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World Premiere of Vijay Iyer's Variations on a Theme by Ornette Coleman at the Norfolk Chamber Festival

Jul. 25, 2024

On July 26, Norfolk Chamber Festival musicians perform the world premiere of Vijay Iyer's Variations on a Theme by Ornette Coleman at Battell Recital Hall in Norfolk, CT. Iyer notes:

"The composer and multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman created the theme “War Orphans” during the thick of the US’s deadly operation in Vietnam. The piece has a unique, slightly obscure history, in that Coleman never created his own definitive recording of the piece, and his scores aren’t generally available. Coleman’s longtime collaborator, contrabassist Charlie Haden, borrowed the song and recorded a version in 1970 with his large ensemble, Liberation Music Orchestra; subsequent versions appeared by Paul Motian, Bobo Stenson, and others. All of these renditions offer solemn, reflective, even pastoral treatments of the theme. 

Then, in 2022, a live recording surfaced of Coleman’s quartet performing ”War Orphans” in Paris in 1971. The composer’s version is declamatory, polyphonic, and ablaze with careening  intensity, quite different from the conventional understanding of the piece. The theme’s plaintive fanfare (given a cracked yet confident delivery by Coleman on trumpet, an instrument he had recently taught himself) emerges amid hectic, countervailing lines from Haden, drummer Ed Blackwell, and saxophonist Dewey Redman doubling on tenor and musette. Exuberant and full of danger, their performance conveys not a tone of mere pity, but something more complex, contradictory, and true to life — not just the plea of the orphans, but also their unbreakable spirit; not just the sorrow of war, but also the depravity of the systems that produce it.

This piece begins with a transcription of the first minute of that 1971 performance, followed by eleven variations that highlight these different facets, indicated in the score as follows: 

Gentle and steady / Buoyant / Propulsive / Lament / Sunrays / Sonnet / Games / (Outerlude) / Echoes / March / Underworld / Aftermath

It’s fair to assume that every war waged, backed, or armed by the U.S. has looked like the one we are witnessing today. Since last fall, humanitarian aid organizations have had to invent a new acronym to categorize tens of thousands of young survivors: “WCNSF,” as in “wounded child, no surviving family.” Their slain relatives are recently estimated by Lancet to number in the hundreds of thousands. The children’s wounds are caused by blasts, shrapnel, rubble, and, most irredeemably, sniper bullets; “wound” here denotes everything from severe burns, punctures, and fractures to missing limbs and organs. In protest of this horrific and indefensible state of affairs, I dedicate this piece, and my commission, to those children. 

I am truly grateful to the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Melvin Chen, the Desai Family Foundation, and tonight’s ensemble of brilliant and courageous young musicians for making this work possible."

Variations on a Theme by Ornette Coleman is a part of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival’s Musical Bridges project, made possible through the generous support of the Desai Family Foundation. Musical Bridges is a multiyear project in which the Norfolk Festival commissions new works that place classical chamber music within a broader musical and cultural context.


In addition, the Portland Chamber Music Festival will present the Maine premiere of Vijay's Handmade Universe, performed by Shai Wosner and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra who premiered the work in October 2023.

Listen to Trouble, an album featuring Vijay Iyer's Trouble, Asunder, and Crisis Modes, recently released by BMOPSound:

Trouble/Vijay Iyer/Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose, conductor)

To learn more about Vijay Iyer, visit schott-music.com.

Vijay Iyer
Variations on a Theme by Ornette Coleman (2024)
for chamber ensemble
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Handmade Universe (2023)
for piano and string orchestra
20'

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