Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
(born 1939)

ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH
with BRUCE CREDITOR

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was born in Miami, Florida. She studied at Florida State University and at the Juilliard School, where her major teachers were Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in music for her Symphony No. 1. Among her other principal works are Symposium for Orchestra; Chamber Symphony; Sonata in Three Movements, for violin and piano; the song cycle Einsame Nacht; String Quartet 1974; Passages, for soprano and instrumental ensemble (or chamber orchestra); String Trio; and Divertimento, for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. Her Celebration for Orchestra was commissioned in 1984 by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra to inaugurate its new hall, Circle Theatre.

In addition to concert and radio performances in the United States and Europe, Zwilich’s music has been heard at such major festivals as the International Society for Contemporary Music “World Music Days,” the Edinburgh Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, and the Gulben- kian Festival in Portugal. Zwilich has received grants from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Norlin Foundation. Her awards include the Gold Medal of the G. B. Viotti Annual International Competition in Vercelli, Italy; the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize,- and the Ernst von Dohnanyi Citation.

Symphony No. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra) was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra and the National Endowment for the Arts. It also had the support of the Guggenheim Foundation. The symphony was premiered on May 5, 1982 by the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Gunther Schuller, in Alice Tully Hall, New York. About her work the composer has written:

Symphony No. 1 grew out of several of my most central music concerns. First, I have long been interested in the elaboration of large-scale works from the initial material. This “organic” approach to musical form fascinates me both in the development of the material and in the fashioning of a musical idea that contains the “seeds” of the work to follow.

Second, in my recent works I have been developing techniques that combine modern principles of continuous variation with older (but still immensely satisfying) principles, such as melodic and pitch recurrence and clearly defined areas of contrast.

Finally, Symphony No. 1 was written with great affection for the modern orchestra, not only for its indescribable richness and variety of color, but also for the virtuosity and artistry of its players.

The first movement begins in a contemplative mood, with a “motto”: three statements of a rising minor third, marked accelerando. Each time the “motto” appears in the first movement, an accelerando occurs, prompting slight evolutions of character until an Allegro section is established. After the Allegro, the movement subsides in tempo and ends as quietly as it began.

Unlike the first movement, the second and third movements are cast in traditional molds: song form and rondo form, respectively. The material is, however, subject to continuous variation.

Throughout the entire Symphony, the melodic and harmonic implications of the first fifteen bars of the first movement are explored. My aim was to create a rich harmonic palette and a wide variety of melodic gestures, all emanating from a simple source.

Symphony No. 1

(Three Movements for Orchestra)

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Copyright © 1983 by Margun Music, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.