[#267] September 02, 2024
2005 | Wind Ensemble | Grade 6 | 5’- 10’ | Tone poem
I wander the world in a dream of my own making, by American composer and educator Christopher Theofanidis is our Composition of the Week.
The work was written in 2005 and premiered one year later, by the Columbus State University (Columbus, GA) Wind Ensemble, under Robert Rumbelow, in April 2006.
It is set for standard wind ensemble, including Contrabassoon, String Bass, Piano and Harp, as well as 3 percussion parts. It has a duration of about 8 minutes.
“When Robert Rumbelow approached me to write a piece for wind ensemble for this wonderful consortium commission, I was really delighted, as I had been thinking of a piece for these forces for some time and was eager to try some of the acoustic things that I do in my pieces for symphony orchestra in a different context. I have long been interested in the idea of trying to “build in” an acoustic into my orchestrations; that is, to create the effect, for instance, of a melody which has a sense of sustain as if it were being played in a cathedral even though it is not- to build that reverberation into the orchestration. I was very pleased to see that not only could I achieve similar effects but also different and even more exciting things with various combinations of winds, brass, and percussion. The title for this work is a reference to the compositional process. Writing a piece of music is like creating a dream that you want to have. The feeling that pervades the work is one of a sense of mystery, and this sentiment is primarily conveyed through the harmonies and orchestration. The work is based on two ideas: the first is a short, two-note motive, and the second is a descending melody of five notes, ending in the repetition of the final note several times. This second material could be called the main melody, and it always appears shrouded in a kind of haze, until toward the very end of the work.”
Program notes by Christopher Theofanidis
The music is available at Bill Holab Music.
Christopher Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship to France to study with Tristan Mural at IRCAM, a Tanglewood fellowship, and two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto. His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium, having been performed by over 150 orchestras internationally.
He has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies, among many others. He has also served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006-7 season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang.
Christopher Theofanidis has written a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of their ‘New Brandenburg’ series, and two operas for the San Francisco and Houston Grand Opera companies. Thomas Hampson sang the lead role in the San Francisco opera. His work for Houston, The Refuge, features six sets of international non-Western musicians alongside the opera musicians. He has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano, and has just four recordings with them, including his concert length oratorio, Creation/Creator, which was featured at the SHIFT festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this year with the ASO, chorus, and soloists. His work, Dreamtime Ancestors, for the orchestral consortium, New Music for America, has been played by over fifty orchestras over the past two seasons. He has served as a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program, and he is a former faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University as well as the Juilliard School.
Christopher Theofanidis is currently a professor at Yale University, and composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival.
Other works for winds include:
· Etenraku (1996), for winds, piano, and percussion, 3’
· Rex Tremendae Majestatis (2008), for solo organ, brass and percussion, 8’
· The here and now (2009), for soloists, chorus, and wind ensemble, 35’
· Sweet like that (2011), 4’
· Concerto for Marimba and wind sinfonietta (2013), 20’
· Off the clock (2019), 12’
More on Christopher Theofanidis
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