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- Olly Wilson
Sinfonia (1984)
- GunMar Music (World)
Programme Note
Sinfonia was composed over an extended period during 1983 and 1984 and is dedicated to Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The title Sinfonia is used in its original sense: that is, a composition for a large instrumental ensemble.
The first movement is based on the development of a motivic idea presented initially at the opening of the piece. This motive is developed gradually primarily by the woodwind instruments against a shifting harmonic background in the strings. It eventually assumes the proportions of an extended musical idea, only to be interrupted by a new related, but contrasting, motivic idea which undergoes the same process. The result is the unfolding of a large musical shape that evolves somewhat like "waves," each of which starts as an underdeveloped motive that gradually becomes an extended musical idea before it is interrupted by the beginning of a new idea. In the course of the process, each successive "wave" builds toward the major climatic point of the movement. The musical material of this point of culmination is a variant of the original motive and is stated in the entire orchestra. Following the climatic point, the movement closes with a brief coda that features the solo clarinet.
The second movement is an Elegy in memory of my father, Olly Wilson, Sr., and my friend, the extraordinarily gifted young conductor Calvin Simmons, both of whom died during the period 1982-1983. After a short introduction, the work proceeds to the statement of two straightforward melodic ideas. The second principal melodic statement is a reinterpretation of an excerpt from an orchestral work composed for and premiered by Calvin Simmons in 1981.
The third movement is an attempt to capture the essence of a stylized dance -- a dance whose fundamental nature as a derivative of traditional Afro-American blues gestures does not become apparent until the closing measures of the piece. Thematically the movement contains two principal ideas which alternate with one another. The first theme is characterized by an angular melodic line presented by the high strings and woodwinds. The second theme is characterized by a rhythmically repetitive figure presented by the low strings and horns with interjections by the trombones and the percussion section. These two theme interact with one another as well as with thematic material from the first movement, gradually establishing, first, the fundamental interrelationship of all the ideas and, secondly, the basis for the presentation of the blues-like material that brings the movement to its climax.
-- Olly Wilson