by Jarrett Hoffman
FORWARD-LOOKING PAST, ADAPTIVE PRESENT, EVOLVING FUTURE:
Let’s begin on this date in 1913 with the birth of Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, whose highly respected music — some of which still sounds very fresh — might nevertheless be a bit vague in the minds of many listeners. Perhaps that’s because he’s difficult to summarize. He employed several different techniques of composition over the course of his career, from the use of folk elements to twelve-tone serialism and aleatoric processes.
Have a listen to his first work that involved those elements of chance, the highly experimental Jeux vénitiens (“Venetian Games”), heard here in a performance by the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer himself.
Before the premiere of the full version in 1961, Lutosławski wrote about the appeal of aleatoricism with regard to “the loosening of time relationships between sounds.” He noted “the possibility of enormous enrichment of the rhythmic side of music without increasing performing difficulty,” adding that the technique opens up “a way of realizing a number of sound visions which would otherwise remain forever in the realm of my imagination.”
However, he wrote that he was not interested in taking aleatoricism to its furthest extent, “for example, the elevation of chance to the status of…determining the basics of the composition, or taking the listener — and even the composer himself — by surprise with another unforeseeable version of performing a piece. In my work the composer remains the driving factor, and the introduction of chance in a strictly pre-defined manner is just a way and not a means in itself.” Read his full statement here from the Polish artistic database Culture.pl.
Moving into the present day, one story to point out is how Opera Philadelphia is making waves in the digital space with its streaming service and commitment to creating new material during the pandemic. That includes new chamber performances (watch a short clip of tenor and Youngstown native Lawrence Brownlee starring in Tyshawn Sorey’s Cycles of My Being) as well as premieres (such as a film version of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs that just premiered on Friday — watch the trailer here, screenshotted above next to Lutosławski). Read more about the company’s strategy and offerings here from The New York Times.
And looking forward, The Washington Post features the “class of 21 for ‘21” — a list of composers and performers at different stages of their careers, representing “an array of approaches, identities, experiences and, most of all, exciting ways of imagining what our future together sounds like.”
Take a moment or two to read the article and familiarize yourself with the widely varied music of Timo Andres, Balmorhea, Christopher Cerrone, Viet Cuong, Flannery Cunningham, Reena Esmail, Adeliia Faizullina, Inti Figgis-Vizueta, Randall Goosby, Jiji, Pekka Kuusisto, Yaz Lancaster, Angélica Negrón, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Mary Prescott, Dan Shore, Nadia Sirota, Derrick Spiva Jr., Darian Donovan Thomas, Davóne Tines, and Wang Lu.