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I. Spring. Dawn - Moderato assai
reh. 10 - 9 mm. after |
Skills & Techniques: High Register, Loud Playing, Marcato Style
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Horn 1-4 (F)
Due to restrictions, sheet music for this excerpt is not provided.
Minnesota Orchestra (2008)
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Procession - Poco meno mosso
reh. 16 - 8 after reh. 17 |
Skills & Techniques: Endurance, High Register, Loud Playing
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Horn 1 (F)
Due to restrictions, sheet music for this excerpt is not provided.
Minnesota Orchestra (2008)
Composer & Composition Information
Dominick Argento (1927-2019)
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Dominick Argento, considered to be America's preeminent composer of lyric opera, was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1927. At the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees, his teachers included Nicholas Nabokov, Henry Cowell, and Hugo Weisgall. Argento received his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Alan Hovhaness and Howard Hanson. Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships allowed him to study in Italy with Luigi Dallapiccola and to complete his first opera, Colonel Jonathan the Saint. Following his Fulbright, Argento became music director of Hilltop Opera in Baltimore, and taught theory and composition at the Eastman School. In 1958, he joined the faculty of the Department of Music at the University of Minnesota, where he taught until 1997 and later held the rank of Professor Emeritus.
Although Argento's instrumental works have received consistent praise, the great majority of his music was written for voices, whether in operatic, choral, or solo context. This emphasis on the human voice is a facet of the powerful dramatic impulse that drove nearly all of his music, both instrumental and vocal. Music critic Heidi Waleson described Argento’s work as “richly melodic... [his] pieces are built with wit and passion, and always with the dramatic shape and color that make them theater. They speak to the heart.” The text & image are reprinted from Boosey & Hawkes where more information about the composer can be found. |
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A Ring of Time
This music celebrates an anniversary of the Minnesota Orchestra and, like anniversaries, deals with the idea of recurrence and the passage of time. ‘Recurrence’ types of music are used almost exclusively: imitation, canon, fugue, ground bass, chaconne, rondeau, etc. On one level the title of the work, A Ring of Time, refers to the predominant role assigned to the bells—three sets of chimes encircle the orchestra—those aural signals of time’s passing. (It should also be mentioned that the work was wholly composed in Florence where the hourly ringing of church bells is inescapable.) And a seventieth anniversary brought to mind the biblical lifespan of man: threescore and ten—on another level, our own ring of time.
The text is written by & reprinted from The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra where more information about the composition can be found.
The text is written by & reprinted from The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra where more information about the composition can be found.
Notable Performances/Recordings:
The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (2018)
Minnesota Orchestra (2008)
The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (2018)
Minnesota Orchestra (2008)