Pastoral

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Six Studies in English Folk Song for Bassoon and Strings (1926) ~8 min.

Pat Nelson, Bassoon
Lenelle Morse & Shu-Hsin Ko, Violins
Rachel Swerdlow, Viola
Roberta Downey, Cello

In the composer’s own words:
“Beethoven was ahead of his time, Bach behind them.”

RUTH GIPPS
Quintet for oboe, clarinet, and string trio (1941) ~29 min.

Gretchen Myers, Oboe
Erika Block, Clarinet
Lenelle Morse, Violin
Rachel Swerdlow, Viola
Roberta Downey, Cello

In the composer’s own words:
“Ruth Gipps, the girl on the poster who played at concerts, must be prettily dressed for the platform; this I accepted, but the real me, the girl at home, scorned anything so feminine as interest in clothes.”

Ruth “Wid” Gipps  was an early 20th century  musical pioneer who was a successful British oboist, concert pianist, conductor, and composer. She was a  student of Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams and her compositions follow the English Pastoral style. As was common at the time, Ruth was often dubbed a “difficult woman”. Ruth said that she relied on her persistent personality in order to negotiate the all male fields of composition and conducting.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major Op.74 “Harp” (1809) ~31 min.

Dawn Posey & Brittany Breeden, Violins
Eric Kean, Viola
Sarah Rommel, Cello

In the composer’s own words:
“Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.”