Program Note:   

“What,” posed Shakespeare, “is in a name?” Titles significantly impact how music is perceived. Take Film Noir, which really hasn’t got anything at all to do with the movies. In fact, the “film noir” of the title is the dark film of those ideas and attitudes that distort our perceptions and cause us to “see through a glass, darkly,” as in Corinthians. Misdirection as magic: this paragraph started one place and ended somewhere new.

In a similar manner, Film Noir’s musical language subverts the powerful associations people have with the electric guitar — what it sounds like, what kind of music is played on it, and by whom — not to confound but to enchant.

Think of it in terms of language: Old Latin canere (canarys!) to the New Latin cantare to the Old French chanter to the Middle English chant and the Modern French bel canto. So, to enchant is to charm (or at least to disarm) with song. Music performs the same sort of etymological magical spells.

Or, in terms of music, the disarming atmospheric movement titles should be understood as starting points for fantasy: the music sounds improvisatory but is meticulously notated — modernist rock? Classic electric guitar tropes and gestures are quoted and immediately recontextualized. The soloist only seems to be insouciant; in fact, the relative musical exactitude of, not the performer’s attitude toward, their performance creates the magic.

D.J. Sparr premiered the concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic, conducted by Robert Moody, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, conducted by Allen Tinkham, and the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton.

Selected Review:

I liked the opening “road-trippy” (the composer’s words) first movement called “Pacific Coast Highway” and really liked “Torch Song” which had a smooth, jazzy “noir” feeling. … Deep, emotional and super hip stuff, and it feels earthy and real, not forced or contrived.

"Pacific Coast Highway," has an "expansive, 'wide-open-sky vibe'"; the second movement, "Torch Song," is lyrical and elegiac; the third movement, "You Should See the Other Guy," has a "lithe, swinging, 'black tie and a whiskey, neat' ethos"; and the final movement, "Maybe Not Today," is notable for its "'aching romanticism and noir-ish feel'.”

— Buffalo Rising