I Wish They All Could Be. . . Octet
For Instrumental Octet
COMMISSIONED: Cheltenham International Festival of Music and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
PREMIERE: Revised version: July 2012, Museum of Modern Art SummerGarden, Juilliard Contemporary Music Ensemble, Joel Sachs, conductor; original version: July 1986, Cheltenham Festival, UK, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Jean-Louis LeRoux, conductor
DURATION: fifteen minutes
PUBLISHER: All Conrad Cummings works are self-published; contact him here
INSTRUMENTATION: flute doubling alto flute and piccolo, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, piano, harp, percussion, violin, viola, cello
Excerpt from the premiere performance by San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the Cheltenham Festival:
Growing up a classical music kid in fog-soaked San Francisco, the Beach Boys were my secret musical alter-egos. Not the tormented genius of Brian Wilson, but the deceptively simple, sun-drenched, laid back, exuberant hymns of “California Girls,”
“I Get Around,” and “In My Room.”
“I Wish They All Could Be. . .” takes fragments from these three songs, with all their loose-jointed, sauntering gaits, and puts them next to the other world I lived in as a teenager: tense, precise, super-focused classical piano lessons.
The two worlds don’t mix at first, they just butt up against each other, but something grows out of that jostling.
The piece has two versions, one for solo piano, and this one for instrumental octet.
— Conrad Cummings
“I Wish They All Could Be. . . Octet Version” complete premiere performance by San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the Cheltenham Festival:
Perusal copy of the complete score:
THE NEW YORK TIMES – ALLAN KOZINN
“. . . a dense but playful harmonic frame.”
OAKLAND (CA) TRIBUNE –
“. . .stinging, Beach-Boys-meets-minimalism score, tinged with Mozartian grace.”