#blackmusic #africanamerican #violin
Title: Levee Dance Op. 27, No. 4 (1927)

Composer: Clarence Cameron White (1880-1960)

Performed by
Daniel Ziesemer, violin ([email protected])
Jacob Bernhardt, piano

History and Description
The period around the time of this song’s publication (1927) was called by some the “Golden Age of Violin” because the turn of the 20th century was blessed by the emergence of many beloved violinists still famous today, such as Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman, Nathan Milstein, and Clarence Cameron White. This piece was one of Heifetz’s favorite arrangements to play, and because of that, it was quickly made more popular due to Heifetz’s renown at the time as a virtuoso.

The Levee Dance begins with a rousing piano intro, quickly accompanied by the pizzicato notes of the violin, which in turn, swiftly whirls into the lively theme of the piece as strings and keys play out this delightful composition. It is infused with bouncing, blues-inspired notes, balanced in the middle section by the more solemn sounds of the familiar melody of Go Down Moses, one of the great spirituals birthed out of the era of slavery before the American Civil War.

History of Composer
Clarence Cameron White was born in 1880 in Tennessee, his father a doctor and his mother a professional violinist. His father having died when Clarence was a young child of two, he, his younger brother, and his mother moved to her parents’ home in Oberlin, Ohio. His grandfather had had a career in playing the violin and gave him his old instrument at the request of Clarence’s mother. The first spark of love for the violin was kindled in him when he lived with his grandparents, but it fanned into a great flame when he and his family lived in Washington, D.C. after his mother remarried. At twelve years old, he was brought by his mother to hear the great composer and violinist Will Marion Cook play at a concert but fell asleep during the other performances leading up to it. In his own words, “ When I was told that he had played I burst out crying and made such a fuss that my mother had to hustle me out of the concert and I went home in disgrace.” Clarence was introduced to the violinist later, due to Cook’s inquiries as to why the boy was upset at the recital, and Cook graciously gave him lessons in the summer of 1892. Later, he continued his studies with the grandson of the famous abolitionist, Frederick Douglass - Joseph Douglass, who was an accomplished violinist, as well. He went on to study at various institutions and with various tutors, including attending the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where his mother graduated from, and travelling abroad to London and Paris for further education.

The style of his compositions was that of Neo-Romanticism, (the type that emerged when composers who rejected Modernism and Expressionism were inspired by, and returned to, the beautifully emotional tonal qualities of the 19th-century Romantic musical movement, and built their compositions around it) many of his pieces being infused with the bluesy, soul-stirring melodies of black spirituals and folk music, which was very popular in Washington D.C.

Throughout his career, White bore the titles of various roles - violin historian, Washington Conservatory of Music’s string department director, concert violinist, one of the founders (and later president) of the National Association of Negro Musicians, teacher, and Hampton Institute’s musical director. He was married twice, first to the pianist Beatrice Wallace, with whom he fathered two sons, and a year after her death married the African-Puerto Rican puppeteer, writer, and librarian Pura Belpre.

14 0

#relaxing #romantic #music
Composer: Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Transcription: A. Roelens
Violin: Daniel B. Ziesemer
Piano: Jacob T. Bernhardt

Description:
Filled with beautiful sounds of the night, the first beats of this enchanting violin and piano duet begins with a heart-thrilling tune, rising and falling as the bow glides against the violin’s strings, and speaking to the heart of a love more rare, more divine, more constant than than the moon itself. The chirping of the crickets and the piano's melodious accompaniment add to the deeply enthralling tone of the entire score. Somehow, it feels both lonely and peaceful; sorrowful, yet happy; wistful, yet satisfied. That, I believe, is why Clair de Lune has stood the test of time and endeared itself to us as a versatile tune for different moods. Some view it as a lullaby, others a sorrowful lament, and still others as a tender love song.

34 8

Composer: Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)
Violin: Daniel B. Ziesemer
Piano: Jacob T. Bernhardt

This beautiful sonata was composed by Cadman in 1937 when he was in his mid-fifties, and was one of the very few sonatas he wrote. It was composed in three movements, was dedicated to the Midwest American violinist and World War I Army veteran Sol(omon) Cohen. The majority of his works consisted of pieces which used Native American themes.

The third and final movement of Cadman’s beautiful violin and piano sonata, begins with an energetic piano solo, like that heard in the first movement. It is joined in unison with an equally energetic violin part, which is interspersed with notes of pizzicato. The theme is passed back and forth between the violin and piano. This is a feature that harkens back to imitation in the form of a tonal answer, a practice common in many pieces written during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

In the second section of the movement, both instruments play in unison
This is followed by the lovely solo voice of the piano - thoughtfully and dreamily flowing like a stream lightly touching the protruding stones as it glides along, and interrupted ever so softly by short notes of the sweet violin, which takes the stage again into a joyous burst.

The mood of this final movement is overall a joyful and vigorous one, filled not predominantly with pathos and longing, but with fresh, joyous tones carried throughout the piece. In conclusion the violin restates the second theme with soft harmonic notes reminiscent of a Native American Indian flute heard across a woodland lake. A spirited coda brings the movement to a rousing finale.

History of Composer
Born in 1881 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Charles Wakefield Cadman died in Los Angeles in 1946. His musical education came solely from American teachers, from his home state of Pennsylvania, one of whom was the great Luigi Von Kunitz, the Austrian composer, violinist, and orchestral conductor. One of the earliest composers not schooled in the European tradition, his music reflects an independence of thought influenced strictly by Native American sources. His interest in Native music began in 1907 when he read the book on Indian Story and Song by Alice Fletcher, and from then on began to compose many pieces in the tradition of Native American musical style. He had a life-long association with the Indianist Movement in American music, even living with and learning from the Omaha tribe in Nebraska for a time.

Of his maternal heritage, his great-grandfather was the musician Samuel Wakefield, who was an author of both theological and musical books. Samuel Wakefield was made famous for building the first pipe organ on the west side of the Allegheny Mountains, and he also composed many pieces of sacred music.

Cadman started his own musical journey at the age of thirteen, when he began to take piano lessons. When he was fourteen, he paid for his music studies by playing the organ for a church and running errands. He became a prolific composer, who wrote music in many different genres, including Native American-inspired songs, operas, librettos, orchestral suites, cantatas, and chamber works- which category this recording falls into. He worked with Nelle Richmond Eberhart for over 40 years, who penned the words to many of his works which included text. In the 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and there wrote the scores for various Hollywood films.

In 1935, San Diego’s California Pacific International Exposition made the 4th of September “Cadman Day” in his honor.

He lived and died a bachelor, passing away on the 30th of December in 1946. He was a patriotic American citizen, and was very outspoken in his rebuke of the Nazis- calling Hitler’s regime “repugnant”. Although he was forgotten at the time of his death and remembered no more, his beautiful works will never go out of style with the ones who love his compositions.

Notes by Brieanna Savard

11 4

I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad (Harry Von Tilzer, 1872-1946)
In Apple Blossom Time (Albert Von Tilzer, 1878-1956)
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (Harry Von Tilzer)

Daniel B. Ziesemer, violin
Jacob T. Bernhardt, Piano

Notes by Brieanna Savard

This medley brings together three of the favorite songs written by the Von Tilzer brothers. Both were born to Polish -Jewish immigrants Jacob and Sarah Gumbinsky (née Tilzer) in Indiana; Harry in Goshen; and Albert in Indianapolis. For a brief time Albert worked at Harry's publishing company but soon began his own. Later both brothers settled in the Tin Pan Alley of New York City, independently writing a great deal of popular music including the well-known “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” by Albert. Both brothers were inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of fame in 1970.

A joyful intro from the piano breaks forth gladsomely at the start of the medley, sounding forth the first song, “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad”, joined by the violin’s boisterous, but more sentimental strains, which mellow out at intervals. Next, the piano plays an intro to “(I’ll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time”, followed by the soul-stirring, dreamy notes of the violin. The strains rise and fall in sweet harmony, trilling out the tune and bringing wistful thoughts to the listener’s heart and tears to the eyes. The second part of the medley is brought to a close with the introduction to “Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie”. It, too, is joyful and quick, and has a similar sound. At the end, both violin and piano rise in climax in a resounding finale.

History of Songs
I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad
This lovely, heartfelt song about a young man wanting a marriage like his father and mother have, with a wife who equals the perfection of his mother, was written in 1911 and is the first heard in this medley of three tunes composed by the Von Tizler brothers. It is still popular today, often sung by barbershop quartets. It became the second most popular piece in 1911, right behind Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. In later years, it was featured in various films and TV shows.

Lyrics by William Dillon:
When I was a boy my mother often said to me
Get married boy and see how happy you will be
I have looked all over, but no girlie can I find,
Who seems to be just like the little girl I have in mind,
I will have to look around until the right one I have found.

Chorus
I want a girl, just like the girl that married dear old Dad,
She was a pearl and the only girl that Daddy ever had,
A good old-fashioned girl with heart so true,
One who loves nobody else but you,
I want a girl, just like the girl that married dear old Dad.

Verse 2
By the old mill stream there sit a couple old and gray,
Though years have rolled away, their hearts are young today.
Mother Dear looks up at Dad with love light in her eye,
He steals a kiss, a fond embrace, while ev'ning breezes sigh,
They're as happy as can be, so that's the kind of love for me.

In Apple Blossom Time
This second tune in the medley sings of a beautiful promise from a young man to his bride-to-be that he will return to marry her in a church in May when the apple trees are blossoming. It has been sung by many famous performers over the years, including Nat King Cole.

Lyrics by Neville Fleeson:
I'm writing you, my dear,
Just to tell you,
In September, you remember
'Neath the old apple tree
You whispered to me
When it blossomed again, you'd be mine.
I've waited until I could claim you,
I hope I've not waited in vain.
For when it's spring in the valley,
I'm coming, my sweetheart, again!

Refrain:
I'll be with you in apple blossom time,
I'll be with you to change your name to mine.
One day in May
I'll come and say:
"Happy the bride the sun shines on today!"
What a wonderful wedding there will be,
What a wonderful day for you and me!
Church bells will chime
You will be mine
In apple blossom time.

Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (Lyricist Andrew B. Sterling)
Popular in many films, including The Birth of the Blues, in which Bing Crosby and Mary Martin sang it as a duet, the lyrics tell the story of two young sweethearts who could not attend a Sunday picnic because it started raining. The young man has come to his girl’s home to pick her up, but before they can leave, she looks out the window and sees the rain. But he cheers her and helps her be patient and says,

"Wait till the sun shines, Nellie,
When the clouds go drifting by,
We will be happy, Nellie,
Don't you sigh.
Down Lover's Lane we'll wander,
Sweethearts you and I.
Wait till the sun shines, Nellie,
Bye and bye.

20 2

Composer: Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Transcribed by Fritz Kreisler
Violin: Daniel B. Ziesemer
Piano: Jacob T. Bernhardt

10 0

Composer: Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)
Violin: Daniel B. Ziesemer
Piano: Jacob T. Bernhardt

This beautiful sonata was composed by Cadman in 1937 when he was in his mid-fifties, and was one of the very few sonatas he wrote. It was composed in three movements, was dedicated to the Midwest American violinist and World War I Army veteran Sol(omon) Cohen. The majority of his works consisted of pieces which used Native American-themes.

Like the first, this second movement of the sonata begins with the piano, soft and dreamy which later becomes a violin-piano duet, the violin’s strains beginning sorrowfully and sweet, full of deep, rich pathos - with the sound of a longing sigh in its voice. Rising and falling with emotion, the strains continue to enrapture the listener’s heart, then fade into a piano solo, then again joined after a moment by the beautifully heartrending notes of the violin.

The second third of the movement introduces a different mood to the piece, that of sprightly, joy-filled strains, full of life and energy, and completely doing away with the poignant and plaintive tonalities.

The last third mimics the mood of the first somewhat, though not in as somber. It is solemn but more thoughtful and composed than fraught with an overwhelming yearning.

This entire movement is very pleasant to listen to, a combination of two melodies - one solemnly sweet, the other enthusiastically gladsome, intertwined together to create a balanced whole.

History of Composer
Born in 1881 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Charles Wakefield Cadman died in Los Angeles in 1946. His musical education came solely from American teachers, from his home state of Pennsylvania, one of whom was the great Luigi Von Kunitz, the Austrian composer, violinist, and orchestral conductor. One of the earliest composers not schooled in the European tradition, his music reflects an independence of thought influenced strictly by Native American sources. His interest in Native music began in 1907 when he read the book on Indian Story and Song by Alice Fletcher, and from then on began to compose many pieces in the tradition of Native American musical style. He had a life-long association with the Indianist Movement in American music, even living with and learning from the Omaha tribe in Nebraska for a time.

Of his maternal heritage, his great-grandfather was the musician Samuel Wakefield, who was an author of both theological and musical books. Samuel Wakefield was made famous for building the first pipe organ on the west side of the Allegheny Mountains, and he also composed many pieces of sacred music.

Cadman started his own musical journey at the age of thirteen, when he began to take piano lessons. When he was fourteen, he paid for his music studies by playing the organ for a church and running errands. He became a prolific composer, who wrote music in many different genres, including Native American-inspired songs, operas, librettos, orchestral suites, cantatas, and chamber works- which category this recording falls into. He worked with Nelle Richmond Eberhart for over 40 years, who penned the words to many of his works which included text. In the 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles, California, and there wrote the scores for various Hollywood films.

In 1935, San Diego’s California Pacific International Exposition made the 4th of September “Cadman Day” in his honor.

He lived and died a bachelor, passing away on the 30th of December in 1946. He was a patriotic American citizen, and was very outspoken in his rebuke of the Nazis- calling Hitler’s regime “repugnant”. Although he was forgotten at the time of his death and remembered no more, his beautiful works will never go out of style with the ones who love his compositions.

Notes by Brieanna Savard

12 4

11 0

Composer: Michael Maybrick (1841-1913)
Lyricist: Frederic Weatherly (1848-1929)
Arranger: William Henley (1874-1957)

Michael Maybrick was a talented composer of the Victorian era, penning anthems, sea shanties, romantic pieces and sacred songs such as this lovely one, and used the pseudonym Stephen Adams. He was also a baritone singer and sang in many theatres in Italy and London with good success. His composition The Holy City was one of the most popular Christian songs of his time.

Frederic Weatherly was likewise a talented man, of many different skills. In addition to being a renowned songwriter, he was an author, lawyer, schoolmaster, and tutor. In his later years, he was a lecturer, broadcaster, and orator. He wrote the lyrics for many famous songs, including Danny Boy, Roses of Picardy, and The Holy City.

History and Description
At the beginning of the 20th century, the sheet music of this beautiful hymn sold many copies in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Its words tell the stories of three important Biblical events, the first, that of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on the day that is now called Palm Sunday, Jesus’ agony and death on the cross on Calvary’s hill, and the foretold, much longed-for New Jerusalem - the city of peace and everlasting life.

This version begins with a piano introduction, followed by the violin singing the melody. Sweet and solemn it sounds, with reverence and love felt in its strains. The violin is accompanied by the piano throughout, the violin’s sweet melody remains the focal point. About halfway in, the mood seems bolder and more triumphant, proclaiming in the violin’s voice and supported by broad chords in the piano, the victory of the Messiah.

The piece ends gradually, transitioning from solemn tones to a final glorious high note.

Last night I lay a sleep­ing,
There came a dream so fair,
I stood in old Je­ru­sa­lem
Beside the tem­ple there.
I heard the child­ren sing­ing,
And ev­er as they sang,
Methought the voice of an­gels
From Heav’n in an­swer rang;
Methought the voice of an­gels
From Heav’n in an­swer rang—
Jerusalem! Je­ru­sa­lem!
Lift up your gates and sing,
Hosanna in the high­est
Hosanna to your king!

And then me­thought my dream was changed,
The streets no long­er rang,
Hushed were the glad ho­san­nas
The lit­tle child­ren sang.
The sun grew dark with mys­te­ry,
The morn was cold and chill,
As the sha­dow of a cross arose
Upon a lone­ly hill,
As the sha­dow of a cross arose
Upon a lone­ly hill.
Jerusalem! Je­ru­salem!
Hark! how the an­gels sing,
Hosanna in the high­est,
Hosanna to your king.

And once again the scene was changed,
New earth there seemed to be,
I saw the Ho­ly Ci­ty
Beside the tide­less sea;
The light of God was on its streets,
The gates were op­en wide,
And all who would might en­ter,
And no one was de­nied.
No need of moon or stars by night,
Or sun to shine by day,
It was the new Je­ru­sa­lem,
That would not pass away,
It was the new Je­ru­sa­lem,
That would not pass away.
Jerusalem! Je­ru­sa­lem!
Sing, for the night is o’er!
Hosanna in the high­est,
Hosanna for ev­er­more!
Hosanna in the high­est,
Hosanna for ev­er­more!

19 4

1 0