Page 273 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

usher had become director. As to honors, Zwilich has been elected to both “halls of fame” for artistic and academic excellent—the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters—and has been the recipient of no fewer than six honorary doctorates from various universities.
Concerto Grosso 1985 (1985)
Just how far ranging, forward and backward, Zwilich’s musical vision extends can be heard in her Concerto Grosso 1985 (see Listening Cue). Commissioned by the Washington Friends of Handel, this work honors the composer George Frideric Handel (see Chapter 6), a leading exponent of the concerto grosso. Here Zwilich follows a twentieth-century musical procedure generally called Neo-classicism—the use of the genres, forms, and aesthetics of the Baroque (1600–1750) or Classical (1750–1820) periods to inform a new, Modernist com- position. As opera composer Giuseppe Verdi had said earlier: “Let us go back to the old—it will be a step forward.”
In Concerto Grosso 1985, Zwilich embraces several elements of Baroque musical style: a regular rhythmic pulse, a repeating bass pedal point, a walk- ing bass, terraced dynamics, and a harpsichord. Most directly, she incorpo- rates a Baroque melody—borrowed from Handel’s Violin Sonata in D major (Example 16.5A)—at the opening of each movement of her concerto. Yet, Zwilich throws in a modern touch, adding twisting chromaticism (Example 16.5B) and a biting, dissonant harmony to Handel’s original theme. Further, she demands an insistent, pounding style of playing that would have shocked the eighteenth- century master. Is this music Baroque or Modernist? Mostly the latter—here music of the past inspires, but does not overwhelm, the present.
LiSTeN TO . . . Example 16.5A online.
LiSTeN TO . . . Example 16.5B online.
Example 16.5.A > handel
& Œ Pœ # œ œ w œ œ œ
# œ œ .
œ œ . # œ J
œ . œ # œ . œ œ
#œ œ.
Œ w œœœœ.J#œœ.œ#œ.œ
Handel's original melody
œ œ. #œ
œ œ œbœœœ
‰ Pœ j # œ œ œ b œ b œ & & Pœ # œ œ œ
Zwilich's modernization of it
. œ œ b œ
Handel's original melody
Example 16.5.B > zwilich
Zœwilich's mœodernization of itœ
œ œ .
#œ œ bœ
œ. œ
œ
bœ
&‰Pj#œ œ œbœbœ
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