The Santa Barbara Music Club will devote its next free concert to the life and work of Emma Lou Diemer — “doyenne of Santa Barbara composers and inspiration to so many music lovers — with a program of her instrumental and choral music for piano, violin, solo voice and chorus.”

The concert is at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara.
 
The program will include:
 
Two pieces for piano, four hands, “Norteamexispanicumsake” and “Variations for Piano, Four Hands: Homage to Ravel, Schönberg and May Aufderheide,” performed by Tachell Gerbert and Bradley Gregory, pianists.

Four songs setting poetry by James Joyce, William Shakespeare, and Dorothy Parker: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” (Shakespeare); “Strings in the Earth and Air” (Joyce); “One Perfect Rose” (Parker); “Comment” (Parker); sung by Kate Unger, soprano, with pianist John Ballerino.

“Before Spring, for Violin & Piano” (1997), written for violinist Stanley Hoffman and pianist Eddy Kronengold, performed by Nicole McKenzie, violin, and Erin Bonski, piano.

“Three Madrigals” for soprano-alto-tenor-bass (SATB) and piano, performed by the UCSB Chamber Choir, directed by Brent Wilson, with pianist John Ballerino.

As the concert will demonstrate repeatedly, Emma Lou managed to make music that is both unmistakably contemporary and undeniably beautiful.

Having established this fact, I will present most of the following preview in the words of those who knew her best, her fellow members of the Music Club and, of course, the composer. Most of the information will be available in the Program Notes, but here is a digital keepsake.
 
“‘Norteamexispanicumsake’ was written in 1995 for for Gilbert and Gregory, students of Emma Lou Diemer. According to the composer, “It is a slightly shorter version of a work written for the Santa Barbara Symphony early in 1995 and titled ‘Santa Barbara Overture.’”

The two-piano version retains most of the ideas found in the overture, and it is in the same jovial mood.

As the title suggests, there are many elements at work in the music, everything from musical puns on Spanish and Mexican music, suggestions of ragtime filtered through a honky-tonk piano, pentatonic scale figures and much more.

“‘Variations for Piano, Four Hands (Homage to Ravel, Schoenberg, and May Aufderheide),’ was written for Marjorie and Wendell Nelson in 1987. The work is an evocation of some of the sonorities and techniques possible with two performers at one keyboard.

The composers in the subtitle are not imitated in any literal sense and were acknowledged after the music was written, as it brought to mind certain of their qualities and contributions to the spirit of piano writing.

One finds echoes of Ravel’s ‘Daphnis and Chloe’ in the blurred, broken-chord texture and melody fragments of the opening and closing sections of “Variations. ” A 12-tone row (the theory courtesy of Schoenberg) serves as the basis of the entire piece in the form of a series of 12 chords, each of which lasts for several measures, and a series of pitches derived from the roots of those chords.

May Aufderheide was a composer of rags in the early 1900s, and her style contributes joviality and syncopation to the atmosphere.

“The two-movement [“Before Spring”] reflects some of the suspense and anticipation of the full flowering of spring in Southern California. It was premiered in New York City during American Music Week in November of 1997.

“Composed in 1962 on texts by William Shakespeare, the madrigals differ from traditional madrigals in the use of the piano as accompaniment. The composer underscores the text in a slightly different way in each of the three movements, with contrasting tempos and textures. The texts are much loved passages from ‘Twelfth Night,’ ‘Measure for Measure,’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ [all comedies, GC].”

The Music Club has provided this biographical info about Emma Lou.

“Emma Lou Diemer was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 24, 1927, and died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 2, 2024. Emma Lou played the piano and composed at a very early age and became organist in her church at age 13.

“Her great interest in composing music continued through College High School in Warrensburg, MO, and she majored in composition at the Yale Music School (BM, 1949; MM, 1950) and at the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D, 1960). She studied in Brussels, Belgium, on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two summers of composition study at the Berkshire Music Center.

“She taught in several colleges and was organist at several churches in the Kansas City area during the 1950s. From 1959-61 she was composer-in-residence in the Arlington, VA schools under the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project, and composed many choral and instrumental works for the schools, a number of which are still in publication.

“She was consultant for the MENC Contemporary Music Project before joining the faculty of the University of Maryland where she taught composition and theory from 1965-70. In 1971 she moved from the East Coast to teach composition and theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“At UCSB she was instrumental in founding the electronic/computer music program. In 1991 she retired and  became Professor Emeritus at UCSB.

“Through the years she fulfilled many commissions (orchestral, chamber ensemble, keyboard, choral, vocal) from schools, churches, and professional organizations. Most of her works are published.

“She received awards from Yale University (Certificate of Merit), The Eastman School of Music (Edward Benjamin Award), the National Endowment for the Arts (electronic music project), Mu Phi Epsilon (Certificate of Merit), the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (for piano concerto), the American Guild of Organists (Composer of the Year), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers/ASCAP (annually since 1962 for performances and publications), the Santa Barbara Symphony (composer-in-residence, 1990-92), the University of Central Missouri (honorary doctorate), and many others.

“She was an active keyboard performer (piano, organ, harpsichord, synthesizer), and has given concerts of her own music at Washington National Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.”

This and all concerts offered by the Santa Barbara Music Club are open to the public with free admission. For more information about this concert as well as future and past concerts, see the Music Club website.