24-25 Program Book - Flipbook - Page 39
Shift, Change, Turn (2019)
JESSIE MONTGOMERY
(b. December 8, 1981)
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed Grammy-winning
composer, violinist, and educator. The daughter of
a musician and a theater artist, Montgomery grew
up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She studied at
Juilliard, New York University, and Princeton, and
has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization,
which supports young African American and Latino
string musicians, since 1999. Her music is described
as interweaving classical music with elements of
vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social
consciousness. Her works are performed regularly by
leading orchestras and ensembles around the world.
She is currently Artist in Residence at the Vanderbilt
University Blair School of Music, Composer in
Residence at Bard College, and Professor of Violin
and Composition at The New School.
Shift, Change, Turn was composed in 2019, commissioned by the Orpheus and Saint
Paul chamber orchestras. In the composer’s own words “Inspired by Tchaikovsky’s
The Seasons, Shift, Change, Turn is my opportunity to contribute to the tradition of
writing a piece based on the seasons, as change and rotation is something that we
all experience as humans. This piece is a musical exploration of both the external
and internal seasons which at times seem to be changing along the same axis.”
Opening drones and folk-like bending of pitches in the winds create a sense of
space, much like a bagpiper playing on a distant hill. The next section is more
forthright with similar melodic gestures that are more active, even dance-like,
but this is short-lived as the introductory drones return for a moment. The section
that follows begins abruptly, with active gestures that gradually settles down to a
fast, undulating accompaniment supporting longer sustained melodic lines that
fade in and out. This section then abruptly stops and the introductory bagpiper
appears yet once more to bring this evocative piece to a close.
CLASSICAL SERIES PSYCHO 39
