PROGRAM NOTES
Chicago Skyline is a short celebratory piece commissioned by Chicago’s Fine Arts Radio Station WFMT for performance by the Chicago Symphony in December 1991, honoring the station’s fortieth anniversary. When I began composing the work, it seemed natural to select the brass and percussion section of the orchestra for a fanfare-like utterance. As the work evolved, I began feeling that its sense of space and the juggling and interplay of acoustical depths were analogous, at least in my mind, to the handling of architectural spaces. The kinship between music and architecture has, of course, been noted and discussed by many before me. Invoking Chicago’s magnificent architecture, which I dearly love and which never ceases to thrill me, seemed altogether appropriate when saluting as distinguished a Chicago institution as WFMT.
The work’s principal musical idea is extracted from a fanfare-like trumpet theme that appeared in the first movement of my Symphony, and that seemed to suggest further possibilities in this new context. Contrasted with this fanfare-type idea and the materials derived from it is a stately, choral-like idea for the full brass choir.
Chicago Skyline calls for four trumpets, six horns, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, chimes, bass drum, tam-tam, snare drum, five tom toms, three gongs and various types of cymbals. The premiere performances by the Chicago Symphony were conducted by Pierre Boulez.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Commissioned by WFMT
for its fortieth anniversary on December 13, 1991
Premiere performances:
December 12, 13, 14, 17, 1991
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez, conductor
Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Duration: c. 5’
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.