Event Description

Chicago-based composer Stacy Garrop premieres her new piece And All Time, written for Fifth House’s full ensemble. Garrop devised the idea of the piece when she found several texts all dealing with time from various points-of-view. The four poems that were chosen weave together different aspects of her subject: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Bells addresses the delight of the universe spinning in rhythmical time; Henry van Dyke’s Time Is comments on how we experience the slow or swift passage of time based on various states of emotion; John Milton’s On Time accuses time of being greedy, stealing time from man’s lives; and Walt Whitman’s Poem of Joys celebrates the joy of time, both now and always, as well as throughout the universe. Garrop arranged the four texts in this specific order to craft a narrative that moves through delight, sadness, anger, and finally joy. She carries out the idea of time through the tempo of the works – all but one tempo indication are derived from a musical beat lasting one second (i.e. the speed of the quarter note is sixty beats per minute). The performers double as the narrators of the poems throughout the piece.

Inspired by the premise of Garrop’s piece, Fifth House has programmed a concert of repertoire that explores perceptions of time through music, movement, and narration.

And All Time was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation. This project also was supported by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation and by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Fidelity Foundation, The Rogers & Hammerstein Foundation, and Anonymous.

Performers: Melissa Snoza, Flute; Grace Hong, Oboe; Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, Clarinet; Eric Heidbreder, Bassoon; Parker Nelson, French Horn; Charlene Klugel, Violin; Michael Lieberman, Viola; Herine Coetzee Koschak, Cello; Eric Snoza, Double Bass; Katherine Peterson, Piano.

Program:

LJ White – Groove III
Nicolas Scherzinger – Fractured Mirrors
Caleb Burhans – In time of desperation
Alfred Schnittke – Piano Quartet in A minor
Stacy Garrop – And All Time