colonnade
COLONNADE (2003), for chamber orchestra Purchase Online
Premiere: March 8, 2003, Albany Symphony Orchestra, conducted David Alan Miller
Duration: 18’
Instrumentation: Chamber orchestra [ Fl, Ob, Bb Cl, Bsn; Hn; Hp, Vibe; 2 Vl, Vla, Vc, Cb]
Program Note:
Colonnade is inspired by Albany’s majestic New York State Board of Education Building, and written on a commission from the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Colonnade's composition 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. This problem 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 see and tour the building, I looked for fundamental formal aspects which I could process into musical ideas. In the end, 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and undiminished by time (compared with, for instance, the building’s rotunda, which contains a series of quaintly outdated allegorical paintings): the exterior colonnade and a beautiful interior vaulted ceiling, designed by Rafael Guastavino.
For me, a colonnade is an apt 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 comprehends this, 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 details of the building’s façade behind the colonnade shift 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, evolving figure are interspersed with other music – suggestive of the building’s façade.
The second feature of the building that caught my attention was Guastavino's vaulted ceiling in one of the building’s largest rooms. The ceiling enhances the room's spaciousness, 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 ceiling's refined beauty.
– James Matheson