Twentieth Century

Prokofiev’s Waltz Suite: A Magical Potpourri in Triple Meter

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Sergei Prokofiev’s Waltz Suite, Op. 110 for orchestra is a magical musical potpourri. Composed and compiled in 1946 in the wake of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, it is a collection of six waltz excerpts from three of Prokofiev’s dramatic works. At times, the music is hauntingly atmospheric. It is filled with quirky, sardonic harmonic turns, dreamy tonal colors, and the graceful airborne motion inherent …

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Stephen Paulus’ “The Road Home”: A Timeless Early American Melody

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“The most powerful and beautiful message is often a simple one,” wrote American composer Stephen Paulus (1949-2014) regarding the popularity of his brief choral work, The Road Home. Paulus explained the background of the piece further, In the Spring of 2001 I received a commission from the Dale Warland Singers to write a short “folk” type choral arrangement.  I had discovered a tune in a folk song book called “The Lone Wild Bird.” …

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Stephen Paulus’ Concertante: Vibrant Instrumental Conversations

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The concertante is the most democratic of musical forms. Blending symphony and concerto, it opens the door to a vibrant, free-flowing musical conversation among solo instrumental voices and groups of instruments. The distinct persona of each instrument comes sharply into focus. Exhibiting brilliance and virtuosity, every voice gets its moment in the spotlight.* American composer Stephen Paulus (1949-2014) embraced all of this in his simply titled Concertante, written in 1989. Exuberant, playful, and …

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George Butterworth’s “Love Blows As the Wind Blows”: Three Idyllic Songs

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English composer George Butterworth (1885-1916) left behind only a handful of brief musical treasures, among the most famous being  The Banks of Green Willow and A Shropshire Lad.  Emerging from the pastoral landscape with a sense of quiet nostalgia and dreamy impressionistic color, these magical, fleeting works make us long for what might have been. At the outbreak of the First World War, Butterworth enthusiastically enlisted, and quickly rose to the rank of …

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John Adams’ “Hallelujah Junction”: Delirious Dueling Pianos

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“Hallelujah Junction is a small truck stop on Highway 49 in the High Sierras on the California-Nevada border near where I have a small cabin,” explains American composer John Adams. “One can only speculate on its beginnings in the era of prospectors and Gold Rush speculators (although a recent visit revealed that cappuccino is now available there).” For Adams, Hallelujah Junction was “a great title looking for a piece.” Scored for two “dueling …

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Michael Torke’s “Javelin”: A Glistening “Sonic Olympiad”

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In August of 1996, Gramophone magazine hailed American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) for writing “some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years.” Two months earlier, the New York Times described Torke as “a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation.” We hear all of this in Torke’s glistening 1994 overture, Javelin. Described as a “sonic olympiad,” the work was …

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Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante Défunte: A Dreamy Evocation

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A stately, processional dance, the pavane was popular in European courts throughout the Renaissance. With dreamy nostalgia, Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte (“Pavane for a Dead Princess”) evokes visions of these distant times. The brief work was composed in 1899 for solo piano, and orchestrated in 1910. Ravel chose the title because he liked the sound of the words. He insisted, Do not attach any importance to the title. I …

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