Sorry for the very short notice, but a live streamed Faculty Artist Recital of this composer's music is available to listen to if anyone might be interested.
Robert Morris said, "If you would like to "attend" the concert over the internet just follow the link below (log in this Sunday about ten minutes before the concert at 2:50 pm).
The program and notes are attached.
For program notes on the song cycle "Cold Mountain Songs" go here: http://lulu.esm.rochester.edu/rdm/notes/Cold.html
Go here to see the lyrics of the song cycle: http://lulu.esm.rochester.edu/rdm/notes/Coldt.html "
Unable, unfortunately, to attach the pdf file with all the details to which he refers as it is rejected as an invalid file, as is the .txt file I made, when I tried to upload it. Don't understand why it is rejected.
Morris's music is never played here (nor Donald Martino's, Richard Swift's or Peter Lieberson's) and never will be, it seems, so this would be an opportunity to listen. He is the only one of these four who is still alive.
The works to be played are: Omega (2017) piano, Birds Soaring Over Mountain Paths (2016) mixed ensemble, Lake (2016) piano, Drawn Onward: Fantasy for Violin and Piano (2014), Intermezzo (1976) piano, Cold Mountain Songs (1993) soprano and piano.
The beginning (only) of Morris's program notes for "Broken Symmetries" is as follows:
"When a circle is severed and becomes a line, its symmetry is broken. A finite line has
symmetry but only retrograde symmetry. Similarly, the abstract symmetries of music
structure are broken when music is played in time. But even retrograde symmetries are
broken, because we can only experience time as flowing into the future, or alternately,
flowing from the future into the past. However, musical symmetries are reconstituted in
memory, where we can understand that “the end precedes the beginning // And the end
and the beginning were always there // Before the beginning and after the end.” (T.S.
Eliot, “Four Quartets: Burnt Norton, IV”). In the music I write, there are many different
kinds of symmetries that hold the music together and give it character. But these musical
networks only can become beautiful when they are played in time, where transience and
impermanence rule, and sound fades out into memory.
Omega, a short piece for piano, is taken from my suite, Twenty-Four Fragments for
Diverse Instruments written in the spring of 2017. Any of the fragments can be used as
concert preludes, interludes or encores. Here, the piece bearing the name of last Greek
letter is first on this program.
Birds Soaring Over Mountain Paths was written in the winter of 2016 to contribute to
a project called “Music in the American Wild,” initiated and administered by Emlyn
Johnson to bring new nature-inspired music to the national parks. The occasion was the
2016 centennial of the National Parks. Ten composers including myself were
commissioned to write pieces which would be performed in the summer of 2016,
performed both in outdoor vistas at specific parks and in more formal venues in the
neighboring cities and communities of the various parks.
The title “Birds Soaring over Mountain Paths” is meant to suggest the serenity of
outdoor settings. The composition’s form is based on my experience hiking in the
national parks and elsewhere. Of its 13 basic sections, there are three kinds of music.
The first kind is chordal music for the whole ensemble, such as found at the beginning
and end of the piece; these represent the (usually) paved trails leading to and from
various sites and vistas on which everyone can traverse. The second kind is music led by
one of the six instruments with various textures of a contrapuntal character; these
sections are like the network of marked but unpaved trails in the woods and/or over hills.
The third kind of section is like that of bushwhacking with no trail to follow; these
sections are complexes of harmonic unfoldings with the instruments equally interacting.
Each instrument has its own melodic and harmonic material, which are composed to
interact in a congruous and amiable manner. Moreover, in the sections led by an
instrument, the music reflects that instrument’s character: cello, expressivo; horn,
cantabile; violin, con brio; clarinet, agitato; viola, marcato; flute, leggiero.
Lake is a short and calm piano piece written in April of 2016. Subtle octave doublings
are used to add resonance to the slow harmonic pacing of the piece.
Perhaps this lake is like that of Schoenberg’s “Summer Morning by a Lake” except that
the air is clearer and perhaps more numinous.
Drawn Onward: Fantasy for Violin and Piano was written for the Irrera Brothers
violin/piano duo in the summer of 2014.
The title of the piece involves a palindrome that is embedded in the following longer
palindrome: “Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?” The idea
of a symmetry inside another symmetry is at the heart of the composition—wheels
within wheels. For instance, each of the two players have their own musical materials,
but the violin material is embedded in the piano material and vice versa. Since the two
performers are brothers, I thought that working with mutually embedded materials an
apt way of composing a piece particularly for them.
The form of the piece is a series of episodes, both reflecting and predicting each other.
(But one may also hear this piece as series of loose variations.) Along the way, one of
the two instruments will dominate a section, or both will more equally share in the
progression as the piece is drawn onward to its end."
So presumably the link to this concert will work 5 hours later at 7.50pm. Hope it works! But it's worth a try anyway.
Robert Morris said, "If you would like to "attend" the concert over the internet just follow the link below (log in this Sunday about ten minutes before the concert at 2:50 pm).
The program and notes are attached.
For program notes on the song cycle "Cold Mountain Songs" go here: http://lulu.esm.rochester.edu/rdm/notes/Cold.html
Go here to see the lyrics of the song cycle: http://lulu.esm.rochester.edu/rdm/notes/Coldt.html "
Unable, unfortunately, to attach the pdf file with all the details to which he refers as it is rejected as an invalid file, as is the .txt file I made, when I tried to upload it. Don't understand why it is rejected.
Morris's music is never played here (nor Donald Martino's, Richard Swift's or Peter Lieberson's) and never will be, it seems, so this would be an opportunity to listen. He is the only one of these four who is still alive.
The works to be played are: Omega (2017) piano, Birds Soaring Over Mountain Paths (2016) mixed ensemble, Lake (2016) piano, Drawn Onward: Fantasy for Violin and Piano (2014), Intermezzo (1976) piano, Cold Mountain Songs (1993) soprano and piano.
The beginning (only) of Morris's program notes for "Broken Symmetries" is as follows:
"When a circle is severed and becomes a line, its symmetry is broken. A finite line has
symmetry but only retrograde symmetry. Similarly, the abstract symmetries of music
structure are broken when music is played in time. But even retrograde symmetries are
broken, because we can only experience time as flowing into the future, or alternately,
flowing from the future into the past. However, musical symmetries are reconstituted in
memory, where we can understand that “the end precedes the beginning // And the end
and the beginning were always there // Before the beginning and after the end.” (T.S.
Eliot, “Four Quartets: Burnt Norton, IV”). In the music I write, there are many different
kinds of symmetries that hold the music together and give it character. But these musical
networks only can become beautiful when they are played in time, where transience and
impermanence rule, and sound fades out into memory.
Omega, a short piece for piano, is taken from my suite, Twenty-Four Fragments for
Diverse Instruments written in the spring of 2017. Any of the fragments can be used as
concert preludes, interludes or encores. Here, the piece bearing the name of last Greek
letter is first on this program.
Birds Soaring Over Mountain Paths was written in the winter of 2016 to contribute to
a project called “Music in the American Wild,” initiated and administered by Emlyn
Johnson to bring new nature-inspired music to the national parks. The occasion was the
2016 centennial of the National Parks. Ten composers including myself were
commissioned to write pieces which would be performed in the summer of 2016,
performed both in outdoor vistas at specific parks and in more formal venues in the
neighboring cities and communities of the various parks.
The title “Birds Soaring over Mountain Paths” is meant to suggest the serenity of
outdoor settings. The composition’s form is based on my experience hiking in the
national parks and elsewhere. Of its 13 basic sections, there are three kinds of music.
The first kind is chordal music for the whole ensemble, such as found at the beginning
and end of the piece; these represent the (usually) paved trails leading to and from
various sites and vistas on which everyone can traverse. The second kind is music led by
one of the six instruments with various textures of a contrapuntal character; these
sections are like the network of marked but unpaved trails in the woods and/or over hills.
The third kind of section is like that of bushwhacking with no trail to follow; these
sections are complexes of harmonic unfoldings with the instruments equally interacting.
Each instrument has its own melodic and harmonic material, which are composed to
interact in a congruous and amiable manner. Moreover, in the sections led by an
instrument, the music reflects that instrument’s character: cello, expressivo; horn,
cantabile; violin, con brio; clarinet, agitato; viola, marcato; flute, leggiero.
Lake is a short and calm piano piece written in April of 2016. Subtle octave doublings
are used to add resonance to the slow harmonic pacing of the piece.
Perhaps this lake is like that of Schoenberg’s “Summer Morning by a Lake” except that
the air is clearer and perhaps more numinous.
Drawn Onward: Fantasy for Violin and Piano was written for the Irrera Brothers
violin/piano duo in the summer of 2014.
The title of the piece involves a palindrome that is embedded in the following longer
palindrome: “Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?” The idea
of a symmetry inside another symmetry is at the heart of the composition—wheels
within wheels. For instance, each of the two players have their own musical materials,
but the violin material is embedded in the piano material and vice versa. Since the two
performers are brothers, I thought that working with mutually embedded materials an
apt way of composing a piece particularly for them.
The form of the piece is a series of episodes, both reflecting and predicting each other.
(But one may also hear this piece as series of loose variations.) Along the way, one of
the two instruments will dominate a section, or both will more equally share in the
progression as the piece is drawn onward to its end."
So presumably the link to this concert will work 5 hours later at 7.50pm. Hope it works! But it's worth a try anyway.