I got a message from my friend David, asking me if I'm interested to attend a Classical Music Concert presented by Toronto Symphony Orchestra, part of the New Creations Festival at the Roy Thomson Hall. Without any hesitation I accepted his invitation and got super excited to see the Orchestra playing in this wonderful venue.
It was the closing night of the Festival, and 3 conductors were on the program of that night.
Peter Oundjian, the internationally sought-after Music Director and Conductor and the host of the night, introduced the first composer: Brian Current.
Brian was born in London, Ontario, in 1972.. He composed in 2013 three pieces for Orchestra.
And from Brian's notes about these pieces:
Like many composers, I like to put up drawings around the piano while working. These are just an impulse at the time, but when unpacked later, I am surprised at how clearly they articulate the central idea of the music. One little sketch, a single line under a cloud of densely tangled lines, ended up describing much of Earth So Much Like Heaven, Heaven So Much Like Earth. In the music, the two layers are always present and are always inseparable. I’m not really a religious person, but the relationship between these two layers has increasingly become a metaphor to me for heaven and earth. The string orchestra plays the lower, simple line, and a group of instruments (percussion, harp, piano, solo violins and flutes) play the upper texture. In many of these patterns I am trying to create music that is very active and very calm at the same time, like water or like sunlight.
The title of the second piece, Without Grace The Universe Is Just An Explosion, is from a text by the Canadian poet Christian Bök. This title seemed appropriate as it described the music I wanted to write—a piece about violence and beauty—and also spoke to why we might need music and symphony orchestras in the first place. Overlapping gestures fade in and out throughout the piece, and many sounds are inspired by electronic effects.
The final piece is called Motion Is The Default State. This sentence was another impulse taped to the piano when trying to describe the music in early stages. The first half is about assigning separate overtones to different instruments to create huge, pulsating blocks of colour. These get progressively bigger until we explode out into a middle section inspired by the fist-pounding energy of rock music. The final section features enormous, pin-wheeling arcs of colour, which grow and overlap with one another into a celebratory finish.
The 18 minutes passed like a dream, and the music left me in awe.. hypnotized me and totally captivated all my senses.
I'll be definitively looking for more magical music from Brian and was so happy to discover this great Canadian talent.
To know more about Brian, check http://briancurrent.
Brian Current talking about the Three Pieces for Orchestra..
It was the closing night of the Festival, and 3 conductors were on the program of that night.
Peter Oundjian, the internationally sought-after Music Director and Conductor and the host of the night, introduced the first composer: Brian Current.
Brian was born in London, Ontario, in 1972.. He composed in 2013 three pieces for Orchestra.
And from Brian's notes about these pieces:
Like many composers, I like to put up drawings around the piano while working. These are just an impulse at the time, but when unpacked later, I am surprised at how clearly they articulate the central idea of the music. One little sketch, a single line under a cloud of densely tangled lines, ended up describing much of Earth So Much Like Heaven, Heaven So Much Like Earth. In the music, the two layers are always present and are always inseparable. I’m not really a religious person, but the relationship between these two layers has increasingly become a metaphor to me for heaven and earth. The string orchestra plays the lower, simple line, and a group of instruments (percussion, harp, piano, solo violins and flutes) play the upper texture. In many of these patterns I am trying to create music that is very active and very calm at the same time, like water or like sunlight.
The title of the second piece, Without Grace The Universe Is Just An Explosion, is from a text by the Canadian poet Christian Bök. This title seemed appropriate as it described the music I wanted to write—a piece about violence and beauty—and also spoke to why we might need music and symphony orchestras in the first place. Overlapping gestures fade in and out throughout the piece, and many sounds are inspired by electronic effects.
The final piece is called Motion Is The Default State. This sentence was another impulse taped to the piano when trying to describe the music in early stages. The first half is about assigning separate overtones to different instruments to create huge, pulsating blocks of colour. These get progressively bigger until we explode out into a middle section inspired by the fist-pounding energy of rock music. The final section features enormous, pin-wheeling arcs of colour, which grow and overlap with one another into a celebratory finish.
The 18 minutes passed like a dream, and the music left me in awe.. hypnotized me and totally captivated all my senses.
I'll be definitively looking for more magical music from Brian and was so happy to discover this great Canadian talent.
To know more about Brian, check http://briancurrent.
