Foothills Music Club, Inc. met on Oct. 10 at the home of Carole Bartol, beginning with business as usual, conducted by President Jeanette Shackelford, and concluding with musical entertainment by members of the club.

Ms. Bartol opened the music program at her piano with two movements from Serge Prokofieff’s Episodes, op. 12, from Prokofieff’s student days:  “Legend” carries great variety in tempo and harmonics; “Prelude (Harp)”is more idiomatic to the harp than to the piano; Bartol said it presents a particular challenge to the right hand.

Rita Stobbe (soprano vocalist) and Meryt Wilson (piano) followed with an example of the German lieder, or art song.  “Vergebliches Standchen” (“Unsuccessful Suit”), by Johannes Brahms, is a musical dialog between a young man and his intended lover as he makes unsuccessful attempts to gain her affections. Stobbe noted that, in German lieder, the piano and the vocal parts are equally important musically, making these songs much like duets.

Shackelford (piano) and Susan Hartley (alto recorder) performed “Songs of a Lost Garden I” and “II” by contemporary Dutch composer/teacher Kees Schoonenbeek. The melodies of these paired pieces are delicate and haunting, and the parts equally balanced. Music for recorder with keyboard is unusual among Schoonenbeek’s varied repertoire; more likely to be found are compositions for flute, clarinet, oboe, strings, piano, organ, voice or brass band.

Wanda Keyser May (soprano vocalist) and Shackelford (piano) entertained the club with two very different songs of a similar musical genre. May’s interest in the aria led her to choose selections from the world of opera.

The first was a popular concert aria, “Sebben, crudele,” (“Although, Cruel Love”), from an opera written in 1710 by Antonio Caldara. The second offering was one of May’s childhood favorites, “Summertime,” from George Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess, written over two hundred years later.

Bassoonist Karen Molnar and piano accompanist Meryt Wilson concluded the program with two pieces, which allowed the audience to experience the richness of the well-accompanied bassoon. Written for bassoon and keyboard, Reinhold Gliere’s “Humoresque, op. 35, no. 8” provides the bassoon opportunity to demonstrate its great range of chortles against a sparkling piano backdrop. To conclude the program, Molnar’s bassoon assumed an 1890s pre-jazz persona, delivering the treble line of Scott Joplin’s “A Ragtime Two-Step”(originally written entirely for piano), while Meryt Wilson’s piano maintained the ragged dance rhythms typical of the style.

FMC Inc. remains dedicated to its mission to nurture and encourage musicianship among its members and in the community at large. FMC has had a long, active presence in the area and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

In addition to 2013’s 25th Anniversary Gala concert, FMC organizes several public performances each year. FMC awards scholarships annually to talented young local musicians, with auditions scheduled for March 2014.

– article submitted by Susan Hartley