Appalachian Chamber Music Festival
selections from Linden by Mark Boden
Mark David Boden: Linden for solo cello (world premiere)
Appalachian Chamber Music Festival
August 20, 2022
St. Peter's Chapel, Harpers Ferry, WV
Program Notes:
Linden is a movement from A Winter's Journey, Re-imagined, a larger collaborative project with composer Mark David Boden and cellist Katie Tertell based on a reinterpretation of Schubert’s epic song cycle Winterreise, which sets poems by Wilhelm Muller. Linden is a reimagining of Schubert’s Der Lindenbaum, described by tenor Ian Bostridge as Schubert’s most famous song.
Der Lindenbaum (or lime tree) is a mythical, magical tree, deeply embedded in German culture. The tree is associated with Romantic love and in Schubert’s song, the linden is also used to reference other important themes, including memory, the memory of love, passion and reminding the wanderer in Winterreise of past happiness.
Linden aims to capture a sense of these themes, referencing some of the musical devices used in Schubert’s original song, whilst reimagining other elements including harmony, structure and timbre. There are some direct allusions to Der Lindenbaum such as the regular interruption of the melodic narrative by distant horn calls, represented through the calmer tones of cello harmonics. Two more fiery, agitated passages also reference the more chromatic harmonic language used by Schubert at the heart of Der Lindenbaum and aim to capture a sense of the lines ‘Curel winds were blowing, coldly cutting my face’. Linden ends serenely, with further allusions to distant horn calls and an evocation of the final lines of Muller’s poem:
I’m now miles miles distant
from that dear old linden tree
But I still hear it whisper
“Come find peace with me”
