Winter Skies, December 2016
Under the direction of Dr. Anne J. Matlack
Harmonium Choral Society Chamber Singers
St Peter's, Morristown, New Jersey
Mohammed Fairouz is one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded
composers of his generation. Hailed by The New York Times as “an important new artistic voice” and by BBC World News as “one of the most talented composers of his generation,” his large-scale symphonies, operas and oratorios all engage major geopolitical and philosophical themes with persuasive craft and a marked seriousness of purpose. Fairouz recently became the youngest composer in the 115-year history of the Deutsche Grammophon label to have an album dedicated to his works with the spring 2015 release of Follow, Poet. His principal teachers in composition include György Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, and Richard Danielpour, with studies at the Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory. As an artist involved with major social issues, Fairouz seeks to promote cultural communication and understanding. Since childhood, Fairouz has found
musical inspiration in literary sources and describes himself as obsessed with text, with a deep respect for the power of the human voice.
The Second Coming, published in 2015, sets one of William Butler Yeats’ most famous, if
enigmatic, poems, written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War. Yeats had crafted a theory of history in his book A Vision, which centers on a diagram made of two conical spirals, one inside the other, so that the widest part of one of the spirals rings around the narrowest part of the other spiral, and vice versa. Yeats believed that this image (he called the spirals “gyres”) captured the contrary motions inherent within the historical process. Yeats believed that the world was on the threshold of an apocalyptic revelation, as history reached the end of the outer gyre (to speak roughly) and began moving along the inner gyre. He also used a lot of Biblical imagery - referring to the first coming of Christ by the “rocking cradle” as a violent change in the historical trajectory. The poem ends with a question as to what the change will be now. This work was premiered by the Young New Yorker’s Chorus in March of 2015. The aggressive vocal parts turn and turn creating the gyrating effect. It modulates and changes as “things fall apart - the center cannot hold,” bringing us to the last section, which is completely different, with echoes of Eastern modes evoking the shifting sands, and the music slow and static as we await the final revelation.
Program Notes: www.harmonium.org/s/Winter-Ski...
Mohammed Fairouz: mohammedfairouz.com/
Follow us on socials!
www.harmonium.org
Facebook: / harmoniumchoral
Instagram: / harmoniumchoral
Apple Music: / harmonium-choral-society
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0xGCh...
Amazon: www.amazon.com/s?=popular&rh=...
Негізгі бет Музыка The Second Coming - Mohammed Fairouz - Harmonium Choral Society Chamber Singers
Пікірлер