dialogues in color (2020/22) for string orchestra, percussion, and piano (excerpts) by Paul Novak

dialogues in color (after ellsworth kelly) for string orchestra, piano and percussion (2020/22)

Performed May 2022 at the University of Chicago, conducted by Justin Weiss

As someone who is fascinated by the transformation of tiny, simple ideas into complex pieces of art, I find the work of Ellsworth Kelly captivating. Kelly, a painter and sculptor known for the minimalist abstraction and geometric austerity of his work, spent much of his career fixated on the endless permutation of certain color palettes and patterns. One of Kelly’s specific preoccupations was with planes of color, and the sensation of viewing these paintings is often surreal: viewed against the backdrop of the white gallery wall, the juxtaposed geometric shapes take on an expressivity and a sense of lightness and heaviness.

Just like the infinite permutations of Kelly’s work, dialogues in color is about the complex juxtaposition of simple musical ideas. Each movement of this set of four preludes is a conversation between two distinct musics: the first between a low, distant thunder and a lyrical chorale, the second between a high, wandering twinkle and a reckless, thorny sound world, the third between a syncopated scherzo and its resonance, and the fourth between a trembling repeated note and a shimmering, cascading run.