David Del Tredici is a pioneer into the Neo-Romantic movement of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is known for winning a Pulitzer Prize and has been both a Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He is a current professor of composition at the City University of New York and has been apart of the Harvard and Boston University Faculties. He is well-known for his advocacy of gay rights and awareness of gay teen suicide related to bullying. His music is internationally recognized as one of the most known composers since the 1980's and his music has been on over a dozen record labels.
Mis Inez Sez is a song cycle of five movements for soprano and piano. The poetry is written by Colette Inez, a highly distinguished professor at Columbia University. Del Tredici and Inez bond over their pasts in the Catholic Church. This first movement in particular is a series of complaints that can be heard in both the piano at the beginning followed by the voice as minor seconds resolving to minor thirds.
Mis Inez Sez : I. Alive and Taking Names
Tattoo is a piece from 1986 written for orchestra. While it remains one of Del Tredici's darker works, one can still here the threads of tonal lines woven in and out of the chaos. It was written as a commission by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the F. van Lanschot Bank of the Netherlands and represents the main theme from Paganini's 24th Caprice. To find the full program notes for this work click here.
Tattoo
The final piece we'll be looking at Cello Acrostic which can be found on his website from his larger work Final Alice. This piece followed In Memory of a Summer Day, which he received his Pulitzer Prize for. In his program notes he explains that "Final Alice is a series of elaborate arias, interspersed and separated by dramatic episodes from the last two chapters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, centering around the Trial in Wonderland (which gradually turns to pandemonium) and Alice's subsequent awakening and return to 'dull reality.'" Cello Acrostic is a beautiful solo cello piece that appears fourth in the ensemble. It begins with the Cellist performing a lovely tune in pizzicato, followed directly by an arco section that repeats, while developing the tune in a series of variations. Beautiful and haunting, it reminds me of the simple complexity that repetition and development can bring to a composition.
David Del Tredici is one of the trendsetters of the current compositional world. His music has many memorable and singable lines and in my opinion can be more "accessible" to the general public. To follow his career and listen to more of his music, go to his Website and YouTube accounts.
For anyone who may need it:
I do not own any of the music or videos in this blog post or in any of the other posts that you may find on this blog.
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