Piano Work about the Environment
Marian McPartland's "A Tribute to Rachel Carson" Good for Earth Day
Jazz pianist and environmentalist Marian McPartland has written a tribute based on eco-pioneer Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring.
With Earth Day still fresh on our minds and spring finally kicking into high gear, classical music fans may be wondering if there is any music that expresses concern over the "hot" topic of global warming.
The answer is yes: check out a A Portrait of Rachel Carson, a symphony/free piano version of Rachel Carson's ground-breaking novel Silent Spring. This Portrait was premiered only a few short months ago in November 2007 by a source that seems a little bit unusual: the composer is 90-year-old Marian McPartland, host of the NPR-distributed show Piano Jazz and herself a top notch performer.
Eco-Conscious Music: The Sounds of Global Warming
Just what is a nonagenarian jazz artist doing writing an eco-conscious symphony? Besides being a master of the piano keys, McPartland is also an environmentalist and greatly admires Carson's work. Carson's book pioneered awareness of the harmful effects of chemicals such as DDT and sparked the modern movement to take more responsible care of this planet. After handing out the book to everyone she knew, McPartland decided to take the issue to the medium she knew best: the keyboard.
McPartland wrote the tribute and worked with jazz and film pianist/arranger Alan Broadbent to create the orchestrations for the symphony. When the work premiered with the University of South Carolina Symphony (conducted by Dr. Donald Portnoy), McPartland played the piano part herself. Not bad for someone born the same year WWI ended.
The composition opens full of bird songs and pastoral scenes, but the idyllic turns dark and mercenary. The second movement is stark, mechanical and oppressive. The bird calls are overrun and slowly squeezed out. The ending is a grim reminder that eco-carelessness leaves a silent world behind.
Marian McPartland: The Energizer Musician
Marian McPartland was born in 1918 and has just kept going and going since. Born in England, she began to teach herself the piano at age three before later attending London's Guildhall School of Music. She eventually joined a vaudeville act and entertained the troops during WWII. While on the road, she met Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland and performed in his Dixieland quintet once they were back in the U.S. But bebop proved too fascinating for her and she left the quintet and formed her own trio.
McPartland spent eight years at New York City's Hickory House, which became a hub for jazz greats Oscar Peterson, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. She began to host Piano Jazz, produced by South Carolina Educational Radio and distributed by NPR, nearly 30 years ago in April 1979 and continues to entertain the cream of the jazz world on her lively show.
Sources
"Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz." NPR Music
"Marian McPartland, NPR Biography." NPR Music.
"Marian McPartland's 'Rachel Carson' in Concert." April 22, 2008. NPR Music.
