It Remains to Be Seen is a single-movement composition for orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was commissioned by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for their 40th Anniversary Gala Concert. It was premiered in July 2006 by the BUTI orchestra under the conductor James Gaffigan. [1] [2]
It Remains to Be Seen has a duration of roughly 11 minutes and is composed in a single movement. Muhly described the inspiration for the piece in the score program notes, writing:
The piece begins with a chord identical to the one at the end of Stravinsky's Firebird suite and proceeds into a series of charged nocturnal episodes. I wanted to treat the feeling of having just heard music, and being expected to make one's own – referencing the experience of leaving a BSO concert at the shed, walking back to BUTI on a curvy back road, arguing about music in pairs and threes, and at the sign of bright headlights from behind, reorganizing in single file as a car filled with happy concert-goers speeds by. The piece is a nine-minute navigation of an excited, occasionally illuminated, dark road filled with arguing, cars, fragments of remembered music, and a constant, propulsive pulse. [1]
The work is scored for an orchestra comprising piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, four percussionists (glockenspiel, two octaves of crotales, marimba, vibraphone, sandpaper blocks, bass drum, crash cymbals, tambourine, large tam-tam, tenor drum, triangle, wood block), two harps, piano, strings. [1]
Will Robin of NewMusicBox called the piece "a lovely, loving orchestral work that pays tribute to his wistful nighttime walk from the Tanglewood main grounds back to West Campus following a concert." [3]
The Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) is a summer music training program for students age 10 to 20 in Lenox, Massachusetts, under the auspices of the Boston University College of Fine Arts.
Roman Festivals, P 157 is a tone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1928 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the last of his three tone poems about Rome, following Fountains of Rome (1916) and Pines of Rome (1924), which he referred to as a triptych. Each movement depicts a scene of celebration in ancient and contemporary Rome, specifically gladiators battling to the death, the Christian Jubilee, a harvest and hunt festival, and a festival in the Piazza Navona. Musically, the piece is the longest and most demanding of Respighi's Roman trilogy.
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the Abdelazer suite. It was originally commissioned for the British educational documentary film called Instruments of the Orchestra released on 29 November 1946, directed by Muir Mathieson and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent; Sargent also conducted the concert première on 15 October 1946 with the Liverpool Philharmonic in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England.
The Miraculous Mandarin Op. 19, Sz. 73, is a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók between 1918 and 1924, and based on the 1916 story by Melchior Lengyel. Premiered on 27 November 1926 conducted by Eugen Szenkar at the Cologne Opera, Germany, it caused a scandal and was subsequently banned on moral grounds. Although more successful at its Prague premiere, it was generally performed during the rest of Bartók's life in the form of a concert suite, which preserves about two-thirds of the original pantomime's music.
Music for Prague 1968 is a programmatic work written by Czech-born composer Karel Husa for symphonic band and later transcribed for full orchestra, written shortly after the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring reform movement in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Karel Husa was sitting on the dock at his cottage in America at the time, listening to the BBC broadcast of the events on the radio. He was deeply moved, and wrote Music for Prague 1968 to memorialize the events. This piece is a standard among wind ensemble repertoire.
Factory: machine-music, Op. 19, commonly referred to as the Iron Foundry, is the most well-known work by Soviet composer Alexander Mosolov and a prime example of Soviet futurist music. It was composed between 1926 and 1927 as the first movement of the ballet suite Stal ("Steel"). The remaining movements of Steel, "In Prison," "At the Ball," and "On the Square" have been lost, and Iron Foundry is performed today as a standalone orchestral episode.
The Confession of Isobel Gowdie is a work for large symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan.
Raise the Roof is a one-movement concerto for timpani and orchestra by the American composer Michael Daugherty. The work was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the opening of the Max M. Fisher Music Center. It was premiered in Detroit, October 16, 2003, with conductor Neeme Järvi leading the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and timpanist Brian Jones. Daugherty later arranged the piece for concert band in 2007; this arrangement was commissioned by the University of Michigan Symphony Band and was premiered under conductor Michael Haithcock at the National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association on March 30, 2007. Raise the Roof is one of Daugherty's most-programmed pieces and has been frequently performed as a concert opener since its publication.
The Cello Concerto is a concerto for solo cello and orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was commissioned by the Barbican Centre for the Britten Sinfonia and cellist Oliver Coates, to whom Muhly dedicated the piece. It was first performed on March 16, 2012 at the Barbican Centre by Coates and the Britten Sinfonia under conductor André de Ridder.
The Percussion Concerto No. 2 is a concerto for solo percussion and orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was jointly commissioned by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the São Paulo State Symphony. It was first performed on November 7, 2014 at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Netherlands, by percussionist Colin Currie and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under conductor James Gaffigan. The composition is MacMillan's second percussion concerto after 1992's Veni, Veni, Emmanuel.
Mixed Messages is a single-movement composition for orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and was premiered in Philadelphia on May 13, 2015 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The Viola Concerto is a composition for solo viola and orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. Composed in 2014, the work was jointly commissioned by the Orquesta Nacionales de España, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Festival de Saint Denis, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. It was first performed on February 6, 2015 by the violist Nadia Sirota and the Orquesta Nacionales de España under the conductor Nicholas Collon. The piece was later given its United States premiere on October 23, 2015, by Sirota and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin.
A Symphony of Three Orchestras is an orchestra composition by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was composed from June through December 1976 and was first performed in New York City on February 17, 1977 by the New York Philharmonic under the conductor Pierre Boulez. The composition is dedicated to Boulez and the New York Philharmonic.
"An American Symphony " is the title track for the finale symphonic piece played at the end of the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus. It was written by American born composer Michael Kamen, and it won the 1997 Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement.
Edge of the World is a concerto for five pianos and orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. It was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival and was written specifically for the sibling piano group The 5 Browns, whom Muhly met while attending Juilliard School. The piece was first performed by the 5 Browns and Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Conlon on August 9, 2011. Muhly dedicated the concerto to the 5 Browns.
The Requiem by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti is a large-scale choral and orchestral composition, composed between 1963 and 1965.
Moler is an orchestral work written by the American composer Arlene Sierra. The work was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot, Music Director. It was first performed at Benaroya Hall on October 26, 2012.
John Williams's Violin Concerto No. 2 was commissioned by the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The piece was given its world premiere by Mutter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Williams at Tanglewood, on July 24, 2021.
In Certain Circles is a concerto for two pianos and orchestra written in 2020 by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was commissioned for the pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque by the New York Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf-Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie de Paris, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Its world premiere was given by the Labèque sisters and the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev at the Philharmonie in Paris on July 6, 2021.
Register is an organ concerto written in 2017 by the American composer Nico Muhly. The work was written on a joint commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Southbank Centre. Its world premiere was given by the organist James McVinnie and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by James Conlon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, on February 23, 2018.