Brion

17 min.

April 23, 2008
Cygnus Ensemble, conducted by James Baker
Merkin Concert Hall, New York City

commissioned for the Cygnus Ensemble by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University

Dedicated to William Anderson and the Cygnus Ensemble

piccolo (doubling alto flute); oboe; mandolin; guitar; violin; violoncello

The music for Brion was inspired by the sculptured concrete walls, reflecting pools, and unexpected traces of bright primary colors in the Brion-Vega Cemetery in San Vito d’Altivole, not far from Venice. Carlo Scarpa, who designed the site, explained his work: “I have tried to put some poetic imagination into it, though not in order to create poetic architecture but to make a certain kind of architecture that could emanate a sense of formal poetry…. The place for the dead is a garden…. I wanted to show some ways in which you could approach death in a social and civic way; and further what meaning there was in death, in the ephemerality of life—other than these shoe-boxes.”Brion was commissioned for the Cygnus Ensemble by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.

• April 23, 2008: Cygnus Ensemble conducted by James Baker, Merkin Concert Hall, New York City
• November 6, 2008: Cygnus Ensemble, Opening Gala, Festival of New American Music, Sacramento State University, California
• November 7, 2008: Cygnus Ensemble, Festival of New American Music, Sacramento State University, California
• December 16, 2008: Cygnus Ensemble, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York
• February 7, 2009: Indiana University New Music Ensemble conducted by David Dzubay, Auer Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
• February 26, 2010: Cygnus Ensemble, Bargemusic, Brooklyn, New York
• March 5, 2010: Great Noise Ensemble, Ward Recital Hall, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
• April 5, 2010: Cygnus Ensemble, Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, New York City
• January 28, 2011: Cygnus Ensemble conducted by James Baker, Vassar College Modfest, Poughkeepsie, New York
• January 30, 2011: Cygnus Ensemble, Italian Academy at Columbia University, New York City
• March 28, 2011: Columbus State University Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Paul Hostetter, Schwob School of Music, Columbus, Georgia
• June 2, 2011: Left Coast Ensemble conducted by Matilda Hofman, 142 Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley, California
• June 6, 2011: Left Coast Ensemble conducted by Matilda Hofman, Green Room, War Memorial Building, San Francisco
• February 3, 2012: Cygnus Ensemble, Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• April 21, 2013: Cygnus Ensemble conducted by Victoria Bond, Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
• November 12, 2013: Cygnus Ensemble, Composers, Inc. series, First Congregational Church, Berkeley, California
• November 14, 2013: Cygnus Ensemble, California State University, East Bay
• February 18, 2015: New Music Ensemble of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, Austin conducted by Dan Welcher, Bates Recital Hall, Austin, Texas
• February 24, 2015: New Music Ensemble of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, Austin conducted by Dan Welcher, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
• April 28, 2015: New Music Ensemble of the University of Utah conducted by Aaron Kirschner, Dumke Recital Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah
• November 8, 2015: Cygnus Ensemble, Rose Recital Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• October 27, 2016: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Rose Studio, Lincoln Center, New York City
• April 7, 2017: Café MoMus, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Ohio

“a haunting, quirky and continually inventive chamber work”
   — Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
 
“brings to mind the clean, harmonious lines of the architecture in an uncanny way”
   — Ira Byelick, American Record Guide

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