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Program

Jennifer Koh, violin
Missy Mazzoli, piano

Missy Mazzoli
(b. 1980)

• Dissolve, O My Heart (8'20")
• Interlude (2'30")
• A Thousand Tongues (7')
• Tooth and Nail (10')
• Kinski Paganini (2'10")
• The Night Ahead and No Real Fate (5')
• A Song for Mick Kelly (5'15")
• Hail, Horrors, Hail (2'30")
• All I Want Is All Of It (4'30")
• "Procession Ascending," from Violin Concerto (3'30")
• Vespers for Violin (5'15")

Patrons are requested to silence cell phones and other electronic devices during performances.

The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in this venue.
Program order and artists are subject to change.

Terms and Conditions

All events and artists subject to change without prior notice.

Program Notes

Compiled by Dr. Richard E. Rodda
Written by Missy Mazzoli © 2024

Dissolve, O My Heart

Dissolve, O My Heart has its roots in a late-night conversation over Chinese food and cupcakes with violinist Jennifer Koh. She told me about her Bach & Beyond project, a program that combines Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas with newly commissioned works, and she asked if I would write a piece that referenced Bach’s Partita in D Minor. This request was, to put it mildly, utterly terrifying—the last movement of the Partita, the Chaconne, is undoubtably the most famous piece of solo violin literature in the world. It overwhelmed Brahms, has been subject to hundreds of transcriptions and arrangements over the past two centuries, and is dizzying in its contrapuntal complexity. But something about Jennifer’s enthusiasm was infectious, and I agreed to the project before I realized what I was getting myself into. Jennifer seemed to approach Bach through the lens of contemporary music, and I realized that this was what this new piece should do as well.

Dissolve, O My Heart begins with the first chord of Bach’s Chaconne, a now-iconic D minor chord, and spins out from there into an off-kilter series of chords that doubles back on itself, collapses, and ultimately dissolves in a torrent of fast passages. The only direct quote from the Partita is that first chord, which anchors the entire piece even as it threatens to spiral out of control. The title comes from an aria in Bach’s St. John’s Passion, but has many potential interpretations. Dissolve, O My Heart was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was premiered in 2011 as part of their Green Umbrella Series in Disney Hall

A Thousand Tongues

A Thousand Tongues was commissioned by cellist and vocalist Jody Redhage. This piece is a short but intense response to the following text by Stephen Crane:

Yes, I have a thousand tongues,
And nine and ninety-nine lie.
Though I strive to use the one,
It will make no melody at my will,
But is dead in my mouth.

Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail was inspired by the extraordinary musical traditions of Uzbekistan, where jaw harp (also called Jew’s harp or mouth harp) plays a prominent role. The jaw harp player consistently plucks the instrument, creating overtones and melodies by changing the shape of his or her mouth, and the central Asian style takes this technique to wild and beautiful extremes. I have created my own version of this music, based on my memories of hearing Uzbek jaw harp players. The electronic part is made up almost entirely of viola samples, allowing the live viola to play in counterpoint with itself. Tooth and Nail was written for violist Nadia Sirota and recorded for her album Baroque.

Kinski Paganini

In 1989, Klaus Kinski wrote, directed, and starred in the surreal, sublime, touching, and ultimately ridiculous film Paganini. My short composition for Jennifer Koh, Kinski Paganini, references Paganini’s 24th Caprice, but is also a nod to the unbridled energy of the late German actor/director/madman. Kinski’s portrayal required him to smash his instrument against walls, tear through every room in an inexplicable rage, and ‘play’ his violin with a devilish intensity. Any hope or memory of musical accuracy is obliterated in this film, replaced with a passion and humanity that are possibly even closer to how we experience music in our hearts.

The Night Ahead and No Real Fate

“The Night Ahead and No Real Fate” is a phrase by the writer and painter Sam Pink, from his book The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories. I got to know Sam in 2018 when I wrote to him about buying some of his art; a month later we met in a Chicago bar, me with an envelope full of cash and Sam with a pile of paintings, both of us praying the other wasn’t a serial killer. This composition The Night Ahead and No Real Fate was inspired by Sam’s writings, his paintings, and our hilarious and memorable night on the town. This piece is shaped like a series of concentric circles; patterns unfurl outward from the middle register again and again until the player has struck every key, only then resting on the extreme edges of the instrument.

A Song for Mick Kelly

A Song for Mick Kelly, from Victoire’s debut album, Cathedral City [2010], was inspired by a character in Carson McCullers’ novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Mick Kelly is a 14-year-old with a strong imagination and a vivid inner life. She wants to be a composer, and even tries to build a violin out of a cigar box. In this work, I imagine the music that Mick might write, setting lyrics by poet Farnoosh Fathi:

God I am plain,
I gnaw my skin.
It bursts with violins
And dreams.
Braids for strings. 

I’m room for things
I can’t contain.
I am raw,
Not plain.

Hail, Horrors, Hail

Hail, Horrors, Hail, commissioned by arco collaborative for ‘Alone Together,’ a pandemic project by violinist Jennifer Koh, was written at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The title comes from a passage in Milton’s Paradise Lost:

Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal World! and thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor — one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

“Procession Ascending” from Violin Concerto (Procession)

Violin Concerto (Procession) casts the soloist as a soothsayer, sorcerer, healer, and pied piper-type character, leading the orchestra through five interconnected healing spells. Part one, “Procession in a Spiral,” references medieval penitential processions; part two, “St. Vitus,” is an homage to the patron saint of dancing, who could reportedly cast out evil spirits; part three, “O My Soul,” is a twisted reworking of the hymn of the same name, and part four, “Bone to Bone, Blood to Blood,” derives its name from the 9th-century Merseburg Charm, a spell meant to cure broken limbs. In the final movement, “Procession Ascending,” the soloist straightens out the spiral of the first section and leads the orchestra straight into the sky. Violin Concerto (Procession) was commissioned by the National Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony and the BBC Symphony for soloist Jennifer Koh.

Vespers for Violin

Vespers for Violin (2014), for amplified violin and electronics, began as a reimagining of my recent composition Vespers for a New Dark Age.  I sampled keyboards, vintage organs, voices and strings from that composition, drenched them in delay and distortion, and re-worked them into a piece that can be performed by a soloist.  The result is something completely separate from the original work, with only distant, nostalgic connections to the source material.  Vespers for Violin was composed for Monica Germino and Frank van der Weijand premiered at the Sounds of Music Festival in Groningen in October, 2014.  The work was later recorded by Olivia de Prato for her album Streya, and was nominated for a 2019 Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Composition. In 2019 director James Darrah created a music video for the work featuring dancer Sam Shapiro.

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