''Traced Overhead'' is a composition for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

by the British composer

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: '' The Tempest'' (2004), ''V ...

. The work was commissioned by the pianist

Imogen Cooper Dame Imogen Cooper, (born 28 August 1949) is an English pianist. Biography Cooper was born in North London, daughter of the musicologist Martin du Pré Cooper and Mary Stewart, artist. She grew up surrounded by music through her parents and ...

and the

Cheltenham Music Festival The Cheltenham Music Festival is a British music festival, held annually in Cheltenham in the summer months (June, July) since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 200 ...

with additional funding from

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

. Its world premiere was given at the Cheltenham Music Festival on July 20, 1996 by Imogen Cooper. The piece is Adès's third composition for solo piano, following ''Darknesse Visible'' (1992) and ''Still Sorrowing'' (1993).

Structure

''Traced Overhead'' has a duration of roughly 12 minutes and is cast in three

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 ...

Reception

The piece has been praised by music critics.

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "''Traced Overhead'' (1995-96), Mr. Adès explained, was inspired partly by images from sacred paintings of angels ascending toward the heavens in shafts of light. In it he tries to evoke upward-swirling figurations and downward-cascading waterfalls simultaneously, and somehow pulls it off. The music quivers with spiraling riffs, piercing contrapuntal lines and pungent cluster chords that ecstatically leap about the keyboard." Michael Oliver 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 ...

'' similarly opined, "''Traced Overhead'' is filled with mysterious, glancing references to remembered piano music, but is grippingly coherent."

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Thomas Adès 1996 compositions Compositions for solo piano Music commissioned by ensembles or performers

Structure

Reception

See also

References