Pathway to Dignity

​Lucas Richman's "Concerto for Violin: Paths to Dignity" featuring Mitchell Newman, violinist. The springboard for community engagement activities that forge relationships between musical institutions and homeless advocacy organizations. Plus, the Overture by Christopher Hart and Symphony No. 5 "Reformation" by Felix Mendelssohn. 
 
Concerto for Violin: Paths to Dignity
Homelessness in today’s society has reached a peak unparalleled in history. Even prior to the devastating long-term economic effects from the global pandemic, seventeen out of every 10,000 people in the United States were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2019 according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Those in the arts community have not been shielded from the financial downturn of the past year. Consequently, the solvency of artists and arts organizations across the nation is in extreme peril. However, it is in times of crisis that the Arts that are always found on the front line towards bringing back humanity and dignity because it is creativity that lies at the core of what it means to be human.

It is with this in mind that discussions began between composer Lucas Richman and violinist Mitchell Newman for the creation of this new work for violin and orchestra for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons. This piece addresses and serves as a catalyst for meaningful discussion, the connections between homelessness and mental health as well as the role the Arts can play in restoring humanity and dignity to the ever-growing population of displaced citizens.
Movements:

1. Our Stories  (a collage of personalities and street sounds)
2. Fever Dreams/Move  (addressing the plight of veterans and their families)
3. Shelter For My Child  (restoring self-worth through grace and kindness)
4. Finding Home  (examining the barriers to re-entry into society)

Duration: 30 minutes

Orchestration:  2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 French Horns, 2 Trumpets, 1 Trombone, Timpani, 1 Percussion, Harp, Piano and Strings (standard woodwind doubling applies)

Community engagement activities are a significant part of bringing “Paths to Dignity” to your city. Musical ensembles and organizations advocating on behalf of the homeless would have the option to participate in various scheduled activities prior and subsequent to any local performances of the concerto, including the following:

• Youth Orchestra Participation
• Panel Discussions (pre-concert/post-concert)
• Concert Lobby Showcase Display
• Fundraising Activities

Overture by Christopher Hart
A note from the composer:

The piece was dedicated to my late aunt Betty. She had met my uncle in Arizona, and they married and moved to Tampa while I was quite young. I kept in touch from time to time, and I visited them once after graduating high school. Last year, my uncle called and told us Betty was sick with terminal liver cancer, despite not smoking or drinking. I hardly knew her, but regardless I still felt compelled to help them any way I could. Me and my cousin went to visit my uncle and her in June, and she passed away while we were there. I knew then I needed to honor her, and so I wrote this piece. I wish I had gotten to know her better, this is the only way I know how to make up for lost time.

I would like to thank Dr. Beverly Everett and Dr. Eric Olson for allowing me the opportunity to share this piece, as well as all of the musicians within the BSO for bringing the piece to life.

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 107 “Reformation”
Felix Mendelssohn grew up in a cultured and well-to-do Jewish banking family in the city of Berlin.  He showed an early talent for composing, playing the piano and painting.  When the family moved to Paris in 1816, his father had his children baptized as Christians and adjusted the family name to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.  Christian and Enlightenment beliefs were important factors in Mendelssohn’s career.
 
When he was just sixteen years old, Mendelssohn composed his Octet and the Midsummer Night’s Dream overture, two works, which are often hailed as the greatest manifestations of youthful genius in music history.  In 1829 he helped kindle a new appreciation for Bach by organizing and conducting the first performance in a century of the St. Matthew Passion.  Years later, when he conducted the work again at the Thomaskirche, where Bach had first presented it, the University of Leipzig awarded him an honorary doctorate.
 
Mendelssohn’s letters to his friends and family are filled with his musical philosophy and personality.  In the letter excerpted below, he ruminated on the subject of the meaning of music”
 
“People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should be thinking as they hear it is unclear, whereas everyone understands words.  With me it is exactly the reverse . . . To me, individual words and entire speeches are so ambiguous, so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison to genuine music, which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words.  The thoughts that are expressed to me by music that I love are not too indefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.”
 
The “Reformation” Symphony was composed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the “Augsburg confession,” that basic statement of the tenets of the Protestant faith drawn up by Melanchthon and approved by Luther.  The actual celebration never took place.  The 1830 revolution in Paris and scattered revolutions among the small city states in Germany were already causing so much dissention that no one in authority felt like celebrating anything.
 
The slow introduction includes statements of the “Dresden Amen,” which was also used by Wagner in slightly different form in Parsifal.  As the movement proper begins, there are also quotations from “Magnificat in the Third Tone,” and the “Nunc dimittis,” both from the Roman Catholic book of chants called the Liber Usualis.  The Dresden Amen is heard again just before the final recapitulation near the end of the movement.  The second movement is a delightful Mendelssohnian scherzo with trio, featuring antiphonal (call and response) treatment of the winds and strings.  The short slow movement (Andante) is a recitative-like introduction to the last movement.  A sustained note in the cellos and basses links the Andante to the Finale, whose form is a set of variations on each phrase of the chorale tune “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A mighty fortress is our God).  This chorale, perhaps composed by Luther himself, has always held an important place in the hearts and minds of Protestants, especially Lutherans.  Its melody is announced at by one flute alone. Gradually other winds, brass and strings join in as the tempo increases until the variations begin. It is interesting to note that in this movement the original instrumentation is increased by contrabassoon, serpent (an obsolete horn with a trumpet mouthpiece and flute-like finger holes), usually replaced by the tuba, and three trombones.