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- Ellen Reid
TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY (2022)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, Thomas Dausgaard Music Director and co-sponsored by the New Mexico Philharmonic
- 2(II:pic).1+ca.2(II:bcl).2(II:cbn)/3.2.1.1/3perc/pf.hp/str
- 18 min
- 5th April 2025, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Programme Note
TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY AND TODAY was the first piece I wrote once COVID-19 restrictions started to ease in 2021. I was asked by Seattle Symphony to respond to a symphony of Jean Sibelius, and I was inspired by his unfinished eighth. Sibelius worked on the piece for 30 years, but he never completed it. I was fascinated by the image of him returning to his workspace, day after day, attempting to summit an insurmountable peak.
TODAY AND… evokes both the feeling of being trapped in a repetitive cycle — something felt acutely during the height of the pandemic — and the unexpected gift of presentness I found sitting with and accepting this repetition. Glissandi, stretched throughout the entire string section, and an energetic rhythmic motif reflect waves of disorientation and euphoria. The piece begins with and returns to an aggressive major 3rd — a moment when we decide to begin again, and again, and again.
Ellen Reid