Steve Reich's WTC 911

This week marks fourteen years since the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. In light of this, let’s turn our “music and war” topic this month to look at a couple of pieces inspired by this tragic day in U.S. history.

The events on September 11, 2001 were quite personal for composer Steve Reich, whose son was living in an apartment just four blocks from the World Trade Center at the time. Around 9:00am that morning, Reich received a call from his son relaying the details of the attacks. Reich instructed his son to remain on the line. The call lasted six hours.

In 2009, Reich received a commission from David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet to write a piece in commemoration of 9/11. Reich decided to make the piece personal, using a pulsing tone that sounds like a land line when left off the hook as his main theme. The piece contains various emotions in response to the 9/11 attack, including taped samples of responses to the event from firemen, neighborhood residents, and air traffic controllers. These taped selections are more of the focus in this piece, the ensemble simply providing a background and adding to the overall emotion of events. The work is titled WTC 911 and you can listen below. What do you think?

The American Spirit in Lincoln Portrait

Last time we looked at Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, composed for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra during WWII. He also wrote another piece one year earlier that our local orchestra premiered—do you know which one?

On May 14, 1942, Copland’s Lincoln Portrait was first performed by the CSO. It was commissioned by prominent conductor Andre Kostelanetz, who instructed Copland to choose a distinguished American figure as the basis for this work intended to boost American morale. Copland initially wanted to use Walt Whitman but after receiving advice from Kostelanetz to use a political figure, he decided to choose Abraham Lincoln.

In Lincoln Portrait Copland sought to convey the American spirit during a difficult time of war. Among his own original material, he also incorporated several period pieces including Stephen Foster’s “Camptown Races” and an 1840 ballad titled “Springfield Mountain.” Lincoln Portrait’s text famously uses Lincoln’s own words, including excerpts from the Gettysburg Address.

Below you can hear a wonderful performance of Lincoln Portrait from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 2014 Hallowed Ground CD featuring narration from the late Dr. Maya Angelou.

Music and War: Copland's Fanfare

It’s interesting how catastrophic events inspire great art. When moved by a world-altering situation, many in the fine arts turn to their craft to best deal with difficult circumstances. The result, in turn, can impact audiences across the globe who may share in their sentiments. War is an example of this type of event. Composers throughout time have created masterpieces inspired by war or dedicated to the memory of those lost in war. This month, let’s explore a few of these pieces.

Many of you Cincinnatians may know that Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man was premiered by our very own Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra back in 1943. The conductor at the time, Eugene Goossens, commissioned eighteen composers to write fanfares as a contribution to the WWII war efforts. One of these fanfares began each concert of the CSO’s 1942–1943 season. Of these fanfares, Copland’s remains the most famous today. Prior to its premiere, Copland wrestled over the title, considering Fanfare for the Spirit of Democracy, Fanfare for the Rebirth of Lidice (a town in Czechoslovakia that the Nazis had destroyed), and Fanfare for Four Freedoms (in Roosevelt’s 1941 speech he mentioned four freedoms including the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.) In the end, Copland settled on Fanfare for the Common Man, saying “it was the common man, after all, who was doing all the dirty work in the way and the army. He deserved a fanfare.”

The video below is taken from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 2014 Lumenocity concert.