Lex from Metropolis Symphony

Description

I began composing my ''Metropolis Symphony" in 1988, inspired by the celebration in Cleveland of the fiftieth anniversary of Superman's first appearance in the comics. When I completed the score in 1993, I dedicated it to the conductor David Zinman, who had encouraged me to compose the work, and to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The "Metropolis Symphony" evokes an American mythology that I discovered as an avid reader of comic books in the fifties and sixties. Each movement of the symphony—which may be performed separately—is a musical response to the myth of Superman. I have used Superman as a compositional metaphor in order to create an independent musical world that appeals to the imagination. The symphony is a rigorously structured, non-programmatic work, expressing the energies, ambiguities, paradoxes, and wit of American popular culture. Like Charles Ives, whose music recalls small-town America early in our century, I draw on my eclectic musical background to reflect on late-twentieth-century urban America. Through complex orchestration, timbral exploration, and rhythmic polyphony, I combine the idioms of jazz, rock, and funk with symphonic and avant-garde composition. . I. "Lex" derives its title from one of Superman’s most vexing foes, the supervillain and business tycoon Lex Luthor. Marked “Diabolical” in the score, this movement features a virtuoso violin soloist (Lex) who plays a fiendishly difficult fast triplet motive in perpetual motion, pursued by the orchestration and a percussion section that includes four referee whistles placed quadraphonically on stage. (1991)Since its premiere by the Baltimore Symphony in 1994 at Carnegie Hall, the GRAMMY®-winning Metropolis Symphony has entered the orchestral repertoire and been performed by orchestras all over the world. Metropolis Symphony is a five-movement musical response to the world of Superman, and Lex derives its title from one of Superman's most vexing foes, the super-villain Lex Luthor. Marked "Diabolical" in the score, this movement features a virtuoso violin soloist (Lex) who plays a fiendishly difficult fast triplet motive in perpetual motion, pursued by the orchestration and a percussion section that includes four referee whistles placed quadraphonically on stage. Duration - ca. 10:00