#109– August 23, 2021

Photo credit: Tina Krohn

NOVEL ROMANCE Variations for Winds
JONATHAN NEWMAN (1972)

https://soundcloud.com/user-642642570-907922214/sets/novel-romance

Novel Romance, by American composer Jonathan Newman is our Composition of the Week.
Novel Romance was written in 2018 was commissioned by the XI Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in honor of their 100th Anniversary and the University of Kansas Bands, and it was premiered on December 6, 2018, at the Lied Center of Lawrence, Kansas, by the Kansas University Symphonic Band under Matt Smith.

The work has a duration of about 7 and a half minutes, and it is scored as follows:

2Fl-2Ob-3Cl-BCl-2Bn—AATBSax
3Tpt-4Hn-3Trb-Euph-Tba—Cb—Hp(opt)
4Perc(Crot-Glock-Vib-Ch-Mar-Piat-TT-BD-DrSet)

“A theme and variations in reverse, this novel hides romantic music in a cloud of shifting styles. The theme eventually reveals itself, but in time it betrays its true nature—showing why this romance is novel.” Jonathan Newman.

Jonathan Newman holds degrees from Boston University’s School for the Arts, where he studied composition with Richard Cornell and Charles Fussell, and conducting with Lukas Foss, and The Juilliard School, where he studied with composers John Corigliano and David Del Tredici and conducting with Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Newman composes music rich with rhythmic drive and intricate sophistication. A recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Newman creates broadly colored musical works, often incorporating styles of pop, blues, jazz, folk, and funk into otherwise classical models.

View score here:
https://jonathannewman.com/music/novel-romance

More on Jonathan Newman
https://jonathannewman.com