Michael Daugherty
Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently commissioned, programmed, and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today. His music is rich with cultural allusions and bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring. Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.” Daugherty first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994. Since that time, Daugherty’s music has entered the orchestral, band and chamber music repertoire and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the ten most performed living American composers.
Daugherty’s compositions for symphonic band and wind ensemble include Desi (1991), Bizarro (1993), Motown Metal (1994), Niagara Falls (1997), Red Cape Tango (1999), UFO (2000), Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001) and Bells for Stokowski (2002).
Born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. He studied music composition at the University of North Texas (1972-76), the Manhattan School of Music (1976-78) and computer music at Boulez's IRCAM in Paris (1979-80). Daugherty received his doctorate from Yale University in 1986 where his teachers included Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Roger Reynolds, and Bernard Rands. During this time, he also collaborated with jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York, and pursued further studies with composer György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany (1982-84). After teaching music composition from 1986-1990 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daugherty joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan where, since 1991, he has been a mentor to many of today's most talented young composers.
Daugherty is a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world where he participates in pre-concert talks, teaches composition master classes and works with student composers and ensembles.
Daugherty has been the Composer-in-Residence with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra (2000), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999-2003), Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001-2002), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (2001-04, 2006-08), Westshore Symphony Orchestra (2005-06), Eugene Symphony (2006), Henry Mancini Summer Institute (2006), Music from Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival (2006) and Pacific Symphony (2010).
Daugherty has received numerous awards, distinctions, and fellowships for his music including a Fulbright Fellowship (1977), Kennedy Center Friedheim Award (1989), Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1996), the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2000) and the Michigan Governor’s Award (2004). In 2005, Daugherty received the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Composer's Award, and in 2007, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra selected Daugherty as the winner of the A. I. duPont Award. Also in 2007, Daugherty was named "Outstanding Classical Composer" at the Detroit Music Awards and received the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award for his composition Raise the Roof for Timpani and Symphonic Band. Daugherty's music can be heard on the Albany, Argo, Delos, Equilibrium, Naxos, Nonesuch and Sony labels.
Program Note
Red Cape Tango for Orchestra, the fifth movement of Metropolis Symphony, was commissioned by the Albany Symphony Orchestra through a generous gift of the Audrey M. Kaufman Music Fund and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its first performance was given by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Alan Miller, in the Palace Theatre, Albany, New York on October 1, 1993. Prepared under guidance from the composer, Mark Spede’s arrangement of Red Cape Tango for Symphonic Band was created in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin. The arrangement was first performed in March of 1998 by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, conducted by Mark Spede. It was subsequently performed by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, conducted by Jerry Junkin, Director of Bands, at the 1998 College Band Directors National Association Convention in Austin, Texas.
Metropolis Symphony (1988-1993), inspired by the celebration, in Cleveland, of the fiftieth anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in the comics, evokes an American mythology that I discovered as an avid reader of comic books in the sixties. Red Cape Tango, the fifth and last movement of Metropolis Symphony, was composed after Superman’s fight to the death with Doomsday, and is my final musical work based on the Superman mythology. The principal melody, first heard in the bassoon, is derived from the medieval Latin death chant Dies irae. This dance of death is conceived as a tango. The tango rhythm, introduced by the castanets and heard later in the finger cymbals, undergoes a gradual timbral transformation, concluding dramatically with crash cymbals, brake drum, and timpani. The ensemble alternates between legato and staccato sections to suggest a musical bullfight.
Michael Daugherty
The composer cordially thanks DC Comics of New York for permission to make reference to the trade mark names and characters published in Superman Comics.
Cover Design: Ron Greenfield
Cover Image: Superhero by Mark Schroll
Instrumentation
Number of players doubling each part at discretion of conductor (but in keeping with a balanced sound)
Piccolo
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
English Horn
Eb Clarinet
3 Bb Clarinets
Bb Bass Clarinet
Bb Contrabass Clarinet
2 Bassoons
Contrabassoon
2 Bb Soprano Saxophones (2nd doubling Eb Alto Saxophone)
Bb Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
4 F Horns
4 C or Bb Trumpets (C preferred; mutes: straight, plunger)
3 Trombones (mute: plunger)
2 Euphoniums
2 Tubas
Timpani (4 drums; wooden mallets/hard felt mallets)
Percussion (5 players; percussion instruments are not shared)
1. Large Crash Cymbals, Finger Cymbal
2. Chimes, Snare Drum, Brake Drum
3. Castanets, Large Tam-Tam, Vibraphone , Tambourine
4. Medium Crash Cymbals, Finger Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal
5. Marimba (with low C preferred), Suspended Cymbal, Xylophone, Glockenspiel
Piano
Contrabass (2 players preferred)
Score in C
Duration: ca. 13 minutes
Stage Arrangement
Red Cape Tango was composed with the following stereophonic seating plan for the percussion:
Timpani
Percussion 2
Percusssion1
Percussion 3
Symphonic Band
Conductor
Percussion 5
Percussion 4
Arranged for band by Mark Spede (1998)
Red Cape Tango
Michael Daugherty (1993)
Bn.