Commissioned by: The National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC, Leonard Slatkin, Music Director through a grant from the John & June Hechinger Commissioning Fund for New Orchestra Works
Premiere: 8 November 2001 by the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, DC, under the direction of Marin Alsop
Like many Americans, the events of September 11th 2001, left me questioning the purpose of what I was doing in my life. I had been writing an encore that was intended to follow Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, which concludes with one of the most rousing endings in the literature. The encore I was writing was clever, but how could anything really follow the Tchaikovsky? Then September 11th happened, and I was completely unable to write cleverly, as I reacted in the moment to the events as they unfolded on television over the next few days.
Finally I abandoned the first encore, and wrote what I felt as I watched the heroic rescue workers and volunteers as that infernal smoke kept rising out of the crash sites. I did not attempt or intend to depict the unfathomable horror of September 11th, but rather the unified spirit of the immediate aftermath. The piece is a simple chorale that begins in muted despair but ends in powerful resolve, against the background of the rising smoke.
"Tribute
is a short study for restless strings punctuated by insistent but not vulgar
interruptions from the percussion section. It feels honest and expresses
a gentle but troubled view of the world. [Others use] big noises to little
effect; Abels uses little ones with a lot more success."
--
Washington Post
Written: 2001
Instrumentation:
2,1
222; 4231; timp, 3 perc; stgs
Performance Highlights:
NSO
Washington DC, Chicago Sinfonietta, Richmond
Audio Sample:
Clip
one
Publisher: Subito Music Corporation
