NEC Composers' Series: Richardson, Agócs, Peyton, Turnage

Sid Richardson | from Tide Tiding Time

I. Shells and Stones

Program note

Tide Tiding Time is a rumination on time and structure that was inspired by the Penobscot Bay in Maine. The tide there changes by about twelve feet between low and high tide, which makes for an ever-shifting seascape. The music of Tide Tiding Time is informed by activities that I engaged in on those shores growing up: swimming, skipping stones, collecting sea glass, piling together driftwood, seeking out crabs, periwinkles, and other crustaceans. Like the tide, the work follows a rigorous structure: the same proportions are applied to each movement (and to each section and subsection, respectively), but they unfold within their own characteristic sound world. Shells and Stones, the first and most substantial movement,presents a patchwork of musical materials that reflect the heterogeneous composition of a  beach.                                                                                                                    
– Sid Richardson

Kati Agócs | Division of Heaven and Earth (2006)

Program note

Division of Heaven and Earth was written for the Swedish pianist Fredrik Ullén, who premiered it in Stockholm in 2006. Roughly fifteen minutes in duration, this work was conceived as a ‘battle’ with the Transcendental Etudes of Liszt. The year prior to writing this work I had spent in Budapest on my Fulbright, living in an apartment that my family owns a few doors down from the Liszt Academy and exploring my Hungarian musical DNA.  The Transcendental Etudes—present in the guise of quotations which are never direct, but always subtly modified with the addition of chromatic tones and “bending” of their rhythms and figurations—represent the idealized music of the past (heaven). The piece begins as an empty shell, slowly filled by fragmentary echoes of the Liszt. In the ‘battle’ of the piece, the non-quoted music (my music) prevails, as a rhapsodic chordal melody enters in the mid range and slowly blossoms, finally descending to earth in the work’s final measures.
– Kati Agócs

Malcolm Peyton | Four Songs from Shakespeare

Music to hear
Orpheus with his lute
Blow thou winter wind
Lo, in the orient

INTERMISSION

Mark-Anthony Turnage | New England Etudes

World premiere; co-commissioned by the NEC Percussion Group, Will Hudgins, director.

Etude No. I
Etude No. II
Etude No. III: Conga
Etude No. IV
Etude No. V: Bells for Ukraine
Etude No. VI

Mark-Anthony Turnage is the Malcolm Peyton Composer Artist-in-Residence.

Program note

Mark-Anthony Turnage’s New England Etudesis a six-movement work for percussion sextet receiving its world premiere this evening. Turnage incorporates a variety of traditional instruments throughout the work. His interest in jazz music is a consistent source of inspiration in his output and is immediately evident as this piece has a swinging lilt from the opening measures. The use of a drum set-style setup and two vibraphones also adds to his no to the genre. Odd meters and the sharing of motives throughout the group abound. The exception to this style is the fifth etude, entitled Bells for Ukraine, a movement that stands apart from the others in its solemnity. This eighteen-minute work is a tremendously welcome addition to the percussion repertoire, and we are pleased to present the work tonight with the composer in attendance.                                                                                             
– Will Hudgins