Tomorrow, April 28, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, winner of a WPA Performance Grant, will be performing Joan Tower’s Second Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.
Known today to be on of the most prolific and performed living American composers, Tower’s piece, like the first and third fanfares, are an homage and response to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare to the Common Man.
MusicSalesClassical shared the Composer’s Note from the publication:
Second Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, commissioned by Absolut Vodka, is the second composition in what will be a trilogy of fanfares. Scored for brass and percussion (3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and 3 percussion), it is 4 ½ minutes in length. The first fanfare was composed for the Houston Symphony [for the sesquicentennial of the state of Texas] in 1986. At that time, Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man inspired both the music (theme and instrumentation) and the title. The second fanfare is a tribute not only to Aaron Copland but also to women who are adventurous and take risks. This work is dedicated with love and admiration to Joan Briccetti, general manager of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. The third fanfare has been commissioned to celebrate Carnegie Hall’s 100th Anniversary in 1991.
Congratulations, again, to the NHSO! Find out more about tomorrow’s concert here.
If you can’t make it, here is a taste of Tower’s work – the First Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin: