Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Justin Weiss
Multitudes – for orchestra (2023)
Program Notes:
I have lately been fascinated by the work of the relatively unknown abstract expressionist artist, Norman Lewis. Compared with his contemporaries like Rothko or Pollock, Lewis is not featured in contemporary art exhibits across the world, yet his art speaks with volumes of intensity and power. I first came across his piece, Multitudes, which was tucked away in a corner of the “Art of the Americas” wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, but I was immediately allured by the layering of jagged lines and angular shapes over beautiful hues of melting color fields. In this work and many others by Lewis, a quasi-optical illusion forms; when attempting to focus on either the hues or the lines, the other is, in fact, drawn out even more. It’s as if the lines are in relief of the shadings and the shadings are in relief of the lines. The title of Lewis’ painting comes from Walt Whitman’s “Songs of Myself”: “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes).” In this piece, I drew on both the ideas of contrasting and layering lines and shadows as well as the balance of foreground and background as are both present in my experience of the painting. There are moments of multiple melodic shapes forming both a shadow and a composite melody; articulations against the melodic shape; linear melodies being drawn out into a harmonic field yet activated on the surface; or a focus on the angular melodies while a macro-harmonic motion evolves more slowly in the background. By having sections which draw attention towards certain elements foreground/background and jagged/hues dichotomies of the painting, I attempt to create my own “multitude” of experiences that all stem from one central, connected idea. Multitudes was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.
Recorded April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Recording Engineer, Mark Alletag.
Presented by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition with gratitude to Gay K. Stanek for her generosity and vision. Special thanks to Jonathan McCormick, Director of Education and of The Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Many thanks to Anna Thompson.
@justinweisscomposer
Justin Weiss
Multitudes – for orchestra (2023)
Program Notes:
I have lately been fascinated by the work of the relatively unknown abstract expressionist artist, Norman Lewis. Compared with his contemporaries like Rothko or Pollock, Lewis is not featured in contemporary art exhibits across the world, yet his art speaks with volumes of intensity and power. I first came across his piece, Multitudes, which was tucked away in a corner of the “Art of the Americas” wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, but I was immediately allured by the layering of jagged lines and angular shapes over beautiful hues of melting color fields. In this work and many others by Lewis, a quasi-optical illusion forms; when attempting to focus on either the hues or the lines, the other is, in fact, drawn out even more. It’s as if the lines are in relief of the shadings and the shadings are in relief of the lines. The title of Lewis’ painting comes from Walt Whitman’s “Songs of Myself”: “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes).” In this piece, I drew on both the ideas of contrasting and layering lines and shadows as well as the balance of foreground and background as are both present in my experience of the painting. There are moments of multiple melodic shapes forming both a shadow and a composite melody; articulations against the melodic shape; linear melodies being drawn out into a harmonic field yet activated on the surface; or a focus on the angular melodies while a macro-harmonic motion evolves more slowly in the background. By having sections which draw attention towards certain elements foreground/background and jagged/hues dichotomies of the painting, I attempt to create my own “multitude” of experiences that all stem from one central, connected idea. Multitudes was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.
Recorded April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Recording Engineer, Mark Alletag.
Presented by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition with gratitude to Gay K. Stanek for her generosity and vision. Special thanks to Jonathan McCormick, Director of Education and of The Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Many thanks to Anna Thompson.
@justinweisscomposer
