Per Nørgård, who was widely regarded as the most prominent Danish composer since Nielsen, passed away last Wednesday, May 28 in Copenhagen. He was 92. Nørgård left behind a catalogue of music which includes eight symphonies, six operas, and numerous chamber and concertante works. He said that his music resides within “the universe of the Nordic mind.” In his youth, he corresponded with Jean Sibelius. Beginning in the 1960s, Nørgård developed a …
Unlike the traditional “theme and variations,” Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations do not unfold as a frolicking and far-reaching episodic journey. Instead, they are unrelenting, declamatory, and haunting. The seven-note theme, equally reminiscent of Arnold Schoenberg’s tone rows and Bach’s C-sharp minor Fugue from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 849), permeates the entire work in a way which makes it feel severely organic. While Beethoven and Schubert improvised variations on a theme as a …
In 1917, Charles Ives composed a series of songs in response to the entrance of the United States, that year, into the First World War. The final song, Tom Sails Away, involves a dreamy childhood memory, experienced as a vivid hallucination. The text, written by Ives, begins with images of a springtime sunset over a New England mill town. The hustle and bustle of the day has faded. The final haunting moments …
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 …
“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.” …
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 …
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 …