#5181, 9/11 Works

25 years later, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks is still fresh on many New Yorkers minds’ who witnessed the tragedy firsthand. One of those New Yorkers was the prolific composer Steve Reich. Although Reich was in Vermont with his wife at the time, his son, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law were in the city at his home, and able to stay on the phone for six hours as the attacks unfolded. “For thirty days, we couldn’t come back in,” said Reich back in 2011 as he was recounting the events in an interview with New Sounds host, John Schaefer. The snippets from that awful collective memory remain vividly documented in Reich’s “WTC 9/11”, as public domain recordings, as well as Reich’s private interviews with friends including composer David Lang, rise and fall in volume atop an eerie and panic-inducing music bed.

In juxtaposition to Reich’s journalistic approach, composer John Adams focuses on the emotional turmoil the victims have experienced since then in his Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, “On the Transmigration of Souls”, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. The names of the missing victims are heard as soon as the 25-minute piece begins, in ghostly whispers at first, then growing in intensity. Adams dreaded the call, but turned to Charles Ives for inspiration, whose piece titled “The Unanswered Question (Late Version)” is also a part of tonight’s program.

We close with late electronic music composer Elodie Lauten’s “S.O.S.W.T.C., Part 8”, who incorporates the S.O.S. signal in morse code into the sequence of her microtonal composition to mourn the day she once referred to as “the beginning of the end”. - Sırma Munyar

(Photo by Michael Hnatov)

Program #5181, 9/11 Works (First aired 9/11/26)

ARTIST: John Adams, New York Philharmonic, New York Choral Artists, Brooklyn Youth Chorus
WORK: On the Transmigration of Souls [1:17]
RECORDING: On the Transmigration of Souls
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: https://www.discogs.com/master/692959-John-Adams-On-The-Transmigration-Of-Souls

ARTIST: Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet
WORK: WTC 9/11: I. 9/11 [3:40]
RECORDING: WTC 9/11 / Mallet Quartet / Dance Patterns
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: https://kronosquartet.org/recordings/detail/steve-reich-wtc-9-11-mallet-quartet-dance-patterns/

ARTIST: Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet
WORK: WTC 9/11: II. 2010 [7:27]
RECORDING: WTC 9/11 / Mallet Quartet / Dance Patterns
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: https://kronosquartet.org/recordings/detail/steve-reich-wtc-9-11-mallet-quartet-dance-patterns/

ARTIST: Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet
WORK: WTC 9/11: III. WTC [4:38]
RECORDING: The String Quartets
SOURCE: Deutsche Grammophon
INFO: https://stevereich.com/steve-reich-the-string-quartets/

ARTIST: Charles Ives, Orchestra of St. Luke's, John Adams
WORK: The Unanswered Question (Late Version) [2:11]
RECORDING: American Élégies
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/american-elegies

ARTIST: John Adams, New York Philharmonic, New York Choral Artists, Brooklyn Youth Chorus
WORK: On the Transmigration of Souls [8:10]
RECORDING: On the Transmigration of Souls
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records
INFO: https://www.discogs.com/master/692959-John-Adams-On-The-Transmigration-Of-Souls

ARTIST: Elodie Lauten
WORK: S.O.S.W.T.C., Part 8 [2:33]
RECORDING: S.O.S.W.T.C.
SOURCE: STUDIO 21
INFO: https://kalvos.org/tragedy.html