Contemporary/Twenty-First Century

Michael Torke’s “Last Fall”: New Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) has just completed a new concerto for solo violin and string orchestra simply titled Last. Last is a collection of twelve meditative pieces that can be performed separately, or as a whole. The titles evoke memories and the passage of time. (Last Fall, Last Year, Last Month, Last Sunday, etc.) Torke comments that they “are almost like second movements of violin concertos.” His program notes for Last are as follows: The Stoics recommend …

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Nico Muhly’s “Gait”: Life in Motion

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The rhythmic pattern of animal and human movement formed the inspiration for Gait, a 2012 orchestral tone poem by American composer Nico Muhly (b. 1981). Muhly studied the five speeds, or gaits, of horses, documented by the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and then moved on to the locomotion of insects and humans. People move in distinct ways which include “a running trot” and “a lateral sequence walk.” The first steps of …

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Remembering Sofia Gubaidulina

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The renowned Russian composer, Sofia Gubaidulina, passed away yesterday at her home near Hamburg, Germany. She was 93. Born in the rural Tatar region of the Soviet Union, Gubaidulina graduated from the Kazan Conservatory in 1954. Soviet authorities conducted raids in the school’s dormitories, in search of Western contemporary music scores, which were banned at the time. Gubaidulina later recalled, “We knew Ives, Cage, we actually knew everything on the sly.” While …

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Theodore Shapiro’s “Severance” Theme: Haunting and Hypnotic

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In a recent post at his Youtube channel, Everything Music, Rick Beato analyzes the title theme from the hit television series, Severance, composed by Theodore Shapiro. Built on modal harmony, the theme is at once haunting, hypnotic, satisfying, and unsettling. Developing from a small fragment, its tension-filled melodic line is filled with wrenching, exotic intervals. Shapiro drew subtle inspiration from David Shire’s theme for the 1974 film noir thriller, The Conversation, which similarly features …

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Jocelyn Morlock’s “Solace”: Echoes of Josquin

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Born in the St. Boniface ward of Winnipeg, Jocelyn Morlock (1969-2023) was one of Canada’s most prominent composers. Based in Vancouver, she was the inaugural composer-in-residence for the city’s Music on Main Society (2012–14), and later for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2014-2019). She described much of her music as being  “inspired by birds, insomnia, or a peculiar combination thereof.” In the 2001 string orchestra work, Solace, the solo violin erupts in exuberant birdsong …

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Caroline Shaw’s “Blueprint”: Imagining Structure

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Born in Greenville, North Carolina, composer Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) has been called “a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed.” She is active as a violin soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble singer in the group, Roomful of Teeth. At the age of 30, Shaw became the youngest composer ever to be awarded the …

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Remembering Pavel Karmanov

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Pavel Karmanov, the Russian post-minimalist composer and rock musician, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly last Saturday, November 23. The cause of death was heart failure. He was 54 years old. Born in Siberia, Karmanov was once described as “a romantic dressed in a minimalist gown.” A flutist and pianist, he was a permanent member of the alternative band, Vezhlivy Otkaz from 2000 until 2017. In past posts at The Listeners’ Club, we have explored …

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