Please contact matthew@matthewtommasini.com about the rental/purchase of performance materials.
Songs Lost and Forgotten (2006)
1. Children's Song
2. Chant Fragments
3. Basslines
(movements may be performed separately)
2/2/2/2; 2/2/1; 2 perc., hp; str.; ca. 15:00
Premiere
May 15, 2006
Underwood New Music Readings
American Composers Orchestra, Jeffrey Milarsky conducting
Miller Theatre, NY
1. Children's Song (excerpt MP3) 3MB
2. Chant Fragments (excerpt MP3) 3MB
Songs Lost and Forgotten deals with my own memories of being sung to. The first
movement, Children's Song, was inspired by the death of my grandmother. It is
based on the old French song Sur le pont d'Avignon, which she often sang. The
tune is never stated directly. Rather, the melodic material is based on altered
versions of the children's song. Like juxtaposed photographs, the altered
versions are organized into a series of musical tableaux of varying musical
affect which portray memories that aren't completely realized.
The theme of childhood leads to the second movement, Chant Fragments, which is
based on musical memories from my early childhood living in the United Arab
Emirates. The movement was inspired by memories of hearing many different
musical influences on television during that time, specifically fragments of
music from throughout the Middle East.
The final movement, Basslines, evokes a musical memory from my more recent past:
listening to pop music as a teenager in the early nineties. The movement's
musical material springs from stylized pop music melodies played by the bass
instruments of the orchestra. The two sections of the movement are separated by
the same "chorus" material of sustained chords played by the entire orchestra.
The movement ends with the material from the two halves of the movement
converging on the pitch A, representing a metaphoric fading of these memories
back into the past.
Performance history
2006
May 19 (premiere)
American Composers Orchestra, Jeffrey Milarsky conducting
Underwood New Music Readings Sessions
Miller Theatre, Columbia University, New York
back to compositions list
