Paths and Panels by Alex Stephenson

Composers Conference Faculty Ensemble; James Baker, conductor
Jewett Auditorium, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
July 23, 2016

Program note:

"Paths and Panels" began as a response to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting "The Procession to Calvary" (1565), a virtuosic and intensely detailed canvas in which two apparently incongruous narratives—one pertaining to Christ’s march to his execution, the other to Spain’s religious repression of the Netherlands in the sixteenth century—are daringly superimposed. My piece is not meant as any kind of literal or programmatic depiction of Bruegel’s work; rather, the painting served as a point of departure for a more abstract exploration of strategies for combining divergent musical strands (“paths”) into a unified whole.

As my composing progressed, I became interested not only in the superimposition of these musical strands but also in the juxtaposition of them chronologically, thus creating contrasting “panels” of material. This later interest is perhaps most evident in the work’s rough and energetic opening. The slow middle section, on the other hand, is much more overtly continuous and represents a considerable paring down of musical detail. In the piece’s flowing, scherzo-like conclusion, soloistic melodic lines are joined on all sides by florid passagework and sparkling filigree.