{"id":1099,"date":"2017-05-31T11:47:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T15:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2017-05-31T11:47:06","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T15:47:06","slug":"arcangelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2017\/05\/arcangelo.html","title":{"rendered":"Arcangelo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve always felt open to a wide range of influences in my music.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the right approach for everyone \u2013 some composers must focus on one or two strong influences \u2013 but it suits my character and the kind of music I want to create.<\/p>\n

Been working on a new piece, though, that has an influence I never would have anticipated.\u00a0 The music takes the form of many short movements \u2013 each under two minutes \u2013 strung together with even briefer connectors.\u00a0 There are many antecedents for this approach \u2013 Schumann, Webern, even some of my own past work. \u2013 but midway through the composition process I realized that a random hearing of Arcangelo Corelli\u2019s Opus One Trio Sonatas a few weeks before had played a role in triggering my conception for this piece.<\/p>\n

Corelli is not a composer I have ever given more than a passing glance.\u00a0 The way music history was discussed in the twentieth century \u2013 when music was judged by what came after, instead of on its own terms \u2013 relegated him to a subordinate role.\u00a0 The accepted narrative had composers of succeeding generations ingeniously devising ways to build large musical structures, beside which Corelli\u2019s brevity made his choice of title \u2013 \u201csonata\u201d \u2013 comically presumptuous.<\/p>\n

But I was struck, upon encountering these pieces in the twenty-first century, by how vivid and mercurial they are, even within their brief spans.\u00a0 Take number seven, for example.\u00a0 The whole sonata \u2013 three movements — takes less time to play than Cage\u2019s silent piece, each movement just over a minute in length.\u00a0 Indeed, none of these sonatas last much more than six minutes.\u00a0 Yet throughout the collection one encounters a terrific array of engaging music.<\/p>\n

Not the music I would choose for an hour of intensive listening, but that\u2019s not the way these pieces were intended to be heard.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I mean by judging music on its own terms: Corelli had no interest in making grand statements with these pieces.\u00a0 Instead, they sketch sharp musical images with a minimum of fuss.\u00a0 A good lesson in times when we are too easily seduced by pomposity, times when opulence can feel inappropriately grotesque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always felt open to a wide range of influences in my music.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the right approach for everyone \u2013 some composers must focus on one or two strong influences \u2013 but it suits my character and the kind of music I want to create. Been working on a new piece, though, that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}