Orchestra Bassoon, Cello,
Clarinet, Contrabass,
Flute, Harp, Horn,
Marimba, Oboe,
Vibraphone, Viola, Violin
1, Violin 2
SKU:
PR.416414230
For
Chamber Orchestra.
Composed by James
Matheson. This edition:
Version 6/10/10. Sws.
Contemporary. Full score.
With Standard notation.
Composed February 13
2003. 84 pages. Duration
18 minutes. Theodore
Presser Company
#416-41423. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.416414230).
ISBN
9781598066630. UPC:
680160602087. 9x12
inches.
Colonnade
is James
Matheson’s
intriguing response to
the Albany
Symphony’s
commission to create a
work inspired by the NY
State Board of Education
Building, designed by the
renowned architect Rafael
Guastavino. Matheson
explains that “A
colonnade acts as a
metaphor for the tension
between knowledge and
perception. The columns
are the same height and
equidistant from each
other; while the mind
understands this fully,
there exists no place
from which one can
perceive this –
the columns always appear
to be of uneven height
and spacing. If one then
adds motion to
perspective, identical
columns acquire
elasticity, and begin to
change kaleidoscopically
– they shrink,
grow, become closer, and
then further
apart.†This
structural paradox is
given musical life in the
outer sections of
Colonnade, while the
long, arching middle
section is inspired by
the vaulted ceiling of
one of the
building’s largest
rooms, enhancing the
structure’s
spacious openness and
lightness.
Colonnade
is inspired by
Albany’s majestic
New York State Board of
Education Building, and
written on a commission
from the Albany Symphony
Orchestra. It was an
intriguing task, in part
because in order to
accept the commission I
had to agree to write a
work “inspired
by†a building I
had not yet seen.
Thisproblem was
compounded by the fact
that, for me, the very
notion of extra-musical
inspiration is a complex
one, particularly with
respect to literary or
visual sources. I
generally find ideas and
abstracted notions more
generative of musical
ideas than specific ones
(a poem, an experience, a
painting). So when I went
to seeand tour the
building, I sought to
identify fundamental
formal aspects of the
building which I could
process into musical
ideas, and would then be
linked to the building
through a sense of formal
relationship. In theend,
two characteristics of
the building stood out as
noteworthy and
undiminished by time
(compared with, for
instance, the
building’s
rotunda, which contains a
series of quaintly
outdated allegorical
paintings): theexterior
colonnade and a beautiful
interior vaulted ceiling,
designed by Rafael
Guastavino.For me, a
colonnade acts as a
metaphor for the tension
between knowledge and
perception. We all know,
for instance, that the
columns are of the same
height and are
equidistant from each
other. Nevertheless,
while the mind
understands this fully,
it is also the case that
there exists no place
– no standpoint or
viewpoint –
anywhere in the universe
– from which one
can perceive this; the
columns always appear to
be of uneven height and
spacing. If one then adds
motion to perspective
– a walk along the
colonnade, for instance
– the fixed, even,
rigidly identical columns
acquire elasticity, and
begin to change
kaleidoscopically
– they shrink,
grow, become closer, and
then further apart.
Further, the detail of
the building’s
façade behind the
colonnadeshifts into and
out of visibility, with
different portions
obscured by the columns
from each vantage point.
These considerations
underlie the outer
sections of Colonnade, in
which a continuously
repeated, continuously
varied rising figure
– suggestive of a
column –
dominates. The iterations
of this elastic,
evolvingfigure are
interspersed with other
music – suggestive
of the building’s
façade. The second
feature of the building
that caught my attention
was the vaulted ceiling,
designed by Guastavino,of
one of the
building’s largest
rooms. The ceiling
enhances the spaciousness
of the room, giving it an
openness and lightness
that is quite
captivating. The middle
section of Colonnade has
this openness at its
core, and is dominated by
long, arching lines that,
to me, suggest the
refined beauty of this
ceiling.World premiere
March 8, 2003; Albany
Symphony Orchestra
conducted by David Alan
Miller.
The Jam
