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Our Playlist column features music curated by School of Music faculty, students, and staff. In this column, Professor of Composition Dr. Stephen Chatman, who is retiring after a 45-year career at UBC, shares a chronological canon of music that inspired and influenced him through the years, and how this is reflected in his own award-winning music. Read more about his life and musings as a professor and composer in the Spring 2021 issue of High Notes.
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By Dr. Stephen Chatman
J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4
For decades, I have listened with pleasure to this concerto, one of Bach’s many masterpieces. The work is so bright and optimistic. The jaunty opening of Allegro balances the exuberant fugue in the last movement. The instrumentation is unusual: two solo flutes and solo violin with strings.
W.A. Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
In my opinion (and many others), this is the greatest opera ever written. Enough said!
W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 466
As a teenage pianist, this is the first concerto I ever learned; I performed it with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. The slow movement is particularly beautiful and poignant.
Igor Stravinsky: Petroushka
I remember attending a ballet performance of Petroushka in East Berlin. As the curtain was raised, the combination of Stravinsky’s exciting, superbly orchestrated theme and snow falling on a live horse-drawn carriage, was unforgettable.
Maurice Ravel: La valse
The orchestration of La valse strongly influenced two of my works: Crimson Dream, premiered by the Edmonton Symphony in 1986 and Tara’s Dream, premiered by the Vancouver Symphony in 2000 — a Millennium commission. Crimson Dream won the American Symphony Orchestra League Competition in 1986 and Tara’s Dream is the only Canadian work ever short-listed in the BBC Masterprize international competition (2001). Intrigued by the disintegration of the waltz form, Ravel called the score “a choreographic poem…a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz…the mad whirl of some fantastic and fateful carousel.” I find the work both immensely exciting and frightening. Composed in 1920, many have surmised that the work reflects the aftermath of the Great War. But Ravel denied that it is a reflection of post-World War I Europe. I agree with many who maintain that Ravel was the best harmonist of the 20th century.
Darius Milhaud: Creation du Monde
A landmark work from the 1920s — “French jazz,” including a “jazz fugue.” The overall form, the synthesis of jazz and classical styles, thematic relationships, harmony and counterpoint are amazing. I programmed and conducted the work with UBC Contemporary Players several times over the years. It’s a great pedagogical piece for university students.
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
What a beautiful work. Having conducted the original 13-instrument version with UBC Contemporary Players, I can say that, given its transparency and frequent tempo changes, the work is much more difficult than it appears to be.
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
This thrilling masterpiece, commissioned by the Boston Symphony, was composed in 1943, toward the end of Bartók’s life. The influence of folk melodies is felt throughout the work. Each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way. Incidentally, the Los Angeles Philharmonic also performed the work shortly after the premiere. My composition teacher, Leslie Bassett, who attended the LA performance, told me that the audience reaction was lukewarm at best. I have used sections of the work in my orchestration classes.
Stephen Chatman: Proud Music of the Storm with UBC Choirs and the UBC Symphony Orchestra
I. Proud Music of the Storm!
II. Come Forward, O My Soul
III. A Festival Song!
IV. Tutti! for Earth and Heaven
Commissioned by the Vancouver Bach Choir with assistance from CBC Radio and the BC Arts Council, my first major work for large choir and orchestra was premiered in 2002. I began the four-movement work on September 10, 2001, the day before 9/11. While re-reading Walt Whitman’s poem on 9/11, I felt Fate had tapped me on the shoulder — the cathartic emotion of the text became an overwhelming inspiration.
Stephen Chatman: A Song of Joys
Commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic, the 2014 premiere and subsequent performance in 2017 by the UBC Symphony Orchestra, UBC Choirs and soloists, conducted by Jonathan Girard, are important milestones in my career. I look forward to the upcoming commercial recording, Soaring Spirits, on the Redshift label, featuring UBC ensembles, this work and orchestral works by Dorothy Chang and Keith Hamel.
