Robert Beaser's Folk Songs in Performance by Lexington Philharmonic

Robert Beaser's Folk Songs, premiered by the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra in the summer of 2007, continues to see performances across the US, with the most recent taking place this past winter by the Lexington Philharmonic. Critic Loren Tice remarked of the work after that performance, "So often, a modern classical composer has a work performed and it's 'one and done,' not so with this work, I predict. Rarely do I hear a work so fresh that as soon as I hear it, I want to hear it again right away."

Commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and School, the work, scored for string orchestra, harp and timpani, reflects Beaser's lifelong interest in folk music, "from Leadbelly to Alan Lomax," as he puts it. Folk music is familiar territory for Beaser's compositions. His flute and guitar work Mountain Songs re-imagines seven Appalachian folk tunes in different contexts; his Souvenirs, for clarinet or piccolo and piano, appropriates disparate folk song "shreds and patches" that are utilized in portions of the work amongst the new material. Beaser describes Souvenirs as sounding "in some spiritual way like folk songs—somewhat akin to Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, only different."

Folk Songs grows out of Souvenirs, adapting and reordering material from it while presenting it in a new orchestral setting with new music. The songs range in character from the classically American to the contemporary American, featuring the Appalachian shanty tune "Lily Monroe" alongside original songs. The five songs of Souvenirs comprise a work that marks moments in American folk music and history just as readily as it does Beaser’s compositional output.

Robert Beaser–Composer Profile

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Robert Beaser
Folk Songs (2007)
timp–hp–str(10.8.6.6.4)
15’