Bielawa's 'Chance Encounter'

Synopsis

It happens to all of us: you’re in some public space and overhear someone say something that strikes you as memorable, oddly poetical, or perhaps even moving. American composer Lisa Bielawa and soprano Susan Narucki started collecting such overheard phrases, and created a musical work incorporating them.

Commenting on the phrases, Bielawa said, “I noticed … people often say things … that help locate themselves in space and time: ‘Last time I ate here by myself’ or ‘Remember — it was snowing horribly? And she was holding the dog?’” Or nostalgic phrases like “We used to have a house here, but then my father lost his job. I never go there now.”

The resulting composition for soprano and 12 instrumentalists, Chance Encounter, was designed to be performed in a public spaces as well, with the performers arriving and leaving at different times and from different directions, taking up positions scattered around the site, with the soprano singing the overheard phrases as she strolls among them.

This unusual work received its premiere performance at Seward Park in New York City on today’s date in 2008. Since then, Chance Encounter has been performed in Rome on a walkway along the banks of the Tiber River, and in other public spaces in places ranging from Venice to Vancouver.

Music Played in Today's Program

Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968): Chance Encounter; Susan Narucki, soprano; The Knights (Orange Mountain Music 7004)

On This Day

Births

• 1870 - French composer Florent Schmitt, in Blámont

• 1913 - American composer Vivian Fine, in Chicago

Deaths

• 1825 - Russian composer Dimitri Bortniansky, 74, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Oct. 10)

• 1964 - English composer Sir George Dyson, 81, in Winchester

Premieres

• 1918 - Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale for narrator and seven instruments, in Lausanne at the Théatre Municipal with Ernest Ansermet conducting

• 1961 - Bartók: Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra, an early work by the late composer, in Budapest

• 1972 - Petrassi: Concerto for Orchestra No. 8, in Chicago

• 1997 - James MacMillan: Symphony (Vigil), at the Barbican in London, by the London Symphony, Mstislav Rostropovich conducting

Others

• 1951 - Sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still opens in theaters across America, featuring memorable score by Bernard Herrmann that included eerie, other-worldly sounds imitating the electronic instrument known as a Theremin (after its Russian-born inventor, Leon Theremin). In the movie, actress Patricia Neal’s rendition of the space alien command “Gort: Klaatu barada nikto” prevents Earth’s destruction by a death-ray robot from outer space.

• 2007 - Conductor Philip Brunelle awarded the “Champion of New Music“ Award by the American Composers Forum at their 2007 Annual Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. This award recognizes artists who have commissioned and performed a significant number of new works by living composers.