Multitudes - for orchestra (2023)

I have lately been fascinated by the work of the relatively unknown abstract expressionist artist, Norman Lewis. Compared with his contemporaries like Rothko or Pollock, Lewis is not featured in contemporary art exhibits across the world, yet his art speaks with volumes of intensity and power. I first came across his piece, Multitudes, which was tucked away in a corner of the “Art of the Americas” wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, but I was immediately allured by the layering of jagged lines and angular shapes over beautiful hues of melting color fields. In this work and many others by Lewis, a quasi-optical illusion forms; when attempting to focus on either the hues or the lines, the other is, in fact, drawn out even more. It’s as if the lines are in relief of the shadings and the shadings are in relief of the lines. The title of Lewis’ painting comes from Walt Whitman’s “Songs of Myself”: “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes).” In this piece, I drew on both the ideas of contrasting and layering lines and shadows as well as the balance of foreground and background as are both present in my experience of the painting. There are moments of multiple melodic shapes forming both a shadow and a composite melody; articulations against the melodic shape; linear melodies being drawn out into a harmonic field yet activated on the surface; or a focus on the angular melodies while a macro-harmonic motion evolves more slowly in the background. By having sections which draw attention towards certain elements foreground/background and jagged/hues dichotomies of the painting, I attempt to create my own “multitude” of experiences that all stem from one central, connected idea. Multitudes was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.

Performed April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Recording Engineer, Mark Alletag.

Many thanks to Jonathan McCormick and Anna Thompson.

Multitudes - for orchestra

Justin Weiss is a composer and conductor whose music explores relationships between the visual arts and music through the intersection of lyricism, liminality, fragility, and textural play. Justin’s music has been recognized with a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Prix Langage Musical from Les Écoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, the Walter E. Aschaffenburg, and awards and recognitions from institutions such as ASCAP, Society of Composers, Inc., and The American Prize, Tribeca New Music, and YoungArts. 

Justin’s music has been performed internationally by ensembles including Quatuor Diotima, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Grossman Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion Quartet, and ~Nois Saxophone Quartet. Justin is the conductor of the University of Chicago New Music Ensemble, a co-founder and conductor of the new ensemble, Mycelium New Music, and has premiered dozens of pieces internationally. Justin studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a PhD Fellow at the University of Chicago where he studies with Augusta Read Thomas.

Multitudes - for orchestra

Justin Weiss - Composer