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Learn more about the music and composers from the concert Through Our Eyes, from March 13, 2022:

Program Notes

The word vishwas (िवशवास) expresses the concept of fervent belief, or faith, in Hindi. Meera Bai, a celebrated saint-poet from 15th century India, is the quintessential embodiment of vishwas. Though she is forced into a traditional marriage to unite two kingdoms, she believes she is married to the Lord Krishna, a Hindu deity, and the events of her life are shaped around her fervent devotion to this intangible but omnipresent figure.

Testament is the final movement of a three part work for bharatanatyam (Indian classical) dancer and orchestra. In Meera’s stubbornness, she stages a hunger strike outside the temple of her Lord Krishna, refusing to eat until the doors are opened. One night, after days of fasting, she is extremely weak and lays down to rest. A storm brews, and the high winds begin to swing the lamp outside the temple’s wooden door, causing the door to catch fire. As the storm builds, the door burns, eventually causing the entrance to
the temple to reopen. This piece incorporates one of Meera’s own bhajans (devotional songs), in Raag Malhar, the raag that beckons rain. Krishna has used the forces of nature to show himself, and to honor Meera’s faithfulness to him. Even as the flames surround her, Meera walks calmly into the temple to honor her Lord.

Vishwas makes use of traditional Hindustani raags, which are woven through the fabric of the composition. It is fitting that all the information we currently have about Meera Bai and her struggles for self-expression are from her own songs.

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Biographical Note, by Jane Jaffe 

Having first studied music at home with his guitar-playing father, Adolfo Mejía continued his musical training in Cartagena, but also studied philosophy and literature. He briefly attended the Instituto Musical de Cartagena, but left when he found it unchallenging. He began studying on his own, while working for the popular Caribbean-style Lordy Orchestra as pianist, conductor, and composer. Just married in 1930, Mejía evertheless left alone to try his luck in New York, where his association with Argentinian musician Terig Tucci and his Orquesta Típica Colombiana y Estudiantina furthered his knowledge of instrumental arranging. He also set up his own orchestra, Los Calientes, and with Tucci and Antonio Francés formed a trio that performed music from the Spanish court. 

Mejía returned to Cartagena in 1933, but soon left again to work in Bogotá as a librarian for the Orquesta Sinfónica, which led to studies at the Conservatory, the orchestra’s parent institution. This composer of fandangos, cumbias, and rumbas soon developed a lively interest in composing symphonic and piano pieces. His most well-known orchestral piece, the “Pequeña suite” of 1938, won the Ezequiel Bernal prize, which enabled him to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. 

Wartime conditions in 1940 forced Mejia to return to Cartagena, where he rejoined his wife, whom he had seen only on brief visits, and got to know his sons. He directed the band of the Naval School, then began teaching at the Music Institute of Cartagena, where he served as deputy director, conducted the orchestra, and taught harmony, guitar, and cello until he retired. He also helped organize the eleven festivals of the Pro-Arte Musical de Cartagena, which garnered worldwide attention. Mejía composed much less after 1960, adding the study of physics and languages to his many activities. 

About the Work 

Mejía’s prize-winning “Pequeña suite” received its first performance in 1938 at the Festival Iberoamericano de Música Fundación Bogotá, organized by Gustavo Espina Grau to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city. The “Little” Suite consists of three movements all based on traditional Colombian dances. The first movement is in the style of a bambuco, an Andean song and dance, typically sung as a duet in thirds to guitar accompaniment and characterized with advance-and-retreat dance steps symbolizing courtship. Here the atmosphere heats up considerably in the final section. 

Also representing the Andes, the slow second movement draws on the torbellino, a moderately paced song and dance in strongly accented triple meter. The opening features a flowing flute solo, which returns after a livelier middle section. 

In his third movement Mejia boldly incorporates popular music from the Atlantic coast for the first time in Colombian symphonic music, despite conflicting views about its value and its perceived threat to Andean culture. The traditional cumbia is a purely instrumental dance, performed by couples dancing with exaggerated hip movements in a circle around an ensemble of seated musicians – usually by the light of candles held by each dancing woman. Mejía begins with layers of rhythmic patterns, which become accompaniment to a prominent flute melody. The faster second section features playful interplay between instrumental groups and a dramatic lull before the exuberant sign-off. 

©Jane Jaffe 

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Program Notes, by Stacy Garrop

Democracy in the United States has always been a messy process that is in a constant state of flux. When the nation’s Constitution was penned, the framers of the document didn’t differentiate voting rights between men and women. This led to various interpretations in the thirteen original colonies. For instance, while most of the colonies passed state laws that stipulated only a male adult who possessed property worth fifty pounds to vote, New Jersey’s laws allowed women to vote between 1776 and 1807, after which they were excluded. Women weren’t the only disenfranchised party in these states – slaves, men of particular religions, and men too poor to own the requisite amount of land were excluded as well. As the country progressed, wording was added to many states’ voting laws to ensure that white men (and a slim grouping at that) were the sole possessors of the vote.

Women’s inability to vote carried significant consequences. They paid taxes with no legal voice in crafting the laws of the land (i.e. taxation without representation). They were barred from becoming politicians, formulating laws, and serving on juries. If a woman got married, she immediately lost custody of her wages, children, possessions, and property. Women grew progressively frustrated by these circumstances and began to organize. The first women’s rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, and officially launched the beginning of the women’s Suffrage movement. While additional conventions were held over the next several years, forward progress was halted during the Civil War (1861-1865), after which the cause was taken up again. Starting in the late 1860s, various Suffrage organizations formed, fell apart, and re-formed in pursuit of rallying women and men to the cause. Black female Suffragists were not treated well by many of their white counterparts; as a result, they created organizations and clubs of their own. Even when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920, many states immediately passed laws that blocked Black women from voting by one means or another; this situation wasn’t rectified until Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act which federally protected all citizen’s right to vote and put an end to discriminatory practices throughout the country. Nonetheless, we still witness today how various parts of our nation try new methods to disenfranchise Black women and men from voting. For instance, in June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court removed a significant section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which enabled especially southern states to once again seek to disenfranchise primarily Black voters because they are no longer required to get the approval of the Justice Department when revising voting laws in their states. Not only is democracy a messy process, but it is something we must be vigilant in safekeeping for all of our citizens.

The Battle for the Ballot features the voices of seven Suffragists, four of whom are Black (Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, and Mary Church Terrell) and three of whom are white (Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Carrie Chapman Catt). I excerpted lines from their speeches and writings, then interwove these lines together to form a single narrative that follows their reasoning for fighting so hard for the right to vote.

Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director & Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good, The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote.

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In our continued collaboration with AAAMC, we hope you take time to explore music of some of the Black composers featured in sound recordings and music manuscript collections at the IU Archives of African American Music and Culture.

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Learn more about the music and composers from the concert Wade in the Water, from October 24, 2021:

Oct 20, 2021: BSO Artistic Director Alejandro Gómez Guillén and tenor, scholar, and cultural activist Dr. Marquese Carter discuss their careers and musical journeys involving under-represented musicians and composers. Recorded Wednesday, October 20, 2021, in advance of the BSO’s October 24th Concert featuring Dr. Carter and Florence Price’s 4th Symphony. bloomingtonsymphony.com/wadeinthewater

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Aug 26, 2021: Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Youth Concerto Winner, Cooper Olsen, plays the Étude-Caprice, op. 18, no. 4, by Henryk Wieniawski, alongside BSO Artisitic Director and Conductor Alejandro Gómez Guillén in the Monroe County Court House, Bloomington, Indiana. Hear Cooper perform Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy at the BSO’s FREE concert, Together Again, this Sunday, August 29th, 7pm, outdoors at the Switchyard Park Main Stage. bloomingtonsymphony.com/togetheragain