This is an arrangement of the Preludes and Debka for Trombone and String Quartet, and was written for clarinetist Vasko Dukovski in 2009. Note that besides the change in the “solo” instrument”, there are differences from that original version in all of the string parts.
A “debka” is a Middle Eastern dance, used in both Arab and Israeli communities—the dance and its music is, as in the last section of this piece, normally in the form of a theme and variations. I found this melody in an anthology of Sephardic music when I was beginning the composition of the piece, and it jumped out as being a wonderful theme for the trombone and strings to play with.
The piece grows from a quiet mysterious opening, highlighting an echoing, moody statement, and then a related idea in sharper, repeated notes; this leads to a scherzo-like section where the melody is traded between the clarinet and strings; then a slow, tender duet between the clarinet and first violin, which after a clarinet cadenza, leads to the variations on the debka melody–mostly lively and playful, eventually becoming rather wild as it brings back the opening material in a new character, and then ending with a reprise of the debka theme.
See the links for these pages for score samples and information on purchasing scores and parts.
Performances
Premiere: Nov. 2009: Vasko Dukovski, clarinet; strings from the Juilliard School; Juilliard School of Music, New York, NY
January 2011: Bronx Arts Ensemble, Yonkers, NY
May 2019: Vasko Dukovski, clarinet, Cassatt String Quartet, Scarsdale, NY
This track is from the album SEA OF REEDS; information on purchasing the track or the entire album is on the SEA OF REEDS page.
Program Notes
I had heard Vasko Dukovski and Ismail Lumanovski perform both classical pieces and the folk music of their Macedonian heritage—the latter involving much improvisation—and I wanted to write a composition that would allow expression of these various elements of their characters. I also knew that all three players were incredible musicians and virtuosi, and so as a composer I could enjoy writing very challenging music that they would relish exploring. The Grneta Ensemble’s particular skills and artistry presented a wonderful inspiration – after all, being able to write for two clarinets together is like writing for a “super-clarinet” that plays duets with itself.
The theme of Grneta Variations has a Jewish folk character, but with syncopations and phrase shifts that are not typically found in a normal folk tune. The variations that follow have a wide variety of moods and textures, in which the many possibilities of having two clarinets, and the wide variety of sonority and registers possible with those instruments are explored. The tempo is generally lively, except for two slow sections—one a romantic version of the melody introduced in the piano, and the other a more mysterious and extended meditation. The coda of the piece begins with a murmuring figure that grows to a climactic short cadenza in the clarinets, and a quick, rather humorous return to the opening theme.
Selected performances:
Premiere: May 2010: Grneta Ensemble, (Vasko Dukovski, Ismail Lumanovski, Alexandra Joan), Bechstein Piano Center, New York, NY November 2010: Grneta Ensemble, WMP Concert Hall, New York, NY April 2011: Grneta Ensemble, Shaarei Tikvah, Scarsdale, NY April 2012: Grneta Ensemble, Ankara Music Festival, Ankara, Turkey June 2013: Grneta Ensemble, Center for Jewish History, New York, NY November 2014: Grneta Ensemble, Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY (Album release concert for Sea of Reeds)
PDF version of score and parts: $20 Printed version of score and parts: $35 + postage
Press for Grneta Variations
“Grneta Variations continues to demonstrate just how good Cohen is at taking a germ of an idea and expanding it into a varied, logical journey into fine art and personal meaning. The three amigos are at the top of their form, delivering a largely conversational set that never becomes argumentative. Moments of “catch me if you can” and full-cry clarion calls (a touch saucy no less) give way to wonderfully poetic section where hints of Brahms 4th symphony and vrai “Feelings” soothe the soul and captivate the ear…The coda’s look back while still moving forward, sums up the music to a T with a conclusion that perfectly reinforces the aura of positivity that is as welcome as spring rain.” — James Wegg, James Wegg Review
“The Grneta Ensemble is also featured in Cohen’s Grneta Variations. In fact, Cohen wrote both Sea of Reeds and Grneta Variations with the ensemble in mind. Having worked closely with the trio over the past five years, Cohen was inspired by their virtuosic playing in both classical and folk music realms. ‘To have developed the musical and personal relationship with [the Grneta Ensemble] and for them to have performed these pieces many times and to really have taken them into their musical hearts and souls very fully, that has been very meaningful,’ Cohen said. ‘For me, writing music for wonderful performers who enjoy playing the music is one of the key motivating elements for me as a composer. I love working with great performers and writing music that they’ll love playing.’
Grneta Variations” is written in the character of a Jewish folk melody, with vivid lyricism and rich rhythmic diversity. The lively melodies and spirited performances from all members of the trio highlight the folk elements of the composition while also showcasing each performer’s virtuosity and individual musical personality.” — Maggie Molloy, Second Inversion
Three Hebrew Songs was commissioned by violinist Wendy Sharp, and given its premiere at Sprague Hall, Yale University in June 2010, by Wendy Sharp, violin, and Gerald Cohen, piano.
Like the piece Sea of Reeds, these pieces are arrangements of three of my vocal compositions.
The three movements are:
1) Ad Matai (How long?)
2) V’haarev Na (May the words be sweet)
3) Dayeinu (It would been enough for us)
Premiere: June 2010: Wendy Sharp, violin; Gerald Cohen, piano; Yale University, New Haven, CT
July 2010: Wendy Sharp, violin; California Summer Music. Sonoma State University, CA.
Playing for our lives is featured on the album “VOYAGERS: String Quartet Music of Gerald Cohen”, performed by the Cassatt String Quartet. The album was released on innova Recordings in July 2023.
Program Notes
Playing for our lives was composed for the Cassatt String Quartet, who gave the premiere of the piece in New York City in February 2012. The Cassatts, in planning a program of music of the composers who were interned in the Nazi concentration camp Terezin (Theresienstadt), asked me to compose a piece that would be a contemporary memorial and tribute to the musical life of that place. Terezin, near Prague, was, in essence, a transit camp, where Jews and some other prisoners were kept until transport to the death camps such as Auschwitz. The Nazis allowed a certain amount of art and education to take place at Terezin, both as a way of occupying the prisoners, and also since it served their purpose of deceiving the world as to the nature of concentration camps in general. And there were a great number of excellent artists of all sorts in the camp, among those many excellent performers and several excellent composers—and so musical life flourished with a passion in these very strange surroundings.
In my string quartet, I have used several musical essences of the life at Terezin. One is the Yiddish folk song “Beryozkele” (Little birch tree), a poignant song that was arranged there by the composer Viktor Ullmann (I use the melody, not his arrangement). Folk songs—Czech, Hebrew and Yiddish—were important parts of the lives especially of the children at Terezin, who sang them in choirs formed in their barracks. The second is a lullaby from Hans Krasa’s opera Brundibar, which was one of the most important musical experiences of Terezin–an opera performed entirely by children as the singers, and which was so popular there that it was performed more than 50 times. Finally, I use excerpts from Verdi’s Requiem, a piece that was championed at Terezin by the dynamic conductor Rafael Schachter, and was also performed many times, but by three different choruses–as after each of the first two performances, virtually the entire chorus was transported to their deaths at Auschwitz.
With all of these pieces, but especially the Requiem, the layers of paradox and poignancy are extraordinarily powerful: for the prisoners, music was something that gave them deep joy; at the same time, the Nazis used the concerts as a propaganda tool to fool the world as to the nature of the camp. The Requiem spoke to people of their own deaths, but at the same time, in speaking of a Dies Irae—a day of wrath—was a defiant stab at the Nazis.
In my quartet, these various feelings and musical elements are woven together to create a memorial to the musical and emotional life of the camp. “Beryozkele” and its tender lament dominate the early part of the piece; the middle section is a set of variations on the lullaby from Brundibar, as the music attempts to bring the joy of that piece to the fore; and the final section is dominated by elements of the Requiem, with its passion, anger, and also quiet mourning.
The title of the piece is inspired by a quote from Paul Rabinowitsch, who at the age of 14, was the trumpet player in Brundibar, and was one of the few in that opera to survive the war: “When the SS was present, I always had this shadowy feeling at the back of my head. I knew I could not play wrong, and you can hear every wrong note very clearly on a trumpet. Rahm [the commandant of Terezin] would notice, I thought to myself, and be mad at me, and put me on a transport. And in those moments it was as if I were playing for my life.”*
*Quote from The Girls of Room 28 by Hannelore Brenner (Schocken Books, 2009)
Selected Performances
Premiere: February 2012: Cassatt String Quartet, Symphony Space, New York, NY April 2012: Cassatt String Quartet, Shaarei Tikvah Congregation, Scarsdale, NY April 2012: Cassatt String Quartet, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, NY December 2012: Cassatt String Quartet, Symphony Space, New York, NY May 2013: Cassatt String Quartet, Congregation Emanu-El. Rye, NY February 2015: Cassatt String Quartet, Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center, Midland TX July 2019: Pittsfield High School String Quartet, Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA (Gerald Cohen lecture on “Verdi in Terezin: A Composer’s Inspiration”) Playing for our lives will be featured on an album of Gerald Cohen’s music, entitled Voyagers, on innova Recordings, to be released in Spring 2023.
This set of pieces were composed for the Grneta Ensemble (Vasko Dukovski and Ismail Lumanovski, clarinets; Alexandra Joan, piano) and are a suite of arrangements of music originally written for solo voice or chorus. I work in two musical words which frequently intersect—that as a composer and cantor—and so often write music for Jewish services, or concert music based on Jewish texts. The first performance of Sea of Reeds was at the Juilliard School of Music in 2009; it has since been performed many times by the Grneta Ensemble and other performers, and was included on the 2014 album of my chamber music with clarinet, also entitled Sea of Reeds. It is also available in an arrangement for clarinet, viola, and piano; I have also arranged some of these songs for violin and piano; and for voice with violin, piano, and cello.
MOVEMENTS: 1. “Hariu Ladonai” is a setting of the joyous Psalm 100, a poem which asks all the earth to give a “shout of joy” in praise of God. Link to vocal version
2. “Adonai Ro’i Lo Echsar” is a setting of Psalm 23, one of the most famous of the Psalms “the Lord is my Shepherd”—which is often used as a consolation for those in mourning. Link to vocal version
3. “Dodi Li Vaani Lo,” originally for chorus, is a setting from the Song of Songs, the Biblical poem celebrating romantic and physical love. Link to vocal version
4. “Y’varech’cha” is a setting of the text used as a blessing from parents to children at the beginning of the Sabbath celebration. Link to vocal version
5. “Dayeinu,” also arranged from a choral piece, is based on one of the most famous sections of the Passover Haggadah—a song of thanks to God for deliverance from slavery to freedom. Link to vocal version
Premiere: November 2009, Grneta Ensemble, Juilliard School, New York, NY November 2010, Grneta Ensemble, WMP Concert Hall, New York, NY April 2012, Grneta Ensemble, Ankara Music Festival, Ankara, Turkey November 2014, Grneta Ensemble, Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY (Album release concert for Sea of Reeds) 2015-present, Featured on PRI’s Performance Today many times July 2017, Amicitia Duo, ClarinetFest of the International Clarinet Association, Orlando, FL
PDF version of score and parts: $20 Printed version of score and parts: $35 + postage
Audio
This track is from the album SEA OF REEDS; information on purchasing the track or the entire album is on the SEA OF REEDS page.
Press
“…I deliberately chose not to look up the translations of the five titles which comprise Sea of Reeds. Here, Cohen succinctly proves why the only thing better than one clarinet is two! “Hariu Ladonai” continues the jazzy feel and flow of Variously Blue: the two clarinets (Ismail Lumanovski joining in) blend well just as the edgy rhythms and metres entice. An airy clarinet line and gentle piano—full of emotion—begin “Adonai Ro’I Lo Echsar” before the second songle-reed entry adds still more colour to the palette with discreet vibrato. This movement wants to find its way to a Broadway musical as the BIG love song. “Dodi Li Va’ani Lo” is the highlight, with the clarinets doing their magic together or apart; Joan’s left-hand—like the finest double bassist anywhere—keeps everyone moving steadily forward.
In much the same vein as “Adonai Ro’i,”, “Y’varech’cha” offers a most lyrical, somewhat whimsical waltz. The clarinets’ sotto voce effect is a tad too breathy for my taste, but the harmonizations more than make up for that slight quibble. “Dayeinu” is a marvellously optimistic finish, replete with a brief flashback to the theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas—or was that just my inner child hearing things?”
This is a new arrangement (2020), for piano solo, of my composition Sea of Reeds, for two clarinets and piano, originally written in 2009. Information on the original trio version is given below. _____________________________________________________________________________
This set of pieces were composed for the Grneta Ensemble (Vasko Dukovski and Ismail Lumanovski, clarinets; Alexandra Joan, piano) and are a suite of arrangements of music originally written for solo voice or chorus. I work in two musical words which frequently intersect—that as a composer and cantor—and so often write music for Jewish services, or concert music based on Jewish texts. The first performance of Sea of Reeds was at the Juilliard School of Music in 2009; it has since been performed many times by the Grneta Ensemble and other performers, and was included on the 2014 album of my chamber music with clarinet, also entitled Sea of Reeds. It is also available in an arrangement for clarinet, viola, and piano; I have also arranged some of these songs for violin and piano; and for voice with violin, piano, and cello.
MOVEMENTS: 1. “Hariu Ladonai” is a setting of the joyous Psalm 100, a poem which asks all the earth to give a “shout of joy” in praise of God. Link to vocal version
2. “Adonai Ro’i Lo Echsar” is a setting of Psalm 23, one of the most famous of the Psalms “the Lord is my Shepherd”—which is often used as a consolation for those in mourning. Link to vocal version
3. “Dodi Li Vaani Lo,” originally for chorus, is a setting from the Song of Songs, the Biblical poem celebrating romantic and physical love. Link to vocal version
4. “Y’varech’cha” is a setting of the text used as a blessing from parents to children at the beginning of the Sabbath celebration. Link to vocal version
5. “Dayeinu,” also arranged from a choral piece, is based on one of the most famous sections of the Passover Haggadah—a song of thanks to God for deliverance from slavery to freedom. Link to vocal version
PDF version of score: $14 Printed version of score and parts: $20 + postage
Audio and Video
This track is from the album SEA OF REEDS; information on purchasing the track or the entire album is on the SEA OF REEDS page.
Press
“…I deliberately chose not to look up the translations of the five titles which comprise Sea of Reeds. Here, Cohen succinctly proves why the only thing better than one clarinet is two! “Hariu Ladonai” continues the jazzy feel and flow of Variously Blue: the two clarinets (Ismail Lumanovski joining in) blend well just as the edgy rhythms and metres entice. An airy clarinet line and gentle piano—full of emotion—begin “Adonai Ro’I Lo Echsar” before the second songle-reed entry adds still more colour to the palette with discreet vibrato. This movement wants to find its way to a Broadway musical as the BIG love song. “Dodi Li Va’ani Lo” is the highlight, with the clarinets doing their magic together or apart; Joan’s left-hand—like the finest double bassist anywhere—keeps everyone moving steadily forward.
In much the same vein as “Adonai Ro’i,”, “Y’varech’cha” offers a most lyrical, somewhat whimsical waltz. The clarinets’ sotto voce effect is a tad too breathy for my taste, but the harmonizations more than make up for that slight quibble. “Dayeinu” is a marvellously optimistic finish, replete with a brief flashback to the theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas—or was that just my inner child hearing things?”
Ballade, for piano solo, was composed in 1993, and given its premiere in 1994 by Michael Arnowitt. A single-movement work, six minutes in duration, Ballade begins with a longing theme which is presented delicately, and then later in a passionate and dramatic fashion, before arriving at a quiet close.
Voyagers, for clarinet and string quartet (2017) | 30′
Voyagers will be featured on the album “VOYAGERS: String Quartet Music of Gerald Cohen”, performed by Narek Arutyunian and the Cassatt String Quartet. The album will be released on innova Recordings in July 2023.
Voyagers, for clarinet and string quartet, is a tribute to the two Voyager spacecraft on the 40th anniversary of their launch, and of the music of the Golden Record, sent to accompany them on their journey out of the solar system. The piece was composed for my dear friends, the Cassatt Quartet and clarinetist Vasko Dukovski; it has been a delight to take this musical and astronomical journey with these superb performers.
Voyagers focuses on several of the pieces that were part of the Golden Record, weaving them together in a composition that celebrates humanity’s quest to explore the universe, and the power of music to express the rich emotional and cultural world of human beings. The creators of the Golden Record chose an idiosyncratic selection of pieces from around the world, and I have in turn chosen several of these pieces— a late Beethoven quartet (Cavatina), an Indian Raga (Bhairavi), and a Renaissance dance (Galliard).
Writing this piece was in itself a wonderful journey, especially doing research to learn more about the Voyagers’ remarkable mission, and about the selection of the music, sounds and images of the Golden Record. The piece is not meant to have any literal description of the Voyagers’ travels and discoveries, but rather to use the selections from the Golden Record to evoke our human feelings about music, about space, and about exploration. I am fascinated by the idea of the Golden Record being sent to accompany the spacecraft, knowing that it would almost definitely never be found by any extraterrestrial civilization, but that it was, nonetheless, a significant message of who we were at this moment in time, and how we might express what it means to be human.
The composition was given its premiere in November 2017 at the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, with astrovisualizations designed by Carter Emmart, director of Astrovisualization at the Planetarium, and with Timothy Ferris, the producer of the Golden Record, sharing his perspective on the Voyager mission. The Cassatts and Dukovski performed the piece four times at the Seal Bay Festival in Vinalhaven, Maine (Summer 2018), and by the Cassatt and clarinetist Narek Arutyunian in New York City in May 2022. Voyagers will be featured on an album of Gerald Cohen’s music (the album is also titled Voyagers) on innova Recordings, to be released in Spring 2023. There are pending performances at several other planetariums; we are especially excited about the collaboration with the planetariums, seeing it as a linking of music, science and visual art.
The piece is in four movements, played without pause:
1) Cavatina 2) Bhairavi 3) Galliard 4) Beyond the Heliosphere
–The 1st movement, has a reference to the Raga (see 2nd movement), but has more direct references to the Cavatina of Beethoven’s op. 130 (played by the Budapest Quartet on the recording). Listen to the Cavatina, as heard on the Golden Record. Mystery of the vastness of space, and the plucky energy of the Voyager craft as they begin their voyage.
—The 2nd movement, functioning as a slow movement, is an extended quote and development of the vocal Raga Bhairavi “Jaat Kahan Ho.” Listen to the Raga, as heard on the Golden Record. Images, perhaps, of humanity contemplating the unfathomable expanse of space.
—The 3rd movement, a scherzo, is based on “The Fairie Round” Galliard, a Renaissance dance by Anthony Holborne. Listen to the Galliard, as heard on the Golden Record. It bounds between many different characters as it explores that dance, and I think of it as both the spacecraft “dancing” its way on its journey, and also the planets and moons themselves in a great cosmic dance.
—The 4th movement brings back elements of all the excerpts, but with the Cavatina again coming back as a central element, including a fairly lengthy quote near the end. The piece fades out on a repeated high note in the bass clarinet, as if the signal of the Voyager continues on, ever more faint, as it continues its interstellar voyage.
Performances
Premiere: November 2017: Cassatt Quartet,Vasko Dukovski, Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
July 2018: Cassatt Quartet, Vasko Dukovski, Seal Bay Festival, Vinalhaven, ME, and other Maine locations
May 2019: Cassatt Quartet, Vasko Dukovski, Scarsdale, NY
May 2022: Cassatt Quartet, Narek Arutyunian, New York, NY
…[Clarinetist Vasko] Dukovski brought clarity and agility to both works, and also to Gerald Cohen’s “Voyagers” (2017), in which he joined the Cassatt players, on several kinds of clarinets, in a tribute to the two Voyager spacecrafts, launched in 1977 and still hurtling through space. There are, as you might expect, passages that evoke the eerie loneliness of the spacecrafts’ journeys. But much of the work is vigorously animated.
Cohen based parts of the score on pieces from the Voyagers’ golden discs – selections of music, natural sounds, speech and photographs, meant to convey an impression of Earth to distant civilizations that might decode them. His choices were a Renaissance dance, a Beethoven quartet and a Hindustani vocal piece, but though he briefly quotes each, he quickly deconstructs them and spins imaginative fantasies around their essential elements in his own freewheeling, largely neo-Romantic style…
“One of the most important tasks for the current classical music world is bringing the wonderful range of today’s classical compositions and the spectacular talents of its performers to contemporary audiences in new and engaging ways. The Cassatt String Quartet, with clarinetist Vasko Dukovski, certainly endeavored to do that with their performance of Gerald Cohen’s Voyagers, for String Quartet and Clarinet, on November 28, 2017 at the Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Although the performance itself succeeded beautifully, and I certainly don’t question the intent of the event organizers, I think the setting may have come close to overwhelming the music. If you believe the famous theater designer Robert Edmond Jones (and I do), a set that is too small will cramp the energy of a performance, and a set that’s too big will diffuse it. I think the latter may have almost been the case at the planetarium.
That said, there were many great things about the evening. First of these was seeing new music presented in such an important venue, with a sold-out audience of well over 400 that contained many children. Second was the pre-performance talks by Hayden’s “astrovisualizer” Carter Emmert, speaking (interestingly, but perhaps a bit too long) about the Voyager spacecraft missions and author Timothy Ferris speaking about the Golden Record that was part of these missions. Third was the composer, after happily greeting his large coterie of friends, talking about his piece, describing the music of the Golden Record, on which Voyagers is based, as “the perfect way to summarize who we are.” Fourth, and best of all, was the performance of the music itself, which easily stood on its own, and more than survived a bit of diffusion.
Cohen’s program notes say, “Voyagers, for clarinet and string quartet, is a tribute to the two Voyager spacecraft on the 40th anniversary of their launch, and of the music of the Golden Record, sent to accompany them on their journey out of the solar system. The piece was composed for my dear friends, The Cassatt Quartet and clarinetist Vasko Dukovski; it has been a delight to take this musical and astronomical journey with these superb performers.”
Indeed, the audience was part of this journey through the spectacularly presented and superbly coordinated “astrovisualizations” projected onto the planetariums large dome that accompanied the performance.
The piece, played without a break, consists of 1. Cavatina, 2. Bhairavi, 3. Gaillard and 4. Beyond the Heliosphere, the first three movements based on selections from the Golden Record. This is attractive, tonal, frequently melodic music. It includes references to Beethoven and other source materials, but stands on its own as a genuinely beautiful and evocative score, with a lovely palette of emotions and textures. It struck me that the music has elements of the wonderful American music of the 1950s and 60s – not the Druckman strain, but the line from Copland, Harris, Schuman, and so many others. The effect of this music truly stays with the listener.
The Cassatt Quartet and clarinetist Dukovski gave a wonderful performance, with a beautifully integrated sound that flowed smoothly from idea to idea. Their performance was the type I’d like to accompany me if I ever have occasion to fly through the cosmos. They also convinced me that I’d love to hear this score again, but in a more intimate venue, and without “astrovisualizations.”
So, the venue was too big, but the music and the performers filled it with the beauty of the universe, and gave it a truly fine soundtrack.”
The piece is in four movements, played without pause:
