In the opera, young Lucia is caught in the middle of a feud between her family and her true love Edgardo. Her brother forces her to forsake her love and marry for money. On their wedding night Lucia kills her bridegroom, plunges headlong into madness, then dies. When Edgardo learns of Lucia’s demise, he kills himself.

The opera is particularly famous for its ‘mad scene’ in which Lucia—covered with blood—sings what is essentially a duet with the glass armonica. (The armonica only appears in the mad scene, nowhere else in the opera.)

Although Donizetti originally wrote the part for glass armonica, the available player proved too difficult to work with, so he rewrote the part for flutes and that’s how it was originally premiered. It is still frequently done with flutes as a glass armonica player is harder to come by than the flautists who are already there in the orchestra.

First, I must say what a pleasure it was to work with all the staff at COC, especially the principals. They were all consummate professionals who did a wonderful job, and very personable to work with:

Stephen Lord, Conductor
Anna Christy, Lucia
Stephen Costello, Edgardo (Lucia’s true love)
Brian Mulligan, Eduardo (Lucia’s evil brother)
Ian Cowie: COC Orchestra Personnel Manager

There have been several reviews of the opera. Those that mentione the glass armonica include:

The Canadian Opera Company did their own blog about me, the glass armonica & Lucia (click here).

Their blog included a rather nice video about me and the armonica (click for video or view in this player):

The mp3 is here (Approx. 6:00)

The pdf of the score is here

The flute part is here

The mp3 is here

The pdf of the score is here

Martin Luther (1483–1546) wrote both the words and music to “A Might Fortress” (c.1528), and it became the ‘fighting song’ of the Reformation. As we now happily sing it, it is easy to forget that people marched to be burned at the stake singing this hymn—it has a serious edge to it when you stop to think about what it stood for. And since in many ways the Reformation was when the effects of the Renaissance finally percolated down to the average person on the street, this hymn in a sense has one foot still in the Middle Ages and the other in what was the beginning of modern times.

In this piece I’ve tried to capture some of that spirit. (To begin with, for those of you who know about such things, I put the hymn in the Dorian Mode.) Each stanza gets its own musical treatment, and the piece concludes with a ‘ground bass‘ (a repeating bass line in the pedals) on the last stanza—and the first stanza makes a simultaneous appearance over this repeating last stanza!

Here it is on YouTube

Here is the mp3 (5:15)

Here is the pdf

You’ll find the mp3 here.

You’ll find a YouTube video here.

You’ll find the pdf here.

You’ll find the mp3 here.

You’ll find a YouTube video here.

You’ll find the pdf here.

http://en.kuninkaantienmuusikot.fi

I left my house at about 5pm on Saturday Aug 11, and changed planes in London. As we were landing in London it was strange to look down and see everyone driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Obviously I have seen Brits driving on the left countless times on TV and movies, but in person it just seemed strange all over again. The pilot even landed the plane on the left-hand side of the runway! (Just kidding!)

I arrived in Helsinki 9pm on Sunday–a change of 10 time zones. My brane was mush! I walked up to the passport guard:

Guard: “Are you here for business or pleasure?”

Me: “Business–I’m here to play a couple of concerts.”

Guard: “Uh, huh. Are you performing with someone?”

Me: “Why yes, but I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce their name in Finnish… but I have my itinerary right here in my briefcase!”

Guard: “That’s OK. Where are you performing?”

Me: “In Turku and R…. R….. it starts with R but I can’t remember the name. But it’s right here in my briefcase!”

Guard: “Uh huh. And where are you staying?”

Me: “My hosts are putting me up in a hotel in Turku, called the… called the… I can’t remember! But it’s right here in my briefcase!”

Guard: “That’s O.K. Welcome to Finland!” (I’m thinking if this had been Homeland Security in the U.S., they’d already have me in a little room with bright lights!)

So now I need to get through customs–always fun with a glass armonica. Wait–there’s a fork–to the left a sign says “Nothing to declare” and leads out to the street. To the right is a booth labeled “Something to declare” but it’s closed. Apparently they’d would rather be home with their families on a slow Sunday evening than worry about folks with ‘something to declare’. I’m liking this place!

The pace of everything in Finland felt slower. Check out the elevator buttons in my hotel: there’s the button to open the doors, but there isn’t one to close them (as is universal in the U.S.)–I guess you just have to wait until the elevator feels like closing the doors!

The second concert is in the “Fireman’s Hall”–so called because the fire department built it, and the fire station is actually in the basement!

Here’s the performance in the same hall:

Armonica Performance in Turku, Finland

To make more space on the stage they have the back leg of the old Bluthner concert grand on a trestle (I’ve never seen anything like that done before):

Here’s the poster for my concerts:

And here are the programs for the two concerts:

Musicians of the King’s Road, chamber ensemble

William Zeitler, glass harmonica
Vera Välimäki, Leonore Prohaska

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Adagio für Harmonika KV 356 (KV 617a)
Adagio und Rondo für Harmonika KV 617

Johann Friedrich Reichardt:
Rondeau

Ludwig van Beethoven:
Musik zu Friedrich Dunker’s Drama: Leonore Prohaska, Melodram

Karl Leopold Röllig:
Kleine Tonstücke für die Harmonika, Grave

Joseph Aloys Schmittbauer:
Adagio für die Harmonika

Bernhard Romberg:
Divertimento sopra un tema Finlandico e Sueco
Quatuor dédié à Joseph Haydn, Op.1

William Zeitler:
“Prelude to an Enigma”

The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimäki
Wednesday 15 August 2012 at 7 p.m.

- Pre-concert event at 6 p.m.

Tickets: 15 €

Musicians of the King’s Road
Markus Yli-Jokipii, conductor

William Zeitler, glass harmonica
Vera Välimäki, Leonore Prohaska
Singers from the CCI choir

The Night of the Arts 2012

In co-operation with: Leluliike Casagrande
- toy merchandise in Turku since 1912

J.G. Niederegger / Palotron Oy
- Marzipan with love – since 1806

26

Bernhard Romberg:
Toy symphony

Johann Friedrich Reichardt:
Rondeau

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Adagio für Harmonika KV 356 (KV 617a)
Adagio und Rondo für Harmonika KV 617

Leopold Mozart:
Toy symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven:
Musik zu Friedrich Dunker’s Drama: Leonore Prohaska, Melodram

VPK-talo, Eskelinkatu 5, Turku
Thursday 16 August, 2012 at 8 p.m.

The series of concerts that presents rare historical instruments begins.

Tickets: 25/20/15 €

And where would we be with out Esko? He’s the ‘muscle’ for various musical organizations in Turku–setting up the chairs, taking down the chairs, etc. etc. No orchestra can function without someone like this, and apparently he has been all over the world helping various Finnish music organizations. He was very helpful slogging my own equipment too–we managed just fine even though he doesn’t speak a word of English nor I of Finnish. Here we are standing in front of the Fireman’s Hall:

Between recovering from jet lag and trying to function at rehearsals and performances I wasn’t able to see much. But I did see a few things:

Amongst other things, Markus took me to see the Turku Cathedral, which has been functioning for some 800 years. Fortunately someone was practicing the organ so I was able to hear a little of it:

I guess when ordinary gas isn’t good enough, you should buy “God’s Gas”:

And there are three MacDonalds in all of Turku. But these HesBurger stands are everywhere. I of course tried one–hmm, I think HesBurger is the ONE thing I won’t miss about Finland!

Sami had sent me the tourist book for Turku, and the picture for this chapel caught my eye. It’s called St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel, and Sami was kind enough to take me to see it. Doesn’t look like that much from the outside–designed to resemble a ship (upside down):

But inside was spectacular!

And here are my hosts: Markus Yli-Jokipii (left, Music Director) and Sami Palsio (right, Chief Executive)

All in all it was a really great trip. The concerts went well, everyone was really friendly and professional, and Musicians of the King’s Road was a really great organization to work with: the players were solid, and Markus and Sami had everything under complete control. Concert trips can’t go much better than this!

Nevertheless I have learned, wherever I go, that it is really helpful to learn at least two words in the native language:

“Thank you” — when they get the waiter/waitress in the restaurant who speaks a little English, and we get through ordering lunch, it seems gracious to me to be able to say ‘thank you’ in their native language,

and

“Excuse me”  — for when I bump into someone on the subway, etc.

There are other good words, of course, like ‘please’. But usually you follow ‘please’ with a sentence: “Please can you tell me how to get to the post office.” So ‘please’ by itself doesn’t do you much good unless you can actually speak the language a little. And ‘hello’ is good too, except that usually it is the opening of a conversation—that you won’t be able to manage in their native language without some real facility.

Of course if you are actually going to learn to speak the language, ‘hello’ and ‘please’ will be near the top of your vocabulary list.

But if you can only learn a couple words, ‘Thank you’ and ‘excuse me’ will get you through a lot. Wait, just those two words will get you through a lot of Life in general!

I wrote a piece for the occasion, composed for the musicians at hand. It’s called “Prelude to an Enigma”, for glass armonica, flute, oboe and string quintet.

A recording of it is here (8:04)

The score is here

I composed this piece for the 125th anniversary of Redlands United Methodist Church (Redlands, CA). The Beckerath pipe organ they have is a delight to play!

Here’s the mp3 (4:54).

Here’s the pdf score.