Manhattan Minimalism for voice and guitar
Pioneren Steve Reich (1936), Pulitzer-pris vinderen David Lang (1957) og den unge fremadstormende Nico Muhly (1981) er tre generationer af New Yorkere, alle centrale figurer i musikscenen på Manhattan og over hele verden.
Steve Reich: Acoustic Counterpoint for 13 guitarer
David Lang: Stateless, for chamber choir
Nico Muhly: How little you are for chamber choir and 3 guitar quartets
Musicians:
RDAM Chamber Choir and Guitar Ensemble
Conductor: Geoffrey Paterson
livestream: https://youtu.be/0qLwVnJANtM
“HOW LITTLE YOU ARE” BY NICO MUHLY
Three guitar quartets and a choir, this is the novel format of this striking work by the young American composer Nico Muhly (1981). The result of a commission from Austin Classical Guitar, Conspirare and Texas Performing Arts of the University of Texas at Austin.
After making its world premiere in 2015 at the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas, Austin, it will now be performed for the first time outside of the United States here in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This programmatic work with a clear minimalist inclination offers us an image of the American West in the 19th century and a reflection of the pain, isolation and emptiness felt by its first settlers, especially the frontierswomen. Muhly set out to find an appropriate text and ultimately decided on excerpts from the diaries of two pioneering Texas women: Elinore Pruitt Stewart and Mary Alma Blankenship. The title of the piece is taken from a passage by Blankenship, in which she ruminates on the loneliness of pioneer life and the importance of God in that life:
“But when you get among such grandeur you get to feel how little you are, how foolish is human endeavor, except that which unites us with the almighty force called God.”
A vivid description, made by a trailblazing woman, of the existential void and insignificance of human existence in the face of the majesty of this western landscape. In the piece, that feeling is perfectly conveyed by the sound of twelve guitars, each representing the travelers who carried this instrument through undiscovered frontiers in the American West.
