Piece Description

Use this clip to enhance your introduction to almost any recording by John Corigliano.  (This clip deals with how he chose to write certain pieces.  See Outro and Musc Options below.)

SUGGESTED HOST INTRO
While some composers are inspired by nature and walks in the countryside, others approach it as a job where they show up and put pencil to music paper 8 hours a day.  Composer John Corigliano (Core-lee-YAHN-no) begins each new piece by asking a question with the audience in mind.

CLIP TRANSCRIPT
"What can we say that directly affects them and makes them want to enter this world of our music?  I tend to ask that question before I write any piece and if I don't have an answer I don't write that piece.  I have to figure out why I'm writing it, what I want to say to someone and then all the peripheries and the layers come in, in the building of that but it kind of has to have a reason."

SUGGESTED HOST OUTRO

(Choose the piece below and craft your Outro accordingly).

The Red Violin Concerto and other adaptations:  (Oscar winning music) written for the 1989 film, The Red Violin (Bell…Sony 77136, 63010, 88060; Bachmann…Endeavor Classics1020; Bieler…Naxos 8559306).

Mr. Tambourine Man:  He wanted to set Bob Dylan’s poetry (lyrics) to music. JC had never heard the melodies that Bob Dylan wrote for each song.  (2008 Grammy for Best New Classical Composition) (Naxos 8559331)

Voyage:  Choral and instrumental settings of Richard Wilbur's translation of Baudelaire's L'Invitation au voyage.  A world of obsessive imagination and a drugged version of heaven full of sensual imagery."  (RCA 63711, Albany Records 194, Centaur 2585).

Tournaments Overture:  A "contest piece,” somewhat of a Concerto for Orchestra in which principal players and entire sections compete with each other in showing off their virtuosity (RCA 68100).

The Mannheim Rocket (Ondine 1039):  A 20th century refashioning of a musical technique (The Mannheim Rocket”) perfected by the Mannheim Orchestra in the 18th century.  A rising musical figure speeds up and grows louder as it rises higher and higher (hence the term "rocket.")

Fern Hill:  JC wanted to represent the sound and structures of the words from Dylan Thomas poetry.  He thought they were very musical.  (Naxos 8559299 and Nimbus 5449)

Symphony No 1: "'My First Symphony' was generated by feelings of loss, anger and frustration" for his friends who had died of AIDS.  (RCA 68450)

Gazebo Dances:  "The title was suggested by the pavilions often seen on village greens in towns throughout the countryside, where public band concerts are given on summer evenings.”  (Naxos 8559601)

(To download a .txt file of this suggested copy, look under the "Additional Files" for this piece.)


WHAT IS VIRTUOSO VOICES™?

Virtuoso Voices™ is a performer interview service that provides short interview segments to radio stations, their websites and other online platforms.

Virtuoso Voices provides stations with a new strategy for presenting classical music on the radio by directly involving the performer in the introduction of the music.  These topical and evergreen clips enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they introduce and play on their shifts.

Program content is taken from interviews with internationally recognized classical music performers, such as Gil Shaham, Yo-Yo Ma, Marin Alsop, Lorin Maazel, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn and Michael Tilson Thomas.

For more information and to see additional ways to use these clips, please visit our website, www.virtuosovoices.org.


Virtuoso Voices™ Fundraising Service

Virtuoso Voices(tm) is also Public Radio's primary source for classical music fundraising messages.

Please visit the fundraising page of our website for examples and further information.  www.virtuosovoices.org/fundraising.


VIRTUOSO VOICES

"Classical Music's Virtuosos Want a Word with Your Listeners."

Virtuoso Voices is a trademark of Listener Directed Productions, Inc.