Four Score For Chicago

Selected Works Inspired by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial

Inspired by the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago, Ravinia’s One Score initiative promotes the enjoyment of classical music and creates a cultural touchstone to enable people of diverse backgrounds to engage in community-wide discussion of selected masterworks. This year, however, inspired by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial, Ravinia has renamed the project Four Score For Chicago and selected four musical works that relate in various ways to our 16th president.

The selected works are Lincoln Portrait by Aaron Copland; second movement (Largo) of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”); fourth movement (Presto-allegro assai) of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (“Choral”); and the music for Bill T. Jones’s world-premiere work Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray co-composed by Jerome Begin, Christopher Lancaster and George Lewis, Jr. The movement excerpted for Four Score is titled Arise. Composed by Lancaster, it features text from Song of Solomon from the King James version of the Bible.

Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait

One of a trio of compositions commissioned in 1942 by conductor André Kostelanetz, Copland’s Lincoln Portrait is the ultimate musical tribute to Abraham Lincoln, incorporating texts from Lincoln’s own speeches and writings to be recited by a speaker with orchestra. Lincoln Portrait will be performed as part of the July 18 Gala Benefit Evening with James Conlon conducting the CSO. Learn more and download the mp3.

Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9

Lured to accept a lucrative conservatory post in the United States in 1892, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák sought in his symphony No. 9 to meld Old World compositional forms with New World folk music, specifically music of the American Indians and the Negro spirituals introduced to the composer by one of his African-American students. Although he did not quote actual American folk music in his symphony, Dvořák masterfully evoked its essence, and the beautiful melody in the second movement that sounds so much like a traditional spiritual was eventually given a text and achieved a life of its own as “Goin’ Home.” The “New World” Symphony will be performed complete by the CSO led by Christoph Eschenbach on July 25. Learn more and download the mp3.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Beethoven’s groundbreaking choral finale, a setting for four vocal soloists and chorus of Schiller’s poem An die Freude (“Ode to Joy”), has been appropriated by political groups of every stripe since its composition, ranging from a performance at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin to its use as the Rhodesian national anthem in 1974 to its 1985 adoption as the official anthem of the European Community. One of its most famous uses occurred when Leonard Bernstein conducted two performances of the work in December 1989, one in East Berlin and one in West Berlin, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall. For those performances, Bernstein substituted the word Freiheit (“freedom”) for Freude (“Joy”), thus making explicit the long association of the work with democratic principals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will also be performed at Ravinia’s July 18 Gala. Learn more and download the mp3.

Christopher Lancaster's Arise My Love from Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s dance production about Abraham Lincoln debuts at Ravinia on September 17 and 19 and promises to be as energetic, relevant and thought provoking as its subject. Learn more and download the mp3.