Ludwig
Heroes & Revolution
Join the Spartanburg Philharmonic online as we embark on a sublime musical journey through the sweeping, often turbulent emotions found in some of classical music's most revolutionary and heroic works. We begin with a piece by renaissance-man and composer, Le Chevalier Saint-Georges. His Symphony no. 1, II. Andante brings his prowess as a fencer to bear as the thrust and parry of the strings adds depth to his graceful and understated score and brings to mind classic duels fought by the famed Musketeers of the French Revolution. Then, from the revolutionary to the heroic, Roumain's String Quartet no. 5 captures both in a rousing and uplifting sweep of strings and percussion that pays homage to one of history's bravest women - Rosa Parks. For our final piece, Beethoven' brash and bold Eroica Symphony, we honor classical music's greatest composer by celebrating his 250th Birthday as well as his masterful symphonies that revolutionized classical music and responded to social change. Experience the Spartanburg Philharmonic in an entirely new way as we take you online and onstage for an incredible concert experience.
Program:
Stay tuned for more details about our new online concert
Saint-Georges, Symphony no. 1, II. Andante
Roumain, String Quartet no. 5, Rosa Parks, III. Klap Ur Handz
Beethoven, Symphony no. 3, Eroica
Classical Conversations with Spartanburg Philharmonic Music Director, Stefan Sanders will be included with the online concert.
Read More About the Composers
The Heroic Saint-Georges
The Revolutionary Inspiration of Roumain
NOTE: programs subject to change;
timings, when given, are approximate.
About The Composers
Le Chevalier Saint-Georges
The Chevalier was born Joseph Bologne on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in 1745. His father, Georges Bologne, was a minor French nobleman and plantation owner there; his mother, Anne, was a young enslaved Black woman of Senegalese descent. France’s “Black Laws” forbade his parents to marry and prevented Joseph from inheriting his father’s title, but the young man was raised as a gentleman and mastered the arts of swordsmanship and horsemanship.
Remarkably — and evidently in his spare time at military school — Joseph managed to become a virtuoso violinist. The eminent Parisian composer Gossec dedicated a set of string trios to him in 1766, and in 1769 Parisian high society was amazed when, in Gossec’s new orchestra, the Concert des Amateurs, they saw in the first violin section the celebrated swordsman St.-Georges. He created a sensation three years later when he first appeared as a soloist with the orchestra, “enrapturing particularly the feminine members of the audience” in concertos of his own composition.
When in 1789 the Revolution came, St.-Georges may have had misgivings about the revolutionaries’ increasing radicalism, he could not but have been delighted when they rescinded the Black Laws and he finally had the full rights of a French citizen. So, when Austria massed troops for an invasion a year later, he was happy to assume command of a newly-created regiment of Black soldiers, the Légion St.-Georges.
St.-Georges’ regiment served bravely but was betrayed by his lieutenant Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (father of the Three Musketeers author), and St.-Georges found himself imprisoned during the worst of Robespierre’s reign of terror, but in 1794, before the composer could be executed, Robespierre himself was led to the guillotine, the revolutionary fever broke, and St.-Georges was released.
In the meantime, we have St.-Georges’ music. Not a lot of it, mind you: given the exhaustingly eventful life he lived, it’s not surprising that he left only a handful of instrumental pieces and a few fragments of operas. Like that of many of his colleagues, it’s long been obscured by that of his acquaintances Haydn and Mozart. But whereas their music’s relative complexity foreshadows Beethoven and the Romantics, St.-Georges’ music epitomizes the gentlemanly virtue of bonne grace. Understated and deceptively simple, it piques the interest not with the emotionality of Mozart or the rhythmic gamesmanship of Haydn but with smaller, subtler virtues: a surprising melodic leap here, an unexpected turn of phrase there. This Andante, the central movement of one of two short symphonies the composer premiered in 1777, is scored for strings alone and set in the noble key of D Major and in a limpidly clear two-part form. Here, as he did in all those duels, St.-Georges makes it look easy.
Daniel Bernard Roumain
One of the unique aspects of presenting a piece by a living composer is hearing, in their own words, about the music we are playing. The Spartanburg Philharmonic is proud to share the following program notes, written by Daniel Bernard Roumain.
“As a Haitian-American composer, I was raised by Haitian immigrant parents who experienced American life both before, and after, the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) said about his 2005 “Parks” quartet in program notes for the contemporary music collective 45th Parallel Universe, which sponsored his music in a 2019 Old Church concert in Portland. “Their views were informed by life on a free island nation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; life in the suburbs of Chicago; and life in the complex diversity of Pompano Beach, Florida. They identified with Malcolm and Martin, Maya and Rosa, and the great Haitian warriors, Makandal and Toussaint. Civil rights, for our household, was global, local, and part of the very fabric of our lives and culture.”
45th Parallel Universe also described the quartet saying, “the first movement, I Made Up My Mind Not to Move, suggests Parks’ act of defiance not with ponderous dignity but with a strong ostinato that denotes grit, strength and confrontation. The second movement... Klap Ur Handz asks the players to actually clap, a feature DBR says was inspired by hip-hop rhythms but dates back to the [communal] music of Cro-Magnon man.”
“I created `Rosa Parks Quartet’ as a musical portrait of Rosa Parks’ struggle, survival and legacy.” 45th Parallel Universe also described the quartet saying, “the first movement, I Made Up My Mind Not to Move, suggests Parks’ act of defiance not with ponderous dignity but with a strong ostinato that denotes grit, strength, and confrontation. The second movement... Klap Ur Handz asks the players to actually clap, a feature DBR says was inspired by hip-hop rhythms but dates back to the [communal] music of Cro-Magnon man.”
“The music is a direct reflection of a dignified resistance. It’s telling that this work may, in fact, be performed on stages that didn’t allow the presence of so many, so often. I often refer to the stage as the last bastion of democracy, where all voices can and should be heard, where we are all equal, important, and necessary. However, as a Black, Haitian-American composer, so much of my work continues to suffer within a field that is not inclusive or compassionate. Classical music remains racist. Classical music organizations continue to disenfranchise BIPOC people, and not only BIPOC audiences, but their families and our audiences and our communities. Not nearly enough progress has been made.”