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Grand Union

Instrumentation
Vc,P(1)(2 scores needed for performance)
Year
1973
Duration
13:15
Dedication
Written for Fred Sherry's 25th birthday and dedicated to him
Commission
Lenox Arts Center

GRAND UNION for Cello and Drums was composed in the summer of 1973. It is a two-voice piece, with the four drums participating in a melodic/contrapuntal way. But nevertheless, the cello is the leader here, if only because it possesses its entire gamut of pitches, to contrast with the simple four of the drums. The work is in a single movement, and is called GRAND UNION because the two participants have the same material, or reversals of the same -- excepting certain ornamental music given solely to the cello.

GRAND UNION is written to observe the twenty-fifth birthday of Fred Sherry.

-CW, 29 September 1973

"Speculum Musicae, the group of young New Yorkers who play good contemporary music with the care and love it deserves, graced its Chicago debut on November 5 with the world premier of a work by Charles Wuorinen. Written last summer to honor Speculum cellist Fred Sherry's twenty-fifth birthday, Grand Union is a one-movement duo for cello and four drums that acts like a rondo. It circles around like a snake charmer theme that retains its energy through myriad transformations, including a couple that delightfully resemble a bossa nova." High Fidelity

Recordings

Grand Union (1976) for cello and drums

Grand Union (1976) for cello and drums