In Tuesday’s (9/14) Star News (Wilmington, North Carolina), Bob Workman writes, “Ceremonial music, if it’s great, often becomes a celebration of music itself, outlasting anyone’s recollection of the occasion for which it was written. … The North Carolina Symphony will start its 2010-11 Wilmington concert series Saturday with Tchaikovsky and Handel’s long-admired and oft-played classical hits, along with coronation music by Sir William Walton, a celebration of American youth and optimism by Aaron Copland, a musical evocation of North Carolina’s Outer Banks by Terry Mizesko and the world premiere of music for the 300th anniversary of New Bern’s founding. ‘Enduring City’ is Welsh composer Gareth Glyn’s tone poem inspired by the history of North Carolina’s colonial capital and its second oldest city. … A tone poem, also called a symphonic poem, is music generated from extra-musical ideas—stories, history, philosophy and so on. To help Glyn find the spark needed to write his ‘Enduring City,’ he visited New Bern in 2008, meeting experts on its history, architecture and culture.”
Posted September 15, 2010
