Tread softly
Instrumentation: orchestra [3333.4231. timp. 2 perc. hp. pno. strings]
Duration: ~14:00
Year composed: 2020
Commissioner and Acknowledgments:
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden, Music Director.
With special thanks to the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Todd Vunderink and peermusic Classical, and Kevin Kay.
World Premiere:
February 5, 2020 - The New York Philharmonic, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center.
Project 19
Duration: ~14:00
Year composed: 2020
Commissioner and Acknowledgments:
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden, Music Director.
With special thanks to the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Todd Vunderink and peermusic Classical, and Kevin Kay.
World Premiere:
February 5, 2020 - The New York Philharmonic, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center.
Project 19
Listen:
A full video performance is available with a subscription or trial membership of NYPhil+
https://plus.nyphil.org/sounds-of-today/videos/nina-young-tania-leon-ellen-reid
Score:
A full score is available for perusal on issuu
https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/tread_softly_score
A full video performance is available with a subscription or trial membership of NYPhil+
https://plus.nyphil.org/sounds-of-today/videos/nina-young-tania-leon-ellen-reid
Score:
A full score is available for perusal on issuu
https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/docs/tread_softly_score
Program Note:
"Had I heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."
The Cloths of Heaven
W.B. Yeats
100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified, it still seems radical that I can have a voice, that women can be heard, and taken seriously as equal weavers of the tapestry of American culture. Ideas fly rapidly through my head and paint a dreamscape that, despite all language of equality, always risks being thwarted too soon, edited, erased. We protect ourselves, or we acquiesce, and our pedestal becomes a cage. In the coming seasons, 19 women will work with this illustrious orchestra. And so I ask you, as we spread our sounds into your minds, tread softly, because you tread on our dreams.
"Had I heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."
The Cloths of Heaven
W.B. Yeats
100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified, it still seems radical that I can have a voice, that women can be heard, and taken seriously as equal weavers of the tapestry of American culture. Ideas fly rapidly through my head and paint a dreamscape that, despite all language of equality, always risks being thwarted too soon, edited, erased. We protect ourselves, or we acquiesce, and our pedestal becomes a cage. In the coming seasons, 19 women will work with this illustrious orchestra. And so I ask you, as we spread our sounds into your minds, tread softly, because you tread on our dreams.
-Nina C. Young
Composer interview about making Tread softly