SYMPOSIUM ON

21ST-CENTURY
CHAMBER
MUSIC
MAY 10-12, 2019
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
https://tlhchambermusicfestival.weebly.com/

Elliot Cole American Brass Quintet Ellen Zwilich

WELCOME!
Hello and welcome to the Symposium on 21st-Century Chamber Music,

We are incredibly privileged to welcome you to the first ever Symposium on

21st-Century Chamber Music, hosted by The Florida State College of Music.
Whether you came to hear great music, get fresh insights on composing
chamber music, or learn about performance practice, we know you will find
something that interests you here. With an emphasis on composer and
performer collaborations, we hope to learn from each other in our endeavor
to create something beautiful.

Our featured artists for this symposium are Elliot Cole, The American Brass
Quintet, and Ellen Zwilich. We are excited to hear them in concert as well as
watch them work with our invited composers and chamber ensembles. We
also encourage you to attend the enlivening lectures scheduled throughout
the weekend, such as Ellen Zwilich's lecture on Neo-Romanticism in 21st-
century music and commissioning new works located in Dohnanyi Recital
Hall on Saturday. Also, we invite you to check out our exhibit hall. With
booths from Yamaha, Guitar Center, Alfred, Hal Leonard, Long Echo Music,
and Music Masters, there is something there for everyone.

We would like to thank The Florida State College of Music for hosting this
event and to our generous sponsors Yamaha, Vic Firth, and Brass Bach. This
event would not have been possible without the support of the Division of
Cultural Affairs Fast Track Project and the FSU Interdisciplinary
Symposia/Conference grants. Additionally, thank you to all of our performers,
composers and lecturers. Lastly, thank you to you for attending this
symposium.

Regards,
The organization team
Joe Berry, Trevor Mansell, Robin McAnally, Abby Rehard, & Bradley Snyder
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Featured Artists & Composers
The American Brass Quintet is internationally recognized as one of the
premier chamber music ensembles of our time, celebrated for peerless
leadership in the brass world. As 2013 recipient of Chamber Music
America’s highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service
Award for significant and lasting contributions to the field, ABQ's rich
history includes performances in Asia, Australia, Central and South
America, Europe, the Middle East and all fifty of the United States; a
discography of nearly sixty recordings; and the premieres of over one
hundred fifty contemporary brass works.

Committed to the promotion of brass chamber music through education,

the American Brass Quintet has been in residence at The Juilliard School
since 1987 and the Aspen Music Festival since 1970. Since 2000 the
ABQ has offered its expertise in chamber music performance and training
with a program of mini-residencies as part of its regular touring. Through
its acclaimed performances, diverse programming, commissioning,
extensive discography and educational mission, the American Brass
Quintet has created a legacy unparalleled in the brass field.

Elliot Cole is a composer and "charismatic contemporary bard" (NY Times). He

has written for and performed with Grammy Winners Roomful of Teeth, Grammy
Nominees A Far Cry and Metropolis Ensemble, as well as the Chicago Composers
Orchestra, New Vintage Baroque, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and as a member of
the book-club-band Oracle Hysterical. His percussion music has been performed by
over 250 ensembles all over the world, and evokes "sparkling icicles of sound" (Rolling
Stone). In 2017 he was invited by Talks at Google to share his unique explorations in
music through computer programming. Recent projects include Roda, a CMA-
commissioned work for the berimbau sextet Arcomusical, Movements, a VR music
playground for the Currents new media festival, and The Future is Bright, a percussion
concerto / film score for soloist Peter Ferry, which is being performed on portrait
concerts of Cole's work at 10 universities in the 2017-18 season. He is on faculty at the
The New School and Juilliard Evening Division, and is Program Director of Musicambia
at Sing Sing, where he runs a music school for incarcerated men. He is a PhD
candidate in Composition at Princeton University.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor, is widely

considered to be one of America's leading composers. She studied at the Florida
State University and the Juilliard School, where her major teachers were Roger
Sessions and Elliott Carter. She also studied violin with Richard Burgin and Ivan
Galamian and was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra under
Leopold Stokowski.

Zwilich is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the 1983 Pulitzer
Prize in Music (the first woman ever to receive this coveted award). She was
elected to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and
Letters and, in 1995, was named to the first Composer's Chair in the history of
Carnegie Hall. Musical America designated her the 1999 Composer of the Year. A
prolific composer in all media except opera, Zwilich has produced four
symphonies and other orchestral essays, numerous concertos for a wide variety
of solo instruments, and a sizable canon of chamber and recital pieces. Her works
are commissioned and played regularly by the leading orchestras and ensembles
throughout the world.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Invited Composers
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Invited Chamber Ensembles
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Invited Lecturers
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EVENT PROGRAM
8:30AM Registration Opens - Breakfast available for Symposium participants
Longmire Recital Hall

9:30AM Welcome Remarks

Longmire Recital Hall

10:00AM Open Chamber Rehearsals

Rare Form Trio & FSU Brass Quintet with Elliot Cole
Longmire Recital Hall
UGA Graduate String Quartet & Piano Quintet of the Century with
American Brass Quintet
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

11:30AM UGA String Quartet Performance

Amphitheater

12:00PM LUNCH BREAK - Lunch provided for Symposium participants

Amphitheater

1:00PM Open Dress Rehearsal for Elliot Cole Concert

Opperman Concert Hall

3:00PM Composer Workshops

John Smith & Jim Smith with Elliot Cole
Longmire Recital Hall
Jane Doe & Lauren Smith with American Brass Quintet
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

5:00PM Lecture
Joseph Schmoe: "Writing for Obscure Instrument Groupings"
Longmire Recital Hall

6:00PM DINNER BREAK

Check out our exhibitors
7:30PM Elliot Cole Concert
set up at the entrance of
Opperman Concert Hall
Housewright Music
Building!

FRIDAY
EVENT PROGRAM
9:00AM Registration Opens - Breakfast available for Symposium participants
Longmire Recital Hall

10:00AM Open Chamber Rehearsals

Rare Form Trio & FSU Brass Quintet with American Brass Quintet
Longmire Recital Hall
UGA Graduate String Quartet & Piano Quintet of the Century with Elliot Cole
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

11:30AM Rare Form Trio Performance

Amphitheater

LUNCH BREAK - Lunch provided for Symposium participants

12:00PM
Amphitheater

1:00PM Open Dress Rehearsal for American Brass Quintet Concert

Opperman Concert Hall

3:00PM Composer Workshops

John Smith & Jim Smith with American Brass Quintet
Longmire Recital Hall
Jane Doe & Lauren Smith with Elliot Cole
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

5:00PM Lecture
Melody Painter: "Collaboration with the Visual Arts"
Longmire Recital Hall

6:00PM DINNER BREAK

7:30PM American Brass Quintet Concert

Opperman Concert Hall
Check out our exhibitors
set up at the entrance of
Housewright Music
Building!

SATURDAY
EVENT PROGRAM
9:00AM Registration Opens
Longmire Recital Hall

10:00AM Lecture
Dr. Ellen Zwilich: "Neo-Romanticism in 21st-Century Music"
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

11:00AM Collaboration Performance

Members of Piano Quintet of the Century and UGA String Quartet
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

11:30AM Panel on Commissioning New Works

American Brass Quintet, Elliot Cole, and Dr. Ellen Zwilich
Dohnanyi Recital Hall

12:30PM Chamber Music Flash Mob

Downtown Tallahassee

Check out our exhibitors

set up at the entrance of
Housewright Music
Building!

SUNDAY
 CONCERT PROGRAM
UGA String Quartet
Friday, May 10, 2018 - 11:30AM
Amphitheater

Punctum (2009/2013) Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

As the youngest ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music at the age of 30 in 2013, Caroline
Shaw might be expected to act the part of the world-renowned composer; or at the very least
consider herself one. Instead, Shaw would prefer, as she told the New York Times in 2013, to
be known simply as a musician. Trained as a violinist from the age of 2, Shaw is an active
freelance performer throughout New York City as well as being a member of the American
Contemporary Music Ensemble. In addition, she sings in the A Cappella group, Roomful of
Teeth, for whom she wrote her Pulitzer-winning work, Partitia for Eight Voices.

Punctum is written for string quartet, running between 8 and 10 minutes in length.
Workshopped in 2009 and 2010 with the Hudson and Franklin Quartets, the piece was
premiered at the Greenwich House in New York City in 2010 before being revised to its current
form for the Brentano Quartet in 2013.The piece is inspired by, and takes its title from, Roland
Barthes’ concept of the unexpected in photographs discussed in his 1980 book, Camera
Lucida. In particular, Shaw draws her compositional inspiration from Barthes’ in-depth analysis
of the picture, Winter Garden, which describes a picture of the author’s dead mother as a child
whose face in the photo conveys the full emotion of her memory to her son. Shaw, in her own
words, also provides that “One could also say the piece is about the sensation of a particular
secondary dominant in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.”

The piece begins with a powerful chord played by everyone before exploring the potential of a
single tone passed between the violins and viola with each member attacking the note
differently; at times, using slight pitch bends to add a microtonal imperfection to the note.
These top three voices then proceed to alternate between the single note and complete
chords, using the chords to quickly modulate from key to key, never really allowing space for
the listener to feel settled. This all becomes the background for cello melodies sprinkled
through the passage, rich with classical sensibilities but placed on top of a very frantic
accompaniment in comparison to the string quartets of Mozart or Brahms Shaw fell in love with
from an early age. After the cello’s solo, the entire quartet engages in the swiftly changing
chords, this time gaining both speed and volume until the piece climaxes in a slower, very
classical cadence. The piece from then on is much less frantic, emulating the classical styles
of the composers previously mentioned, before dissolving into the drone from the beginning of
the piece. Instead of grand chords or swift key changes, this drone accompanies a sort of
adagio played by the viola and cello before a final, breathy overtone cuts the ensemble off, the
piece ending with two minuscule plucks. - Joe Berry
 CONCERT PROGRAM
Elliot Cole Showcase Concert
Friday, May 10, 2018 - 7:30PM
Opperman Concert Hall
Unknowable City No. 5 (2011) Elliot Cole (b. 1984)

Postlude No. 6 (2012) Elliot Cole

Night Music (2012) Elliot Cole

Hanuman’s Leap (2013) Elliot Cole

Unknowable City No. 5

Elliot Cole has always been inspired by music that uses non-traditional approaches. In his youth
Cole composed noise collages with his four-track cassette-tape, and later in his career he began
programing algorithms on computers to make music. His fascination with new technology, along
with his skills as a singer, pianist, and guitarist, strongly influenced his compositional style. His
music often pushes the boundaries between technology and music and makes use of traditional
and contemporary compositional techniques.

Unknowable Cities is a thread of compositions inspired by a piece Cole composed in university.

Each piece uses a different compositional technique and features a guitar quartet. According to
the composer, the pieces are related by a kind of listening rather than materials and technique.
Unknowable Cities No. 5 was composed in 2011 for four electric guitars. As a guitarist himself,
Cole was well aware of the instrument’s potential. In this piece, he uses various techniques
characteristic of the electric guitar. This includes overdrive, delays and other effects. At one point
in the piece Cole even calls for an electronic bow, a small handheld device, to sustain a drone in
one of the guitars.

Stylistically, Cole demonstrates his roots in minimalism. This is most apparent in its notation.
Although a performance of No. 5 typically lasts 10-12 minutes, the score itself occupies only three
pages! Cole instructs the players to sustain various chords for a variable amount of time. Only
once in the piece does Cole use an actual time signature. Listening to the piece further reinforces
its minimalist inspiration. The majority of the piece is only composed of chords; there is no
counterpoint or melody. Rather, the piece relies on the tone colors of the chords and the
interaction of timbre between the four guitars.

The piece is divided into three sections. The first begins with sparse chords separated by short
pauses. The slow tempo and chilling harmonies gives this section a feeling of emptiness. These
chords gradually lead to more dissonant ones, and near the end of the section a drone appears in
one of the guitars. This eventually gives way to the second section. For the first time in the piece a
fragment of a melody can be heard, giving a warm contrast to opening section. The piece then
returns to a short recapitulation of the opening section and peacefully fades to nothing.
- Trever Mansell
Postlude No. 6
Elliot Cole blends the worlds of serious compositional pursuits and aesthetics relatable to a
general musical audience with ease. Hailed as a “charismatic contemporary bard” by the New
York Times, Cole employs everything from computer programming, to glazed terra cotta pots, to
the human voice for inspiration.

Commissioned in 2012 by Sō Percussion, Postludes is a book of eight short pieces written for
vibraphone. While normally struck with yarn mallets in order to produce sound, the instrument
takes on an entirely new voice when the only methods of sound production used are the bowing
and striking with bare fingers of the metal bars. These pieces do not feel like percussion quartet
music, but more like something you would find performed by string quartet or voice.

Of the eight Postludes, no. 6 is the the only piece to feature anything resembling fast notes. With
a constant pulse from the bottom of the instrument, the audience cannot help but feel propelled
forward as the top three voices cascade and soar over the driving pulse of the bass. In just the
two and a half minutes the piece takes to be played, the piece gives the listener a sense of
home, takes them higher and higher until a new plateau is discovered, and brings them back
after the slightest pause to the home of the piece’s beginning. - Joe Berry

Hanuman's Leap
A documentary of a Kyrgyz bard sparked Elliot Cole’s curiosity to explore current traditional epic
performances from around the world. Stirred by the epics’ dramatic storylines as well as their
scarcity in current culture, Cole set out to compose Hanuman’s Leap, a pseudo-epic
performance for 21st-century, English-speaking audiences based on a story from the
Ramayana, a 2,500-year-old epic poem from India. The story follows the warrior monkey god
Hanuman, who was sent by Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, to find his kidnapped wife
Sita.

Originally written for the acclaimed vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, Hanuman’s Leap was
arranged for Cole to perform live alongside a percussion ensemble with prerecorded track.
Several extended vocal techniques characteristic of Roomful of Teeth, such as belting, Tuvan
throat singing, and guttural utterances heard in the prerecorded track accentuate the plot’s
thrilling recitation. Accompanying Cole’s high-energy performance and charismatic recounting of
Hanuman’s journey, the percussionists shape the story’s soundtrack through varying set-ups of
tom-toms, cymbals, bells, metal bowls, plates, and other found sounds. Cole has received many
accolades for his vocal works, and his percussion pieces have achieved great popularity from
around the world. Hanuman’s Leap illustrates Cole’s flair for composing for both voice and
percussion. - Abby Rehard
 CONCERT PROGRAM
Rare Form Trio
Saturday, May 11, 2018 - 11:30AM
Amphitheater
Ghosts (2017) Trey Anthony Makler (b. 1994)

It is very easy when exploring older classical music to forget that it was once new music. We listen
to Beethoven’s symphonies and view them as part of history, because they have been played
over and over for many years, or we listen to Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and think about all
the music that was inspired by it after the fact. However, these major works were, at one point
innovative and contemporary. When listening to new music, it helps to keep this in mind as you
explore a work that represents another next step in the history of music.

Trey Makler (b. 1994) is a current composition student at the Juilliard School of Music. He is an
active oboist and composer, having received commissions from the Sheldon Concert Hall, the
Charlotte New Music Festival, and the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Makler is also known as a
collaborator, making his works perfect for performing at this symposium, as we have explored the
role collaboration plays in composing and performing new chamber music. He has collaborated
not only with musicians but with dancers, writers, and visual artists, as well.

In his work Ghosts, composed in 2017, Makler explores the darker ideas of depression and
anxiety through the daring combination of traditional percussion sounds and the spoken human
voice. The voice, which begins as vague whispers and escalates to shouting in the middle of the
piece, states jarring, disturbing thoughts that are punctuated by angular percussion sounds.

Through this new combination of percussion and written word Makler further explores the very
nature of music itself. This work is a far cry from a simple poetry reading with instruments used as
tools for text painting. Rather, the voices are treated as musical instruments themselves, working
with and weaving around the percussion sounds. Similarly, the percussion instruments do not
simply paint a text but articulate their own musical ideas, which, when combined with the human
voices, are clearly musical ideas. In this way Makler takes sounds that would not have been used
as musical sounds at other points in history and combines them to create music.

While Makler’s ideas may be innovative in the present, they are also part of a long history of the
perpetual search for novelty. Ghosts is as much a product of new ideas as was Beethoven’s use
of choral forces in his Ninth Symphony and Berlioz’s drastic increase in the size of the orchestra in
the Symphonie fantastique. While it may seem at first that this music shares little with the music of
these composers, it does share the very idea of innovation in music. - Robin McAnally
 CONCERT PROGRAM
American Brass Quintet Concert
Saturday, May 11, 2018 - 7:30PM
Opperman Concert Hall
Brass Quintet No. 1 "Circus" (2003) Clint Needham (b. 1981)

Cadence, Fugue, Fade (2013) Sebastian Currier (b. 1959)

Arise, Awake Thomas Morley (1557-1603)

Colchester Fantasy (2000/2006) Eric Ewazen (b. 1954)

The Rose and Crown
The Marquis of Granby
The Dragoon
The Red Lion

Brass Quintet No. 1 "Circus"

The American composer Clint Needham has written works for a variety of ensembles, including
the Pittsburgh Symphony, American Brass Quintet, Spokane Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra,
and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, to name a few. He received his formal education from the
Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University,
where he was a four-year Jacobs School of Music doctoral fellow in composition. Needham has
been the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Barlow Prize, two ASCAP
Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, and the
Aspen Music Festival Jacob Druckman Prize. Needham was the Knight Foundation Composer in
Residence with the Akron Symphony and the Mellon Composer/Educator in Residence and the
Music Alive: New Partnerships Composer in Residence with the Albany Symphony for two
seasons. Currently he is the Composer in Residence and Associate Professor at the Baldwin
Wallace Conservatory.

Commissioned by the American Brass Quintet, Brass Quintet No. 1 “Circus,” received its
premiere in 2003 at the Aspen Music Festival. The work was the winner of the 2004 Brass
Chamber Music Forum competition. Written for standard brass quintet orchestration of two
trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba (or bass trombone) the piece is composed in five short
movements. Needham’s inspiration for the work stems from a less-than-ideal experience at a
circus when he was a child. The first movement, titled “Entry,” replicates the initial impressions of
an individual's first time at the circus. Fast-paced and full of energy, the movement highlights the
light and playful aspects of the circus. Intermixed in the sweeping sixteenth notes are
interjections by the low brass, which help to convey the more chaotic side of the circus. The
second movement, “Clowns,” is a simple waltz with a twist. Not quite a typical waltz, the
movement is set in a minor key, paying tribute to the creepier side of clowns. This movement
calls for mutes to change the timbre of the instruments to help further portray this character. The
third movement, “Ringleader,” opens with a long glissando in the trombone part and features
fanfare-like gestures written in close harmonies. (Continued)
The fourth movement, “The Contortionist,” is the only movement of the work that resembles any
sort of pleasant memory of the circus. The movement is a musical representation of someone
moving through space with ease, bending their body in ways that are extremely difficult but done
with little effort. The fifth and final movement, “Finale,” represents the overwhelming nature of
the circus, as Needham tries to make a mad dash for the exit. The movement alternates
between a gallop and a waltz and has a trio section that features the bass trombone or tuba.
The movement ends with an exciting push to the end. It is very clear that Needham had a very
personal and not necessarily happy experience at the circus. - Bradley Snyder

Cadence, Fugue, Fade

A recipient of the Berlin Prize, Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Arts and many more, Sebastian Currier has established himself as
one of the leading composers of the 21st century. His works have been performed by
ensembles and performers such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the
Kronos Quartet and renowned violin soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter. His compositional output
includes works for orchestra, voice, solo instruments, small and large ensembles, and
multimedia.

Cadence, Fugue, Fade was written for the American Brass Quintet in 2013 and is described by
the Aspen Times as “exploring a range of stunning effects and textures, far wider than you might
think [SDS4] from five brass instruments.” Currier’s compositional approach to this work was
modeled on the polyphonic and chordal textures of brass works in the late Renaissance and
early Baroque. The work consists of three very distinct sections of music. The “Cadence”
section of the piece begins very much like some examples of late Renaissance brass music, but
it quickly gets a 21st-century twist. The “Fugue” section becomes rhythmically complex as
technically challenging lines are passed around the various members of the ensemble. The
piece ends with the “Fade,” where the work slowly fades into nothingness. This composition is
truly a tour-de-force for the brass quintet and showcases the great range of colors that can be
created by five brass players. - Bradley Snyder

Arise, Awake
One of the most popular forms of secular music in Elizabethan England was the madrigal.
Madrigals set brief lyric texts to music. The music always has more than one singer, and each
singer has his/her own independent musical line. The poetry usually has a free rhyme scheme
and lines of either seven or eleven syllables. Originally an Italian art form, the madrigal gained
immense popularity in England during Queen Elizabeth I’s rule and as a result poetry for
madrigals in English began to emerge.

Thomas Morley was a very important composer in the development of the English madrigal. He
not only had some position of power in the English court, but he also published more madrigals
than anyone else at the time, making him the leading figure in their development. The five-voice
setting of Arise, Awake was published in 1601. Although it will be performed here on five brass
instruments instead of with vocalists, you can still hear the light tone that would have been
stylistically appropriate at the time. (Continued)
While this is a symposium on 21st-century chamber music and one could therefore argue that a
16th-century madrigal has no place in this concert, it is important to remember that new
arrangements and transcriptions of older works are an integral part of chamber music today. By
performing these works in a new and more modern way, The American Brass Quintet is
effectively merging the old and the new. - Robin McAnally

Colchester Fantasy
The town of Colchester, believed to be the oldest town in Britain, was the inspiration for
Colchester Fantasy. During his teaching trip to the Estherwood Music Festival in the summer of
1987, Eric Ewazen was inspired by the rich history and architecture of Colchester. This resulted
in a new suite written for the American Brass Quintet. Ewazen’s suite captures images of Roman
walls, Norman castles, colorful homes, churches, and lively pubs. The pubs particularly inspired
Ewazen! In fact, each movement is named after a famous Colchester pub. According to Ewazen,
“Their names brought to my mind images of ancient and historical traditions, and impressions of
the grandeur and majesty of time past.”

Ewazen adopted a conservative style for this piece, which reinforces his inspiration from the old
architecture and history. The piece often alludes to older styles by using chorale textures and
rich contrapuntal writing. However, the piece is full of Ewazen’s signature tonal flair.

The first movement, “The Rose and Crown,” begins with lush chords followed by fast changing
motives and intense rhythms. “The Marquis of Granby,” with its stately chorale themes, paints
images of distant churches. The third movement, “The Dragoon,” uses dissonant, clashing
harmonies with agitated rhythms to imitate sounds of war. The final movement “The Red Lion,” a
name with intimations of royalty and nobility, uses a fugue that spirals to a dramatic finale.
- Trevor Mansell
 CONCERT PROGRAM
Collaboration Performance
Members of
Piano Quintet of the Century and UGA String Quartet
Sunday, May 12, 2018
11:00AM

Septet for Piano Trio and String Quartet (2008) Ellen Zwilich (b. 1939)

The unusual instrumentation of piano, three violins, two cellos, and viola sets Zwilich’s Septet
for Piano Trio and String Quartet apart from the masses of quartets and trios found in
contemporary chamber music literature. Intrigued by the prospect of writing for the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Miami String Quartet, Zwilich remarked in her
notes for the piece that “the instrumentation of the Septet provides an almost orchestral
palette, and it was interesting to explore that. I love the idea of seven artist-performers, each
of whom can be a stunning virtuoso one moment and a thoughtful partner the next, and I
relish the electricity that results from those shifting roles.”

The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Symphony No. 1 and a composer
whose works have been performed by leading American orchestras and chamber
ensembles, Zwilich skillfully crafts intricate and appealing works for performers and
audiences alike. She has been referred to as “one of America’s most frequently played and
genuinely popular living composers” by critic K. Robert Schwarz. Her earlier compositions
were marked by their angular melodies, atonal harmonies, and complex structures, but by the
1980s a more accessible compositional style emerged. In her mature compositions, Zwilich
generates clear large-scale structure, long-breathed melodies, and tonal harmonies through
motivic material. This Neo-Romantic compositional style flourishes in Septet.

Dissonant, driving rhythms emanating from the piano trio contrast with the quiet, lyrical
chromaticism of the string quartet through the opening of the first movement, Introductions,
and the members of the string quartet progressively join the piano trio in a vigorous, musical
conversation. Quasi una Passacaglia, the second movement, invokes the somber bass-
ostinato patterns of the Baroque era, while the third movement, Games, is clearly inspired by
jazz styles, as the piano and string players race through dazzling riffs punctuated by bluesy
chords. Zwilich’s piece concludes with the expressive movement Au Revoir, which offers
sentiments of reminiscence and farewell—an “until we meet again” for the audience.
- Abby Rehard
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