![]() ![]() ![]() His Midsummer Variations begins with a dark angry gurgle and then a piercing screech in the strings. He is a long-time program writer and preconcert lecturer for the Boston Symphony and has written program notes and essays for the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto.Īs this new CRI release shows, Swafford writes superbly in the new romantic manner. His journalism appears regularly in Slate. The composer views his work as a kind of classicism: a concern with clarity and directness, pieces that seem familiar though they are new, that aspire to sound like they wrote themselves.Īlso a well-known writer on music, Swafford is author of biographies of Ives, Brahms, and Beethoven. The titles of his works-including Landscape with Traveler, From the Shadow of the Mountain, and The Silence at Yuma Point-reveal a steady inspiration from nature. Beneath the surface there are contributions from world music, especially Indian and Balinese, and from jazz and blues. Over the years his music has evolved steadily, but in all its avatars his work is forthrightly expressive, individual in voice, and steadily concerned with lucidity of texture and form. Louis, Indianapolis, and the Dutch Radio Boston's new-music groups Musica Viva, Collage, and Dinosaur Annex and chamber ensembles including the Peabody Trio, the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee, and the Scott Chamber Players of Indianapolis. Jan Swafford's music has been played around the country and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of St. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |