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Michael Daugherty: orchestral works on American icons

(June 2009)

Michael Daugherty: orchestral works on American icons

Two new Michael Daugherty orchestral works, further exploring his fascination with Americana, received first performances this spring.

Letters from Lincoln was premiered by baritone Thomas Hampson with the Spokane Symphony, who co-commisioned the work with the Elgin Symphony. Unlike Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Daugherty wanted to depict the full scope of Abraham Lincoln the man, rather than purely the statesman, and the seven movements add up to a fitting bicentennial tribute. The composer’s skill at weaving musical quotations into his contemporary idiom is much in evidence, ranging from The Last Rose of Summer (one of Lincoln’s favourite tunes) to fragments of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Gee’s Bend, commissioned by the Alabama Symphony, celebrates the local African-American quiltmaking in the community of the title. Daugherty describes it as “a piece for electric guitar and orchestra with kind of a rock and blues groove”, moving through a four movement patchwork: Housetop, Grandmother’s Dream, Washboard and Chicken Pickin. The Birmingham News wrote: “Daugherty is steeped in American pop culture, and possesses a gift for orchestral colour and an irresistible rhythmic sense. It's easy to understand why his music is frequently performed.”

Read an interview with Michael Daugherty about Letters from Lincoln and Gee's Bend.

Forthcoming European performances include the Italian premiere of Letters from Lincoln on 23 September at the MITO Settembre Musica festival in Milan with baritone Stephan Genz and the orchestra of the Teatro Regio in Turin conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig. Next January the Royal Scottish National Orchestra gives the European premiere of Daugherty’s piano concerto Deus ex Machina, in which the composer describes three railroad visions, the central being a depiction of Lincoln’s funeral train.

Photo: Grant Leighton

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