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    • Tyshawn Sorey

    • For George Lewis (2019)

    • C.F. Peters Corporation (World)

    Tyshawn Sorey's For George Lewis draws inspiration from The Will to Adorn, a dense work for chamber orchestra by the composer’s friend, collaborator and mentor George Lewis. Where Lewis’s score is frenetic, however, Sorey’s enters into a meditative stasis for most of its 51-minute duration, slowly accumulating and breaking down different sonorities of harmony and color. Alarm Will Sound, for whom the piece was composed, gave the world premiere in November 2019 at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, conducted by Alan Pierson, who also worked closely with the composer to edit this score.

    Calling for 16 players—including a doublebass with a fifth string tuned down to A—the score offers extensive performance notes and is available for sale as part of the Peters Contemporary Library, with performance materials available on hire.

    • 1(afl).0+ca.2.1/1.0.0+btbn.0.flg/2vib/pf/str
    • 51 min

    Programme Note

    FOR GEORGE LEWIS

    Tyshawn Sorey has for several years been writing a series of works dedicated to composers who have influenced him.  He first encountered the music of George Lewis in 2011, and he eventually studied with him at Columbia University.  In 2019 he composed FOR GEORGE LEWIS.

     This work which was premiered by Alarm Will Sound in St. Louis, Missouri in November of 2019 is for a chamber orchestra of 16 players.  It unfolds very gradually over 53 minutes beginning with a long tone played on alto flute with periodic punctuation by the piano and vibraphones.  The long tones and dissonances pile up as various other instruments enter.  This goes on for a long period of time challenging the players’ and listeners’ concentration. But the payoff arrives in the form of lyrical melodies in the brass. It is a rare moment of great beauty and worth the wait. 

     

    Media

    Performed by Alarm Will Sound, conducted by Alan Pierson

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