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Work of the Week – Gregory Spears: Love Story
- 31 Jan 2022
On hearing the title Love Story, many people probably first think of the 1970s filmic melodrama whose title melody by Francis Lai achieved worldwide fame as the “melody of fate”, and still serves as a memory hook for the minor sixth in aural training. With his 15-minute work for countertenor and orchestra, Gregory Spears now rivals this melody. His own Love Story is a setting of a new poem by Tracy K. Smith. The premiere of the work will take place at New York’s Alice Tully Hall on 3 February 2022. Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sings alongside the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jaap Van Zweden.
The story of a break-up set to music – Love Story by Gregory Spears
Love Story consists of four contiguous settings of a single text by Tracy K. Smith. Each setting suggests a different reading of Smith’s poem, and the four together form a larger narrative arc reminiscent of a song cycle. Instead of using a series of poems, Love Story tells the story of a relationship’s end by revisiting the same narrative details over-and-over - creating new meaning through repetition. The fourth and final setting incorporates musical material from the previous three, transformed by the passing of time and the changing of seasons.
"I’m always listening as a poet. When I’m writing my own free verse or formal poems, I’m listening to musical aspects of the language like rhyme, meter, rhythm, and repetition. [...] I was also thinking – having worked with composers a little bit – that I know there are some things I do naturally with language that make it harder to sing. I have a habit of adding small syllables, extra steps that create a lilting rhythm, which can be cumbersome when you’re trying to sing." Tracy K. Smith
Love Story was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. A second performance of the work at Alice Tully Hall will take place on Saturday, 5 February.
photo: Dario Acosta
