Hey, why not ask for more?

And so nine orchestras and festivals co-commissioned a new, post-Pulitzer work from Jennifer Higdon.

Jennifer Higdon premieres concerto “On a Wire”
Philadelphia Inquirer
David Patrick Stearns

Though her Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto limited the soloist role to a single instrument...

Hasn’t she heard that bigger is better? She must not love America very much.

...Higdon got out from under the long history of concertos by writing the new work for six soloists, specifically the contemporary- music [sic] group eighth blackbird.

I presume the question confronting her was “how do I outdo my last big hit?” Her answer, via Stearns: less history; more soloists; hot new music group.

Got it?

(An aside: is there a limit to the number of soloists one can have in order that they retain their status as soloist? Anyway.)

Members of that group think nothing of playing multiple instruments in a given piece, often switching between piccolo and flute or violin and viola.

That’s cool. However, it’s pretty standard fare for flute players to also play piccolo and violinists to play viola. That’s not the best way to support the point that they, and the piece, are out of the ordinary.

In addition, Higdon’s concerto asks its players to practice “extended techniques” - plucking and bowing the innards of the piano...

Not that I find this passage terribly worded—close, though—instead, I take issue with the interplay of description with the premise, that the piece is new and innovative.

You and I know that extended techniques have been practiced for some time (or depending on the argument, since the very beginnings of music). Yet, to place “extended techniques” in scare/air quotes, today, puts them in a position of being exoticisms (outside of a norm), which we know not to be the case. So, I can only assume that othering “extended techniques” is an intentionally misleading puffery strategy.

Please feel free to take issue with that; but I hope it will become somewhat evident, below.

In addition, Higdon’s concerto asks its players to practice “extended techniques” - plucking and bowing the innards of the piano, much like the techniques pioneered by...[?]

1. Erik Satie – Piège de Méduse (1913); inserted sheets of paper into the piano
2. Heitor Villa-Lobos – Chôros no.8 (1925); again, paper inserts
3. Maurice Delage – Ragamalika (1912-22); cardboard inserts
4. Henry Cowell – Aeolian Harp (1923); manipulation of piano strings directly
5. John Cage – Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48); nuts, bolts, doodads, etc.

...much like the techniques pioneered by one of Higdon’s teacher’s, George Crumb.

I also left out all the other, lesser-known experiments with prepared piano and/or playing inside the piano. (The above was mostly found via Wikipedia)

So, circa 1970 George Crumb, you say?

Call me paranoid, but scare quotes around “extended techniques” are patronizing, as well as ignorant, false, and archaic; plus, I sense a bloated case of name-dropping.

-

A few awkward, unrelated moments:

Always a seeker of extra-symphonic sounds, in the past she's trawled the aisles of Home Depot for trinkets that would give her orchestration an ethereal jingle.

Can I assume, then, that junk from True Value would have given her music a transcendental glow?

Higdon has perhaps never cast her net so wide.

[snip]

So many kinds of musical incidents are contained within the 25-minute concerto that you'd think Higdon was inspired by the far-flung literary imagery of the Leonard Cohen song "Bird on a Wire."

Were there program notes?

However, Higdon, 48, swears she has never heard (or heard of) of the song.

-

Back to the meat of the issue.

The Atlanta premiere with a longtime collaborator like Spano turned out to be exactly what she needed in the wake of winning the Pulitzer in April.

I wonder why.

“I think you explored a whole new room in your musical mansion," Atlanta music director Robert Spano told Higdon on Sunday after a post-concert toast.

“I'm hearing things that sound exactly like you, but I haven't heard them before."

So, it’s new, but not too new? Like you just know Toy Story 3 is going to be good, because the others were?

That's one reason he scheduled a recording session the day after Thursday's premiere.

The other reason?

His plan is to rush-release the concerto as a classical-music single.

...to capitalize on her success. I love the free market co-mingled with the arts!

...[it is] yet another triumph in a series of Higdon works that have made her one of the most immediately embraced living American composers.

Example 1. How another immediately embraced American composer followed up his success (Hammerman).

Example 2. God Bless America rendered by the stylings of Canadian Celine Dion.

Composer of the Day! - Pulitzer Prize Edition

In honor of the recent announcement of her Pulitzer Prize for Music, today's Composer of the Day is Jennifer Higdon (b. December 31, 1962).

Higdon is a highly visible American composer whose music seems to have shown up in every major orchestra's programming in the past few years. Actually, according to the League of American Resources (a fun resource if you hadn't visited their site before), Jennifer's Higdon's blue cathedral (easily her most famous work) was the most performed contemporary work in America. She also had more scheduled performances than John Williams, who wrote the music for popular films like Always and SpaceCamp! The only living composers with more total performances were John Adams and John Corigliano.

Her music is largely tonal, and is fairly representative of a neoromantic style. Her propensity for highly charged dynamics and textures, supported by a wonderful variety of orchestral colors are also likely responsible for her success with audiences.

As already mentioned, her most famous work is blue cathedral (1999), which was composed as a monument to her younger brother who had recently died of cancer. Listen to it here:




The Pulitzer Prize was awarded for her Violin Concerto, commissioned for superstar violinist Hilary Hahn and premiered in February 2009 by the Indianapolis Symphony. The Pulitzer announcement (which is already cited on Wikipedia) lauded the work as "a deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity." David Patrick Stearns, of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Higdon's hometown paper), had this highly positive, yet cryptic remark that the soloist's high violin sounds were "colored lights flashing out of darkness with playful, peekaboo randomness."

You can listen to Hilary Hahn and Jennifer Higdon talk about the composition of the piece here:


Higdon is known primarily for her orchestral works and has a number of often performed works, which include her Concerto for Orchestra, City Scape, Concerto 4-3, and Percussion Concerto (which, proving this must truly be the Year of Higdon, won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition a couple of months ago). All of these have been recorded and are worth a listen.

figure cd: Very nice recording of Higdon's music.

And you can listen to clips of most of her compositions at her website. Good stuff, to say the least.

----------------------------

And, while I happen to personally enjoy her music and am enthusiastically recommending her in this post, I do want to leave you with this rather amusing criticism she received from Rowena Smith, of The Guardian, referring to blue cathedral:

"In terms of content, it is pure new-age fluff; undemanding, unadventurous tonality dressed up as a quasi-mystical experience by the addition of bells and chimes."

Although I disagree...that's still very funny.

Tchaikovsky and Higdon make the perfect pear

One of our favorite memes at the Detritus is food metaphors. Oh, no words seem to explain the greatness of a piece of music quite like the comestibles it has nothing to do with.

Today's entry comes to us from the Richmond Times-Dispatch where Angela Lehman-Rios has the difficult task of explaining the difference between a "concerto" and a "concerto for orchestra".

Symphony impressive on a wide range of works

Saturday's Masterworks concert by the Richmond Symphony explored the relationship of parts to a musical whole.

I'm not at all certain what that means, but it sure does sound important.

What parts are we breaking down today. Are we just looking at rhythm? or perhaps harmony? Perhaps those are bit too broad...timbre maybe?

Oh, why guess when you can just tell me.

While the parts were sometimes more interesting, the sum was certainly a pleasure to behold.

So, the parts were more interesting, but you liked the whole thing too?

What were we comparing again?

The program started with "D'un Matin de Printemps" by Lili Boulanger.

Oh, no time for that "parts to the whole" discussion...looks like we've got actual music.

From its shimmering beginning to its full-bodied end, the short work demonstrates the grace and power of an orchestra playing all together.

Yes, the piece features a burst of bold raspberry, slutty kiwis and rambunctious African horned melons, along with hints of chicken, gravel and compost. After a short fugal explosion of toner, semisynthetic organic amorphous solids, and black currant, there is a long finish of nacho cheese with an intriguing ferrous hint.

Conductor Erin Freeman easily drew a rich, balanced sound from the musicians.

Excellent! So, it's as though Erin Freeman made a cohesive whole from the sum of the parts.

I like the unity. Go on.

Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, on the other hand, is a showpiece for a soloist.

Yes, I know what a concerto is, thank you very much.

[snip]

Okay, so far so good. What else was on the concert?

The evening concluded with the five-movement "Concerto for Orchestra," written in 2002 by Jennifer Higdon.

Wait, what? You said this is a concerto...but for what instrument? "Orchestra" is not an instrument, but instead is the sum of many instruments.

This work combines or isolates parts of the orchestra -- entire sections or players within a section -- in various ways, and also gives the full orchestra the sort of brilliant writing a concerto soloist gets.

So, it's a standard orchestra piece? I guess I don't follow. Perhaps you can break this down for me in easier to understand terms.

Think of a salad, if you will.

Okay. A salad.

figure salad: A salad.

Got it.

A violin concerto is grilled tuna atop a bed of greens...,

Whoa, whoa. Slow down...

...violin. concerto. is. grilled. tuna...

...but Higdon's work is a Greek salad:

...Higdon's. is. Greek. salad. Got it.

Okay. But what does it all mean?

In any bite, the feta, the pepperoncinis or the crisp lettuce may stand out, but the flavors work together as a whole.

But the tuna doesn't work together with the greens?

I think I understand?

Nevertheless,...

What do you mean, "nevertheless". We were just on the edge of breakthrough!

Okay, we'll move on, but this better be good.

...the second and fourth movements are perhaps most attractive for new listeners,...

What kind of salad are they?

...since they single out sections of the orchestra (string and percussion, respectively), which makes it simpler to take in something unfamiliar.

Huh? So the reason new music has had such a difficult time finding mainstream audiences is the fault of the woodwinds and the brass sections?!?

Does Brian Ferneyhough know this?

The symphony's percussionists were clearly enjoying the chance to demonstrate a vast range of sounds, and delighted murmurs could be heard from the audience.

Don't they know you're not supposed to talk in between movements? That's like talking with your mouth full. It's just gross.

The third movement features short solos played by section leaders who are joined by the section and often paired with another section.

The section leaders are joined by the section and paired with another section?

Strangely, that couldn't make more sense.

Yes, pairing section leaders with a contrasting side section can be an effective way to build a menu...er, I mean work.

The violas, led by Molly Sharp, made delicious work of their tune,...

[insert food joke here]

...while Russell Wilson's piano and Lynette Wardle's harp were also highlights. Leisurely crescendos and decrescendos bind the elements together, as does a sliding motif played by the strings, although it becomes tiresome.

Yep, her music only has two moves: shake, and bake.

The full orchestra performed expertly in the first and fifth movements, and the piece ended with a flashy Hollywood-esque cadence that made the audience laugh.

Hehe. Film music is funny.

...

sigh.

Oh No He Di'int!

The Minnesota Star Tribune actually printed this. It’s by a special writer named Larry Fuchsberg. The title?

Minnestoa Orchestra and a peculiar troika

If you’re not familiar with the word “troika,” I will graciously define it for you. Well not me, the Free Dictionary.

troika: n.; A team of three horses abreast.

Why do I bring this up, you may ask? Because he calls Jennifer Higdon a horse.

As Captain Hook might say, if he was real and not a fictional pirate, who probably wouldn’t even frequent Minnesota anyway, especially in winter because it’s so darn cold and there’s not much money to be made from piracy that far up on the Mississippi—if he read this, he’d scoff: Bad form.

On a brighter note, another horse is Rachmaninov.
-