Update Title: 8C9ADC51-EDCD-48E9-894E-A32D3E6B5CD6

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Maltese Cat Blues takes its title from a song by Blind Lemon Jefferson.  Years ago I heard a recording of Sleepy John Estes singing his own version of it, which begins, 'Oh them rats is mean in my kitchen.'  The melody has since faded from by mind, but the style of singing, with its energetic speech-song and wailing, typical of early blues, fixed itself in my memory.  In 1985, while living in Sïo Paulo, Brazil, on a Fulbright grant, I underwent that sharpening of my sense of national identity which almost inevitably results from a prolonged stay abroad.  That memory of Sleepy John's singing resurfaced and prompted me to compose a piece as homage to the spirit of blues performance.

The main work is in four sections.  The first is an introductory blues stanza that begins with high wailing in the piccolos and violins, and them works its way down to an extended, ruminative solo for tuba.  The entrance of a jazzy violin solo begins the second part, a faster dance-like section in A-B-A form.  The third section involves the dramatic opposition of two different musics: first, a lazy rocking figure that sometimes supports a simple tune; and second, a rapid, scampering patter in the woodwinds, punctuated by sudden high squeaks and insistent trumpeting figures.  The fourth part is the longest, presenting two blues verses and refrains, and ending with a fast coda.  The first verse is in declamatory style, the trumpets' melody bisected by full orchestral chords.  The refrain is quiet, lightly scored, and audibly based on a standard blues progression.  In the second verse, the strings moan the melody in unison, and the refrain returns, now slower and more forceful.  The coda takes up ideas from parts two and three, combining them into a powerful, rhythmic drive toward conclusion. AT the very end there is final outburst of melody that springs from the speech rhythm of the line: 'Oh them rats is mean in my kitchen.' --Stephen Hartke

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The New York Philharmonic performed Maltese Cat Blues at their new Music Reading Session at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference in June, 1987. Anonymous critiques of the works by members of the audience (conductors, orchestra managers, etc.) were requested by ASOL for this project. Following are a few of the comments written about Maltese.

"Much wonderful and humorous material..."
 
"Excellent. ...Good American music...very programmable."
 
"Bravo! Nice writing for all sections!"
 
"Ideas so well developed...Excellent composition for orchestra!"
 
"Great! It swings! Good to hear merging of jazz idiom and traditional 20th-century compositional techniques."
 
"Far and away my favorite--wonderfully imaginative and thoroughly enjoyable!"
 
"The cat, the blues, the plaintive history were all there...I felt like I was hearing a great piece..."
 
"Great brass parts and great conclusion."
 
"Without any doubt, this is the most rewarding composition! It fully explores the resources of the orchestra. The composer plays with variouis timbres quite successfully and exploits the work's 'Americana' characteristics with confidence."
 
"As I listened to this piece...I kept thinking of examples of Aaron Copland. Something in the coloration of the work, in the character and use of its melodies, and especially in the gifted treatment of jazz idioms - as gifted as Coplands' treatment of flok music...There's a clever with behind this piece..."
 
"...the jazz shadings and the wonderful cat-like dancing...made this impossible not to like--especially the 'cat blues' chorus porduced by the horns."
 
"Fun piece, with (the) most personality on this program; echoes of Stravinsky and Gershwin, but well integrated into a personal idiom....a masterful piece...well deserving to enter the repertory..."

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