Instrumentation: two antiphonal quintets (wind and brass) and two percussionists
First Performance: December 11, 2015, Rockefeller Chapel. Performed by musicians of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Michael Lewanski.
Commissioned by the University of Chicago for its 125th Anniversary and 525th Convocation.
Dedicated to Michael Lewanski and Augusta Read Thomas.
Duration: 7.5 minutes
Twin Spaces, Intertwined was written very specifically with Rockefeller Chapel and its possibilities for acoustical and spatialized configurations in mind. The idea is to fill the chapel with echoes and refrains, with the very physical sensation of calls and responses, especially in the horns, which serve as the connective tissue between the two quintets (one with winds, the other brass). These quintets are both independent of one another, with their own identities, as well as highly interdependent, sharing much material and reflecting it back and forth. Each percussionist is primarily tied to one specific quintet, but is in conversation with the other as well, and the two form a cohesive whole. The experience will be different for everyone, depending on where you’re seated in the audience and your relative proximity to each ensemble. The tone of the piece, while in many ways celebratory because of this specific occasion and reflected in quite jubilant passages at its climaxes, is also one of contemplation, reflection, and mystery.
Anthony Cheung
December 2015