David Lang, increase (2002)
New York City-based composer David Lang is a co-founder and director of New York’s Bang on a Can ensemble who has challenged old academic ideas of contemporary music. increase, premiered by Alarm Will Sound in NYC in 2002, consists of a full woodwind section, trumpet, trombone, piano, synthesizer, two percussionists, string ensemble, and an amplifier. The piece features an ascending motive first heard in the flute. It has ostinatos and a repetitive aspect to it that you hear in many other contemporary works, but in increase Lang loads this repetition with meaning and emotion. The motive, while unchanging in melody and rhythm, is given new contexts and an intensity that culminates into a sudden ending, fitting of Lang’s affection for making the simple profound.
Program notes by Sara Ostermeier (’23)
1 окт 2024
