Michael Torke’s “December”: Feelings, Impressions, and Memories

Setting aside its evocative title, we can appreciate December, a 1995 work for string orchestra by American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961), as pure music.

Developing from a single spirited motive seed, heard in the opening measures, December unfolds as a spirited contrapuntal conversation. At moments, its shifting bass line forms an ostinato, one of the oldest musical devices. We are reminded of the lush English string orchestra music of Vaughan Williams, Finzi, and Tippett.

But this is also music filled with atmosphere. It is a counterpoint of icy pellets hitting hard surfaces. For the composer, the work arrived with strong extramusical connotations.

In his program note, Torke writes,

I remember experiencing a kind of cozy cheer in the early days of winter back in suburban Milwaukee, when, on the rounds of my afternoon paper route, I would anticipate with pleasure the forecast of the season’s first snow. The cold and the precipitation never bothered me; I loved the season: young girls wrapped up in parkas with only their bright faces showing, outdoor Christmas lights being strung out on the front lawns, warm meals waiting when I got back home.

Music never literally represents things, but it does evoke feelings, impressions, and sometimes memories. In writing this piece, I noticed that the music that came out didn’t just refer to itself—it is my habit to set up certain compositional operations to give each piece its own profile—but that the music seemed to refer to things outside of itself. This is something I discover as I’m writing; it is not that I set out intending to describe the last month of the year through music; rather, the associations creep up on me, as I’m composing.

I had originally called this piece Rain Changing to Snow because at first the listener might hear a kind of musical ‘precipitation’, a resultant wetness that comes from some of the strings sustaining notes that are moving in the other instruments. And as this develops, the music moves to a more tranquil key, where it sounds as though the rain has turned to snow and there is a strange stillness everywhere.

But to me the music is about more than meteorological patterns. In my goal to write more thematic music which is less process oriented, I believe this music can afford a wide range of responses in the listener. I am against music that is merely cerebral, and I welcome the simple, physical experience of listening, and responding directly, without undue brain circuitry.

Recordings

• Torke: December, Michael Torke, Philharmonia Orchestra michaeltorke.com