If you saw my post last week, HERE, then you know that I’ve decided to listen to pieces by composers from a list I found entitled “Ten Young Composers Who Are Redefining Classical Music," HERE. Last week, I listened to “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)” by Mizzy Mazzoli, the first name on the list. This week I chose “Dawn” by the second-named composer, Dobrinka Tabakova.
To be honest, I had originally decided to listen to Tabakova’s “Concerto for Cello and Strings,” but I could only find the first movement on YouTube (HERE). I really liked what I was hearing, but I could not find the complete concerto -- either in one full-length video or in separate recordings of the individual movements (of which there are three: Turbulent, Longing, & Radiant). Therefore, I selected (at random) a piece for cello and string ensemble entitled “Dawn.” If you happened to have read my comments last week on Mazzoli’s piece, “Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres),” then you know that I had a difficult time dealing with the incongruence between the music and the title. I wrote, “I’m not quite sure exactly what I was expecting, but I was expecting something a little more spherical and a lot more orbital (whatever that means).” That was not the case with Tabakova’s “Dawn.” The piece evokes daybreak beautifully. As a matter of fact, for me the song called to mind Emily Dickinson’s lines, “I’ll tell you how the sun rose”: I’ll tell you how the Sun rose – A Ribbon at a time – The Steeples swam in Amethyst – The news, like Squirrels, ran – The Hills untied their Bonnets – The Bobolinks – begun – Then I said softly to myself – “That must have been the Sun”! This is the case with Tabakova’s piece -- the sun rises “a ribbon at a time,” first with a gorgeously tranquil cello solo, next with a response from a mellifluous violin -- as if to pass on the news of break of day. Soon lush string passages give added emphasis to the emerging light. This rich layering of euphony called to mind additional lines from Dickinson: The Skies can't keep their secret! They tell it to the Hills – The Hills just tell the Orchards – And they – the Daffodils! There’s also something spiritual about the piece, both literally and figuratively. There are intonations and subtle rhythms characteristic of African-American spirituals, and the overall tenor of the piece brought to mind a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright: “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” It’s a lovely piece. Here are some of the listeners observations in the comment section on YouTube (HERE):
Poetry in sound? Hmm. Maybe that’s why I kept thinking of lines by Emily Dickinson.
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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