Chamber(/String Orchestra) Music Work of the Day, Installment 31:
"Poem and Lamentations"
for
Violin and Piano (or String Orchestra)
(1987, ca. 12:00 minutes)
I composed "Poem and Lamentations" while I was a PhD candidate at Brandeis University. What I recall most about the experience is that I did a "bad boy" thing by lining up a performance of the work in Slosberg Recital Hall without having my composition teacher take a look at the piece first, which simply isn't done. I LOVE breaking rules, especially composition-related ones taught to me by my teachers, so long I do so effectively... not US laws so much. :-) !
The world premiere performance of "Poem and Lamentations" took place on 21 November 1987 with violinist Judith Eissenberg and pianist David Kopp as the players. Follow the next URL to listen to their performance.
NB: a formal repeat which no longer exists in the piece is edited out of this recording.
In 2002, I finally got around to extracting the solo violin "Poem" section from the "Poem and Lamentations", and made it available separately. From the moment I began to compose this work, I intended for the "Poem" section to be able to stand alone. I then transcribed it for viola and cello solo, changing only the octave reach covered by the extract, thus making it available to more string players.
In 2009, I completed a personally long anticipated arrangement of "Poem and Lamentations" for violin and string orchestra. In this case, it was extremely difficult to transcribe the piano accompaniment for strings, and I really needed those years of composition-related experience to complete it. Some octave displacements were required, but I am nevertheless very pleased with the resulting transcription.
The musical language of "Poem and Lamentations" is unabashedly dodecaphonic, but the writing—especially for the violin—is very lyrical. The tone row I used brings the octatonic scale into focus more than it does the set, which was my intent from the start.
Follow the next URL to view a synthesized scrolling score music video for "Poem and Lamentations" on my YouTube channel which I created to encourage live performances.
Both versions of "Poem and Lamentations", and the three versions of the extract from it—"Poem" from Poem and Lamentations for violin, viola, or cello—are available for licensing from me, and for sale from Sheet Music Plus. Follow the next URL to visit the distributor's product page for the version of "Poem and Lamentations" for violin and piano.
Follow the next URL to view a watermarked PDF score of "Poem and Lamentations" for violin and piano on my website.
"Poem and Lamentations" remains one of the effective, moving works in my catalog. I hope you find listening to it a meaningful experience. Thank you for your time and attention.
Stanley M. Hoffman, PhD
Link to my website: https://www.stanleymhoffman.com
Biography Published in Grove Music Online (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford University Press)
Disclaimer: the duration of the recordings and videos of "Poem and Lamentations" present on my website and on my YouTube channel vary from ca. 10:30 to ca. 13:30. Ideally, the piece should last around 12 minutes. The music was brought into the Sibelius app from the DOS program, SCORE, hence the tempo discrepancies. All kinds of digital glitches result from importing older files into newer apps including tempo-related ones and, honestly, I would rather spend my time composing and arranging new music than massaging audio tracks and music videos. Thank you in advance for understanding. —S.M.H.
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