Modern Notebook for October 8 - 14, 2023

Photo: composer Missy Mazzoli (photo credit: Marylene Mey)

On this week’s Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: The Orpheus Myth has provided inspiration to composers for centuries, including Missy Mazzoli with her work “Orpheus Undone.” It’s a two-movement orchestral work which explores two brief moments from the myth in order to explore  the baffling and surreal stretching of time in moments of trauma or agony.


Plus, like many composers who have come before him, Hans Abrahamsen is always considering ways to transform and re-think his own, earlier pieces into new, fresh versions. That’s the case with his Ten Sinfonias, a work born from an earlier string quartet work that is designed like a baroque instrumental prelude.


Also featuring music by Jennifer Higdon, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Alan Theisen, Li Qi, Theo Chandler, Ana Lara, and others; and performances by Arctic Philharmonic, Third Sound, pianist Sarah Cahill, flutist Tammy Evans Yonce, Byrne:Kozar Duo, Akropolis Reed Quintet, oboist Aleksandra Panasik, and more.

Hour 1

  • Toru Takemitsu’s arrangement of Here, There, and Everywhere by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
  • Smash by Jennifer Higdon.
  • Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone.
  • Piano Poems by Regina Harris Baiocchi.
  • Alan Theisen’s Commendo Spiritum Meum.
  • Bird in warped time II by Somei Satoh.

Hour 2

  • Lonely Grave by Li Qi.
  • Hans Abrahamsen’s Ten Sinfonias.
  • Seed to Snag by Theo Chandler.
  • Ana Lara’s En dirección al mar, bajo la luz del búho.

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