Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Nico Muhly
Wish You Were Here (2007)
- St. Rose Music Publishing (World)
Commissioned by the Boston Pops
- 2+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn/4.4.2+tbn.1/timp.3perc/hp.pf.cel/[bgtr]/str
- 8 min
Programme Note
I’ve always suspected that cartoons and illustrations do a better job capturing the emotional content of the unknown than pictures and first-hand narration. I have a picture in my head of the illustrators of the 1940s and 1950, holed up in Belgium drawing the tribal peoples of the Congo, or in California articulating gorgeous Arabian landscapes for early animated films, participating along the way in all of the politically charged problems that arise from empires, colonies, and the abuses of political power. There is something inherently romantic about willfully ignoring the complexities of drawing on sources; artists who ignore political overtones go on to inspire the next generation who, in turn, worry about them too much, and so on and so forth in an unending cycle of guilt and influence. Wish You Were Here, written for the Boston Pops, pays homage to Colin McPhee, one of the first western musicologists to study Balinese gamelan, as well as to the great illustrators Carl Barks and Hergé (responsible for Donald Duck & Tintin, respectively). I tried to write a completely romantic and fanciful gamelan-influenced piece, attempting nothing but the most superficial authenticity. On top of this twittery and excited music, a long, lonesome melody unfolds. After a desolate interlude with severe, ship’s-horn brass, the energetic patterns start again, and the long line returns, this time with a triumphant, revelatory ending.
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly
Media
Muhly: Wish You Were Here
Scores
Preview the score
Reviews
the nine-minute work is a meditation on tourism, cartoons as they create imagined exotic landscapes, and the loneliness of the artists who do the creating. Against a constantly glittering background with slightly manic bugle calls, suggesting both Balinese music and American minimalism, a long, lyric, evolving melody is unfurled. After a slightly wistful slower section with longer notes in the low string and brass instruments, the original texture and long tune return, leading to what the composer describes as “a triumphant, revelatory ending.”
Discography
From Here On Out
- LabelAnalekta
- Catalogue NumberB005M69QXO
- ConductorEdwin Outwater
- EnsembleKitchener Waterloo Symphony
- Released20th September 2011