SKU: CF.WF229

ISBN 9781491153789. UPC: 680160911288.

Introduction Gustave Vogt's Musical Paris Gustave Vogt (1781-1870) was born into the Age of Enlightenment, at the apex of the Enlightenment's outreach. During his lifetime he would observe its effect on the world. Over the course of his life he lived through many changes in musical style. When he was born, composers such as Mozart and Haydn were still writing masterworks revered today, and eighty-nine years later, as he departed the world, the new realm of Romanticism was beginning to emerge with Mahler, Richard Strauss and Debussy, who were soon to make their respective marks on the musical world. Vogt himself left a huge mark on the musical world, with critics referring to him as the grandfather of the modern oboe and the premier oboist of Europe. Through his eighty-nine years, Vogt would live through what was perhaps the most turbulent period of French history. He witnessed the French Revolution of 1789, followed by the many newly established governments, only to die just months before the establishment of the Third Republic in 1870, which would be the longest lasting government since the beginning of the revolution. He also witnessed the transformation of the French musical world from one in which opera reigned supreme, to one in which virtuosi, chamber music, and symphonic music ruled. Additionally, he experienced the development of the oboe right before his eyes. When he began playing in the late eighteenth century, the standard oboe had two keys (E and Eb) and at the time of his death in 1870, the System Six Triebert oboe (the instrument adopted by Conservatoire professor, Georges Gillet, in 1882) was only five years from being developed. Vogt was born March 18, 1781 in the ancient town of Strasbourg, part of the Alsace region along the German border. At the time of his birth, Strasbourg had been annexed by Louis XIV, and while heavily influenced by Germanic culture, had been loosely governed by the French for a hundred years. Although it is unclear when Vogt began studying the oboe and when his family made its move to the French capital, the Vogts may have fled Strasbourg in 1792 after much of the city was destroyed during the French Revolution. He was without question living in Paris by 1798, as he enrolled on June 8 at the newly established Conservatoire national de Musique to study oboe with the school's first oboe professor, Alexandre-Antoine Sallantin (1775-1830). Vogt's relationship with the Conservatoire would span over half a century, moving seamlessly from the role of student to professor. In 1799, just a year after enrolling, he was awarded the premier prix, becoming the fourth oboist to achieve this award. By 1802 he had been appointed repetiteur, which involved teaching the younger students and filling in for Sallantin in exchange for a free education. He maintained this rank until 1809, when he was promoted to professor adjoint and finally to professor titulaire in 1816 when Sallantin retired. This was a position he held for thirty-seven years, retiring in 1853, making him the longest serving oboe professor in the school's history. During his tenure, he became the most influential oboist in France, teaching eighty-nine students, plus sixteen he taught while he was professor adjoint and professor titulaire. Many of these students went on to be famous in their own right, such as Henri Brod (1799-1839), Apollon Marie-Rose Barret (1804-1879), Charles Triebert (1810-1867), Stanislas Verroust (1814-1863), and Charles Colin (1832-1881). His influence stretches from French to American oboe playing in a direct line from Charles Colin to Georges Gillet (1854-1920), and then to Marcel Tabuteau (1887-1966), the oboist Americans lovingly describe as the father of American oboe playing. Opera was an important part of Vogt's life. His first performing position was with the Theatre-Montansier while he was still studying at the Conservatoire. Shortly after, he moved to the Ambigu-Comique and, in 1801 was appointed as first oboist with the Theatre-Italien in Paris. He had been in this position for only a year, when he began playing first oboe at the Opera-Comique. He remained there until 1814, when he succeeded his teacher, Alexandre-Antoine Sallantin, as soloist with the Paris Opera, the top orchestra in Paris at the time. He played with the Paris Opera until 1834, all the while bringing in his current and past students to fill out the section. In this position, he began to make a name for himself; so much so that specific performances were immortalized in memoirs and letters. One comes from a young Hector Berlioz (1803-1865) after having just arrived in Paris in 1822 and attended the Paris Opera's performance of Mehul's Stratonice and Persuis' ballet Nina. It was in response to the song Quand le bien-amie reviendra that Berlioz wrote: I find it difficult to believe that that song as sung by her could ever have made as true and touching an effect as the combination of Vogt's instrument... Shortly after this, Berlioz gave up studying medicine and focused on music. Vogt frequently made solo and chamber appearances throughout Europe. His busiest period of solo work was during the 1820s. In 1825 and 1828 he went to London to perform as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Society. Vogt also traveled to Northern France in 1826 for concerts, and then in 1830 traveled to Munich and Stuttgart, visiting his hometown of Strasbourg on the way. While on tour, Vogt performed Luigi Cherubini's (1760-1842) Ave Maria, with soprano Anna (Nanette) Schechner (1806-1860), and a Concertino, presumably written by himself. As a virtuoso performer in pursuit of repertoire to play, Vogt found himself writing much of his own music. His catalog includes chamber music, variation sets, vocal music, concerted works, religious music, wind band arrangements, and pedagogical material. He most frequently performed his variation sets, which were largely based on themes from popular operas he had, presumably played while he was at the Opera. He made his final tour in 1839, traveling to Tours and Bordeaux. During this tour he appeared with the singer Caroline Naldi, Countess de Sparre, and the violinist Joseph Artot (1815-1845). This ended his active career as a soloist. His performance was described in the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris as having lost none of his superiority over the oboe.... It's always the same grace, the same sweetness. We made a trip to Switzerland, just by closing your eyes and listening to Vogt's oboe. Vogt was also active performing in Paris as a chamber and orchestral musician. He was one of the founding members of the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, a group established in 1828 by violinist and conductor Francois-Antoine Habeneck (1781-1849). The group featured faculty and students performing alongside each other and works such as Beethoven symphonies, which had never been heard in France. He also premiered the groundbreaking woodwind quintets of Antonin Reicha (1770-1836). After his retirement from the Opera in 1834 and from the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1842, Vogt began to slow down. His final known performance was of Cherubini's Ave Maria on English horn with tenor Alexis Dupont (1796-1874) in 1843. He then began to reflect on his life and the people he had known. When he reached his 60s, he began gathering entries for his Musical Album of Autographs. Autograph Albums Vogt's Musical Album of Autographs is part of a larger practice of keeping autograph albums, also commonly known as Stammbuch or Album Amicorum (meaning book of friendship or friendship book), which date back to the time of the Reformation and the University of Wittenberg. It was during the mid-sixteenth century that students at the University of Wittenberg began passing around bibles for their fellow students and professors to sign, leaving messages to remember them by as they moved on to the next part of their lives. The things people wrote were mottos, quotes, and even drawings of their family coat of arms or some other scene that meant something to the owner. These albums became the way these young students remembered their school family once they had moved on to another school or town. It was also common for the entrants to comment on other entries and for the owner to amend entries when they learned of important life details such as marriage or death. As the practice continued, bibles were set aside for emblem books, which was a popular book genre that featured allegorical illustrations (emblems) in a tripartite form: image, motto, epigram. The first emblem book used for autographs was published in 1531 by Andrea Alciato (1492-1550), a collection of 212 Latin emblem poems. In 1558, the first book conceived for the purpose of the album amicorum was published by Lyon de Tournes (1504-1564) called the Thesaurus Amicorum. These books continued to evolve, and spread to wider circles away from universities. Albums could be found being kept by noblemen, physicians, lawyers, teachers, painters, musicians, and artisans. The albums eventually became more specialized, leading to Musical Autograph Albums (or Notestammbucher). Before this specialization, musicians contributed in one form or another, but our knowledge of them in these albums is mostly limited to individual people or events. Some would simply sign their name while others would insert a fragment of music, usually a canon (titled fuga) with text in Latin. Canons were popular because they displayed the craftsmanship of the composer in a limited space. Composers well-known today, including J. S. Bach, Telemann, Mozart, Beethoven, Dowland, and Brahms, all participated in the practice, with Beethoven being the first to indicate an interest in creating an album only of music. This interest came around 1815. In an 1845 letter from Johann Friedrich Naue to Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, Naue recalled an 1813 visit with Beethoven, who presented a book suggesting Naue to collect entries from celebrated musicians as he traveled. Shortly after we find Louis Spohr speaking about leaving on his grand tour through Europe in 1815 and of his desire to carry an album with entries from the many artists he would come across. He wrote in his autobiography that his most valuable contribution came from Beethoven in 1815. Spohr's Notenstammbuch, comprised only of musical entries, is groundbreaking because it was coupled with a concert tour, allowing him to reach beyond the Germanic world, where the creation of these books had been nearly exclusive. Spohr brought the practice of Notenstammbucher to France, and in turn indirectly inspired Vogt to create a book of his own some fifteen years later. Vogt's Musical Album of Autographs Vogt's Musical Album of Autographs acts as a form of a memoir, displaying mementos of musicians who held special meaning in his life as well as showing those with whom he was enamored from the younger generation. The anonymous Pie Jesu submitted to Vogt in 1831 marks the beginning of an album that would span nearly three decades by the time the final entry, an excerpt from Charles Gounod's (1818-1893) Faust, which premiered in 1859, was submitted. Within this album we find sixty-two entries from musicians whom he must have known very well because they were colleagues at the Conservatoire, or composers of opera whose works he was performing with the Paris Opera. Other entries came from performers with whom he had performed and some who were simply passing through Paris, such as Joseph Joachim (1831-1907). Of the sixty-three total entries, some are original, unpublished works, while others came from well-known existing works. Nineteen of these works are for solo piano, sixteen utilize the oboe or English horn, thirteen feature the voice (in many different combinations, including vocal solos with piano, and small choral settings up to one with double choir), two feature violin as a solo instrument, and one even features the now obscure ophicleide. The connections among the sixty-two contributors to Vogt's album are virtually never-ending. All were acquainted with Vogt in some capacity, from long-time friendships to relationships that were created when Vogt requested their entry. Thus, while Vogt is the person who is central to each of these musicians, the web can be greatly expanded. In general, the connections are centered around the Conservatoire, teacher lineages, the Opera, and performing circles. The relationships between all the contributors in the album parallel the current musical world, as many of these kinds of relationships still exist, and permit us to fantasize who might be found in an album created today by a musician of the same standing. Also important, is what sort of entries the contributors chose to pen. The sixty-three entries are varied, but can be divided into published and unpublished works. Within the published works, we find opera excerpts, symphony excerpts, mass excerpts, and canons, while the unpublished works include music for solo piano, oboe or English horn, string instruments (violin and cello), and voice (voice with piano and choral). The music for oboe and English horn works largely belong in the unpublished works of the album. These entries were most likely written to honor Vogt. Seven are for oboe and piano and were contributed by Joseph Joachim, Pauline Garcia Viardot (1821-1910), Joseph Artot, Anton Bohrer (1783-1852), Georges Onslow (1784-1853), Desire Beaulieu (1791-1863), and Narcisse Girard (1797-1860). The common thread between these entries is the simplicity of the melody and structure. Many are repetitive, especially Beaulieu's entry, which features a two-note ostinato throughout the work, which he even included in his signature. Two composers contributed pieces for English horn and piano, and like the previous oboe entries, are simple and repetitive. These were written by Michele Carafa (1787-1872) and Louis Clapisson (1808-1866). There are two other entries that were unpublished works and are chamber music. One is an oboe trio by Jacques Halevy (1799-1862) and the other is for oboe and strings (string trio) by J. B. Cramer (1771-1858). There are five published works in the album for oboe and English horn. There are three from operas and the other two from symphonic works. Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896) contributed an excerpt from the Entr'acte of his opera La Guerillero, and was likely chosen because the oboe was featured at this moment. Hippolyte Chelard (1789-1861) also chose to honor Vogt by writing for English horn. His entry, for English horn and piano, is taken from his biggest success, Macbeth. The English horn part was actually taken from Lady Macbeth's solo in the sleepwalking scene. Vogt's own entry also falls into this category, as he entered an excerpt from Donizetti's Maria di Rohan. The excerpt he chose is a duet between soprano and English horn. There are two entries featuring oboe that are excerpted from symphonic repertoire. One is a familiar oboe melody from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony entered by his first biographer, Anton Schindler (1796-1864). The other is an excerpt from Berlioz's choral symphony, Romeo et Juliette. He entered an oboe solo from the Grand Fete section of the piece. Pedagogical benefit All of these works are lovely, and fit within the album wonderfully, but these works also are great oboe and English horn music for young students. The common thread between these entries is the simplicity of the melody and structure. Many are repetitive, especially Beaulieu's entry, which features a two-note ostinato throughout the work in the piano. This repetitive structure is beneficial for young students for searching for a short solo to present at a studio recital, or simply to learn. They also work many technical issues a young player may encounter, such as mastering the rolling finger to uncover and recover the half hole. This is true of Bealieu's Pensee as well as Onslow's Andantino. Berlioz's entry from Romeo et Juliette features very long phrases, which helps with endurance and helps keep the air spinning through the oboe. Some of the pieces also use various levels of ornamentation, from trills to grace notes, and short cadenzas. This allows the student to learn appropriate ways to phrase with these added notes. The chamber music is a valuable way to start younger students with chamber music, especially the short quartet by Cramer for oboe and string trio. All of these pieces will not tax the student to learn a work that is more advanced, as well as give them a full piece that they can work on from beginning to end in a couple weeks, instead of months. Editorial Policy The works found in this edition are based on the manuscript housed at the Morgan Library in New York City (call number Cary 348, V886. A3). When possible, published scores were consulted and compared to clarify pitch and text. The general difficulties in creating an edition of these works stem from entries that appear to be hastily written, and thus omit complete articulations and dynamic indications for all passages and parts. The manuscript has been modernized into a performance edition. The score order from the manuscript has been retained. If an entry also exists in a published work, and this was not indicated on the manuscript, appropriate titles and subtitles have been added tacitly. For entries that were untitled, the beginning tempo marking or expressive directive has been added as its title tacitly. Part names have been changed from the original language to English. If no part name was present, it was added tacitly. All scores are transposing where applicable. Measure numbers have been added at the beginning of every system. Written directives have been retained in the original language and are placed relative to where they appear in the manuscript. Tempo markings from the manuscript have been retained, even if they were abbreviated, i.e., Andte. The barlines, braces, brackets, and clefs are modernized. The beaming and stem direction has been modernized. Key signatures have been modernized as some of the flats/sharps do not appear on the correct lines or spaces. Time signatures have been modernized. In a few cases, when a time signature was missing in the manuscript, it has been added tacitly. Triplet and rhythmic groupings have been modernized. Slurs, ties, and articulations (staccato and accent) have been modernized. Slurs, ties, and articulations have been added to parallel passages tacitly. Courtesy accidentals found in the manuscript have been removed, unless it appeared to be helpful to the performer. Dynamic indications from the manuscript have been retained, except where noted. --Kristin Leitterman.
IntroductionGustave Vogt’s Musical ParisGustave Vogt (1781–1870) was born into the “Age of Enlightenment,” at the apex of the Enlightenment’s outreach. During his lifetime he would observe its effect on the world. Over the course of his life he lived through many changes in musical style. When he was born, composers such as Mozart and Haydn were still writing masterworks revered today, and eighty-nine years later, as he departed the world, the new realm of Romanticism was beginning to emerge with Mahler, Richard Strauss and Debussy, who were soon to make their respective marks on the musical world. Vogt himself left a huge mark on the musical world, with critics referring to him as the “grandfather of the modern oboe” and the “premier oboist of Europe.”Through his eighty-nine years, Vogt would live through what was perhaps the most turbulent period of French history. He witnessed the French Revolution of 1789, followed by the many newly established governments, only to die just months before the establishment of the Third Republic in 1870, which would be the longest lasting government since the beginning of the revolution. He also witnessed the transformation of the French musical world from one in which opera reigned supreme, to one in which virtuosi, chamber music, and symphonic music ruled. Additionally, he experienced the development of the oboe right before his eyes. When he began playing in the late eighteenth century, the standard oboe had two keys (E and Eb) and at the time of his death in 1870, the “System Six” Triébert oboe (the instrument adopted by Conservatoire professor, Georges Gillet, in 1882) was only five years from being developed.Vogt was born March 18, 1781 in the ancient town of Strasbourg, part of the Alsace region along the German border. At the time of his birth, Strasbourg had been annexed by Louis XIV, and while heavily influenced by Germanic culture, had been loosely governed by the French for a hundred years. Although it is unclear when Vogt began studying the oboe and when his family made its move to the French capital, the Vogts may have fled Strasbourg in 1792 after much of the city was destroyed during the French Revolution. He was without question living in Paris by 1798, as he enrolled on June 8 at the newly established Conservatoire national de Musique to study oboe with the school’s first oboe professor, Alexandre-Antoine Sallantin (1775–1830).Vogt’s relationship with the Conservatoire would span over half a century, moving seamlessly from the role of student to professor. In 1799, just a year after enrolling, he was awarded the premier prix, becoming the fourth oboist to achieve this award. By 1802 he had been appointed répétiteur, which involved teaching the younger students and filling in for Sallantin in exchange for a free education. He maintained this rank until 1809, when he was promoted to professor adjoint and finally to professor titulaire in 1816 when Sallantin retired. This was a position he held for thirty-seven years, retiring in 1853, making him the longest serving oboe professor in the school’s history. During his tenure, he became the most influential oboist in France, teaching eighty-nine students, plus sixteen he taught while he was professor adjoint and professor titulaire. Many of these students went on to be famous in their own right, such as Henri Brod (1799–1839), Apollon Marie-Rose Barret (1804–1879), Charles Triebert (1810–1867), Stanislas Verroust (1814–1863), and Charles Colin (1832–1881). His influence stretches from French to American oboe playing in a direct line from Charles Colin to Georges Gillet (1854–1920), and then to Marcel Tabuteau (1887–1966), the oboist Americans lovingly describe as the “father of American oboe playing.”Opera was an important part of Vogt’s life. His first performing position was with the Théâtre-Montansier while he was still studying at the Conservatoire. Shortly after, he moved to the Ambigu-Comique and, in 1801 was appointed as first oboist with the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. He had been in this position for only a year, when he began playing first oboe at the Opéra-Comique. He remained there until 1814, when he succeeded his teacher, Alexandre-Antoine Sallantin, as soloist with the Paris Opéra, the top orchestra in Paris at the time. He played with the Paris Opéra until 1834, all the while bringing in his current and past students to fill out the section. In this position, he began to make a name for himself; so much so that specific performances were immortalized in memoirs and letters. One comes from a young Hector Berlioz (1803–1865) after having just arrived in Paris in 1822 and attended the Paris Opéra’s performance of Mehul’s Stratonice and Persuis’ ballet Nina. It was in response to the song Quand le bien-amié reviendra that Berlioz wrote: “I find it difficult to believe that that song as sung by her could ever have made as true and touching an effect as the combination of Vogt’s instrument…” Shortly after this, Berlioz gave up studying medicine and focused on music.Vogt frequently made solo and chamber appearances throughout Europe. His busiest period of solo work was during the 1820s. In 1825 and 1828 he went to London to perform as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Society. Vogt also traveled to Northern France in 1826 for concerts, and then in 1830 traveled to Munich and Stuttgart, visiting his hometown of Strasbourg on the way. While on tour, Vogt performed Luigi Cherubini’s (1760–1842) Ave Maria, with soprano Anna (Nanette) Schechner (1806–1860), and a Concertino, presumably written by himself. As a virtuoso performer in pursuit of repertoire to play, Vogt found himself writing much of his own music. His catalog includes chamber music, variation sets, vocal music, concerted works, religious music, wind band arrangements, and pedagogical material. He most frequently performed his variation sets, which were largely based on themes from popular operas he had, presumably played while he was at the Opéra.He made his final tour in 1839, traveling to Tours and Bordeaux. During this tour he appeared with the singer Caroline Naldi, Countess de Sparre, and the violinist Joseph Artôt (1815–1845). This ended his active career as a soloist. His performance was described in the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris as having “lost none of his superiority over the oboe…. It’s always the same grace, the same sweetness. We made a trip to Switzerland, just by closing your eyes and listening to Vogt’s oboe.”Vogt was also active performing in Paris as a chamber and orchestral musician. He was one of the founding members of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, a group established in 1828 by violinist and conductor François-Antoine Habeneck (1781–1849). The group featured faculty and students performing alongside each other and works such as Beethoven symphonies, which had never been heard in France. He also premiered the groundbreaking woodwind quintets of Antonin Reicha (1770–1836).After his retirement from the Opéra in 1834 and from the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1842, Vogt began to slow down. His final known performance was of Cherubini’s Ave Maria on English horn with tenor Alexis Dupont (1796–1874) in 1843. He then began to reflect on his life and the people he had known. When he reached his 60s, he began gathering entries for his Musical Album of Autographs.Autograph AlbumsVogt’s Musical Album of Autographs is part of a larger practice of keeping autograph albums, also commonly known as Stammbuch or Album Amicorum (meaning book of friendship or friendship book), which date back to the time of the Reformation and the University of Wittenberg. It was during the mid-sixteenth century that students at the University of Wittenberg began passing around bibles for their fellow students and professors to sign, leaving messages to remember them by as they moved on to the next part of their lives. The things people wrote were mottos, quotes, and even drawings of their family coat of arms or some other scene that meant something to the owner. These albums became the way these young students remembered their school family once they had moved on to another school or town. It was also common for the entrants to comment on other entries and for the owner to amend entries when they learned of important life details such as marriage or death.As the practice continued, bibles were set aside for emblem books, which was a popular book genre that featured allegorical illustrations (emblems) in a tripartite form: image, motto, epigram. The first emblem book used for autographs was published in 1531 by Andrea Alciato (1492–1550), a collection of 212 Latin emblem poems. In 1558, the first book conceived for the purpose of the album amicorum was published by Lyon de Tournes (1504–1564) called the Thesaurus Amicorum. These books continued to evolve, and spread to wider circles away from universities. Albums could be found being kept by noblemen, physicians, lawyers, teachers, painters, musicians, and artisans.The albums eventually became more specialized, leading to Musical Autograph Albums (or Notestammbücher). Before this specialization, musicians contributed in one form or another, but our knowledge of them in these albums is mostly limited to individual people or events. Some would simply sign their name while others would insert a fragment of music, usually a canon (titled fuga) with text in Latin. Canons were popular because they displayed the craftsmanship of the composer in a limited space. Composers well-known today, including J. S. Bach, Telemann, Mozart, Beethoven, Dowland, and Brahms, all participated in the practice, with Beethoven being the first to indicate an interest in creating an album only of music.This interest came around 1815. In an 1845 letter from Johann Friedrich Naue to Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, Naue recalled an 1813 visit with Beethoven, who presented a book suggesting Naue to collect entries from celebrated musicians as he traveled. Shortly after we find Louis Spohr speaking about leaving on his “grand tour” through Europe in 1815 and of his desire to carry an album with entries from the many artists he would come across. He wrote in his autobiography that his “most valuable contribution” came from Beethoven in 1815. Spohr’s Notenstammbuch, comprised only of musical entries, is groundbreaking because it was coupled with a concert tour, allowing him to reach beyond the Germanic world, where the creation of these books had been nearly exclusive. Spohr brought the practice of Notenstammbücher to France, and in turn indirectly inspired Vogt to create a book of his own some fifteen years later.Vogt’s Musical Album of AutographsVogt’s Musical Album of Autographs acts as a form of a memoir, displaying mementos of musicians who held special meaning in his life as well as showing those with whom he was enamored from the younger generation. The anonymous Pie Jesu submitted to Vogt in 1831 marks the beginning of an album that would span nearly three decades by the time the final entry, an excerpt from Charles Gounod’s (1818–1893) Faust, which premiered in 1859, was submitted.Within this album ...

SKU: PR.114419030

ISBN 9781491114124. UPC: 680160669851. 9 x 12 inches.

A fascination with polycultural synergy between diverse literary textsdrives the inspiration for much of Mohammed Fairouz’s prodigiouscreative output, including instrumental music as well as vocal. Inhis profound and extensive essay preceding the score, Fairouz shedslight on how Edgar Allen Poe’s “Israfel” relates to the prophetsand prophesies of the Quran, Old Testament, and New Testament.The eight-movement quartet may be heard as a dramatic galleryof portraits and of story-telling, flourishing in a post-traditionallanguage that is at once vernacular and spiritual, Middle Easternand Western. The complete set of score and parts is included in thispublication.
(See pages 2-3 of score for clear distinction of paragraphs, etc.)Prophesies, by Mohammed FairouzEdgar Allen Poe’s rendition of Israfel was the point of departure for the final movement of my previous stringquartet which is titled The Named Angels. At the opening of his poem, Poe evokes the Quran:“And the angel Israfel, whose heartstrings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.”This informs the first lines of the poem that, in turn, gave me the title for the final movement of The Named Angels,“Israfel’s Spell”:In Heaven a spirit doth dwell“Whose heartstrings are a lute”None sing so wildly wellAs the angel Israfel,And the giddy stars (so legends tell),Ceasing their hymns, attend the spellOf his voice, all mute.It is the end of that poem, however, that is the starting point for the current quartet, Prophesies, which concernsitself with mortal prophets rather than eternal Angelic spirits.If I could dwellWhere IsrafelHath dwelt, and he where I,He might not sing so wildly wellA mortal melody,While a bolder note than this might swellFrom my lyre within the sky.Islamic thought has asked us to look at the example of the prophets. That’s significant because of the fact thatJoseph and all the prophets were human beings with the flaws of human beings. No prophet was perfect, andIslamic tradition has never asked its followers to aspire to the example of the Angels, the perfected ones. Instead weare given the gift of our prophets. While The Named Angels drew on the motion and energy of everlasting spirits,Prophesies is a depiction of the movements within our own mortal coil.This quartet is a continuation of a long tradition of Muslim artists telling their stories and singing their songs.Many of these renditions are, in fact, figurative and (contrary to popular belief) the Quran contains no “Islamicedict” prohibiting figurative renditions of the figures described in the Old Testament, New Testament, or Quran.The majority of artists, however, have preferred eternal and abstract forms such as words and their calligraphicrepresentations, poems (Yusuf and Zuleikha or the Conference of Birds come immediately to mind), architecture,and many other non-figurative art forms to the representation of man. These cold, ancient, and everlasting shapesof unending time flourished, and the divine infinity of representing geometric forms gained favor over the placementof the explicit representation of mankind and our own likeness at the center of the universes.Adding the string quartet to these forms which express the recursive spheres of heavens and earth abstractly shouldexplain why I have chosen to render higher things through the use of music without the addition of words or anyother art-form. It is the abstract art of pure form, in which all is form and all is content, which compels me. Thisquartet should be seen as no more programmatic than the arches of the Great Mosque at Cordoba.The first movement, Yāqub (Jacob), is slow, quiet and prayerful. It evokes the patient sorrow of a slow choraledeveloping over time as it coaxes our pulse out of the ticking of a clock-like meter that defines our day-to-day livesand into a divine eternity.The second, Saleh, imagines the spirit of that desert-prophet through the use of a Liwa; the dance-sequence that hasbeen such a prevalent form of expression in the Arabian Peninsula for much of our recorded history.The third movement is titled Dawoōd, and it is emblematic of the beloved Prophet, King, and Psalmist, David.Though it has no lyrics, the movement functions as a dabkeh (an ancient dance native to the Levant) and also “sets”the opening of Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands). This line is never set to music or sung inthe quartet but is evoked through the rhythmic shape of the violin part which imitates the phonology and rhythmof my speaking the opening line in the Hebrew and develops the contours of that line incessantly throughout themovement.3The fourth movement is an ode to Yousef (Joseph) and relates to the first movement in tempo and tone just as Josephrelates to Jacob, his father. Together, the first and fourth movements provide a sort of Lamentation and relief.Joseph had the appearance of a noble angel, but he was very much a human being. And the story of this particularprophet had tragic beginnings many years before he found himself in a position of power in Egypt. Back in his youth,still among the Israelites, Joseph experienced a series of revelations through his dreams that spoke of his impendingcareer in prophecy. He confided his dreams to his father, the Prophet Jacob, who told his son of the greatness thatawaited him in his future only to have his brothers throw him into a well and leave him for dead. Joseph eventuallyfound his way from Israel to Egypt and rose out of slavery into a position of power. Meanwhile, famine engulfs Israel.Forty years pass, and back in the land of Jacob and Rachel, of Joseph’s brothers and Abraham’s tribe, Israel wasnot spared the effects of the famine. They sorely lacked Joseph’s prophecy and his vision. The Qur’an then tells usthat Jacob, sensing Joseph, sends the other brothers to Egypt instructing them to come back with food and grain.Arriving in Egypt, they unwittingly appear before Joseph. They don’t recognize their little brother who has risen toa position of might, dressed in his Egyptian regalia. They ask for the food and the grain.After some conversation, Joseph is no longer able to contain his emotion. Overcome, he reveals himself to his nowterrified brothers. He embraces them. He asks them eagerly, “How is our father?” Joseph gives them the gift of thefood and the grain that they came in search of. He relieves them from hunger and alleviates their fear. He sendsthem back with proof that he is alive, and it is this joyful proof from the miraculous hands of a prophet that bringsback the ancient Jacob’s vision after 40 years of blindness.In this story, I am struck by the fact that Joseph may not have made the decision to forgive his brothers on thespot, but that something inside the prophet’s soul found forgiveness and peace for the brothers who had so gravelywronged him at some point along his journey. I would suspect this point to have been present at Joseph’s inception,even before he had ever been wronged.This is proof, if we needed it, that Joseph’s angel-like beauty was not only physical and external, but also internalas well: Joseph possessed a profound loveliness of spirit that bound his appearance and his soul. In Joseph, formand soul are one.Time is to musicians what light is to a painter. In this way, the story of Joseph also shows us that time can affectour perception of even the most tragic wounds. In fact, the most common Arabic word for “human being” is insaan,which shares its roots with the word insaa, “to forget.” While our ability to remember is essential to how we learnabout ourselves, our capacity to “forgive and forget” may also be one of our great gifts as human beings.The fifth movement follows my ode to Joseph with a structural memory of Mūsa (Moses). The movement consistsentirely of descending motifs which I constructed as an indication of Moses’ descending movement as he emergedto his people from the heights of Mt. Sinai. The music is constructed in five phrases which function as a formalreference to the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch. The movement is placed as the fifth of the quartet for the samereason.While Joseph is always evoked as supremely beautiful in the Books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Suleiman(Solomon) is described as surpassing in his quicksilver intelligence. This movement is composed of a seven-partriddle which passes by in an instant but can be caught by the attentive listener. From Solomon, we work our wayback to Yishak (Isaac) in a seventh movement that evokes Isaac’s literal meaning in Arabic and Hebrew: laughter.The eighth and final movement of this quartet is named for the Patriarch of the entire Book: Ibrahim (Abraham). Itrelates to Isaac just as Joseph relates to Jacob; they are father and son. The lines are prayerful and contemplative;the form of the music evolves from a fugue joining together many different forms of prayer into a single tapestry ofcounterpoint, to the cyclical form of this entire quartet which is rendered through the motion of pilgrims circling theKaaba (cube) in Mecca — a structure which was built by Abraham for Hagaar and their son Ismail.These are just some of the figures that are cherished by all three of the Middle Eastern monotheisms (Judaism,Christianity, and Islam) that the Qur’an refers to collectively as Ahl Al-Kitab. This Arabic phrase is most commonlytranslated as “The People of the Book,” but here the most common translation is a flawed one: the Arabic word“ahl” means “family” and not just “people.” A better translation would be “Family of the Book.” Each of the eightmovements of Prophesies grows from a single musical cell.This quartet is a family album.—Mohammed Fairouz (2018.