Christopher Rouse (composer) - Music

Music

Rouse is commonly referred to as a neoromantic composer, as many of his works attempt to combine diatonic elements with more chromatic ones. Certain works are predominantly atonal (e.g., "Gorgon", Concerto for Orchestra) while others are clearly tonal ("Karolju", "Rapture"). Most often he seeks to integrate tonal and non-tonal harmonic worlds into individual works, as in his concerti for flute, oboe, and guitar. He has been praised for his orchestration skills, particularly with percussion. He often quotes works of other composers (e.g., his Symphony No. 1, composed in 1986, incorporates quotations from the music of Bruckner and Shostakovich). His music also shows the influence of rock on occasion. The unifying force in all of his work is the passion and intensity of its expression.

His oldest extant works are two brief works for percussion ensemble, both inspired by mythological subjects: "Ogoun Badagris" (1976, Haitian) and "Ku-Ka-Ilimoku" (1978, Polynesian); a later percussion score inspired by rock drumming, "Bonham", was composed in 1988. The early 1980s found him creating a harrowing series of compositions that featured fast tempi and an often astringent harmonic language, all in the service musical savagery and brutality. Rouse described these pieces as an attempt "to bring back the allegro", having come to feel that the composition of extended music in fast tempi was becoming a lost art. Works such as his String Quartet No. 1 of 1982 (five connected movements, all fast) and his 1984 orchestral piece "Gorgon" typify this style. After composing "Phaethon" in 1986, Rouse moved in the opposite direction, creating his Symphony No. 1, a one-movement composition entirely in slow tempo. This ushered in a series of works that explored the darker aspects of the human condition. Although his harmonic language now had more recourse to the use of tonality, the expressive intent was often a tragic one.

The death of Leonard Bernstein in 1990 was the first in a series of deaths that made a profound impression upon Rouse, and his Trombone Concerto (1991) became the first score of his so-called "Death Cycle", a group of pieces that all served as reactions to these aforementioned deaths. While the Trombone Concerto was a response to Bernstein's death, subsequent scores memorialized William Schuman (Violoncello Concerto - 1992), James Bulger, the two-year-old English boy abducted from a mall and subsequently murdered by two ten-year-old boys (Flute Concerto - 1993), the composer Stephen Albert (Symphony No. 2 - 1994), and Rouse's mother ("Envoi" - 1995). His pieces from the latter half of the 1990s represented a conscious effort "to look towards the light", in the composer's words. These more optimistic and life-affirming works include "Compline" (1996), "Kabir Padavali" (1997), the "Concert de Gaudi" (1998), and "Rapture" (2000).

Since 2000 Rouse has followed an unpredictable path. His thorny Clarinet Concerto (2001) contrasts markedly with the pop-inflected humor of "The Nevill Feast" (2003). Lush neoromantic works like the Oboe Concerto of 2004 stand alongside twelve-tone experiments (Concerto for Orchestra, 2008). The most significant work of these years is his ninety-minute Requiem (2001-2002), a piece that Rouse considers his valedictory and that evidences the wide stylistic variety that exemplifies his music. Recent years have seen him embrace a personal system of translating alphabetical letters into musical pitches, thereby allowing him to musically "spell" various names, events, or other words and phrases. The most thoroughgoing use of this system can be found in his 2009 composition "Odna Zhizn".