Hilary Tann - Anecdote

for online perusal only
HILARY TANN
Anecdote
a soliloquy for violoncello and orchestra
Instrumentation
2 Flutes (2nd doubles piccolo) Timpani
2 Oboes Percussion 1: 2 Temple Blocks (ML, L),
2 Bb Clarinets Suspended Sizzle Cymbal, Mark Tree,
2 Bassoons Suspended Finger Cymbal,
4 Horns in F Medium Gong
2 C Trumpets Percussion 2: Glockenspiel
2 Tenor Trombones Solo Violoncello
1 Bass Trombone Strings
1 Tuba
Duration: 15 minutes
Program Note
The first ideas for Anecdote came from the poem, “Anecdote of the Jar,” by
Wallace Stevens. Stevens imagines a “jar…tall and of a port in air” placed
“upon a hill.” He notices, “the wilderness rose up to it…no longer wild” and
says, of the jar, “it took dominion everywhere.”
In Anecdote, the cello soloist “has dominion” in this slow, one-movement
work. It is as though the cello is the “port in air” and is surrounded and complemented
by the various orchestral textures (especially those of the central
string quartet).
Another meaning of “anecdote” also influences the composition. An anecdote
is often a story shared, and shared again, in intimate circumstances. And so,
the overall structure of Anecdote is that of an arch in which a personal story is
told, and elaborated on, and retold.
Anecdote was composed during the summer of 2000 in response to a commission
from the Newark (Delaware) Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed
10 December 2000 in Loudis Hall, University of Delaware, by the Newark
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Roman Pawlowski, with cello soloist
Ovidiu Marinescu.
—H. T.