George Lewis has received numerous honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2015.
Cultural Impact
George Lewis's book, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, received the American Book Award.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The title and musical intent of 'Born Obbligato' are inspired by a remark Beethoven made in an 1800 letter, where he stated, 'I cannot write anything that is not obbligato, for I was already born with an obbligato accompaniment.'
Composer's Artistic Vision
The work 'The Will To Adorn' is a musical response to Zora Neale Hurston's 1934 essay, 'Characteristics of Negro Expression,' which discusses 'the will to adorn' as a crucial characteristic of black expressivity.
Composer Biography
George Lewis, the composer, is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University and a fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy.
Compositional Technique
The piece 'Shadowgraph, 5' has no centralized score or conductor, and its duration is determined by real-time negotiation and consensus among the performers.
Composition History
The work 'Born Obbligato' was commissioned by ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) and is conceived in dialogue with Beethoven's Septet Op. 20.
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