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mm. 171-267
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Skills & Techniques: Accuracy, Endurance, High Register, Rhythms
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Horn 1-2 (F)
Due to restrictions, sheet music for this excerpt is not provided.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2012)
Composer & Composition Information
Judith Weir (b. 1954)
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Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway; and in 1975 attended summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. After this she spent several years working in schools and adult education in rural southern England; followed by a period based in Scotland, teaching at Glasgow University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
During this time she began to write a series of operas (including King Harald’s Saga, The Black Spider, A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom and Blond Eckbert) which have subsequently received many performances in the UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. The most recent opera is Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011, and then staged at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2012. In collaboration with director Margaret Williams, Weir has created several opera films, including Scipio’s Dream, Hello Dolly, and Armida. As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus (including Forest, Storm and We are Shadows) which were premiered by the orchestra’s then Music Director, Simon Rattle. She has been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Music Untangled and Natural History) the Minnesota Orchestra (The Welcome Arrival of Rain) and the London Sinfonietta (Tiger under the Table); and has written concert works for some notable singers, including Jane Manning, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Alice Coote, Ailish Tynan and Ruby Hughes. She has composed Concertos for Piano (William Howard) and Oboe (Celia Craig). The text is reprinted from Judith Weir's website where more information about the composer can be found. The image is reprinted from Wise Music Classical. |
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Heroic Strokes of the Bow
The subject of my piece Heroic Strokes of the Bow (Klee's original title was 'Heroische Bogenstriche') is a blue and black painting on pink newspaper, dating from 1938, now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Said to be a tribute to the famous violinist Adolph Busch, whom Klee knew personally, it seems to show a simple pattern of violin bows and pegs against a hypnotic blue background.
My piece is not principally meant as a depiction of the picture, but rather as a literal response to the title, with its suggestions of excessive physical energy applied to a small piece of wood. Accordingly, energetic violins predominate throughout the piece's 15-minute duration. The first part of the piece builds up a restless momentum; a twittering ensemble of lower woodwinds finally puts the brakes on, leading to a broad, spacious close.
Heroic Strokes of the Bow was commissioned by the Sekretariat für gemeinsame Kulturarbeit in Nordrhein-Westfalen, and first performed by the Westdeutsche Sinfonie and their conductor Dirk Joeres in Leverkusen, Germany in 1992.
The text is written by & reprinted from Wise Music Classical where more information about the composition can be found.
My piece is not principally meant as a depiction of the picture, but rather as a literal response to the title, with its suggestions of excessive physical energy applied to a small piece of wood. Accordingly, energetic violins predominate throughout the piece's 15-minute duration. The first part of the piece builds up a restless momentum; a twittering ensemble of lower woodwinds finally puts the brakes on, leading to a broad, spacious close.
Heroic Strokes of the Bow was commissioned by the Sekretariat für gemeinsame Kulturarbeit in Nordrhein-Westfalen, and first performed by the Westdeutsche Sinfonie and their conductor Dirk Joeres in Leverkusen, Germany in 1992.
The text is written by & reprinted from Wise Music Classical where more information about the composition can be found.
Notable Performances/Recordings:
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2012)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2012)