INTERNAL DATA CENTER v2.1 (MySQL)
Home
Upload
CRUDs
Writers
Titles
Title Instruments
Title Categories
Title Sub-Categories
Title Media
Series
Products
Organizations
Performances
Back to WordPress
Home
Titles
01F0F9C5-0559-4D79-9439-E888FF28CAD6
Update
Update Title: 01F0F9C5-0559-4D79-9439-E888FF28CAD6
ID
Titlecode
Title Name
Marketing Copy
Inspired by the art of Käthe Kollwitz in poems by Muriel Rukeyser.
Instrumentation
Soprano and String Quartet
Commission
Commissioned by Julia Adams for the 30th anniversary of the Portland String Quartet.
Dedication
Program Notes
Kèthe Kollwitz was written in response to a commission from violist Julia Adams for a work celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Portland String Quartet in 1998. Julia specifically wanted a large-scale work that the quartet could perform with soprano Christina Astrachan. Given this combination of artists, the idea of composing some sort of "musical portrait," with Christina singing the words (perhaps letters of journal entries) of a real person, immediately came to mind. Several days later, by a stroke of what I now consider to be near-cosmic good fortune, I came across Muriel Rukeyser's haunting Kathe Kollwitz in her 1968 collection The Speed of Darkness. Following Rukeyser's text, the piece is in five parts. All five poems contain imagery taken from Kollwitz's work (gates, poles, children, hands), as well as direct references to specific works (Pieta, Nie Wieder Krieg). Part two quotes extensively from Kollwitz's own journals on matters of life and art and part three makes use of important biographical details. Part five vividly evokes the experience of turning the pages of a book of Kollwitz's work and the resulting time-lapse effect of viewing a lifetime's worth of self-portraits. Throughout, both the poet and her subject make extensive allusions to music. Quite naturally, the music of Kèthe Kollwitz is as much a response to the poems themselves as it is to the art and artist that they reflect, quote and comment upon. In composing this work, I came to feel that while the vocal line was the voice of the poet, the voice of Kollwitz herself could be heard in the writing for the quartet. My goal has been to compose a work in which lines of poetry, lines of music and the lyrical, terrifying lines of Kollwitz's beloved etchings, woodcuts and lithographs might interlace across time and, in Muriel Rukeyser's beautiful words, "make an art harder than bronze." --Tom Myron
Title Brand
Year Composed
Copyright Number
Copyright Year
Duration
Ensemble Size
Date Created
Date Updated
Inhouse Note
Replaces inactive rental item.
Bsc Code
Text Author
Premier Performance Memo
-World Premiere. Portland Symphony Wind Quintet. 04 Oct 1998.
Recording Credits
Review
"...Kaethe Kollwitz refers to the German artist whose etchings, woodcuts and lithographs make such a spare and unnerving impact. The works are by Muriel Rukeyser whose five part poem makes up the five songs of this cycle for soprano and string quartet. This music has the air of a work either knowingly or unconsciously written for dramatic soprano and full orchestra. It is dramatic stuff with lyrical moments of refuge from turmoil--hectic with activity. Barber's Knoxville comes to mind occasionally..." --Rob Barnett, MusicWeb(UK)
Awards
Title Category
Title Movements
Title Grade
Set Series ID
Title Instrument Category Text
Title Sub Category Text
Title Sub Category
Title Instrument Header
Title Grade Text
Clean Url
Save