CopyrightbyRicordiNewYork
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instrumentation
2 flutes
2 oboes
2 clarinets in Bb
2 bassoons
4 horns in F
3 trumpets
3 trombones
1 percussion –large concert bass drum, timpani
strings
score is in C
duration is about 5 minutes
heavyweight was commissioned by the Bamberger Symphoniker.
program note:
CopyrightbyRicordiNewYork
heavyweight was commissioned as an encore for an orchestra concert. In particular, it was commissioned to follow one of my favorite pieces of all times, Sy mphony #5 by Jean Sibelius . One of the problems with writing an encore to follow the Sibelius is that it already has a coda that functions sort of like its own encore – the last movement of the symphony has a titanic and beautiful tune that repeats and builds to its climax, which is then followed by a section made entirely of several dramatic, explosive chords separated by long, taut, emotionally expressive silences. I heard a performance once, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall, in which the silences between the chords felt so long that the coda seemed to take up as much time as the entire rest of the symphony. Amazing. For my piece I began by imagining how I might take one of those last, great chords apart, breaking it up into accenting groups, which I could rearrange. So I did. And then I added a few things of my own.