Tempi of my "Concord-Sonata" (Stephen Kennamer)

Stephen Kennamer - Fort Defiance, Virginia

...about my "Concord-Sonata"... TEMPI

"The importance of a slow Tempo for the "Concord" should be obvious to every sensitive musician: the texture is complex and the amount of detail is staggering. [...] In all four movements but especially in "Emerson", we need to hear the motives clearly, which are often contrapuntally combined. Ives is extremely dissonant, but rarely atonal. The half-dozen or so revolving motives of "Emerson" are all diatonic, even excessively so. No matter how recalcitrant the vertical dimension may be to analysis, horizontally we have a clear diatonic melody that is bathed in dissonance. We have to hear all the strands of the politonality and of course polyphony and let them act on one another. Too fast a Tempo diminishes this effect and replace it with a blur of aggressively discordant texture. What is interesting about your "Tempi" is that none of them sounds slow. [...] It always sound natural, as if the music is arising naturally and composing itself as it goes - which is exactly how it should sound. Your approach is especially important for "Emerson", but it works in all the movements. I do not want to single out a "best" movement, but I recall reading one comment that favoured "Thoreau". I do have to admit that this movement seemed especially revelatory to me, ...your ending is profoundly realized. [...] I am grateful to you for your immersion in this amazing work."

2013, December 13th.
Stephen Kennamer
Composer and former Music Critic, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia)