- George Lewis
Celebration (2024)
- C.F. Peters Corporation (World)
Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta
Programme Note
Composer note
A well-known Dutch birthday song, usually performed as a kind of march, goes, “Lang zal ze leven (3x) in de gloria.” In English this translates roughly to “Long may she/they live in glory,” or perhaps in Vulcan, “Live long and prosper.” At the end of the song, the assembled multitude shouts “Hieperdepiep, hoera!” (Hip Hip Hooray).
Hieperdepiep seems to my non-Dutch ear totally onomatopoeic — a sound that, in this case, reminded me not only of the piccolo, but also of the still-ongoing African American fife and drum tradition that, probably blended with musical practices from West Africa, marked both the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War, on both the Union and the Confederate sides of that conflict.
Celebration provides an opportunity for me to pursue my ongoing fascination with the classic trope of depiction in American classical music, as found in Amy Beach, Charles Ives, Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, Ruth Crawford, Elliott Carter, Duke Ellington, and many others — this time with an onomatopoeic dimension in which the piccolo enacts the sounds of both fife and drum. This work takes its place among my recent works that propose new subjects, histories, and identities for classical music, as part of my ongoing exploration of what the decolonial might sound like.
Celebration is dedicated to the London Sinfonietta and its piccolo performer, Michael Cox, in honor and celebration of the Sinfonietta’s 56th anniversary of its first concert.
— George Lewis
More Info
- Celebrating Sally Beamish and George Lewis next week
- 5th February 2025
- Events celebrating the work of George Lewis and Sally Beamish next week.