RHAPSODIES for Orchestra (2008)
Steven Stucky
When the New York Philharmonic invited me to compose a short work for its European tour of August-September 2008, the invitation came with a suggestion from Music Director Lorin Maazel: Would I consider writing “something rhapsodic”? I ran to the dictionary for help. The more I thought about the words rhapsody and rhapsodic — words I would never have chosen to describe my music — the more I realized that boundaries are meant to be pushed, and that an external, even foreign stimulus like “rhapsodic” could be just the ticket to push mine.
The resulting work is rhapsodic in two senses. It has a freely developing form, as if improvised, and it trades in ecstatic, fervent forms of expression. Although it is in one continuous movement, Rhapsodies is titled in the plural because it unrolls as a series of rhapsodic episodes, usually triggered by a single player whose ardent phrases gradually “infect” his neighbors until soon a whole section of the orchestra is sounding ecstatic. A solo flute (appassionato) draws other high woodwind voices in one by one, until they create a riotous mass of sound. A solo English horn (cantando, fervente) recruits clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and more, until its whole neighborhood has broken into song, too. Solo horn and trumpet (nobile) launch still another outbreak, now among the brasses. Meanwhile, behind each of these episodes of rhapsodizing flows calmer, supporting music elsewhere in the orchestra, serving as a backdrop.
Unrelenting fervor can only be borne for so long. Eventually, the orchestra lapses, spent, into a quiet coda, where the intense experiences that have come before can be recollected in tranquility.
Rhapsodies was jointly commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and the BBC, with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund. The world premiere was given by the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel on 28 August 2008 at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, with the U.S. premiere by the same forces falling on 18 September 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York.
Steven Stucky
When the New York Philharmonic invited me to compose a short work for its European tour of August-September 2008, the invitation came with a suggestion from Music Director Lorin Maazel: Would I consider writing “something rhapsodic”? I ran to the dictionary for help. The more I thought about the words rhapsody and rhapsodic — words I would never have chosen to describe my music — the more I realized that boundaries are meant to be pushed, and that an external, even foreign stimulus like “rhapsodic” could be just the ticket to push mine.
The resulting work is rhapsodic in two senses. It has a freely developing form, as if improvised, and it trades in ecstatic, fervent forms of expression. Although it is in one continuous movement, Rhapsodies is titled in the plural because it unrolls as a series of rhapsodic episodes, usually triggered by a single player whose ardent phrases gradually “infect” his neighbors until soon a whole section of the orchestra is sounding ecstatic. A solo flute (appassionato) draws other high woodwind voices in one by one, until they create a riotous mass of sound. A solo English horn (cantando, fervente) recruits clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and more, until its whole neighborhood has broken into song, too. Solo horn and trumpet (nobile) launch still another outbreak, now among the brasses. Meanwhile, behind each of these episodes of rhapsodizing flows calmer, supporting music elsewhere in the orchestra, serving as a backdrop.
Unrelenting fervor can only be borne for so long. Eventually, the orchestra lapses, spent, into a quiet coda, where the intense experiences that have come before can be recollected in tranquility.
Rhapsodies was jointly commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and the BBC, with generous support from the Francis Goelet Fund. The world premiere was given by the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel on 28 August 2008 at the BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, with the U.S. premiere by the same forces falling on 18 September 2008 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York.