Alyssa Weinberg uses color, texture, and gesture to channel big emotions, creating music that is “quite literally stunning” (Chicago Tribune). A celebrated composer whose music has been championed by leading institutions and artists – among them the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, yMusic, and violinist Benjamin Beilman – Weinberg has long been fascinated by the connection between light, color, and sound, and by their shared ability to manipulate perception.
Hi, I’m composer Alyssa Weinberg and I’m excited to share my ListN Up playlist with all of you. I have put together a bunch of my favorite pieces that explore string resonance in really exciting ways; and are a lot of the kinds of the sounds and some of the specific pieces I was really listening to when I was working on my album Pieces of Light with cellist Gabriel Cabezas. I hope you enjoy listening!
Sept Papillons by Kaija Saariaho
I had to start with the Papillons! Saariaho is one of my biggest musical loves, and her Sept Papillons basically served as my self-defined textbook for developing my own language in writing for strings. The way she exploits the malleability of string instruments in particular is mesmerizing. This is a piece I’ll come back to over and over again.
Violin Caprices by Salvatore Sciarrino
More magical harmonics!
“Shimmer” from Pieces of Light by Alyssa Weinberg, Performed by Gabriel Cabezas
Ok, shameless plug. But to tie in my influences, this track from my album Pieces of Light celebrates the resonance of natural harmonics on strings, very much taking direct inspiration from Saariaho and Sciarrino’s works.
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, I. “Praeludium: Vivacissimo luminoso – attacca” by György Ligeti, Performed by Saschko Gawriloff, Pierre Boulez, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain
Another favorite –– Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. All of the movements are beautiful; but the first has to be my favorite in particular for the kaleidoscopic and disorienting unravelling of the opening introduction.
Tessellatum by Donnacha Dennehy, Performed by Nadia Sirota and Liam Byrne
I think I’ve told him this before, but Donnacha’s Tessellatum is my favorite piece to listen to on an airplane. It’s a gorgeous piece featuring violist Nadia Sirota –– who has also been instrumental in producing Pieces of Light! This is one short excerpt from the larger album-length work (go listen to all of it!); and one of my (many) favorite things about this piece is the pacing: how time becomes infinitely expansive and meditative, and yet we never lose this feeling of being pulled forward.
Cello Concerto, “Movement 3” by Unsuk Chin, Performed by Alban Gerhardt, Myung-Whun Chung, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
It’s pretty hard for me to pick just one piece from Unsuk Chin to put on this list, let alone just one movement from this piece. But her Cello Concerto has been one of the most inspiring pieces to me that I return to over and over again. Her mastery of color and orchestration is astonishing, and I love simply bathing in the sonic worlds she creates. I chose this movement in particular for the delicate, ethereal, and gorgeous harmonies created with the chords of harmonics in the basses and low strings that allows the solo cello to float over everything so fluidly.
In the Light of Air, IV. “Remembrance” by Anna Thorvalsdottir, Performed by International Contemporary Ensemble
I’ll leave you with one more track, this mesmerizing piece by Thorvalsdottir for viola, cello, harp, piano, percussion and electronics. Take a breath and enjoy.
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