Permissions (2020)

Program Notes:

This piece is a response to the current state of the American orchestral institution – one which is concerned mostly with music and musical practices from the 18th and 19th centuries. This preoccupation with the music from the past, nuanced as the situation may be, has lead to the perpetuation of certain ideas and attitudes that I find highly problematic. My efforts to subvert these ideas led me to each decision I made about this piece.

Before I wrote a single note, I knew I wanted to write a piece that would grant the winds and brass a special kind of permission – one that would give them the opportunity to be the leaders in this scenario. However, instead of using them as a single unit, they are separated into several “chamber” ensembles based on certain qualities. These qualities include timbre, range, and other instrumental connotations and characteristics. These ensembles create several blended “voices”, each with their own specific musical profile, that ache to be noticed, felt, heard, and acknowledged.

Granting this special permission to the winds and brass inherently changes the way the strings participate – the strings shadow and imitate what is happening around them. Without any strong sense of unifying identity, the tutti strings are torn between the various wind and brass ensembles resulting in a musical profile that is varied and ambiguous. To heighten the drama of this treatment of the tutti strings, the principal players of each string section are removed from their traditional position of leadership and are divided amongst the wind and brass ensembles during portions of the piece. The members of this solo string quintet move fluidly between their roles as participants in the wind and brass ensembles, as a unified ensemble in and of itself, and as the only group sympathetic to the tutti strings.

The opening tutti is the simultaneous presentation of the ensemble’s identities and lines, urgently clamoring over each other in a manner that makes it impossible to discern any of them individually. In this moment, all of the materials manipulated in the piece make themselves known. The lines from the opening tutti echo through the ensembles as they pass from one ensemble to another. While the lines themselves remain mostly the same, their qualities are changed according to the ensembles who are performing them. This cycling of lines through the various ensembles conjures reactions of resentment, sympathy, and even apathy, depending on the characteristic patterns of behavior exhibited by the responding ensemble. The highest moments of conflict usher in the other three tuttis of the piece.

In total, there are 4 “lines” that make their way through the ensembles. Each time one of these lines occurs, it tries to establish a stronger sense of independence and individuality in the shadow of the opening tutti. At the same time these lines begin to emerge in more prominent ways, the musical fabric begins to unravel as moments of maximized disorder begin to permeate the score. This way of playing is taken up largely by the tutti strings, much to the dismay of the rest of the orchestra. Ultimately, the progress of the lines is cut short by the executive action of a trio of percussion who, until this moment, have participated in the most subordinate way. Their ominous warnings freeze the action of all the ensembles except the tutti strings who, not understanding the severity of the situation, proceed without any input from the other ensembles except the percussion’s brutal hits. Left to their own devices they slowly evaporate, recalling the shadow of the opening tutti but no longer guided by its unruly yet defined shape.