[#286] January 13, 2025
2015 | Wind Orchestra | Grade 6 | 20' - 25' | Concerto
Luminosity, Concerto for Wind Orchestra, by American composer Joseph Schwantner is our Composition of the Week.
Luminosity was commissioned in 2015 by the CBDNA (College Band Director’s National Association) with support by a consortium of university, college, and professional ensembles initiated and organized by Dr. Nikk Pilato from Emory University, who premiered the work on April 24, 2015, with the Emory University Wind Ensemble (Atlanta, GA, USA).
The Concerto is cast in three extended movements:
1. Spiritoso e energico.
2. Misterioso.
3. Grande e con forza.
“The ensemble is arranged spatially with an extended array of percussion instruments and piano positioned stage front and woodwinds (on the left) and brass (on the right) seated behind on risers. Luminosity, an astronomical term for the total amount of energy and brightness radiated by a celestial object, serves as the title and metaphor for a kaleidoscopic palette of rich and vibrant instrumental colors explored in this work. Many of the work's musical ideas are framed by and are associated with specific individual instrumental groups each having their own unique and individual timbral and articulative identities. In Movement I (Spiritoso e energico), the drums present a series of forceful and propulsive figures immediately followed by a second layer of rhythmically animated woodwind motives. A third sustained pedal note texture stated by muted trumpets and stopped horns completes the presentation of the full ensemble framing this initial opening section and forming the primary musical components developed in the movement. Movement II (Misterioso), a slow movement for solo clarinet and ensemble, engages the clarinet's wide-ranging voice from low whispered and darkly hued phrases in the haunting chalumeau register to intense and sweeping arch-like gestures in its brilliant upper range. A rapid seven-note figure, first introduced by the clarinet, plays a central generative role, and occurs with ever-increasing frequency in the clarinet and ensemble as the movement unfolds. Movement III (Grande e con forza) draws from a variety of diverse and distinct musical elements that appear earlier in both Movements I and II, leading to several extended statements of a broad polyphonic texture in the brass. A kind of kaleidoscopic quality emerges as the stratified and layered ensemble textures move toward a final forceful conclusion. »
Program Notes by Joseph Schwantner
Luminosity is scored for standard wind ensemble setting including amplified piano, 2 String Basses and 4 percussion parts. It has a duration of 20’ minutes and it is available on rental at Schott Helicon Music.
For Errata list please refer to:
Joseph Schwantner, known for his dramatic and unique style and as a gifted orchestral colorist, is one of the most prominent American composers today. He holds degrees from the Chicago Conservatory and Northwestern University and previously served on the Juilliard, Eastman, and Yale faculties. Schwantner is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Schwantner's compositional career has been marked by many awards, grants, and fellowships, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his orchestral composition “Aftertones of Infinity” and several Grammy nominations. Among his many commissions is his “Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra”, commissioned for the 150th anniversary season of the New York Philharmonic, is one of the most performed concert works of the past several decades.
Other Works for Winds include:
· “…and the mountains rising nowhere” (1977)
· Sparrows (1979)
· From a Dark Millennium (1980)
· Music of Amber (1981)
· In evening’s stillness… (1996)
· Concerto for Percussion (transc.Boysen Jr.) (1997)
· Recoil (2004)
· The awakening hour (2017)
More on Joseph Schwantner