Stephen Heinemann’s "Metropassacaglia" Premieres in Minneapolis

Metropassacaglia, a mesmerizing new work for orchestra by Dr. Stephen Heinemann of Bradley University’s Department of Music, was commissioned by Minneapolis’s Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra to honor the decade of service by its conductor, William Schrickel, who is also the acting principal bassist with the Minnesota Orchestra and a longtime friend of the composer. Heinemann wrote, “I designed this composition with Bill’s own instrument’s role at its core. In conversation last year, I was very impressed by Bill’s comment that his primary goal as a bassist in recent times has been, simply, ‘to make a beautiful sound.’ I have tried to do the same in Metropassacaglia.”

The unusual title combines the orchestra’s name and the composition’s structure. “A passacaglia is a bass line that is repeated to form a structural underpinning for continuous variations,” Heinemann explained in his program notes. “In Metropassacaglia, a solo bassist first states the eponymic bass line, after which this line is greatly expanded – its next three statements comprise most of the rest of the piece. The line appears in many guises in other parts of the orchestral texture where it is fragmented, reformed, recombined, and finally reassembled. The work’s harmonic language is that of postmodern tonality, as traditional triadic chord structures are connected by a network of common tones defined by the underlying bass, and various scales or modes are associated and developed with these chords.”

Metropassacaglia received its premiere on November 22, 2009 in Minneapolis. Dedicated to William Schrickel and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the composition is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, trombones, four horns, timpani, and strings. The concert also featured compositions by Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Barber, and Osmo Vänskä.

Download an mp3 recording of the premiere performance of Metropassacaglia (right-click [or control-click for Mac] and select save link as to download).

Audio courtesy of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Photo Gallery