Thomas' "Sun Threads"

Synopsis

At New York’s Alice Tully Hall on today’s date in 2003 the Avalon Quartet gave the first complete performance of a new four-movement string quartet entitled “Sun Threads,” by the American composer Augusta Read Thomas.

Each movement of the new work has its own evocative title and had been premiered previously as stand-alone pieces by a consortium of ensembles: the first movement, “Eagle at Sunrise,” by the Ying Quartet; the second, “Invocations,” by the Miami Quartet; the third, “Fugitive Star,” by the Avalon Quartet; and the fourth, “Rise Chanting,” by the Alexander Quartet.

As the poetic titles indicate, Thomas is not afraid of emotion in music, but insists on internal logic as well, and says:

“I believe my music must be passionate, involving risk and adventure, such that a given musical moment might seem like a surprise right when you hear it but, only a millisecond later, seems inevitable … One of my main artistic credos has been to examine small musical objects–a chord, a motive, a rhythm, a color–and explore them from every possible perspective. The different perspectives reveal new musical elements, which I then transform and which in turn become the musical development.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) Eagle at Sunrise, from Sun Threads Walden Chamber Players ART CD 1992007

On This Day

Births

• 1870 - Hungarian-born Austrian composer Franz Léhar, in Komorn;

• 1939 - American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, in Miami, Fla.; She was the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1);

Premieres

• 1728 - Handel: opera "Tolomeo, re d'Egitto" (Ptolomy, King of Egypt), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: May 11);

• 1855 - Berlioz: "Te Deum," at the church of St. Eustache in Paris;

• 1902 - Debussy: opera "Pelléas and Mélisande," in Paris at the Opéra-Comique;

• 1925 - Hindemith: "Kammermusik" No. 3, Op. 36, no. 2, in Bochum, Germany, conducted by the composer with Rudolf Hindemith the cello soloist;

• 1934 - Stravinsky: opera "Persephone," at the Paris Opéra, with Ida Rubinsetin in the principal role (spoken part) and the composer conducting;

• 1973 - Lou Harrison: Concerto for Organ, at San Jose State University, with organist Philip Simpson;

• 1991 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Bass Trombone Concerto, by soloist Charles Vernon with the Chicago Symphony, Daniel Barenboim conducting;

• 1994 - John Harbison: String Quartet No. 3, at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., by the Lydian String Quartet;

Others

• 1932 - Opening of the first "Yaddo" Festival of Contemporary Music at Saratoga Springs, N.Y.