Josquin Microludes
Saxophone Quartet
David Ludwig
About
I am often inspired by great music of the past, and much of my composing these days involves taking the clay from an older piece and reworking it into my own new musical sculpture. “Josquin Microludes” is a set of miniatures that incorporates Josquin’s “Mille Regretz” into its musical language. Each miniature features this famous “chanson” framed by some variation or transmutation of it. The piece is played continuously, as if channel surfing between ancient music and contemporary sounds. I thought the medium of the saxophone quartet would be fitting for this project that is based on a choral work, as it is its own choir of voices, sustained by breath and line.
Josquin Microludes was written for the PRISM Quartet.
Performance
| David Ludwig |
Josquin Microludes I. Milles regretz de vous abandonner… II. et d'eslonger vostre fache amoureuse… III. jay si grand dueil et paine doloureuse… IV. quon me verra brief mes jours definer... V. …brief mes jours definer… |
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Duration
10:00 |
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Commissioning Year
2012 |
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Premiere
May 9, 2012 Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA |
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Recording
May 9, 2012 Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA |
Artists
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David Ludwig Composition
David Serkin Ludwig’s first memory was singing Beatles songs with his sister; his second was hearing his grandfather perform at Carnegie Hall; foreshadowing a diverse career collaborating with many of today’s leading musicians, filmmakers, and writers. His choral work “The New Colossus,” opened the private prayer service for President Obama’s second inauguration. The next year NPR Music named him in the world’s “Top 100 Composers Under Forty.” He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad.
Ludwig has received commissions and notable performances from many of the most recognized artists and ensembles of our time, including the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and National Symphony Orchestras, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Dresden Music Festival, as well as Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, David Shifrin, eighth blackbird, the Dover and Borromeo Quartets, Imani Winds, and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet and conductors Yannick Nezet Sequin, Manfred Honeck, Juanjo Mena, and JoAnn Falletta.
This year Ludwig was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as recipient of their annual award in music. In 2022 Ludwig was awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the largest of its kind for chamber music. He received the prestigious 2018 Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship, as well as the First Music Award, and is a two-time recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, and awards from New Music USA, the American Composers Forum, American Music Center, Detroit Chamber Winds, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2021 Ludwig was named a Steinway Artist by Steinway and Sons. He served on the composition faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music for nearly two decades before being appointed Dean and Director of Music of The Juilliard School in June 2021. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.
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Prism Saxophone Quartet
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Timothy McAllister Soprano Saxophone
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Zachary Shemon Alto Saxophone
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Robert Young Tenor Saxophone
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Taimur Sullivan Baritone Saxophone
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