News

On May 6 at (le) Poisson Rouge, pianists Andrew Zolinsky and Peter Poston, winner of the David Lang 2011 Piano Competition, will perform selections from David Lang's new CD of solo piano works, this was written by hand. Click here to watch Lang discuss his new CD.

In Glasgow, Scotland on March 24, the Smith Quartet performs pierced in a new version for string quartet plus members of the Bang on A Can All-Stars (Ashley Bathgate, cello; Vicky Chow, piano; David Cossin, percussion; Robert Black, bass)

and

a premiere for string quartet plus Else Torp, soprano, ark luggage, with words by famed filmmaker Peter Greenaway.

David describes the 2 works:

In 2005 I did a project with the English artist and filmmaker Peter Greenaway, called writing on water. It was a kind of circus, with live calligraphy, live multi-screen video and film projection on four screens that surrounded the stage, and the London Sinfonietta. I enjoyed it a lot. What I enjoyed the most, however, was the beautiful libretto that Peter had crafted out of fragmentary descriptions of sea travel and shipwrecks from The Tempest, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Moby Dick. This text was so moving to me that I asked Peter if he would write me another one, this time possibly on a religious subject, or at least somehow related to an old testament theme. Ark Luggage was the text he sent me, a list of 92 things Noah took along with him during the flood. The way I interpreted this text was to notice how Peter shows the confidence Noah has in packing for his life after the flood, confident about his survival past the catastrophe. The act of packing these suitcases itself becomes a statement of faith, and a simple list becomes a kind of prayer.

ark luggage was commissioned by Glasgow Concert Halls and was written for Else Torp and the Smith Quartet.

In pierced, commissioned by the ensemble Real Quiet — Felix Fan, cello, David Cossin, percussion and Andy Russo, piano — as a concerto for their ensemble and string orchestra, I was trying to imagine a way the soloists and the orchestra could relate to each other that would not be old-fashioned. I liked the idea of an opposition between them but I didn't want the kind of competition that traditional concerti generate, where the soloists try to struggle with the orchestra for the supremacy of their ideas. What would it be like to make two almost completely separate musical worlds, in which the musical material from one world was needed in order to decode the meaning of the material of the other? I imagined, for example, a dissonant, chromatic line in one ensemble and a tonal chord progression in the other — maybe we would perceive the two as related and necessary to each other, but the material in each world would remain distinct. There would be a wall between them — they wouldn't hear or influence each other but we could hear their separate contributions mixed together. (And it goes without saying that the combination of materials that we hear would have to sound whole.)

The idea I came up with was to imagine a wall that wasn't completely solid, but was more of a permeable membrane, a kind of filter or fabric between the soloists and the ensemble – most sounds and notes and tunes would stay in their respective worlds but some sounds might be able to pass through easily and virtually unchanged. Because of this image of a fabric separating the musicians I had the idea that at some points the fabric could be pierced, or maybe even ripped, as parts of the material moves from one musical grouping to the other.

pierced was premiered 12 June 2007 by Real Quiet and the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Christoph Altstaedt, conductor.

In October 2007 Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices premiered David Lang's the little match girl passion at Carnegie Hall. People in the audience that night knew they had heard something special. But this special? Only a few months later the piece won the Pulitzer Prize, then the recording on Harmonia Mundi won a Grammy, and the piece has gone on to become a hit around the world.

Carnegie Hall and Stanford Lively Arts bring back Theatre of Voices and the little match girl passion, along with the premiere of a major new work they have commissioned just for the occasion. On January 25 (Stanford) and 27 (Carnegie Hall), Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning work will be followed by the World Premiere of death speaks, for an ensemble of indie composer-performers: Bryce Dessner (The National), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Owen Pallett and Nico Muhly.

Lang writes about the new work on the Carnegie Hall Blog:

death speaks was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Stanford Lively Arts, specifically to go on a program with the little match girl passion. The opportunity came without many other parameters, so there were a lot of questions I had to answer. Would the new piece be for an existing ensemble or some group I would assemble for these performances only? Would it relate to little match girl, musically or emotionally, or would it start from its own place?

Something that has always interested me about the little match girl story is that the place where we are left emotionally at the end is so far away from where the match girl is. We are all weeping at the end and yet she is happily transfigured, in the welcoming arms of her grandmother in heaven. The original story switches starkly back and forth at the end, between her state and ours, perhaps in order to show us just how far away from redemption we are; it is Andersen's way of making us feel left behind.

This reminded me of certain other stark comparisons between the living and the dead. I remembered the structure of Schubert's beautiful song 'Death and the Maiden' in which the text is divided in half; the first half of the song is in the voice of the young girl, begging Death to pass her by, and the second half of the song is Death's calming answer. This seemed to be the same division as in the Andersen story — the fear of the living opposed against the restfulness of death.

What makes the Schubert interesting is that Death is personified. It isn't a state of being or a place or a metaphor, but a person, a character in a drama who can tell us in our own language what to expect in the World to Come. Schubert has a lot of songs with texts like these — I wondered if I assembled all of the instances of Death speaking directly to us then maybe a fuller portrait of his character might emerge. Most of these texts are melodramatic, hyper-romantic and over-emotional; one of the knocks on Schubert is that he often saved his best music for the worst poetry. Nevertheless, I felt that taking these overwrought comments by Death at face value just might lead me someplace worth going.

I went alphabetically in the German through every single Schubert song text (thank you, internet!) and compiled every instance of when the dead send a message to the living. Some of these are obvious and some are more speculative — Death is a named character in 'Der Erlkönig,' the brook at the end of Die Schöne Müllerin speaks in Death's name when it talks the miller into killing himself, the hurdy gurdy player at the end of Winterreise has long been interpreted as a stand-in for Death. All told, I have used excerpts from 32 songs, translating them very roughly and trimming them, in the same way that I adjusted the Bach texts in the little match girl passion.

Art songs have been moving out of classical music in the last many years — indie rock seems to be the place where Schubert's sensibilities now lie, a better match for direct storytelling and intimate emotionality.

I started thinking that many of the most interesting musicians in that scene made the same journey themselves, beginning as classical musicians and drifting over to indie rock when they bumped up against the limits of where classical music was most comfortable. What would it be like to put together an ensemble of successful indie composer-performers and invite them back into classical music, the world from which they sprang?

I asked rock musicians Bryce Dessner, Owen Pallett, and Shara Worden to join me, and we added Nico Muhly, who, although not someone who left classical music, is certainly known and welcome in many musical environments. All of these musicians are composers who can write all the music they need themselves, so it is a tremendous honor for me to ask them to spend some of their musicality on my music.

Listen to David talk to WNYC's John Schaeffer about the FREE All-Stars CD (with the premiere recording of his work, sunray) as Bang On A Can turns 25!

Although David Lang is known for his fearless innovation and daring experiments, a certain amount of introspection and longing is not unknown in his work. His latest album, this was written by hand, to be released by Cantaloupe Music on November 15, is the perfect marriage of the composer's relentless need to expand the forms of classical music and his desire the recover lost memories. The CD is made up of two compositions, the title work 'this was written by hand' and 'memory pieces', both performed by Andrew Zolinsky. Zolinsky and Lang have a history of collaboration, as Zolinsky gave the first performances of both the works on this disc, as well as the premiere of 'fur,' commissioned by the BBC, and the ensemble works 'how to pray' and 'forced march.'

'this was written by hand' is a 10-minute piece for solo piano. The inspiration for the piece came from the physical process of writing music. 'Writing music [used to be] an intensely physical activity,' Lang muses in the album's liner notes. 'I got my first computer in 1993, and I have not written music with a pencil ever since, but I wonder how - or if - the means of my writing had any effect on the writing itself. I wrote this piano piece to find out.' The second part of the release is the eight-sectioned 'memory pieces.' Each was written to honor a friend of the composer who have passed away. They serve, however, less as monument than as an attempt to enclose a specific memory about the loved one. Lang explains, 'Each of these little pieces highlights some aspect of my relationship with each friend. I hope this will help me hold on to these memories just a little while longer.'

One of the works on the album, 'wed', is at the center of an online contest. The sheet music for 'wed' will be available for free here on November 15, and users are invited to download it. Pianists can then post videos of themselves playing the work onto YouTube with the tag 'david lang piano competition 2011'. After January 1, all of the submissions will be judged by an all-star pianist panel consisting of Vicky Chow, Jeremy Denk, Lisa Moore, Andrew Zolinsky, and the composer himself. The winner will be flown out to New York, and Lang will compose a new work for four hands to be played by him/her and Zolinsky at (le) poisson rouge on May 6. The winner will also play his or her rendition of 'wed' at (le) poisson rouge. The full rules can be found here.

The contest is an attempt to recreate a lost part of classical music. Lang says, 'One of the things I have always loved about piano music is that for a long time it was the most democratic part of the classical music world. In the 19th century--the glory years of classical music--if you wanted to hear music in your home you would have to play it yourself, and many people became acquainted with famous operas or symphonies only from the piano transcriptions that they could play themselves, in their own homes. Good pianists, bad pianists, amateur pianists, virtuosi - anyone interested in the music found out about it by playing it, or at least trying to. When I put the pieces together on this disc I started wondering if there were some way to engage that same wide range of listeners and performers and abilities, so I thought up this contest. Of course I hope that some people will submit their videos, but what makes me most excited is the hope that many more people will download the free sheet music and play the piece themselves. That makes me really happy.'

On Saturday, October 15, the Bowling Green State University Wind Ensemble gives the world premiere of Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Lang's arrangement for band of his classic work cheating, lying, stealing.

Culminating a week of activities as the composer in residence at the Bowling Green New Music Festival, this new work, commissioned specifically for the festival by BGSU, is an eagerly anticipated addition to the wind ensemble repertoire.

Bowling Green State University's Director of Bands, Bruce Moss, comments on the work:
"This unique and popular David Lang chamber work has been scored by the composer and is a fascinating addition to the wind ensemble repertoire. This is the first band work by the Lang, a major Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose works are known to stretch the bounds. This work challenges both the player and the listener in new directions, a hallmark of this Lang's innovative compositional skills. The complexity of rhythmic and the necessity for accurate subdivision provide both challenge and fun for the performer, and the layering of textures is unique and engaging. We look forward to more works for the large wind/percussion ensembles as a result of this new addition!"

On Saturday October 1, in Oslo, Norway, David Lang's newest work, reason to believe, is premiered by the acclaimed vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Mueller.

About the new work, Lang states:

"I wanted to make a piece about the inner thought process of a person who is not sure how, or why, to live. to do this I needed a text that felt like a litany of questions and statements and possibilities for self exploration, and I hit upon the idea of making the text out an internet search. the libretto for this piece is made up entirely from the results of an internet search of the phrase AND I WILL MAKE IT, setting to music every iteration of that phrase plus whatever words follow it, in the order in which it appeared in the search - that day, that very moment. 'and I will make it, and I will make it waste, and I will make it fit, and I will make it snow, and I will make it proud, etc....' the weight of these statements accumulates until it begins to feel like the story of a single person, convincing himself or herself that life is worth living."

Lang's recent works for orchestra include the triple concerto pierced for the trio Real Quiet and the Munich Chamber Orchestra, concerto (world to come) for cellist Maya Beiser and the Norrlands Opera Symphony Orchestra, statement to the court for the chorus The Crossing and string orchestra, and loud love songs for percussionist Evelyn Glennie and orchestra.

June 15 and June 18, Long Beach Opera presents the Southern California premiere of Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Lang's chamber opera the difficulty of crossing a field, directed by Andreas Mitisek.

click play button to listen

click play button to watch

Based on a one-page short story by American author, Ambrose Bierce, the opera is set on a plantation in the antebellum American south where a slave owner, while walking across his field one night, suddenly disappears in plain view of his family, his neighbors and his slaves — forever altering the relationships among them. Everyone around him has a particular view of what the disappearance means and why it had to happen. The second half of the story takes the facts surrounding the disappearance and places them in the context of an inquest, as a magistrate attempts to determine whether the slave-owner, Mr. Williamson, can be legally declared dead in order to give his possessions away.



For Wellman, this dual-telling of events was an opportunity to present the story from different angles and from continuously changing viewpoints; whereby, according to Lang, 'We learn less about what actually happened, and paradoxically because we've learned less there's more room to project our own interpretation and emotional life.'

For Lang, the work is experimental: the text doesn't exactly say what it is aiming for; i.e. This is the point, let's all agree on what we know. But, Lang suggests, 'You do get a sense as the opera goes on that the man's disappearance comes as a form of punishment, and everyone has a different idea eventually of what this man has done wrong.' However, in Lang's and Wellman's telling, the central character of the opera is not Mr. Williamson himself, but his wife, Mrs. Williamson; in this dramatic and powerful mezzo role, the loss of her husband opens up an absence that she can neither understand nor overcome.



Setting a story with such subtle complexity, this opera illuminates the narrative through its own inimitable language and gives the multi-layered subtext space for interpretation while distilling the drama into catchy, rhythmic melodies and masterfully shaped spoken word.



'the difficulty of crossing a field' is written for 5 principals and a chorus of 6 or more, with string quartet on stage. The original production was commissioned by the American Conservatory Theater for the Kronos Quartet and was premiered on March 22, 2002 at the Theater Artaud in San Francisco, directed by Carey Perloff and starring Julia Migenes as the wife of the missing planter and 2004 Tony Award-winning singer Anika Noni Rose as the leader of the slave chorus, with music performed onstage by the Kronos Quartet.

"I don’t think I’ve ever been so moved by a new, and largely unheralded composition...which is unlike any music I know." — Tim Page, Pulitzer juror

On May 8, London's Barbican Centre presents Paul Hillier and his Theatre of Voices in the London premiere of David Lang's the little match girl passion as part of their festival Reverberations: The Influece of Steve Reich. Concerts on this festival also include other Red Poppy works: Michael Gordon's Rewriting Beethoven's Seventh Symphony (BBC Symphony), David Lang's so-called laws of nature (So Percussion), Julia Wolfe's string orchestra work Cruel Sister (Britten Sinfonia) and LAD, for nine bagpipes (Donald Lindsay).

the little match girl passion, the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music is a 35-minute work for a quartet of singers each playing percussion instruments, co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and The Perth Theater and Concert Hall. 'match girl' was premiered by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices on October 25, 2007 at Carnegie Hall.

Lang was drawn to Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the Little Match Girl because of its religious subtext — he saw a parallel to the Passion of Christ in the story: a girl, whose "poverty is suffused with hopefulness," is ignored by passersby oblivious both to her attempts to sell matchsticks and to her suffering as she ultimately freezes to death in their presence.

In the tale, Lang suggests, Andersen draws a "religious and moral equivalency between the suffering of the poor girl and the suffering of Jesus." For Lang and other Jewish classical musicians, the Western vocal tradition of Christian music presents a dilemma they must confront. In the little match girl passion, Lang hoped he could turn that dilemma to his advantage. Using the format of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Lang combined the Andersen tale with his own text and text from both the Book of Matthew and Bach's Passion — replacing the story of Jesus with that of the Match Girl. In his notes on the work, Lang explains, "There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus — rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus', elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane."

The commercial recording of the little match girl passion, released on Harmonia Mundi, received the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.

Starting Wednesday January 19, The Woodmans (winner of the 2010 TriBeCa Film Festival), featuring David Lang's score performed by SO Percussion, begins its theatrical release in 8 cities across the US, including two theatres in New York City.

Listen to clips of the score here.

The documentary, directed by C. Scott Willis,
tells the story of one family's fall and redemption as they come to terms with their daughter's tragic suicide and their own deep scars that emerge as they reconcile this loss as a family of artists.

After considerable personal angst and bouts of depression, their daughter, Francesca Woodman — a 22 year old visual arts prodigy, whose often nude, often obscured, and often disturbing self—photographs had won her international praise — committed suicide in January 1981. Her phenomenal career, which had begun when she was only 13 years old, had been aided by her father — a professional painter and professor of Art in Denver, her mother — a ceramicist whose own work had been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and her brother — a video artist and professor of Art in Cleveland.

Through candid interviews with the family and a host of friends, the film explains how significant the importance of art—making has been to this family, and how the loss of Francesca changed their lives forever. Through the creative use of Francesca's journal entries, experimental videos, and dynamic photographs, director C. Scott Willis delves into the life of this young artist in a very intimate, visceral, and personal way. His debut feature documentary is an original and extraordinary work that plumbs the depths of what it truly means to be an artist.

The dance world continues to find interesting ways of working with David and his music. On October 3rd, the Guggenheim's Works and Process Season Opening Benefit will feature new choreography by Jessica Lang and Pontus Lidberg set to David Lang's large ensemble work Forced March and the percussion quartet The So-Called Laws of Nature. World premiere performances by Morphoses will be interspersed with discussion between the three collaborators. Subsequent performances take place in October and February. For tickets and more information, please visit the Guggenheim's website. Pontus Lidberg also recently collaborated with David on a new choreographed dance film Labyrinth Within which premieres on Swedish television in November. Lang's Concerto (World to Come) played by Maya Beiser and the Norlandssopera Orchestra is a new arrangement created and recorded specifically for this project.
Listen to the two choreographers discuss their work with Lang's music:

Pontus Lidberg


Jessica Lang



Watch a video from the performance:



Additionally, David makes his debut this fall with the New York City Ballet. Their fall season Gala Performance on Thursday, October 7th features the premiere of a new ballet by NYCB Principal Dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied set to David's newly-commissioned score, plainspoken. Visit the NYCB's website for tickets.

As part of David's ongoing role as Composer in Association with the Sage Gateshead in England, the Northern Sinfonia Chorus premieres his new work i never, on November 30th. A companion piece to Thomas Tallis' legendary motet Spem in Alium, i never is set to Lang’s own text -- a comment on the original text of the motet.  Later this season, the Sage will present performances of Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion and Cheating, Lying, Stealing, as part of the build-up to the 2011 premiere of his opera fidelio, or the prisoner of the state, also a commission from the Sage.

Lang also continues as Composer in Residence at Oberlin Conservatory.  On November 13th the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, under the direction of Tim Weiss, will present a portrait concert of David's music at the Cleveland Museum of Art, including the Ohio premiere of The Little Match Girl Passion. Also this fall is the release on DVD of (Untitled) - a film by director Jonathan Parker starring Adam Goldberg as a composer of unusual music - for which Lang wrote the score. The soundtrack is available on Cantaloupe Records

There are many chances to catch performances of David Lang's music during April.

On April 1 the evening-length piece for string orchestra and lighting design darker premieres in Bruges, part of the Ars Musica Festival, with Musiques Nouvelles conducted by Jean-Paul Dessy.

The Shen Wei Dance Arts company keeps up the tour of his poetic Re trilogy, with Lang's music, in Orange County (April 16-18), the Kennedy Center (April 29-30) and beyond.

On April 23 the theater, music theater and opera departments of the University of Texas team up to produce nine performances of the difficulty of crossing a field.

Also on April 23 Maya Beiser takes world to come for cello and eight prerecorded cellos to the Paramount Theatre in Boston.

April 24, the Crash Ensemble takes forced march on a multi-stop tour that begins in London and ends a few weeks later in New York.

On April 25 C. Scott Willis's feature-length documentary on the artist Francesca Woodman and her family premieres in the competition section of the Tribeca Film Festival, with music by Lang performed and recorded by So Percussion.

On April 26 Craig Hella Johnson leads Conspirare in the little match girl passion with five performances in the Austin area that week.

And on April 27 starts a little three-day festival of Lang's music at the Sage Gateshead in the UK, starring such performers as Evelyn Glennie and the Northern Sinfonia, and including the passing measures, the little match girl passion, and the UK premieres of pierced and loud love songs.

‘the little match girl passion’ CD on Harmonia Mundi is appearing on numerous best-CD's-of-2009 lists, including: Washington Post, Time Out New York, National Public Radio, Alex Ross in the New Yorker, The Independent (UK), Gramophone Magazine (UK), the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, De Standaard (Belgium), New Jersey Star Ledger, and Amazon.com.

It starred as Best Classical Album of the Year in Time Out Chicago, and Sequenza 21 named it one of the best CD's of the decade. It is a special holiday recommendation of Mark Swed in the LA Times and of Russell Platt in the New Yorker, and was John Schaefer’s choice for Classical CD of the Year.

The soundtrack to the film (Untitled) - starring Adam Goldberg, directed by Jonathan Parker, and with musical score composed by David Lang - is released on a CD from Cantaloupe Music