orchestra (2018)
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instrumentation
2 + picc. 2 + Eng. hn. 2 + bcl. 2 + contra / 4.3.3.1 / timp. 3 perc. / hp. piano / strings
details
Duration: 10 minutes
Commissioned by: Seattle Symphony
Premiere: June 14, 2018
Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA
Ludovic Morlot, conductor
program note
“Significant Other” or “SO” has often been used as a gender-neutral term to describe a partner in an intimate relationship. The definition in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary—which I especially appreciate—takes it a bit further as “a person who is important to one’s well-being.” We all have many different types of relationships, through friends, family, and work, that fit that description. While those connections may seem very different on the outside, we tend to attract people with similar qualities into our lives. Significant Others is a single-movement romp through various musical scenes closely related in sonic terms but explores different sorts of contrast. In my compositions, I enjoy discovering the multiple directions that a given piece of musical material can take. Certain passages of Significant Others repeat, with the music winding up in a different place—sometimes radically divergent—each time. The overall feeling of the piece is bright and joyful, with a clear sense of rhythm and pulse. A mournful, bittersweet section marks the center of the work, and a few “hat tips” to Leonard Bernstein, with whose music this work was originally paired in concert, are embedded in the orchestration.