itshalfempty

Last weekend I saw the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform Jennifer Higdon’s Blue Cathedral. Walking in, I had never heard of Jennifer Higdon and I didn’t know anything about the piece. ASO often performs a lot of contemporary music, much of which is not the kind of music that drew me to classical music. More often than not, I just don’t really enjoy listening to those more modern pieces. But Blue Cathedral was different - within the first minute of the orchestra playing, I was totally in love.

The whole piece is pretty short, clocking in at just over 12 minutes. Despite the length, there’s so much packed in to the piece. I don’t really have the musical knowledge or language to describe the performance even halfway decently - but fortunately there is a recording of ASO performing Blue Cathedral (conducted by Robert Spano, who also conducted the performance last week) from 20 years ago!

After going home I looked up other performances of this piece and become mildly obsessed. I read through Higdon’s program notes of the piece, which talk about the origin of the name and the inspiration from the passing of her brother, Blue. I learned that this piece was played by the Marine Corps Band (with an arrangement suitable for a band). I even watched some performances from high school orchestras…but I think I’ll avoid sharing those to protect the innocent.

Because I had never heard of Higdon or Blue Cathedral, I was also surprised to learn that this is the most performed (or at least, one of the most performed) contemporary pieces of music in the US. I can definitely see why.