a la fenestra, for brass, percussion and strings (2021)

Duration: 7:00 minutes

Instrumentation: 4 horns, 3 C trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, timpani, percussion (3 players), and strings

Premiere: September 24, 2021 by Michael Francis and The Florida Orchestra at Morsani Hall, The Straz Center, Tampa, FL

Notes:

Standomi un giorno solo a la fenestra (Standing one day alone at the window)

This is the first line of Petrarch’s Canzone 323, which famously describes various visions relating to the death of his beloved Laura, who died of bubonic plague in 1348. While this text is almost 700 years old, to me the image of the poet alone at the window seemed to summarize so much of our shared experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and social distancing measures have meant that many of us spent months quite literally alone, missing friends and family and longing for a return to normal life. Like Petrarch, many of us have had to grieve alone. But even in our isolation, we can maintain some connection to the world and to each other, looking through the window both literally and metaphorically. In this time of uncertainty and crisis, I was profoundly moved by images of people leaning out of windows and balconies, singing together and cheering for essential workers. It is interesting to note that there are historical descriptions of the exact same scene in plagues hundreds of years ago – our quarantined ancestors sang from their windows, too.

My piece, a la fenestra, begins with an unaccompanied horn melody, a lone voice calling out. From that isolated beginning, the music gradually builds to include more instruments responding to the horn’s call, a musical depiction of connecting across distances. In addition to my own music there is also a brief quote from Standomi un giorno, a vocal work from 1557 by Orlando Lasso that sets Petrarch’s Canzone 323 to music.