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Jessica Hunt Climb for

Orchestra (2020)

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Full Score (in C)

JESSICA HUNT CLIMB

for orchestra

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First Printing: February 2020

Program Note

Climb was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra for their 2019-2020 season honoring Beethoven’s 250th birthday by performing his symphonies in dialogue with music by composers of today.

Between composing his second and third symphonies, Beethoven wrote his Heilegenstadt Testament, a vividly compelling autobiographical account of his secret physical and psychological torment as he struggled with the deterioration of his health and hearing. e rst time I read that document, Beethoven’s isolation, his fear, and diminishing hope leapt o the page and pierced my heart. I recognized those fears, that anguish; they resonate deeply within my own chronically ill body.

Climb is a letter-through-time to Beethoven to express my gratitude for his work, and to express our silent kinship. e work centers on D (the key area of Beethoven’s second symphony), and attempts to travel to Eb (the key area of his third). is small half-step is rendered in nitely large as the gravity of D keeps pulling the orchestra back into its orbit. Partly autobiographical, Climb explores aural metaphors for the physical sensations that are part of my daily life with dysautonomia. e piece opens with a frantic burst of adrenaline that soon gives way to the sensation of stomachdropping nausea and tinnitus. A weak heartbeat emerges, racing, unsteady. Punctuated by brassy ashes of pain, the orchestra-body steels itself with determination, even optimism, before a violent attack of palpitations shatters its progress, melting into melodrama and mourning for a wellness and a wholeness that will never come again. In a cruel irony, the goal of Eb is never quite reached; the immutable D instead becomes re-contextualized as a leading tone that is, for all its e orts, unable to resolve.

e title is chosen to represent the challenge of living with any invisible illness or obstacle: some of us cannot simply walk up a ight of stairs, instead, we must climb

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e right of Jessica Hunt to be identi ed as the composer of the musical work entitled Climb is hereby asserted. e name of Jessica Hunt as composer must therefore be stated in association with any performance, recording, or other use of the work or any part of it. No arrangement or adaptation of this work may be made without the prior written permission of the composer.

Climb

Commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

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Duration: c. 5 minutes

World Premiere Performance: March 2020 Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Instrumentation

Flutes 1-2

Oboes 1-2

Clarinets in Bb 1-2

Bassoons 1-2

Horns in F 1-3

Trumpets in Bb 1-2

Timpani

Strings (minimum 9.8.7.6.5)

Performance Notes

Harmonics:

All harmonics are indicated at sounding pitch.

Glissandi:

Gliss. for the entire duration of the indicated pitch; siren-like.

Bowings:

Players should change bow as needed on extended, tied durations throughout. In legato, lyrical sections slurs should be adjusted to achieve smoothness of line and expression.

Clusters:

Each is preceded by a thick vertical line spanning its pitch boundaries. Cluster glissandi are indicated by thick wedge lines. ese clusters are divisi by desk; every desk plays di erent microtone. (see gure)

Brass Mutes:

Harmon & Straight is cluster gliss (below) is achieved by each desk dividing the cluster microtonally (right):

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Duration: c. 5 min.

First Printing: February 2020

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