Fisher, Ravel & Mozart: Nov 6-8, 2026
Salina Fisher
Kintsugi for Orchestra
About the composer:
Salina Fisher (1993- ) is a composer and multi instrumentalist from New Zealand. Of a robust contingent of composers from New Zealand she is among the most internationally programmed and performed. Her music is highly evocative. She finds lyricism in unusual timbres and extended tonalities, and has been noted for her extraordinary sense of color and texture. Of mixed Japanese heritage, Fisher enjoys improvising on violin and koto, and collaborating across artistic disciplines including poetry, film, and ceramics.
About the music:
Salina Fisher composed Kintsugi in 2020 originally as a trio for piano, violin, and cello. In 2022 she orchestrated it at the request of the Manukau Symphony Orchestra. It has been programmed and performed internationally many times over since then.
Fisher was inspired to compose Kintsugi as she grappled with the loss of someone that also represented a complicated and at times destructive relationship to her.
She wrote this about the piece:
“Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. All the pieces of a broken bowl or pot are carefully jointed back together with gold-dusted urushi (lacquer). Rather than hiding the damage, kintsugi celebrates all the cracks or 'scars' for the unique history that they represent. The object is more beautiful for having been broken.
I am personally drawn to kintsugi for a metaphor for embracing 'brokenness' and imperfection as a source of strength. This piece – originally for piano trio – is my expression and exploration of kintsugi, and involves musical fragmentation, fragility, mending and finding beauty in the 'cracks.’ I am grateful to Manukau Symphony Orchestra for commissioning this orchestral version of Kintsugi, allowing me to reimagine the piece through a wide array of instrumental colors.”
Some things to listen for include an actual cracking sound from the solo cello, which Fisher gets by asking for a crushed bowing effect, haunting beautiful short lived woodwind solos - especially early on from the bassoon, the way she uncomfortably stretches harmonies that move toward lush comforting landing places, and the use of layered sounds to create depth in comparison to more delicate thin textures.
A typical performance of Kintsugi for Orchestra lasts about 9 minutes.
Resources:
Maurice Ravel
Le Tombeau De Couperin
About the composer:
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer of the Modernist era. He is most commonly associated with the stylistic term Impressionism although he rejected that description. He found his own way as a composer, developing a style that emphasized clarity and incorporated elements of modernism, neoclassicism, and jazz. He is probably best known for his exceptional orchestration. His compositions never fail to capture the imagination of the listener as we are whisked away to a soundscape that routinely includes a large and vibrant palette of tone colors.
Ravel was an ambulance driver in the military transport service during World War I. He observed the horrors of war first-hand but the music he wrote in response to that war seems to convey only very fleeting moments of that terrible weight. Case in point, his Le Tombeau de Couperin. Dedicated to his friends who lost their lives in World War I, Le Tombeau is a delicate, jovial, and downright sunny response to the terrible realities of war. In response to criticism about this Ravel said "The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence."
About the music:
Maurice Ravel composed Le Tombeau de Couperin, or The Tomb of Couperin, between 1914 and 1917 originally as a solo piano piece. He orchestrated it for full orchestra in 1919.
Ravel meant it as a memorial tribute, in part to his friends that had died in the war, and also to the style of the French Baroque keyboard suite, of which the great Baroque era composer François Couperin was a master.
The piece imitates a Baroque dance suite with its rhythms and structures. It’s a very fine example of his neoclassical compositional style.
There are four movements in the orchestrated version: Prélude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon.
The first movement, Prélude, is dedicated to Lieutenant Jacques Charlot. It heavily features the oboe and cascades of turning and twisting notes that fly around the orchestra in a playfully delightful manner. This one is a real ear worm!
The second movement, Forlane, is dedicated to Lieutenant Gabriel DeLuc. It’s based on an Italian folk dance and was inspired by Ravel’s study of similar dance forms by Couperin. This one is a little cheeky, and our guest conductor Gemma New told us Ravel said he would love to see it choreographed by two burlesque performers who would dance it in drag at the Vatican. When I asked her how she had come across this information she replied “on the internet”. I’m choosing to believe it’s not one of those Abraham Lincoln internet quote situations. It’s just too juicy to imagine Ravel dreaming up that scenario!
The third movement, Menuet, is dedicated to Jean Dreyfus. It is an elegant dance in waltz time which again features the oboe. This one is pure elegance throughout, even with a middle section that delves into moments of tension and deeper melancholic feelings.
The final movement, Rigaudon, is dedicated to Pierre and Pascal Gaudin - brothers who died on the first day of their service on the front line. Rigaudon is a type of 17th century French dance with heavy hopping steps that have a barnyard hoedown characteristic. It is absolutely joyous and lively throughout.
Musicologist Gerard McBurney commented on the oddly contradictory sound of this music within the context of Ravel’s wartime experience saying, “Le Tombeau does not speak directly about the war; it speaks about eternal values: it speaks about beauty and elegance, the things we want to preserve…in other words, the opposite of war.”
A typical performance of Le Tombeau de Couperin lasts about 17 minutes.
resources:
W. A. Mozart
Requiem
DIVE IN!
Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, AKA Wolfgang Amadeus, AKA Wolfie (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer, keyboardist, violinist, and puzzle enthusiast. He was just 35 years old when he died, but he got a pretty strong head start having famous composer violinist pedagogue Leopold Mozart for a father, who also managed to open doors for him and get him situated as a child prodigy. Was he the classic example of a nepo baby? You be the judge!
Wolfie was writing some of his first symphonic works by the age of 10 and became one of the most prolific and influential composers of the Classical era, writing more than 800 works for all types of ensembles. His music, according to historian Cliff Eisen, is known for “its melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture”.
About the Music:
Mozart began composing the Requiem in 1791 during the final months of his life, dying before he completed it. He was 35 years old and was at the very pinnacle of his compositional abilities.
The Requiem is about 50 minutes in length, and is constructed in 8 sections of music, two of which have subsections, for a total of 14 sections of music each with its own character and role.
Mozart composed all of the Introit and the Kyrie. He also composed the Dies Irae Sequence vocal parts and figured bass (figured bass is just fancy music nerd talk for a bass line with harmony markings above it like chord changes in a jazz tune) plus a few important orchestral parts like the trombone solo in the Tuba Mirum and bits of the first violin part. He sketched out the first 8 bars of the Lacrimosa orchestra part and vocal lines, and the Domine Jesu and Hostias movements were sketched only in only vocal parts. His completed work prior to his death was skeletal at best, with the exception of the Introit and Kyrie movements.
A version completed in 1792 by his student Franz Sussmayr included the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei movements which he composed entirely himself. There are other versions constructed more recently but the Sussmayr version is the most frequently performed.
There are countless uses of portions of the Requiem in film and television soundtracks. Particularly noteworthy (punny!) is its inclusion in a “Simpsons” episode when we learn the back story to Homer’s very surprising chess prowess. See below, because of course.
Explore the music:
Here is a listening map that can guide you through the piece. Read it in advance or while you’re listening!
Introitus
The first music we hear is bassoon and basset horn (an early type of clarinet) solos over a strings accompaniment that suggests solemn marching. Shortly thereafter we hear strong trombones (associated with darkness and death at the time) introduce the chorus as the orchestra becomes more active and full.
Kyrie
This music begins around 5 minutes in, coming straight out of the Introit music before. If it seems a little familiar it might be because it’s based on a tune from Handel’s Messiah “And With His Stripes We Are Healed”. Mozart takes this melody and layers it on top of itself like a round. He finishes with an old school throwback touch, an interval (the distance between two notes) of an open fifth (the notes are 5 steps apart and missing a “middle” note that would make it sound more full), which invokes a sort of timelessness to the sound.
Sequentia:
Dies irae
This music starts with the entire chorus singing mightily and with lots of color from brass instruments and timpani, while the strings are playing very fast notes. All of this underscores the text concept of wrath and reckoning.
Tuba mirum
First we hear a trombone solo introducing the bass vocal soloist. The trombone solo continues underneath, not sounding nearly as dire and serious as the opening of the Requiem. A little later the tenor vocal soloist enters with strings in a more restless sounding area that is followed by the entrance of alto and then soprano soloists.
Rex tremendae
This music starts with a tightly snapped rhythm in the strings indicating some stress, pressure, or duress. After this brief introduction we hear the chorus together singing strongly “Rex” (King). They are not calling to the dog, but if they were it would definitely work! In contrast the “Salva me” text is introduced with much more soothing music from orchestra and chorus. It finishes with a brief callback to the somber marching Introit music.
Recordare
In this movement we hear strings and winds making cascades before the vocal soloists enter with winding optimistic sounding lines of music. A little later it turns a bit more active with question/answer with the vocal soloist. We return to the winding music and it swings back and forth like this for a while, finishing with the same descending scale material from the opening.
Confutatis
Here we start right away with a surging and roiling figure in the orchestra and some serious ‘furrowed brow’ singing from the chorus men vs a more pleading sounding music from the upper strings and the chorus women. A bit later we hear a more restless rhythmic figure in orchestra, all in a soft dynamic with the chours which makes for lots of suspense. The music closes by moving lower and lower in pitch until the end.
Lacrimosa
This is the music that is most often featured in film and tv soundtracks. Mozart composed the first minute of this music before he died. Everything we hear afterward in this movement was reconstructed by his student Franz Sussmayr, based on Mozart’s sketches.
Offertorium:
Domine Jesu
The music here starts right away with chorus, no orchestra introduction! Vocal soloists sing in canon (a musical structure similar to a round) and this kicks off some similar action in the chorus before a typical soothing “church” sounding ending with brass.
Hostias
This music starts with flowing sounds from the orchestra and chorus. We move to a struggle between loud and soft dynamics and then return to the opening material. A bit later we hear layering entrances in the chorus starting with the men. There is an urgency in the orchestra music. Noteworthy fact - at the end of this movement on the lower right corner of the score were what may be the last words Mozart wrote in his own hand, “Quam olim da capo” which is an instruction to repeat a portion of the music. The score was on exhibit in Brussels at the 1958 World’s Fair when someone tore that corner of the paper away. It has never been recovered.
Sanctus
We hear a big full sound from the chorus and orchestra. This is the first movement entirely composed by Sussmayr and includes a fugue (like a canon or round but a lot more complicated!).
Benedictus
This music starts with sweet sounds from upper strings before the vocal soloists enter in turn and then layer over one another. Near the end there is a brief outburst of Hosana, finishing strong.
Agnus Dei
This music is dark and brooding with punctuation from timpani.
Communio
All of this music is a restatement of the first two movements - Introit and Kyrie - but with the text from this concluding part of the liturgy.
Resources:
Consider and Discuss:
There are many instances throughout history of works of art being started by one person and finished by another. Mozart himself helped out his ill composer friend Michael Haydn who was late for a deadline by finishing a set of violin and viola duets and letting Haydn claim them. Mozart died during the time he was composing the Requiem, but he left some sketches and had about half of it done. At Mozart’s wife Constanze’s request an initial attempt to complete the work was made by Joseph von Eybler but he ended up backing out. Franz Sussmayr stepped up to the plate and, using some of Eybler’s work, his own new compositions, and Mozart’s original material, he finished it in 1792. More recently, a number of other composers and historians have studied Mozart’s original work and made their own reconstructions.
Consider what it might feel like to take on that kind of responsibility. How would you approach finishing someone else’s work? How might it feel different if you knew them personally rather than learned about them through their historical work? Would you be able to successfully put aside your own ideas or style to keep their work as true to them as possible? In what ways?
Try some stuff:
Exploring Text-Music Relationships
Mozart needed to come up with music that would support the text of the Requiem Mass. Gather your nerd crew and explore this process a little! Think about two ways to convey the sentence “The cow jumped over the moon” through music. First in a literal way. [cow sounds, jumping sounds, etc.] Then, in a more abstract way. [music describing the cow’s feelings, the general scene altogether, etc.] Be as detailed as possible about your musical choices. Can you get an equal sense of the sentence in both of these ways? How might it change the musical representation of the sentence to perform both ways at once? Mozart used both these techniques to create a strong text-music relationship in his Requiem.
Dive a little deeper and examine the differences in the language of poetry and a set of instructions. Which of these is the most literal? The most abstract? In what ways? How would it be different to set these words to music? What kinds of sounds might best represent a list of rules? What musical choices would you make to represent the words ‘green’ or ‘powerful’? Be as detailed and creative in your choices as possible!
Now try creating something!
This works best with two or more people, but you can experiment on your own too. Split into two groups. Have one group focus on a stanza from a familiar poem, and the other focus on a brief set of instructions [for instance, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich]. Now have each group make a song with musical accompaniment using the words they are focused on. What musical choices would they make to support the words and their context? [use the rhythm of the words in the music; important words use a special instrument or combination; etc.] Try creating a different song which brings out a hidden or different meaning in the words. For instance, make the instructions into a humorous or surprising song by only changing the musical choices.
Reflections: Which version is most successful? Why?
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