Michael Torke's "Ash"

Synopsis

The American composer Michael Torke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1961. In the 1980s, while still a 20-something composition student at Yale, Torke wrote two orchestral works with playful, "colorful" titles: "Ecstatic Orange" and "The Yellow Pages."

Both proved successful, and a string of other works with color-themed titles followed, such as "Bright Blue Music" and "Green." All these pieces might be described as "post-minimalist," meaning they employed the repetitive musical structures and patterns of Torke's slightly-older "minimalist" contemporaries Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams, but also added something new.

That "something new" might be due to Torke's upbeat Midwestern personality and his wide range of musical interests and curiosity. For example: what might happen, Torke wondered, if a 20th century minimalist mindset somehow merged with the sound-world of an early 19th century Beethoven symphony?

Well, on today's date in 1989, we all found out. That's when fellow composer John Adams led the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the premiere performance of a new Torke work entitled "Ash." Presented originally as a purely orchestral work, "Ash" also serves a successful ballet score. Its punchy, energetic forward motion sounds like Beethoven, but the shifting structural patterns are pure Torke.

A critic for the Los Angeles Times described "Ash" as being "an ingenious homage to Beethoven, a quarter hour of trickily juxtaposed shards of melody, rhythm and (mostly) two-chord fragments, a gallop in search of a bolero."

Music Played in Today's Program

Michael Torke Ash Baltimore Symphony; David Zinman, cond. Argo 433 071

On This Day

Births

• 1525 - earliest possible birth date for the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was probably born between February 3, 1525 and February 2, 1526, most likely at Palestrina (near Rome);

• 1809 - German composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, in Hamburg;

• 1842 - American poet, flutist and composer Sidney Lanier, in Macon, Ga.;

• 1904 - Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola, in Pisino, Istria;

• 1910 - Mexican composer Blas Galindo Dimas, in San Gabriel, Jalisco;

• 1911 - French composer and organist Jehan Alain, in Paris;

Deaths

• 1814 - Bohemian composer Johann Antonin Kozeluch, age 75, in Prague;

Premieres

• 1823 - Rossini: opera "Semiramide," in Venice at the Teatro la Fenice;

• 1844 - Berlioz: "Roman Carnival" Overture, in Paris at the Salle Herz, with the composer conducting;

• 1867 - Brahms: String Sextet No. 2, Op. 36, in Vienna, by the Hellmesberger Sextet; This work had received some informal performances in Zürich the preceding year;

• 1868 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Feb. 15);

• 1884 - Tchaikovsky: opera “Mazeppa” in Moscow (Gregorian date: Feb. 15);

• 1894 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 4, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Jan. 22);

• 1945 - Stravinsky: "Scènes de ballet," in New York City by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by the composer; This work was commissioned by Broadway impresario Billy Rose for a 1944 revue titled "The Seven Lively Arts";

• 1956 - Elie Siegmeister: Clarinet Concerto, in Oklahoma City;

• 1989 - Michael Torke: "Ash," in St. Paul, Minn., by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, John Adams conducting;

• 2002 - Philip Glass: Symphony No. 6, at Carnegie Hall, by the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.