Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- George Lewis
Weathering (2023)
- C.F. Peters Corporation (World)
- 2(2pic).2.2.2(II:cbn)/2.2.1.1/timp.2perc/pf.hp/str
- 17 min
Programme Note
Composer note
Weathering continues my fascination with the classic trope of depiction in American music, as found in Amy Beach, Charles Ives, Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, Elliott Carter, Duke Ellington, and many others. This new work is part of my series of musical meditations on the sound of decolonisation that ask: If we get what we want, what will it sound like?
The music of the new black improvisors of the 1960s prompted a New York Times characterization: "Black, Angry and Hard to Understand." John Coltrane’s response was a cryptic statement of resistance: he was trying to show “the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.” This was “stoic” (with a small “S”): enduring pain or hardship without showing feelings or complaining.
The public health researcher Arline Geronimus calls “weathering” a continuous fight-or-flight vigilance and stress response in reaction to an unrelenting anti-Blackness that can be experienced at any time, transcending class position, with lingering effects long after the experience is over. Nonetheless, the targets of the abuse are expected to respond “stoically.”
Here, we can turn to JID’s song “Kody Blue 31” (2022) which tells us that the only way to survive this Sisyphean cleftstick is to “keep on swangin’ on,” a form of New Testament hexis. Weathering (the music) is about the sound of that struggle, part of a larger call for new histories, new subjectivities, and a new identity for classical music. I am hoping that this music will provoke not stress, but empathy, since diverse forms of weathering affect us all.
— George E. Lewis
Scores
Reviews
“Weathering,” a bustling, impassioned 15-minute work, continued Lewis’s sterling recent run of music for large forces. (How long until the Philharmonic, his local symphony, recognizes the merit of his orchestral catalog?) Speaking from the stage before the performance, he compared the title with the endurance required in the face of racist microaggressions. He advertised a noisy “weathering” chord that he said depicted this ritual annoyance. It was indeed noisy, and did indeed recur. But it was also not narrowly didactic: His packed yet considered orchestrations connote a generous spirit — even, or particularly, in moments of carefully chiseled chromatic density.
Lewis’s “weathering” chord, then, cut a wry, playful figure whenever it appeared. And the balance of his writing was riveting, with different elements catching the ear in near simultaneity. One such moment of supple rhythmic patterning came from a pair of percussionists playing gongs that led to a wisp of luminous harp writing and droning in the woodwinds. Kaziboni shaped this hyperactive swirl with crucial attention to dynamics. At one juncture, he let the orchestra rip with a loud chord, then pared things back to cradle a crying articulation in the trumpets.
More Info
- American Composers Orchestra Premieres George Lewis's 'Weathering"
- 8th November 2023
- On November 9th, 2023 the American Composers Orchestra gives the world premiere of George Lewis' newest work, 'Weathering,' at Carnegie Hall.