MASTERWORKS 5
ASH MICHAEL TORKE:
support from the Jerome Foundation. Torke provided the program notes:
Born: September 22, 1961, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Work Composed: 1988 World Premiere: February 3, 1989, in St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, John Adams conducting Performance History: The Orchestra performs Ash for the first time this evening. The only other work by Torke performed on the Masterworks Series was Bright Blue Music, given on March 6, 2010 with Markand Thakar conducting. Instrumentation: Flute, two oboes, clarinet, two bassoons, three horns, trumpet, timpani, synthesizer and strings.
In trying to find aclear and recognizable language to write this piece, I have chosen some of the most basic, functionally tonal means: tonics and dominants in F minor, a modulation to the relative major (A-flat), and a three-part form which, through a retransition, recapitulates back to F minor. What I offer is not invention of new "words" or a new language but a new way to make sentences and paragraphs in a common, much-used existing language. I can create a more compelling musical argument with these means because, to my ears, potential rhetoric seems to fall out from such highly functional chords as tonics and dominants more than certain fixed sonorities and Pop chords that I have used before. My musical argument is dependent on a feeling of cause and effect, both on a local level where one chord releases the tension from a previous chord and on the larger structural level where a section is forced to follow a previous section by a coercive modulation. The orchestration does not seek color for its own sake, as decoration is not a high priority, but the instruments combine and double each other to create an insistent ensemble from beginning to end. Only occasionally, as in the middle A-flat section, do three woodwind instruments play alone for a short while to break the inertia of the ensemble forging its course together.
Michael Torke is one of the leading American composers of his generation. In the Minimalist era of Philip Glass, John Adams, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and others, composers created series of notes that would be repeated numerous times, now and then adding an additional note or two creating forward momentum. John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986) or Arvo Pärt’s Fratres are prime examples of this compositional style. By incorporating musical techniques from both the classical tradition and the contemporary pop world Torke has defined the Post-Minimalist era. As a young classical piano student, Torke was immersed in classical music and it wasn’t until he attended the Eastman School of Music that he ‘discovered’ jazz and rock. The pulsating, driving rhythms of jazz and rock strongly influence his compositions. “The idea that rhythm is intrinsically human — not just primitive — that we all have hearts that beat at a steady rate and don't stop...reminds me of life itself. In that sense my music is like certain popular music where the rhythm drives from beginning to end.” Torke also has a strong sense of synesthesia, associating specific colors with notes, keys or chords. Individuals rarely agree on what color a sound is; D might be blue for one person and green for another. Both Franz Liszt and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov were known to have synesthesia and would disagree on the colors of musical keys. The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra commissioned Ash with
24 DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MICHAEL TORKE
