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PARALLELS AND DIVERGENCES: THREE CASE STUDIES IN THE MUSIC OF MICHAEL HERSCH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2023

Christopher Fox
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Abstract

This article focuses on three recent works by the American composer Michael Hersch: the script of storms (2018), for soprano and orchestra, the chamber opera Poppaea (2019) and the 11-hour trilogy of works that have the overall title sew me into a shroud of leaves (2001–16). A discussion of aspects of these three scores will consider Hersch's deployment of a stylistically consistent musical language, his involvement with the work of the writers Fawsi Karim and Christopher Middleton and his articulation of often substantial spans of time.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Information
Tempo , Volume 77 , Issue 304 , April 2023 , pp. 44 - 61
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 https://michaelhersch.com (accessed 22 November 2022).

2 Quoted in Tim Page, ‘The Natural’, Washington Post, 4 July 1999, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/07/04/the-natural/3d46d089-21b5-407e-8b74-b2d1a95037f4/ (accessed 11 November 2022).

3 Michael Hersch, the script of storms. 2022, New Focus Recordings, fcr344, https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-script-of-storms.

4 These timings are taken from the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiere recording on the New Focus label.

5 https://michaelhersch.com/works/program/poppaea-essay-Fleischmann.html (accessed 22 November 2022).

6 Clément, Catherine, Opera, or the Undoing of Women, tr. Wing, Betsy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

7 Michael Hersch, sew me into a shroud of leaves, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxfPulU5BDE (accessed 11 November 2022).

8 Email correspondence with Michael Hersch, 24 April 2021.

9 Middleton, Christopher, The Vanishing Pavilions, first published in PN Review 156, 30, no.4, March–April 2004Google Scholar.

10 Michael Hersch, The Vanishing Pavilions. 2007, Vanguard Classics/Musical Concepts, MC-101; now available from New Focus Recordings (2022, fcr335), https://michaelhersch.com/albums/TheVanishingPavilions.html (accessed 22 November 2022).

11 Email correspondence with Michael Hersch, 7 December 2019.