RUDY SHACKELFORD: INFOLIATIONS
RUDY SHACKELFORD; COMPOSER, ORGANIST
Rudy Shackelford (b. 1944) studied composition at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Illinois. From 1971 he has been a freelance composer and writer with residences at Yaddo, the McDowell Colony, and the Ossabaw Island Project. In 1977, on a Rockefeller Foundation grant, he was a fellow of Villa Setbelloni, Bellagio, Italy.
Shackelford has received commissions from the Hartt College International Contemporary Organ Music Festival, the Virginia Music Teachers' Association, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
INFOLIATIONS (1987) was commissioned by the Brass Chamber Music Society of Annapolis for performances by the Annapolis Brass Quintet and the Naked Feet Dance Company.
Shackelford has received commissions from the Hartt College International Contemporary Organ Music Festival, the Virginia Music Teachers' Association, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
INFOLIATIONS (1987) was commissioned by the Brass Chamber Music Society of Annapolis for performances by the Annapolis Brass Quintet and the Naked Feet Dance Company.
World Premiere Performance
February 21, 1988
RUDY SHACKELFORD'S INFOLIATIONS (1987)
This Annapolis Brass Quintet pre-premiere performance recording was used for practice sessions by the Naked Feet Dance Company.
To Listen TAP > Below
Duration: (30:48)
(There may be a 10 to 20 second delay before sound begins.)
INFOLIATIONS
I. Intrada II. Estampie
III. Pavane IV. Galliard
V. Diferencias: "Il Re Di Spagna"
The composer supplied the following program note:
I. Intrada II. Estampie
III. Pavane IV. Galliard
V. Diferencias: "Il Re Di Spagna"
The composer supplied the following program note:
INFOLIATIONS for brass quintet is the sequel to EXFOLIATIONS, a set of suite variations for guitar composed in 1986. Both works are based on the Folia, a dance which evolved from one "mad" or "empty-hearted" character accompanied by the five-course guitar and sonatas (metal disks attached to a wooden ring) that flourished in Spain and Italy ca. 1575 - 1675, to the slow, dignified type of popular mainly in France and England ca. 1675 - 1750. Here the Folia consists of an original 16-bar melody superimposed on the harmonic framework of Corelli's famous violin sonata called "La Follia".
I - V - VII - III - VII - I - V - I This succession of chords happens to be a palindrome, a phenomenon that fascinated me as a composer but was apparently not noticed--or considered worth remarking--by the expert author of the article on the Folia in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
In any case, having stripped away the Corelli tune and substituted my own at the beginning of EXFOLIATIONS (title drawn from the Latin exfoliate, to strip of leaves), I devoted the rest of this work to peeling off that melody as well and to developing its motivic implications. Thus "exfoliate" in the figurative sense: to unfold the leaves of, to open out, to develop. The process is then reversed throughout INFOLIATIONS, as though the film of a catastrophe were run backward. The end result is a restoration of the Folia melody with Cornelian harmonic underpinning intact. Therefore, "infoliate" (a rare verb, found only in the Oxford English Dictionary): to put on leaves, to become leafy.*
Along the way, with the Folia was a milestone, the history of dance forms from the 14th through the 17th centuries is chronicled: Sarabande (after Bach) and Bergamasca (Frescobaldi) appear in EXFOLIATIONS: Intrada (Schein), Estampie (anonomous), Pavan (Robert Johnson, arranged by Giles Farnaby), and Galliard (Frescobaldi once more), in INFOLIATIONS. Each of the works closes with a large-scale variation movement, respectively Chaconne and Diferencias (on the famous basse dense tenor ("The King of Spain").
Eventually, EXFOLIATIONS will stand at the beginning, and INFOLIATIONS at the end, of a series of works based on the Folia. Already planned are FOLE A' DEUX for recorder and harpsichord (after Hugh Aston's "Hornpipe"), FOLE A' TROIS and FOLIE A' QUATRE for instrumental or vocal combinations yet to be chosen.
The Pavan in INFOLIATIONS is dedicated to the memory of the American composer Vincent Persichetti, who died in August 1987 when it was being written.
_____________________
* Etymologists may quibble with my pun of folia = leaves (plural of the Latin folium) and folia = madness or lunacy. The Spanish folia, French folia, and Italian follis, meaning "bag," "bellows," "punching bag," "money bag," and "puffed-out cheeks." ~ Rudy Shackelford
I - V - VII - III - VII - I - V - I This succession of chords happens to be a palindrome, a phenomenon that fascinated me as a composer but was apparently not noticed--or considered worth remarking--by the expert author of the article on the Folia in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
In any case, having stripped away the Corelli tune and substituted my own at the beginning of EXFOLIATIONS (title drawn from the Latin exfoliate, to strip of leaves), I devoted the rest of this work to peeling off that melody as well and to developing its motivic implications. Thus "exfoliate" in the figurative sense: to unfold the leaves of, to open out, to develop. The process is then reversed throughout INFOLIATIONS, as though the film of a catastrophe were run backward. The end result is a restoration of the Folia melody with Cornelian harmonic underpinning intact. Therefore, "infoliate" (a rare verb, found only in the Oxford English Dictionary): to put on leaves, to become leafy.*
Along the way, with the Folia was a milestone, the history of dance forms from the 14th through the 17th centuries is chronicled: Sarabande (after Bach) and Bergamasca (Frescobaldi) appear in EXFOLIATIONS: Intrada (Schein), Estampie (anonomous), Pavan (Robert Johnson, arranged by Giles Farnaby), and Galliard (Frescobaldi once more), in INFOLIATIONS. Each of the works closes with a large-scale variation movement, respectively Chaconne and Diferencias (on the famous basse dense tenor ("The King of Spain").
Eventually, EXFOLIATIONS will stand at the beginning, and INFOLIATIONS at the end, of a series of works based on the Folia. Already planned are FOLE A' DEUX for recorder and harpsichord (after Hugh Aston's "Hornpipe"), FOLE A' TROIS and FOLIE A' QUATRE for instrumental or vocal combinations yet to be chosen.
The Pavan in INFOLIATIONS is dedicated to the memory of the American composer Vincent Persichetti, who died in August 1987 when it was being written.
_____________________
* Etymologists may quibble with my pun of folia = leaves (plural of the Latin folium) and folia = madness or lunacy. The Spanish folia, French folia, and Italian follis, meaning "bag," "bellows," "punching bag," "money bag," and "puffed-out cheeks." ~ Rudy Shackelford
February 21, 1988 World Premiere Performance
ANNAPOLIS BRASS QUINTET
ROBERT SUGGS, Trumpet; DAVID CRAN, Trumpet; ARTHUR BROOKS, Horn
WAYNE WELLS, Trombone; ROBERT POSTEN, Bass Trombone
NAKED FEET DANCE COMPANY
ROBIN WILLIAMS, Choreography; LAUURE DROGOUL, Costumes; ANN HOWELL, Lighting
DANCERS:
MARY CLAIRE FITCHETT; KIMBERLY MACKIN; LEE MELCHOIOR
BEVERLY PRAHL; KIM STEMPEK
ANNAPOLIS BRASS QUINTET
ROBERT SUGGS, Trumpet; DAVID CRAN, Trumpet; ARTHUR BROOKS, Horn
WAYNE WELLS, Trombone; ROBERT POSTEN, Bass Trombone
NAKED FEET DANCE COMPANY
ROBIN WILLIAMS, Choreography; LAUURE DROGOUL, Costumes; ANN HOWELL, Lighting
DANCERS:
MARY CLAIRE FITCHETT; KIMBERLY MACKIN; LEE MELCHOIOR
BEVERLY PRAHL; KIM STEMPEK
FOSTERING BRASS CHAMBER MUSIC
The score and parts for Rudy Shackelford's Infoliations, along with the entire ABQ music library, are available for research and performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Library.
For direct access: ABQ Special Collection @ Oberlin Conservatory Library
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The score and parts for Rudy Shackelford's Infoliations, along with the entire ABQ music library, are available for research and performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Library.
For direct access: ABQ Special Collection @ Oberlin Conservatory Library
Tap Here