Abstracts
Abstract
Transfiguration ([1990] 1991) is one of Brian Cherney’s most ambitious compositions. Scored for large orchestra, the piece explores how memories transfigure reality and what that process might sound like. Cherney weaves together a dizzying mise en abyme of quotations—from the canonic repertoire, simulacra of European folk tunes, and his own earlier music (including most prominently Shekhinah for solo viola from [1988] 1992). Orchestral textures alternatively obscure and reveal material both directly and indirectly related to and inspired by the Holocaust, including the photograph of a Hungarian Jewish woman at Auschwitz who haunts the work. The fleeting figure of this unknown woman is represented in the way that material is transfigured—lost, re-emerging, and lost again—throughout. This article focuses on Transfiguration as an apotheosis of Cherney’s interest in the relationship between orchestral texture and intertextuality.
Résumé
Transfiguration (1990) est une des compositions les plus ambitieuses de Brian Cherney jusqu’à maintenant. Avec une partition destinée à un grand orchestre, l’oeuvre explore le mécanisme par lequel les souvenirs transfigurent la réalité et l’expression musicale de ce processus. Cherney tisse une mise en abyme de citations étourdissante — tirées du répertoire canonique, de simulacres d’airs folkloriques européens et de ses propres oeuvres antérieures (notamment Shekhinah pour alto solo de 1988). Les textures orchestrales tour à tour éclipsent et révèlent le matériel directement et indirectement lié à l’Holocauste et inspiré de celui-ci, y compris la photo d’une Juive hongroise internée à Auschwitz qui hante l’oeuvre. La figure fugitive de cette inconnue est représentée dans la manière dont le matériel est transfiguré – perdu, retrouvé puis perdu de nouveau – du début à la fin. Cet article est axé sur Transfiguration en tant qu’apothéose de l’intérêt de Cherney pour la relation entre la texture orchestrale et l’intertextualité.
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Appendices
Biographical note
Matthew Ricketts (b. 1986, British Columbia) is a Canadian composer based in New York City. He studied with Brian Cherney, Chris Paul Harman, and John Rea at McGill University and recently completed a DMA at Columbia University with George Lewis and Fred Lerdahl. He is a core lecturer at Columbia University.
Bibliography
- Cherney, Brian. 1991. Transfiguration for large orchestra. Saint-Nicolas, QC: Dobberman-Yppan (composed 1990).
- Cherney, Brian. 1992. Shekhinah for solo viola. Saint-Nicolas, QC: Dobberman-Yppan (composed in 1988, revised in 1989).
- Klein, Michael L. 2005. Intertextuality in Western Art Music. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
- Kristeva, Julia. 1980. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Leon S. Roudiez; trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. 1969. On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, the Clergy, and Their Own Families. New York: Macmillan.
- Mann, Thomas. 1948. Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkühn as Told by a Friend, trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Marrus, Michael R. 1987. The Holocaust in History. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, for Brandeis University Press.
- Ratner, Leonard. 1980. Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style. New York: Schirmer Books.
- Rodal, Alti. 1988. “Finding Truth through History: The First Survey of Holocaust Historians Helps Dispel the Myths about a Horror beyond Belief.” Montreal Gazette, 19 March. [Review of Marrus 1987.]
- Thorburn, Sandy. 2003. “Like Ghosts from an Enchanter Fleeing: Melodic Quotations as Recognizable Signifiers in the Works of Cherney.” Institute for Canadian Music Newsletter 1 (1): 3–7.