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Celebrating Bernard Rands's 90th Birthday in the 2023/2024 Season

Jan. 11, 2022

                   
                                   In anticipation of Bernard Rands's 90th birthday in the 2023/2024 season,
                                          we invite you to learn more about the composer and his music.


 … in the Canti Trilogy… Rands unspools a shining thread to guide us and keep us safe. Still another pleasure is the alluring sensuousness of surface Rands stretches over troubling depths. The composer has an extraordinary ear; the sonorities and ideas are deep, dark and magical.
—The Boston Globe 


LOOKING AHEAD: BERNARD RANDS at 90

Through more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is recognized worldwide as a major figure in contemporary music. His work Canti del Sole, premièred by tenor Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His numerous compositions include works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, instrumental and vocal ensembles and soloists, as well as two operas.

In April, Alan Gilbert leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Bernard Rands's Symphonic Fantasy, a work that was inspired in part by the composer's love of Sibelius's Seventh Symphony. The following month, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, led by Allen Tinkham, gives the premiere of Rands's AURA in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, followed by multiple performances in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, and Leipzig during the orchestra's European tour in June.

Bernard Rands's rich output of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music provides an array of programming opportunities for concerts in celebration of his 90th birthday. We encourage you to explore the composer's complete catalog of works here and to contact us directly for more repertoire ideas and perusal materials. 

Recently, Bernard Rands sat down for an engaging interview with musicologist Ted Gordon to discuss his thoughts on music composition, performance, and change. 


                      Bernard Rands on Composition, Performance, and Change
 
Explore the Music of Bernard Rands 

Bernard Rands's monumental Canti Trilogy was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, respectively, and is comprised of three works for voices and orchestra:

Canti Lunatici (1981) sets fifteen texts for soprano and orchestra about the moon. Rands has chosen and ordered his texts to suggest the waxing and waning of the moon’s phases and his intention with the cycle was to create a ’labyrinth of relationships by the compositional arrangement of the resources of voice, text, instrument and musical idea’. The moon and its phases have for ages exerted a powerful force on life on Earth so it is no wonder that Rands’s remarkably dramatic musical evocation speaks to us with such great power and mystery.

Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, Canti del Sole (1983) for tenor and orchestra features texts from Baudelaire, Celan, Huchel, Montale, Wilfrid Owen, Quasimodo, Rimbaud, Sinisgalli, Dylan Thomas, Ungaretti, and an anonymous poet of the 12th century. The Baltimore Sun noted, "Canti del Sole is a magnificent accomplishment. Rands's sensitivity to texts and their various heritages is stunning."

Commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Meet The Composer, Canti dell'Eclisse (1988) for bass and orchestra includes poetry and prose by Al-Ghassani, Celan, Char, Daumal, DePriest, Dickinson, Milton, Paz, Pindar, Quasimodo, San Francesco, Tasso and Vaughan.

All three works in the Canti Trilogy have been arranged for voice and chamber ensemble by the composer. Discover those versions and preview the scores here:

Canti Lunatici
Canti del Sole
Canti dell'Elisse


Canti del Sole (1983)
(Magnus Staveland, tenor/Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble/Timothy Weiss, conductor)

Though Bernard Rands's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2013), commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is in a conventional three-movement format, each of the three movements has a unique form, with no traditional patterns. The first is generated from the opening music, which reappears in faster tempi with each manifestation. Movement two incorporates music from 'Aubade', the second of Bernard Rands’s Three Pieces for Piano, and is based on the slow unfolding of a tiny musical object. The form of the third movement evolves from an ever-increasing pitch-interval; beginning with a minor second trill, it expands to tremolandi covering all interval options. Initiated by the piano, these trigger orchestral responses, which create complex harmonic, rhythmic and timbral textures and give rise to a perpetuum mobile character.


Concerto for Piano and Orchestra – III. Delicate and Playful (2013)
(Jonathan Biss, piano/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Markus Stenz, conductor)
 
Of Chains Like the Sea (2008) for orchestra, Bernard Rands comments:

"The first movement articulates its 10-minute duration with periodic pealing of bells beginning softly and on a single pitch, gradually increasing in volume and density to a final bellpeal chord of 28 pitches. Each bell toll is followed by a prolongation of its resonance, melodically and harmonically, in the orchestra. The suggestive imagery of the second movement is that of leaves caught in sunlight and formed into rivulets by gentle breezes and forceful winds. Beginning with a Ritornello which features complex rhythmic patterns on three trumpets, its opening appearance is skeletal but on each recognizable return (there are five of them) it is more elaborate in orchestral density which celebrates the extraordinary virtuosity of a great orchestra. Each of the three titles is taken from Dylan Thomas’s poem Fern Hill." Chains Like the Sea was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. 

 
 Chains Like the Sea – I. The Sabbath Rang Slowly (2008)
 (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Clark Rundell, conductor)

Bernard Rands’s now again – fragments from Sappho (2006) for mezzo-soprano and ensemble consists of four sections that suggest Invocation, Convocation, Consummation and Introspection. The texts are a compilation of renderings from Sappho which Rands combined into a sort of 'libretto' that forms the basis of a dialogue between the mezzo solo and the two women in the ensemble. The composer notes:

"The melodic lines and the harmonic language are somewhat simpler than that normally associated with my music", comments Rands, "for the basic reason that Sappho was a singer (musician) who sang her love poems to the accompaniment of a lyre. I cannot conceive of a post-2nd Viennese sound world (of whatever kind) which would be suitable for such love poems."


"now again" – fragments from Sappho (1951)
(Janice Felty, mezzo-soprano/Network for New Music/Jan Krzywicki, conductor)

Of Danza Petrificada (2010), commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rands notes:

"Maestro Muti’s request was that the work would, in some way, pay tribute to Mexico on the 200th anniversary of that country’s revolution and the 100th anniversary of Mexico’s independence. The title comes from a beautiful poem by Octavio Paz in which he describes a Mexican village. ‘[…] festin de formas, danza petrificada bajo las nubes que hacen y se deshacen y no acaban de hacerse, siempre en tránsito hacis su forma venidera.’(’[…] a banquet of forms, a petrified dance under the clouds that make and unmake and never stop making themselves, always in transit toward their future forms.’). Such a wonderful description of the phenomenon of music itself!"


Danza Petrificada (2010)
(BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Clark Rundell, conductor)

Madrigali (after Monteverdi/Berio) (1977) for chamber orchestra is derived from or directly based upon the musical characteristics found in Monteverdi's Eighth Book of Madrigals. The essence of Monteverdi's melodic, harmonic, polyphonic, gestural and instrumental features are here placed in new contexts and juxtapositions. Madrigali refers constantly to Luciano Berio's transcription of Il Combattimento at the same time as it relates many aspects of his own original music to that of his Italian predecessor. Madrigali was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC. 

 
Madrigali – V. For Roger Marsh (1977)
(Cleveland Chamber Symphony/Edwin London, conductor)

Ceremonial (1993) for wind ensemble was described by The Boston Globe as, "...an example of minimalism at its most emotionally resonant and generous minded. Its atmosphere is strong and dark and its orchestration shows the hand of a master."


Canti d’Amor (1991) is a collection of fifteen brief love madrigals for a cappella chorus using poems from James Joyce’s Chamber Music. The madrigals are grouped in three sets of five and, in keeping with Joyce’s penchant for weaving threads of musical allusion into his literary fabrics, each group is subtly informed by an Irish song. In as much as these settings qualify as madrigals, they are indebted to Monteverdi’s Canti d’Amor.

 
Canti d'Amor - "Winds of May, that dance on the sea" (1991)
(Chanticleer)


SELECTED MUSIC FOR SOLOISTS AND ENSEMBLES AVAILABLE FROM PSNY

Bernard Rands's extensive catalog includes numerous works for soloists and ensembles. Learn more at psnymusic.com.


Music for Shoko - Aubade (2017) for English horn and string quartet

Bernard Rands noted that the work "is dedicated to my dear friend Shoko Suzuki in appreciation of many years of friendship and her devotion to my music. This piece is a transcription of the 'Aubade' movement from Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra originally commissioned by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in celebration of its 150th anniversary and performed in November 2015 by Robert Walters (E.H.) and The Cleveland Orchestra."


...in the receding mist... (1988) is written for flute, harp, violin, viola and cello. Its title is derived from a early poem by Samuel Beckett.


Walcott Songs (2004) for mezzo-soprano and cello

Of the Walcott Songs, set to text by Derek Walcott, The New York Times noted, "[In Walcott Songs] ...the unabashedly melodic vocal writing has an immediate and lasting appeal."


Four Impromptus for solo piano was recently published in a new Edition Schott collection, available as a digital publication from PSNY.

 
Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix... (2004) for flute, harp, and viola

21st Century Music noted, "[Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix... is] wonderfully irresistible, obsessive in its way, yet sinuous and supple--rather like seeing a blue-ribbon tabby fascinated by the sight of a whirling mobile..."


String Quartet No. 3 (2004) 

"This strong and deeply sincere piece is cause for celebration." (The New York Times)
 VINCENT


AN OPERA ON THE LIFE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH
 

Set to a taut libretto by J.D. McClatchy (which draws on the letter of van Gogh), Bernard Rands's Vincent teems with colorful incident, both in intimate and grand theatrical terms.
– Gramophone Magazine

Vincent is an opera in two acts that tells the story of the genius artist in a succession of 'tableaux' each placing Vincent in contexts that are taken from his real life experiences and thus revealing his complex character – that of genius artist, religious fanatic, alcoholic, epileptic, and unstable of temperament resulting in behavior ranging unpredictably between kindly affability and violent aggression. Vincent illuminates the brilliance of one of the greatest artists who ever lived and tells a universal story of perseverance and achievement through all matters of adversity.

A recording of Vincent was made by the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Chorus (Arthur Fagen, conductor) and released on the NAXOS label. 

Contact Lauren Ishida
Director, Promotion
Schott Music Corp. | EAMDC
lauren.ishida@eamdc.com
and visit eamdc.com 
for more information about Bernard Rands. 

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