Symphony No.16 "Time Frozen" - Gloria Coates

Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. I - Glass of Time: 0:00 II - Corridors of Time: 8:15 III - Whirligig of Time: 12:17 Coates's Symphony No.16 was composed between 1988-94, being commissioned for the 25 anniversary of the "Das Neue Werk" concert series in Hamburg. Then it wasn't labeled as a symphony, like many of Coates's early symphonies. It was premiered in Hamburg on November 8 of 1995, performed in said concert series conducted by Dieter Cichewiecz. Later on it was revised and transformed into a symphony, being performed by the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. The elements of Coates's music are generally few in number, easily described, often odd, and oddly combined, giving her music an instantly recognizable profile. One recurring element is slow string glissandos. Another is wavery textures of faster glissandos, at varying rates. Another is conventionally tonal chorale writing, often quoting previous music. Another is simple, even marchlike rhythmic patterns, sometimes offset within her favorite 5/4 meter. The essence of Coates's music is not any one of these elements, but their juxtaposition and combination - sometimes even their indistinguishable fusion into some of the strangest textures in recent music. She brings together the straight and the curved, the familiar and the weird, the hard-edged and the vague, the tonal and the beyond-atonal, and sets us down in musical landscapes which disallow our usual figure-ground experiences of focusing within a musical texture. Picture: Photograph of snow sculptures at the North Pole titled "Touching North" (1989) by English sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Unfortunately, the score isn't freely available.