Jennifer Higdon: Piano Trio • Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra

[@prototropo]

Wow! Gorgeous composition. The angular harmonies capture the sounds that might by informal consensus be honored as "American." At least I think so; they are my favorite sonority, in the careful terms of national esthetics, akin to Regionalism in art (Thomas Hart Benton, for example) and Realism in literature (John Steinbeck). Although such examples are a century old already, their power and potential have definitely not been exhausted, nor over-exploited as launching pads to new forms and gestures. Copland, Barber, Grant Wood, O'Keefe, Hemingway, Salinger and Faulkner are other models that leave us with threads of possibility for what I imagine to be burnished Modernism. I hope this is work just one of many facing a parallel future direction, propelled by a like spirit.

[@kaleidoscopechamberorchestra]

Thanks very much!