Music of Mark-Anthony Turnage in Chicago and Washington D.C.

The music of Mark-Anthony Turnage sees a host of US performances this month, including the US premiere of Scorched with Steven Sloane and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 23. A product of Turnage's collaboration with jazz guitarist John Scofield, Scorched is a suite of Scofield originals arranged by Turnage, combining the distinct jazz and classical sensibilities of the two composers. Turnage elaborates:

In a sense, it allows me to act like a jazz soloist, improvising on John's ideas, but instead of doing it live, I do it on paper. Most of my music isn't fully tonal: there is usually an element of dissonance, and working on John's tunes allowed me to work tonally without that guilty feeling of ‘Oh no, there's a key signature'. There is something liberating about that. I've always loved John's tunes. They're unconventional, catchy, quite angular: exactly like his playing.

Scorched, a pun on the words "Scofield orchestrated," is conceived as a suite of pieces for an ensemble which is neither symphony orchestra nor big band but an amalgam of the two. The performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra feature John Scofield, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Peter Erskine and saxophonist Donald Harrison.

Musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra led by Oliver Knussen perform Turnage's Dark Crossing on May 10 as part of the Kennedy Center's Cross Currents contemporary music series. Written for Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, Dark Crossing, though seemingly programmatic, is more freely composed than anything Turnage had written before that time. Guardian critic Andrew Clements comments:

A hint of Debussy's La Mer in the first movement suggests other associations too, and if pressed, Turnage concedes that the three movements might be construed as seascapes, but it is much better surely to take the music at face value, and to follow it to see where indeed it goes.

Next month Chicago Opera Vanguard presents five performances of Turnage's Greek, the composer's modern take on the Oedipus myth set in the east end of "Thatcher's London." Racism, violence and mass unemployment appear as metaphors for the plague that afflicts London, and form the background for the story of Eddy. Based on Steven Berkoff's play with a libretto by the composer and Jonathan Moore, the opera received its world premiere at the 1988 Munich Biennale.

Visit Mark Anthony Turnage's composer profile here.

For precise ticketing information on all of the events, visit www.cso.org, www.kennedy-center.org and www.chicagovanguard.org.

Mark-Anthony Turnage
Scorched (1996-2001)
for jazz trio and orchestra
trio: egtr(gtr).bgtr(acoustic bass).drum kit
orchestra:2(1.pic 2.afl,pic).2(ca).2(1.Ebcl.bcl,2.bcl).ssax(asax).2(2.cbsn)–
2.2.2.euph.1–2perc–bgtr.hp.pno(cel)–str
80'

Greek (1986-1988)
an opera in two acts
libretto adapted by the composer and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's play
for three sopranos, four mezzo-sopranos, high baritone and three baritones
fl. (afl, pic, bodhran 1 (hit with double headed stick), large metal bar (hit with hammer)) · ob 1 (ca, brake drum (hit with hammer, shared with ob 2), bodhran 2 (hit with double-headed stick)) · ob 2 (ca, brake drum (hit with hammer, shared with ob 1)) · Bbcl 1 (bcl, Ebcl, medium tom-tom 1 (hit with hard stick)) · Bbcl (bcl, medium tom-tom 2 (hit with hard stick)) · sopsax (asax, barsax, vibraslap, ratchet 1) - hrn 1 in F (large tom-tom 1, metal bar 1) · hrn 2 in F (large tom-tom 2, metal bar 2) · Ctpt (large metal dustbin lid) · tbn (very large metal sheet) - 1 or 2perc-hrp (low log drum and bodhran 4 (hit with double-headed stick)).pno (epno (Yamaha or Fender Rhodes), police whistle 1 and claves 1)-va (large ratch. 2).3vc (claves 2, ratch. 3).db (police whistle 2)
90'

Dark Crossing (2000)
for chamber orchestra
2(1.pic,2.afl).1(ca).1(bcl).bcl(cbcl).ssax(asax).1(cbsn)–
2.1(flugelhn).1(euph,btbn).0–2perc–hp.pno(cel)–str
20'