Kinship Across Time: Aaron Jay Kernis and the Orchestral Canon
Every composer has a unique relationship with the work of the past. Morton Feldman loved Chopin and Mozart, yet subverted the canon of western classical music with graphic notation and negative space. George Lewis has embraced the noisiness of decolonization; his writing is in thoughtful and provocative dialogue with the repertory. Others have reworked canonical works in ways that both preserve and update their identities, such as Max Richter in The Four Seasons Recomposed, Missy Mazzoli and Sarah Kirkland Snider with the music of Hildegard von Bingen, and Charles Wuorinen with Machault mon chou.
Still more composers possess an earnest affection for their forebears. Artistic kinship, common fascinations, shared sonic concerns—these form vibrant strands connecting the long tradition of concert music to the music of today, and tomorrow. Out of the past and into the future, these strands shine brightest when illuminated by thoughtful artistic planning.
Wise Music Classical is pleased to present a selection of pairings between the music of Aaron Jay Kernis and masterworks of the orchestral canon, curated and annotated by Kernis himself. With a Pulitzer, GRAMMY, Yale Professorship, and countless other distinguished honors to his name, Aaron has been at the forefront of American music for over three decades.
“The final movement of Simple Songs is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Bernstein, who died around the time of its composition. I deliberately drew on a Mahlerian sound world, remembering Bernstein through the music and emotions that meant so much to him—and, through his recordings, to me as well. The texts of Simple Songs explore spiritual and ecstatic states across multiple traditions; like Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, they place the singer at the center of a vision that is at once innocent, transcendent, and deeply life-affirming.”
Color Wheel, Aaron Jay Kernis
Symphony No. 41(“Jupiter”), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“The ‘Jupiter’ Symphony finds Mozart at the height of his powers, combining exuberance, radiant orchestral writing, and dazzling contrapuntal mastery. Color Wheel, too, revels in exuberance, unleashing riotous color and counterpoint! The two works share an irrepressible delight in the possibilities of the orchestra.”
Earth, Aaron Jay Kernis
Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”), Ludwig van Beethoven
“This pairing is built on both kinship and contrast. Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony presents an idealized, bucolic vision of nature, rich in musical image-painting, while the first movement of Earth tells of a farming family confronting the instability of increasing changes in weather and climate. The second movement of Earth sets a text by William Wordsworth, Beethoven’s contemporary, whose poetry embodies a Romantic reverence for the glory of the natural world. Heard together, the two works invite reflection on humanity’s changing relationship with nature.
Newly Drawn Sky, Aaron Jay Kernis
“The sound world and architecture of Sibelius’ symphonies have always meant a great deal to me. The luminous expanses of the Fifth Symphony and its close string harmonies directly influenced the opening cello and horn music of Newly Drawn Sky. Even more important is the kinship of spirit: in both works, lyricism arises through intense engagement with the natural world.”
Musica Celestis, Aaron Jay Kernis
“Although Musica Celestis, with its angelic allusions, has often been paired with Mozart’s Requiem, I hear a compelling affinity with Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration. It is astonishing that the young Strauss could summon such depth and spiritual vision. Both works look toward transformation, transcendence, and a luminous realm beyond earthly experience.”
Wild Sky, Aaron Jay Kernis
Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 5, Dmitri Shostakovich
“The recent Wild Sky draws inspiration from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells,’ which looks toward the creation of a revitalized society that will bring together all of mankind into a new era of goodness and peace. The resulting music has a positive, regenerative energy that complements the forcefulness and power of these symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Each of the symphonies has also long been read in complex, often contested ways, from the famous (and famously retracted) dedication of the Eroica to Napoleon Bonaparte, the use of Beethoven’s 5th as a symbol of victory in war (due in part to its most famous motive’s likeness to ‘V’ in Morse code) to the existential debate over the degree to which the finale of Shostakovich’s 5th represents a satirical undercutting of Stalin’s dictatorship. ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells’ and Wild Sky share this emotional nuance, recognizing that a great deal of grief and falseness must ‘ring out’ before ‘the larger heart, the kindlier hand’ may ‘ring in.’”
Lament and Prayer, Aaron Jay Kernis
Lament and Prayer for violin and orchestra grapples with grief and loss while searching for communal transcendence. Mozart’s final work confronts these similar mysteries through the Latin Mass texts and some of his most heart-rending music, written at the threshold of death. In both pieces, lament becomes a pathway toward consolation and spiritual transformation.
For more information, please contact Flannery Cunningham. Listen to our suggested pairings on Spotify: