Contemporary Classics September 7, 2021 Commemoration of 9/11

This Saturday is the 20^th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the world trade center.  Tonight on Contemporary Classics we are commemorating the 20^th Anniversary of these terrorist attacks and those who died in these attacks.  There are several works that were written specifically to commemorate this event and those who died and we will be playing some of those this evening on Contemporary Classics.

John Adams has said about this piece that "I want to avoid words like 'requiem' or 'memorial' when describing this piece . . . I'd probably call the piece a 'memory space.’ Transmigration means 'the movement from one place to another' or 'the transition from one state of being to another.' But in this case I meant it to imply the movement of the soul from one state to another. And I don’t just mean the transition from living to dead, but also the change that takes place within the souls of those that stay behind, of those who suffer pain and loss and then themselves come away from that experience."

Rain Worthington: Shredding Glass        

Rain Worthington worked a block away from the World Trade Center in a building that was considerably damaged by the terrorist attacks.

Steve Reich: WTC 9/11

WTC 9/11 was written for the Kronos Quartet for 3 string quartets and voice recordings and features the voices of NORAD air traffic controllers concerned with the off-track American Airlines Flight 11, voices from FDNY recordings related to activities on the ground and voice recordings from interviews conducted in 2010 by Reich.  In addition to voice recordings, two string quartets are pre-recorded for the performance. Alternatively, the piece can be performed by three string quartets with pre-recorded voices only.

Howard Goodall: Spared (2008)          

Michael Gordon: The Sad Park        

Gordon found inspiration for this work in two things: his experiences walking his daughter to kindergarden which was two blocks north of the world trade center the morning of 9/11 and the voices of his daughter’s classmates recorded by their teacher in the weeks and months following the 9/11 terrorist attack.

As a composer, He wanted the music to let the emotion of the children's voices have room to breathe. He also didn't want the music to embody any big, universal statement.