were unsophisticated in this type of crime and were often easily romanced into believing far-fetched, get-rich-quick schemes. In Twain’s story, vigilante justice prevails on these two: they receive a royal treatment of tar, feathers and an ignominious ride out of town on a rail.
IV. Huckleberry’s Rag
“You don’t know about me, without you have a read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.” Huckleberry’s comment is one of the most resounding in American literature. It reminds us that truth comes in all shapes and sizes. Through Huckleberry, Mark Twain himself implies that a well-told tale can have more truth than all the encyclopedias in the world. {Back to Program}
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Program Notes were adapted from various on-line
sources and "A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain" by
Elliott Engel, 2002. {Back to Program}