Listening Room: Anna Clyne’s Top 5

JS Bach: Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Well, there’s both the performance and the music itself. Goldberg Variations is a wonderful technical example of theme and variations. It correlates to my new piece, PALETTE – when you’re a composer, you’re always thinking about the music’s structure. PALETTE is in seven movements, so I wanted a musical device that connects them. I took the baseline of the opening aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It’s very tucked into the texture so you wouldn’t know it’s there, but it’s a bit of a homage to Bach’s perfectly formed musical architecture.

In Glenn Gould’s recording you hear his personality coming through. He plays it with such intimacy; especially if you’re listening on headphones, you can really imagine you’re in the room with him.

Bach: The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. Glenn Gould, piano – Sony Classical

Arvo Pärt: Fratres – For 12 Celli

I’ll never forget the first time I heard it. I was a student at Edinburgh University, and it was on the radio, and I was moved straight away. It’s so beautiful, and it has space. Like with Bach’s music, every note has a purpose. Arvo Pärt is able to really strip things back, so the essence of the music is revealed. What’s extraordinary about Fratres is that it exists and succeeds in such a variety of instrumentations. There are versions for solo violin, violin and piano, string orchestra and percussion…

One of the more unusual ones that I love is for 12 cellos. It’s quite extraordinary that a piece of music can maintain its musical integrity and power in such a range of musical contexts.

Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa – ECM Records

Anon: The True Lover’s Farewell

During the pandemic I took online banjo classes. I have a friend who’s a folk musician and I asked for recommendations, and to my great happiness, he introduced me to Bruce Molsky, a renowned singer, guitarist, banjo, fiddler, and wonderful human being. Through my lessons, I became familiar with an old-time folk style of playing. I love folk music in general and I love sitting out on my deck playing banjo tunes.

Bruce is featured in this song with the extraordinary Anonymous 4. There are just two a cappella voices which really gets to the heart of the song. I borrowed the tune for my violin concerto, Time and Tides that I wrote for Pekka Kuusisto. It’s a piece that reimagines various folk tunes from different traditions, and it opens with The True Lover’s Farewell. Here in America, and around the world, to have a song of hope is a wonderful thing at this time.

1865: Anonymous 4 and Bruce Molsky – Harmonia Mundi

Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Voices 

I first heard Partita for 8 Voices performed live by Roomful of Teeth in Trinity Church, a beautiful space in downtown New York. I was immediately captivated by the sound world that Caroline creates that is both uniquely hers, and which also echoes the past. I love how she responds to, and incorporates, existing dance forms and the artwork of Sol LeWitt so imaginatively. What struck me about the performance was both how idiosyncratic the music is for the voice (perhaps partly because of Caroline being a singer, and a member of the ensemble) and how much enjoyment the musicians were having bringing the music to life. There always seems to be an element of joy in Caroline’s music that I find so refreshing.
Caroline Shaw: Partita for 8 Singers. Caroline Shaw, Roomful of Teeth, Brad Wells – New Amsterdam

Julia Wolfe: Fire in my Mouth

Fire in my Mouth is based on the garment industry in New York City at the turn of the century, with a focus on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and its aftermath. Drawing upon contemporary accounts of immigration, labor, and activism among the garment workers of the Lower East Side, it brings their world and words to the forefront. I was fortunate to go to its world premiere, which had a chorus made up of 146 women and girls (a number commemorating the total who perished in the fire) from members of the chamber choir The Crossing and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. I’ve always loved the theatrical language and nature of Julia’s music – and that she tackles important historical subjects head on. She was a mentor of mine 20 years ago as a student at Manhattan School of Music, and I have always been inspired by her sense of large-form works and how to develop music and narrative over time.

Julia Wolfe: Fire in my Mouth. New York Philharmonic, cond. Jaap Van Zweden – Decca Gold