Strange Seasons in the press:
Review of Strange Seasons in The Sun Break
Preview of Strange Seasons in The Seattle Times
Preview of Strange Seasons in The Seattle Weekly
Commissioned by The Seattle Baroque Orchestra
World Premiere: November 11, 2017 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA
View program notes and accompanying sonnets
Listen to excerpts
My obsession with the theorbo began in 2002, at a production of Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Coming from a background as a jazz guitarist, I knew next to nothing about early music, but I drooled over that deeply resonant lute with the ungainly neck poking out of the orchestra pit. I recognized the theorbo as the ideal vehicle for accompanying singers, a form of music-making that transcends any time period or genre, and one that has always been close to my heart.
Strange Seasons
[2017] – concerto for electric theorbo – 32’
A decade later, not long after I moved to Seattle, I began a quixotic undertaking: to design and build an electric theorbo that would combine the best of the original instrument (including the tuning of its fourteen strings) with the sonic palette and versatility of the electric guitar. At that time I also composed Old-Fashioned Love Songs, an evening-length song cycle with countertenor that I performed in 2014.
In that debut project, the electric theorbo acted as a colorful accompanist, in the spirit of a true theorbo. As I began plotting another major composition, I tacked the other direction and thought about how to defy the theorbo’s traditional role, taking full advantage of the electromagnetic pickups routed through tone-altering effects pedals and punchy amplification. It struck me that I should write a concerto—the ultimate showcase for star power—and I realized that I could make the spotlight even brighter by handing off my instrument to a world-class virtuoso: Seattle’s own John Lenti, my friend and theorbo idol.
Taking a page from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, I wrote descriptive sonnets that would shape the musical flow of my four movements. I even consulted with longtime TV meteorologist Jeff Renner to give my impressions of Seattle weather a scientific grounding. The result is Strange Seasons, the first-ever concerto for electric theorbo and a love letter to my adopted home city.
The cycle begins in autumn with Pineapple Express, representing that fearsome type of storm that blows in from Hawaii to shatter the calm of late summer. Winter brings the persistent feeling of Gray, Gray, Gray, Emerald Blues, punctuated by a sense of restless agitation and the need for escape. Spring is a study of rapid change, centering on the Sun Breaks that pierce through fast-moving clouds. Summer is pure Paradise, a time for outdoor adventures, lively city streets, and the benevolent glow of Mount Rainier in the distance.
I am deeply grateful to Alex Weimann and Gus Denhard for taking a chance on this dream project, and I am honored to become the first living composer to be premiered by the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. I must also thank John Lenti and Linda Melsted for their invaluable input and artistry. Strange Seasons is dedicated to my wife, Jen, and to our son, who is due to make his own world premiere two weeks before this concerto.