Susurrus (2003)

Haiku #1 for Orchestra (or) Sixteen Players

For:

  • Orchestra: pic.3-2.CA-2.BCl-2.cbn / 4-3-3-1 / timp.2perc / hp / cel / pf / strings

  • Sixteen Instruments: fl/picc-ob/CA-BC/cl-t.sax / 1.1.1.euph.tba / 1perc / pf / 2vlns.va.vc.cb (5 players)

Year: 2003

Duration: 4’

First Performance: 18 September 2003 / The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. / The National Symphony Orchestra / Leonard Slatkin

Dedication: "Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, Leonard Slatkin, Music Director, made possible by the John and June Hechinger Commissioning Fund for New Orchestral Works.”

Publisher: Peermusic Classical

“The chant of their vespers, mingling its notes with the soft susurrus and sighs of the branches.”
— Longfellow

Program Note:

When asked to provide a four-minute encore to conclude a program that would include Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma, I reached back to memories of an Italian autumn in 1992 spent at the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni, in Bellagio. I modeled the orchestral texture of my piece on the sound of the wind coming down off of the Alps and through the trees. The effect is described by the word 'susurrus': the act of whispering; a whisper; a rustling; a low, indistinct, and often continuous sound: mumble, murmer, sigh and sough.

Selected Review:

The world premiere of a specially commission 'encore' piece by the prodigiously gifted American composer Daron Hagen followed [Respighi's Feste romane] immediately. Titled 'Susurrus,' this deliciously orchestrated four-minute composition was noteworthy for its ethereal delicacy. Imagine the gentlest of ticklings, administered by a feather that is more often anticipated than actually felt.

— Tim Page, The Washington Post, 8/19/03