Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis
Program Notes by Adam Glaser
South Shore Symphony
Adam Glaser, Music Director and Conductor
Saturday, January 31, 2026 at 7:30pm
Madison Theatre at Molloy University, Rockville Centre, Long Island
Program:
Karl Goldmark: Wedding March (Theme and Variations) from Rustic Wedding Symphony
Adam Glaser: Passacaglia (premiere of the full orchestra version)
Erich Korngold: Theme and Variations, op. 42
Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria Von Weber
Tonight’s concert, “Metamorphosis,” celebrates one of the most widely embraced forms in music: Theme and Variations. The program features three gems from the 19th and 20th-centuries, along with a more recent composition that has been expanded from string orchestra to full orchestra.
Goldmark: "Wedding March" (Theme and Variations) from Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26
Karl Goldmark was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in 1830, the son of a cantor. A composer, violinist, teacher and music critic, he made his name and career in Vienna. His five-movement Rustic Wedding Symphony was premiered in 1876. The “Wedding March” featured on this evening’s program is the opening movement, and it is rather ambitious in its scope. Importantly, the theme and variations framework it uses is unusual for an opening movement, as most 18th- and 19th-century symphonies began with a sonata-allegro movement.
The “Wedding March” movement itself is quite impressive, packing a wide range of melodic twists, interesting textures and unexpected detours into a brilliantly self-contained framework that stands on its own. After a gallant opening statement of the theme in the cellos and basses, Goldmark scores a kaleidoscopic procession of twelve variations using all corners of the orchestra to evoke a group of highly diverse characters. Perhaps these twelve variations represent a procession of bridesmaids, groomsmen and family members walking down the aisle. Ultimately, after a brief trumpet fanfare, the thirteenth and final variation begins with the full orchestra joining together as one, just as an entire party of wedding guests might stand for the arrival of the bride. After a celebratory finale, and with great sensitivity, Goldmark brings the procession to a gentle, intimate conclusion, setting the scene for a beautiful wedding ceremony in the countryside.
Glaser: Passacaglia (World Premiere of the Full Orchestra Version, 2025)
Commissioned by the Tenafly (NJ) High School Orchestra, the original version of Passacaglia was written for string orchestra and premiered in 2018. Here is the “Composer’s Note” from that edition:
Among the many topics I enjoy discussing over lunch with my friend and colleague, Jim Millar, the Brahms symphonies are among the most popular. We both happen to share a particular fondness for the final movement of the Fourth Symphony, which takes the form of an orchestral passacaglia. When accepting Jim’s commission to compose a new work for his highly advanced string orchestra in Tenafly, New Jersey, it was clear to me that the passacaglia would have to be the guiding framework.
Originating in early-17th century Spain, the passacaglia is “a continuous variation based on a clearly distinguishable ostinato that normally appears in the bass but that may occasionally be transferred to an upper voice” (Harvard Dictionary of Music). True to the form’s origins, the Brahms passacaglia is set in a triple meter, with an 8-note ground bass cast 30 consecutive times in strict 8-bar format before yielding to a rousing coda. While I also begin with the 8-note / 8-bar format, and ultimately cast a few of the variations in triple meter, I have taken some liberties with the concept, exploring a few other keys, tempi and meters. The 8-note ground bass might be stated over 8 bars, compressed into 4 bars, spread over 16 bars, and even fragmented or twisted into other material.
As a tribute to the orchestra’s hometown, I’ve created two musical “signatures” inspired by the town of Tenafly. Like the passacaglia, the town of Tenafly also has its origins in the 17th century. Back in 1688, Dutch settlers came up with the name ''Tiene Vly'’ which means “ten swamps.” The “ground bass” is an 8-note theme that launches with an ascending 10th, an interval that comes to play an important role throughout the work. I also turned to the town's postal zip code for a bit of inspiration, translating 07670 into scale degrees, treating the “wildcard” zero as the 8th scale degree (the top of the octave). The net result: a theme based on the pitches/scale degrees 8-7-6-7-8.
Adam Glaser, Englewood, NJ, April 9, 2018
For the 2025 full orchestra edition, the following “Composer’s Note” has been added to the score:
Since 2018, I have often felt that the string orchestra version of Passacaglia packed a lot of material into a relatively compact canvas, and wondered if the underlying composition might warrant an expansion that embraces all instrument families of the orchestra. Inspired by my new “musical family,” the South Shore Symphony of Long Island, New York, I am pleased to dedicate this new version to my friends in the orchestra and honored to conduct the premiere on Saturday, January 31, 2026 in Rockville Centre’s Madison Theatre. This new version makes a few subtle references to a five-note musical signature derived from Rockville Centre’s zip code, 11570 (with “0” as the wildcard, once again).
Adam Glaser, Glen Cove, NY, December 28, 2025
Korngold: Theme and Variations, op. 42
Austrian composer Erich Korngold fled to the United States before World War II and became one of Warner Bros. Pictures’ most celebrated composers in the 1930s and 1940s, penning scores for such film classics as Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, and many more. In his Theme and Variations, Op. 42, Korngold introduces a lush opening theme that he compares to “an Irish folk tune,” and proceeds to unleash its hidden potential in a series of brilliant variants. With a duration of just seven minutes, this inventive composition showcases Korngold’s highly imaginative orchestration, conjuring the depth and expanse of an old Hollywood studio orchestra. Composed in 1953 a few years before his death in 1957, this piece was Korngold’s final original composition.
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Like Erich Korngold, German composer Paul Hindemith moved to the United States to escape the Nazis just before World War II. Completed in 1943 while he was teaching at Yale University and premiered in 1944 by the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall, Symphonic Metamorphosis remains popular among audiences to this day. Originally intended as music for a ballet collaboration with Russian choreographer Leonide Massine, Symphonic Metamorphosis draws upon themes by an earlier German composer famous for his operas, Carl Maria Von Weber (1786 - 1826). Interestingly, Hindemith did not use Weber’s well-known operatic melodies as his source material. Instead, for the first, third and fourth movements, he turned to a book of Weber’s piano duets that Hindemith enjoyed playing with his wife. For the second movement, Hindemith used incidental music Weber had written for Friedrich Schiller’s production of the Carlo Gozzi play, Turandot. What an interesting choice this is not to use Weber’s more established, familiar music. Then again, the obscurity of the raw material actually underscores the magic of the “theme and variations” construct. Much like teachers and parents often identify budding potential in a student who may not recognize their own talent, it can take a sensitive musician like Hindemith to spot potential in music that others have long ignored. In the hands of this master composer, even the most obscure source material can find new life and be transformed into a modern masterpiece.
Hindemith’s inventive skills and superb compositional technique are on full display in all four movements. The first movement is a bold march that charges right out of the gate with a stark, somewhat jarring interval -- a perfect 5th (the pitches A and E). This moment of ambiguity -- are we in the key of A major or A minor? – ends in the third bar as the violins sing out a high C establishing the key of A minor. Hindemith likes to pepper the dish with smaller, “grungy” intervals like minor and major 2nds. For instance, rather than reinforcing the A minor tonality as Weber and his early 19th-century contemporaries might have, Hindemith has the flutes and oboes throw squirrely trills into the mix. Clearly, he has a taste for speckles and spices; we’ll hear more of these rambunctious trills a little later. But for now, the Yale professor keeps the harmonies fairly straightforward, with a secondary theme in the relative key of C major introduced by the trumpets, and ultimately, a parade-stopping final chord of A major.
To start the second movement, Hindemith gives the opening statement to the solo flute. For its first phrase, the flute plays four descending pitches: F, D, C and A, essentially outlining a pentatonic scale (think of the five black keys on the piano). We are clearly in F major. Or are we? Instead of affirming this tonal area, the second phrase answers with a cascading stack of thirds, using five completely different notes, none of which is associated with F major: G, Eb, B, G# and E. So we have two contrasting phrases, and a bit of tonal vertigo! As if to reassure us that this is, indeed, the intended theme, the piccolo and clarinet repeat the flute’s entire opening statement. The flute then returns with an entirely new idea. Hindemith shifts the whole framework up a half-step with the flute, suggesting G-flat major for three bars despite being tethered by the hovering strings to the tonic pedal of F. Sure enough, the flute dutifully returns to F major to finish this statement, and the piccolo and clarinet again repeat the entire idea. At this point, there has not been one fully realized chord in the movement, rather just a single line in the flute over an F drone. And yet, Hindemith is virtuosic in his ability to establish and subvert harmonic expectations. The pitchless percussion section breaks the tension, and thus begins a series of variations on this perplexing opening theme. With clever orchestration and rhythmic ingenuity, the rest of the movement offers a master class in thematic transformation, each variation filled with unexpected twists and turns, role reversals and musical mockery. Also, remember those squirrely trills that opened the first movement? Like an invasive species (but with less impact on biodiversity), the trills seem to have multiplied and taken over the woodwinds. The movement ends with the percussion section’s “afterthought,” a fading reflection on the melodies we just heard, with the timpani revisiting the flute’s opening four notes.
The third movement is a lyrical serenade rooted in B-flat minor. We hear a yearning theme sung by the clarinet and bassoon and answered by lyrical strings. The middle section is in B-flat major, featuring a comforting, legato theme introduced by cellos and clarinets. The movement ends with a recasting of the opening theme in a secondary role, as Hindemith gives the flute the spotlight with a virtuosic, seemingly improvised solo.
The fourth movement retains the previous key of B-flat minor, launched by a brief brass fanfare and pushed into motion by marching strings in lockstep underneath the woodwinds’ hushed melody. The parade picks up momentum with a celebratory secondary theme in B-flat major, introduced by the full French horn section. Notice the giggling triplets in the woodwinds, which are reminiscent of the sunny opening to Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. The opening fanfare returns for a brief cameo, this time in the woodwinds, and then the trombones offer a restatement of the hushed, march-like theme. But wait…what’s this? Another sudden shift of tonality by a half-step? Indeed it is, but this time Hindemith drops the key down a half-step, back into the original Aminor, where we started in the first movement. Is that where we’re headed? Not at all. Having briefly flirted with the original key, Hindemith gathers the entire brass section to sing the celebration theme in the key of E-flat major before bringing us back to B-flat major for a rousing finish.