Elegy

PROGRAM NOTE

Elegy is a 10-minute composition commissioned by the Bellingham Symphony and co-commissioned by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. The commission derived from Music Director Yaniv Atar’s long friendship with Leshnoff. Atar approached Leshnoff in 2018 about writing a work for BSO’s Harmony from Discord initiative, which celebrates music that transcends oppression. Leshnoff’s Elegy is a work that is written especially for this initiative.

Leshnoff writes:

Elegy is scored for the unusual combination of horns, harp, timpani and strings. These instruments were selected for their darker color, a natural fit for this composition which is introspective and somber. Elegy is written in memory of the thousands of nameless people who suffered under oppression.

Writing a new composition for the Harmony from Discord series, I chose to musically depict these two contrasting moods with two contrasting ideas: a somber, dark theme that dominates the beginning of the work and a hopeful, brighter theme that is heard in the middle. Elegy starts with this lonely and contemplative theme first played by the violins and then slowly spreading throughout the string section, with the harp offering a haunting echo. After a brooding cadence, the hopeful theme is introduced in the horns. Full of moving lines and sweeping harmonies the music builds to a resounding climax, accompanied by the timpani grounding the ensemble in successive strikes. After a cascading cadence, the dark opening theme again returns, but this time, the hopeful theme intertwines itself with the darker theme, symbolic of the hope that has emerged through the dark, discordant eras of history. The piece notably ends on a major chord.