CONCERTO
FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (2002) 27 min. Concerto for Chamber Orchestra was jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. There is no rule about what constitutes a concerto for orchestra; I wanted to showcase the virtuosity of the chamber orchestra and allow certain instrumental combinations and solos to inhabit specific musical ideas. The five-movement work is more deliberately personal, even autobiographical, than many works of mine. I chose to investigate challenging, even tumultuous, inner states and was struck by how themes in the music also related to difficult events in the world. |
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The first movement, “Worlds Within,” explores several personal "voices" in solos for the horn, piano and clarinet; these themes are played out in a sonata-allegro form. “Twists” offers relief from the intensity of the first movement. An arabesque figure in the flute presents light and winding music, interrupted by the "twist," the dance craze of my childhood. The harsh central movement is “Tears/Tears.” It was prompted by a snatch of percussive car-stereo music which awoke me late one night. The hard-driving beat is occasionally softened by a falling teardrop-like gesture. "Air" follows, a movement for oboe and solo strings. It is a refiguring of a song of mine based on a poem of A.R. Ammons. In this version the oboe is the singer. The movement memorializes Ammons, who died in 2001. The finale, "Glare," begins with trumpets and horns. They play a motive derived from the introspective piano themes of the first movement. But rather than turning inward, the music persists, energized, pulsating to the end. |
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