''Spirit Voices'' is a

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

for

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

in seven movements by the American composer

Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he ...

. The work was jointly commissioned by the

Singapore Symphony Orchestra The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Singapore. Its principal concert venue is the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The orchestra also gives concerts at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, and performs about ...

and the

Aspen Music Festival The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is a classical music festival held annually in Aspen, Colorado. It is noted both for its concert programming and the musical training it offers to mostly young-adult music students. Founded in 1949, the ...

for percussionist

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish people, Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Sco ...

. It was first performed by soloist Evelyn Glennie the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductor

Lan Shui Lan Shui (Chinese: 水蓝, born 1957) is a Chinese-American conductor. He was the Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2019. He has retired as Music Director on 26 January 2019, and was given the title of Conductor Laure ...

November 14, 2003. Stucky, Steven
Spirit Voices: Program Note by the Composer
Retrieved July 11, 2015.

Composition

Structure

''Spirit Voices'' has a duration of roughly 22 minutes and is composed in seven

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

: #Jiu huang ye: Con forza #Bean nighe: Largo notturno #Ellyllon: Vivace #Te Mangoroa: Largo #Coyote: Energico #Tengu: Allegro di molto #Wah'Koh - Tah: Sereno, luminoso

Style and inspiration

Stucky described the meaning behind the title and the mythological inspiration for ''Spirit Voices'' in the score program notes. He wrote: The seven movements are thus named after various mythological creatures from cultures around the world, including the Jiu huang ye (

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

), the

Bean nighe The (Scottish Gaelic for 'washerwoman' or 'laundress'; ) is a female spirit in Scottish folklore, regarded as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. She is a type of ( ga, bean sídhe, anglicized as "banshee") that haunts desola ...

(

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

), the Ellyllon (

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

), Te Mangoroa (

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

), the

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

(

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

), the

Tengu are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion (Shinto). They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey and a ...

(

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

), and the Wah’Kon-Tah (various Native American traditions).

Reception

Richard Whitehouse of ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' wrote, "''Spirit Voices'' (2003) may open with a feisty solo cadenza but thereafter the relationship between percussion and orchestra is of the subtlest, with Stucky’s depiction of deities drawn from Oriental, Celtic and Amerindian cultures merging into a sequence as evocative as it is restrained." Andrew Druckenbrod of the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

'' called the piece "a remarkable percussion concerto" and added, "The powerful work concluded with a profound statement of the Native American Great Spirit treated perhaps the only way possible, with complete silence at the end. The audience, previously abounding with coughing, was rapt and no one uttered a sound for nearly a minute."

Discography

A recording of ''Spirit Voices'', performed by

and the

under conductor

, was released April 27, 2010 through

BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden. BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings. ...

and features Stucky's other orchestral works ''

Pinturas de Tamayo ''Pinturas de Tamayo'' (''Pictures of Tamayo'') is an orchestral composition in five movements by the American composer Steven Stucky. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who premiered the work on March 28, 1996, under the ...

'' and the Concerto for Orchestra No. 2.

References

{{italic title Concertos by Steven Stucky 2003 compositions Percussion concertos Music commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra