CUKOO VARIATIONS for Wind Ensemble by MICHAEL IPPOLITO (USA, 1985)

WASBE Marcom
Aug 11
3 min read

Premiered by Texas State University Wind Symphony conducted by Caroline Beatty

on Oct 01, 2021 in San Marcos, Texax, United States.

Purchase score at Murphy Press

Cukoo Variations, by American composer and performer Michael Ippolito is our Composition of the Week.

Cukoo Variations was premiered on October 1, 2021, at Evans Auditorium in San Marcos, Texas, by the Texas State University Wind Symphony, with Caroline Beatty conducting.

The work is scored for a small wind ensemble setting comprised of piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons (2nd/contrabassoon), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, 2 percussionists, piano, double bass.

The music has a duration 7 minutes and it is available on rental at Murphy Music Press.

“Cuckoo Variations was written in response to the folksong The Cuckoo She’s a Pretty Bird, as performed by Jean Ritchie. I first found a recording of Ritchie singing this song (recorded in 1949) as part of the Alan Lomax collection in the Library of Congress digital archives. To me, this recording was hauntingly beautiful: the singing was so clear, direct and unadorned, and there was a vulnerability and freedom in the unaccompanied singing. Ritchie was quite young when she made this recording, before her career took off in the folk revival of the 1950s, and she revisited The Cuckoo in recordings and live performances throughout her career. I was particularly struck by a very different rendition, from a performance in 1980, with steady driving rhythms, Ritchie accompanying herself on dulcimer. Through all this listening, I became fascinated with the different ways a single singer could frame the same song, each still authentic to the song and the artist in some way, and I decided to compose a piece to explore these ideas. Cuckoo Variations begins with a piccolo solo, directly transcribing Ritchie’s early, unaccompanied rendition of The Cuckoo She’s a Pretty Bird. Layers are gradually added as more instruments enter, slowly creating harmonies and then reframing and expanding those harmonies. Here I allow my imagination to fill the space. Before long, I depart completely from Ritchie’s performance, developing and moving farther away from the original tune, until I arrive at a driving rhythm inspired by Ritchie’s later, dulcimer-accompanied version of the song. There is a brief return to some music from the beginning before the piece concludes with a series of bell-like chords, compressing the music into austere pillars of sound.” Program Notes by Michael Ippolito

Dr. Michael Ippolito studied with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School and with Joel Hoffman and Michael Fiday at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Dr. Ippolito has collaborated with classical, folk and jazz musicians in performances ranging from experimental improvisation to traditional Klezmer music. His music has been performed by the nation’s leading conductors and orchestras, including Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony, and Jeffrey Milarsky and the Juilliard Orchestra. He has been commissioned by the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival for the Attacca Quartet, the New York Choreographic Institute, ensemble 20/21 (Köln), and janus trio (Brooklyn), among others. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Palmer Dixon Prize from the Juilliard School, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and multiple ASCAP Plus Awards.

Ippolito was a composer fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and the Cultivate program at the Copland House in 2012. From 2004 to 2011, he was a participating composer and performer in MusicX, an innovative festival of new music in Cincinnati and Switzerland, where he worked as General Manager from 2008-2011. He has also participated in the "Upbeat Hvar" International Summer School in Croatia, Yiddish Summer Weimar in Germany and the Oregon Bach Festival's Composers Symposium.

He has received numerous awards, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Scholarship), The Juilliard School (Palmer Dixon Prize) and ASCAP (multiple ASCAP Plus Awards). Recently, his wind ensemble work West of the Sun was given an honorable mention in the 2014 Frederick Fennell Prize and his String Quartet No. 3' Songlines was select Scores winner by the Tesla Quartet.

Dr. Ippolito is currently assistant professor of composition at Texas State University.

Other works for winds include:

• West of the Sun (2012)

• Wayward Images (2015)

• Machine Become Music (2017)

• Canzona, for saxophone ensemble (2020)

View the score here

http://www.michaelippolito.com/cuckoo-variations