"in shadows, in silence", post-premiere audience Q&A/talkback with Renee' Baker.

"in shadows, in silence" CMOP post-premiere Q&A

http://blackhouse.typepad.com/blackhouse/2014/04/maroon-trio-competition-composer-interview-gregg-wramage.html

DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) (2014)

"YC" was a Hoff-Barthelson School of Music/Copland House commission, and was written for Hoff-Barthelson’s 2014 New Music Festival. Instrumentation: Flute (doubles Piccolo), Oboe, Violin, Piano. duration: ca. 5'30"  Program Note:  “as the years went quickly by, his hearing and his vision  began to diminish. During his last six months, he had great difficulty  finding his way around the house, he would go around in strange circles  trying to find his way to our front door. Most of his days were spent sleeping.   On the night of March 2, 1994, he began to tremble and seemed not to want  to get up. At 2:30 in the morning, Jeannie woke me, and said, 'I think Andy  is dying. We should take him to the emergency animal hospital.'  The veterinarian said he would not last the night, so we had to make the  terrible decision to put him down.  We had a sign nailed to a tree in our driveway that said, 'Please drive slowly. Small dog does not see or hear well.'  When Andy died I hammered it loose and angrily chopped it into pieces.   The strip below was inspired  by my love for little Andy, I shall never forget him.  'There are a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and there are a hundred billion  galaxies, and each galaxy contains a hundred billion stars.  Sort of puts things in perspective, doesn't it, Charlie Brown?   I miss my dog…'  --Charles M. Schultz   In loving memory of a beautiful animal and a great friend,  Yellow Cat (6/1989-3/10/2010)    

YC (Yellow Cat)

Instrumentation: large orchestra
duration: 6'


“La tristesse durera” (2006)
After the painting “Chapel at Neunen with Churchgoers” by Vincent van Gogh (1884)

“La tristesse durera” (The sadness remains) is a phrase that was written by Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo. Like many artists, I have been both deeply moved and greatly inspired by the life and work of van Gogh. In 1995, while studying in Fontainebleau, France, I planed an ongoing series of short piano pieces inspired by some of Van Gogh’s early paintings from his years in the Dutch town of Neunen and in Paris. My idea was to transform my experience of these paintings into music—as opposed to simply creating musical depictions of them. From my first viewing of this painting, I associated the churchgoers in it with people leaving a funeral, and this association gave me a clear sense of what the expressive character of my piece would be. The orchestral version of “La tristesse durera” was composed in January 2006 while in residence at Copland House, and was premiered by Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra in December 2006. The recording of "La tristesse durera" is supported, in part, by Copland House's 2007 Sylvia Goldstein Award. "La tristesse durera" is dedicated to my childhood friend, John McRoberts, who died from cancer in 1995, during the initial planning of the work.


"La tristesse durera" (The sadness remains) (2006)

Instrumentation: wind quintet
duration: 8'

Brilliant Mirrors (1998)

Instrumentation: soprano, piano
duration: 12'
Song cycle on three poems by Donald Justice: "On the Death of Friends in Childhood", "Landscape with Little Figures", and "Absences".

Familiar Clouds (2004)

Instrumentation: baritone, flute, clarinet, horn, percussion, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, bass
duration: 12'
A setting of Donald Justice's poem, "Psalm and Lament", written in memory of my father, Victor Louis Wramage, 12/13/1929-10/09/1997.

Into the Black Oblivion (1999)

Instrumentation: chamber orchestra--fl(picc), ob(corA), cl(bcl), bn--hn, tpt--1 perc--piano--strings (2.1.1.1)

duration: 15'

Program Note: My first symphony deals with the murder of Karen Thomson, the teenage sister of my childhood best friend, Mark Thomson. During the early morning hours of January 1st, 1983, after attending a New Year’s Eve party with her boyfriend, Karen was shot by him at point blank range, while seated in her car, parked in the driveway of her parent’s home. Her boyfriend then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. This event cast a dark and persistent shadow over my otherwise almost idyllic childhood, and has had a profound influence on the evolution of my religious, spiritual, philosophical, and world views--both as an artist and as a human being. My symphony is not intended to give voice to the outpouring of grief, anger, and sense of futility that followed Karen’s murder; rather, it is intended as a way of remembering a particular time in my life, of remembering the people and places surrounding this tragic event, and of remembering Karen and her brief life.
Musically, the symphony is cast in three main movements, with a prologue and an epilogue. The Prologue is an instrumental arrangement of my song, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood“, after the poem by Donald Justice. The orchestra interrupts the song at the end of the opening section, with the first of three chronologically arranged winter tableaux: “Snow Games”, a moderato, inspired by memories of my childhood with Mark and Karen before Karen’s murder; “Murder-Suicide”, an allegro, a contemplation of the event itself; and following a brief “Flashforward” for solo percussion, “Driving Past the House”, an adagio, inspired by my memories of Karen’s murder in the present day, which are frequently awakened when driving past her former house, in my hometown. This movement, and the symphony as a whole, culminates in a recitation of the aforementioned Justice poem, accompanied by the orchestra. The Epilogue concludes the symphony with a complete statement of the instrumental arrangement of my song, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood”, that began the work.


Death in Winter (Symphony No. 1) (2006): I. Snow Games-excerpt

Death in Winter (Symphony No. 1) (2006): II. Murder-Suicide-excerpt

Instrumentation: chamber orchestra--fl(picc), ob(corA), cl(bcl), bn--hn, tpt--1 perc--piano--strings (2.1.1.1)

duration: 15'

Program Note: My first symphony deals with the murder of Karen Thomson, the teenage sister of my childhood best friend, Mark Thomson. During the early morning hours of January 1st, 1983, after attending a New Year’s Eve party with her boyfriend, Karen was shot by him at point blank range, while seated in her car, parked in the driveway of her parent’s home. Her boyfriend then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. This event cast a dark and persistent shadow over my otherwise almost idyllic childhood, and has had a profound influence on the evolution of my religious, spiritual, philosophical, and world views--both as an artist and as a human being. My symphony is not intended to give voice to the outpouring of grief, anger, and sense of futility that followed Karen’s murder; rather, it is intended as a way of remembering a particular time in my life, of remembering the people and places surrounding this tragic event, and of remembering Karen and her brief life.
Musically, the symphony is cast in three main movements, with a prologue and an epilogue. The Prologue is an instrumental arrangement of my song, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood“, after the poem by Donald Justice. The orchestra interrupts the song at the end of the opening section, with the first of three chronologically arranged winter tableaux: “Snow Games”, a moderato, inspired by memories of my childhood with Mark and Karen before Karen’s murder; “Murder-Suicide”, an allegro, a contemplation of the event itself; and following a brief “Flashforward” for solo percussion, “Driving Past the House”, an adagio, inspired by my memories of Karen’s murder in the present day, which are frequently awakened when driving past her former house, in my hometown. This movement, and the symphony as a whole, culminates in a recitation of the aforementioned Justice poem, accompanied by the orchestra. The Epilogue concludes the symphony with a complete statement of the instrumental arrangement of my song, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood”, that began the work.

Death in Winter (Symphony No. 1) (2006): III. Driving Past the House-excerpt

Monodrama for actor, cello, and piano, after the poem by Donald Justice.
Duration: ca. 9'

THE SUNSET MAKER is a monodrama for actor, cello and piano, after the poem by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, Donald Justice. The piece was written in response to Mr. Justice’s death in 2004, and is the fourth of five completed works in my ongoing series of pieces based on Mr. Justice’s poetry that also includes: “Into the Black Oblivion” (1999), “Mourning Songs I” (2002), “Mourning Songs II” (2004), and “Symphony No. 1” (2006). 

Gregg Wramage

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