The passion of Mignone: Professor works to recreate works of famous Brazilian composer

Alexandra Mascolo-David had a trying journey in resurrecting the works of Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone.

A professor with the School of Music at Central Michigan University, Mascolo-David received a Research Excellence Fund grant for more than $94,000 in 2007 from the Office of Special Research and Programs for her efforts.

“It’s been a very exciting road,” she said, “and also very difficult.”

Her performance of Mignone’s four “Fantasias brasileiras” Sunday afternoon at the Staples Family Concert Hall came near the end of her more than two-year effort to record the pieces.

Several of the Brazilian fantasies had been recorded before, but all copies are out of print, Mascolo-David said. Her CD will be the only compilation of them widely available when it is released in late April.

“A real focus of her creative activity has been to bring this to public,” said Randi L’Hommedieu, chair of the School of Music. “A project like this represents the most scholarly and research based approach to creative endeavor.”

He said listeners could hear the difference between a performer who simply plays the notes and one who researches the composer and his influences as Mascolo-David did.

Her application was one of four accepted out of 16 applicants for the 2006-07 competition, said Deborah Clark, Research and Sponsored Program Officer for OSRP. She said she heard the performances and thought the research was very noteworthy.

“She certainly has brought it to life for all of us,” Clark said.

Brazilian harmony

Maria Josephina Mignone, the composer’s widow, assisted Mascolo-David in assembling the pieces.

While Mignone enjoyed some popularity outside of Brazil in the early to mid-20th century, he is relatively unknown internationally next to other Brazilian composers of the period such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mascolo-David said.

She had copies of the original sheet music faxed to her by a helpful Brazilian librarian after several weeks of struggles with the rest of the library on strike.

Mascolo-David said she is very grateful to the ORSP, as she had to get a one-year extension in order to acquire the music and have them transcribed into Finale, a piece of music composing software.

The Kalamazoo Orchestra provided the orchestral accompaniment on the CD. Mascolo-David was pleased with the accuracy and spontaneity with which they performed the lively Brazilian music.

She also was impressed with the spirited performance of Sangmi Lim, who played the orchestral accompaniment on piano Sunday at her performance.

Lim is a doctoral student in piano at Michigan State University. She had five days to master the work of a composer she had never before heard of, when the orchestra’s recorded performance was unable to be used because of contract conflicts. Lim said the most difficult part was mastering the shifting tempo of the music.

“She says she’s Korean, but I think she’s Portuguese-Italian,” Mascolo-David said.