PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Sunday, December 8, 2024
DC Chamber Musicians
Zabriskie Chapel, Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill
Alexandria, VA

THE SPRUCE QUARTET
Eugene Kim, violin 1
Ben Goloff, violin 2
Nicholas Bobbs, viola
Emily Cornett, cello

PROGRAM NOTE
My first summer working at Tanglewood was in 2019. Nestled in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a nexus of nature, music, and New England charm. One evening after work, while practicing piano, I improvised a jaunty little theme I jotted down under the title “Tanglewood Tarantella.” Over the next few weeks, ideas for additional movements presented themselves on my walks back and forth to the Main Grounds: a rhythmic idea reminiscent of Brahms’ famous “Gypsy Rondo” from his Piano Quartet, Op. 25, became my Toccata; a doleful yet decorated melody became my Elegy; and then a haunting 'idée fixe'—à la Berlioz—emerged that envisioned appearing in each movement, binding them together. The question then became how.

For five years, I struggled to answer it. The individual themes and large-scale structure I laid down that summer have remained largely unchanged, but the “connective tissue,” so to speak, has been written and rewritten hundreds of times over. Why this piece was so difficult to “piece” together remains a mystery to me, but I hope you will find that the effort has not been in vain.

The first movement is a toccata—traditionally a virtuosic keyboard piece—that alternates frenetic passages with contrapuntal episodes. About halfway through, the fateful 'idée fixe' appears as a restless march. In the second movement, a somber melody is presented over a shifting harmonic background that strives for major but is drawn to minor. In the middle, the 'idée' fixe reappears in three different guises: first, a stratospheric apparition in the first violin; second, a beguiling waltz; and third, a brazen statement by the viola. The third movement is a tarantella—the Italian dance supposedly inspired by the convulsions caused by a tarantula bite—whose Mendelssohnian theme is batted about the quartet. Separating its appearances are episodes derived from fragments of the 'idée fixe'. Eventually, the cello states the 'idée' fixe in full, ushering in a dramatic coda based on the tarantella theme.

Collins: Tanglewood Quartet (2024) - II. Elegy: Lamentoso

Collins: Tanglewood Quartet (2024) - III. Tarantella: Vivace

Collins: Tanglewood Quartet (2024) - I. Toccata: Allegro feroce

Annabel Lee: Tone Poem for Baritone and Orchestra
Music by Daniel Collins
Words by Edgar Allan Poe

Boston University Symphony Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
James Demler, baritone

Text:
It was many and many a year ago, 
   In a kingdom by the sea, 
That a maiden there lived whom you may know 
   By the name of Annabel Lee; 
And this maiden she lived with no other thought 
   Than to love and be loved by me. 

I was a child and she was a child, 
   In this kingdom by the sea, 
But we loved with a love that was more than love— 
   I and my Annabel Lee— 
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven 
   Coveted her and me. 

And this was the reason that, long ago, 
   In this kingdom by the sea, 
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling 
   My beautiful Annabel Lee; 
So that her highborn kinsmen came 
   And bore her away from me, 
To shut her up in a sepulchre 
   In this kingdom by the sea. 

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, 
   Went envying her and me— 
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, 
   In this kingdom by the sea) 
That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love 
   Of those who were older than we— 
   Of many far wiser than we— 
And neither the angels in Heaven above 
   Nor the demons down under the sea 
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul 
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams 
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes 
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side 
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, 
   In her sepulchre there by the sea— 
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Collins: Annabel Lee (2018)

BU Student Composers' Concert - Fall 2018

Elena Levi, Violin
Christina Han, Cello
Linsy Wang, Piano

BU Student Composers' Concert - Fall 2018

Collins: Piano Trio No. 1 in A minor (2018) - IV. Rondo: Allegro molto

Collins: Piano Trio No. 1 in A minor (2018) - III. Scherzo: Allegro feroce - Trio: Poco più mosso

Collins: Piano Trio No. 1 in A minor (2018) - II. Double Variations: Adagio sostenuto

Collins: Piano Trio No. 1 in A minor (2018) - I. Sonata: Allegro deciso

BU Orchestra Readings - Spring 2019

Boston University Symphony Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor

Collins: Orchestral Works

Collins: Atlantis - A Musical Journey for Space Shuttle-less Orchestra

BU Orchestra Readings - Spring 2019

Boston University Symphony Orchestra,
Bramwell Tovey, conductor

Collins: Scherzo Diabolique for Orchestra

Bradley University High School Piano Competition 2012


Bartok: Mikrokosmos No. 146 'Ostinato'

Daniel Collins (b. 1996) is an emerging composer, conductor, and pianist from Bushnell, IL. A graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Daniel is currently a junior at Boston University, where he studies music composition and physics. Daniel’s compositions have been recognized both nationally and internationally: in 2014, he was one of only twelve winners of the NAfME Student Composers Contest, and in 2016, he was the first freshman ever commissioned by the ALEA III Contemporary Music Ensemble. Daniel has studied privately with Carol Hoepe, Samuel Headrick, Haris Kittos, and Rodney Lister and is studying abroad at Technische Universität Dresden this spring.

Daniel Collins

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