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- Joan Tower
Chamber Dance (2006)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
Programme Note
Composer note:
Chamber Dance is dedicated to the intrepid and wonderful Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. It is chamber music in the sense that I always thought of Orpheus as a large chamber group, interacting and "dancing" with one another the way smaller chamber groups do. Like dancers, the members of this large group have to be very much in touch with what everyone else is doing, and allow for changing leadership to guide the smaller and bigger ensembles. Chamber Dance weaves through a tapestry of solos, duets, and ensembles where the oboe, flute, and violin are featured as solos and the violin and clarinet, cello and bassoon, two trumpets, and unison horns step out of the texture as duets. The ensemble writing is fairly vertical and rhythmic in its profile, thereby creating an ensemble that has to "dance" well together. I am very honored that Orpheus commissioned me to write this piece.
— Joan Tower
Chamber Dance is dedicated to the intrepid and wonderful Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. It is chamber music in the sense that I always thought of Orpheus as a large chamber group, interacting and "dancing" with one another the way smaller chamber groups do. Like dancers, the members of this large group have to be very much in touch with what everyone else is doing, and allow for changing leadership to guide the smaller and bigger ensembles. Chamber Dance weaves through a tapestry of solos, duets, and ensembles where the oboe, flute, and violin are featured as solos and the violin and clarinet, cello and bassoon, two trumpets, and unison horns step out of the texture as duets. The ensemble writing is fairly vertical and rhythmic in its profile, thereby creating an ensemble that has to "dance" well together. I am very honored that Orpheus commissioned me to write this piece.
— Joan Tower
Media
Scores
Reviews
But there was nothing staid about her Chamber Dance from 2006. Slinky, fast-flowing and infused with a strong sense of rhythm, it’s an infectious piece of orchestral writing.
5th November 2018
The 18-minute work, filled with solos and duets and metrical obstacle courses, certainly provided the Orpheus musicians opportunity for display. The strength of the solo playing and the togetherness of the ensemble impressed.
In Chamber Dance, Tower — the most performed living composer by symphony orchestras in the 2005-06 season, according to a recent survey — reveals a sure craftsmanship, Stravinskian ear and conservative bent…
In Chamber Dance, Tower — the most performed living composer by symphony orchestras in the 2005-06 season, according to a recent survey — reveals a sure craftsmanship, Stravinskian ear and conservative bent…
17th May 2006
…a dynamic and dark-hued showpiece written for the orchestra…
15th May 2006
What is especially remarkable about the 16-minute-long work is how "established" it sounds. It could easily pass for an early 20th-century masterpiece that we somehow don’t know very well. It is expertly crafted, full of ideas, and the way Tower plays instruments off against one another in pairs (the cello and the bassoon or the violin and clarinet, for instance), is inspired in terms of melody, structure and timbre.
The time when Tower's music would have been shocking and/or avant-garde is long, long gone. Judging by the audience response last night, people actually liked the piece and were not applauding out of politeness. The music is not brainlessly tonal or drearily minimalist, but it communicates readily. Tower is some ways an avatar, a new embodiment of familiar ideas — but then, even in the most "far out" New Music world, these days, one must look very far out indeed to find anybody composing something truly original.
The time when Tower's music would have been shocking and/or avant-garde is long, long gone. Judging by the audience response last night, people actually liked the piece and were not applauding out of politeness. The music is not brainlessly tonal or drearily minimalist, but it communicates readily. Tower is some ways an avatar, a new embodiment of familiar ideas — but then, even in the most "far out" New Music world, these days, one must look very far out indeed to find anybody composing something truly original.
14th May 2006
Discography
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8.559775
- ConductorGiancarlo Guerrero
- EnsembleNashville Symphony
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8.559775
- ConductorGiancarlo Guerrero
- EnsembleNashville Symphony Orchestra