A Short Piece for Orchestra
At a Glance
-
Composed
1952 -
Length
c. 8 minutes -
Orchestration
piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (xylophone, cymbals, snare drum, bass drum), harp, piano (=celesta), and strings -
First Los Angeles Philharmonic Performance
September 11, 2018, Karina Canellakis conducting
About this Piece
An African American composer and conductor born in Kentucky, Julia Perry studied at Westminster Choir College and then Juilliard. Many of her early works are vocal, often incorporating influences from Black spirituals. She also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola at Tanglewood and in Italy, and she worked with Nadia Boulanger, winning the Boulanger Grand Prix for her Viola Sonata. Her catalog includes a dozen symphonies and a pair of piano concertos; her theater works include three operas and a ballet, several incorporating her own librettos or scenarios.
Recent efforts to republish many of Perry’s works have fueled a revived interest in her music, but her Short Piece for Orchestra (also known as Study for Orchestra, 1952), which was recorded in a live performance by the New York Philharmonic under William Steinberg in 1965, remains her most frequently performed piece. It is an initially raucous, highly energized essay, brilliantly scored. There are edgy lyrical contrasts, however, and the work closes in a haunted lento, before a whiplash ending returns the aggressive opening thunder.
— John Henken
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