JOHN LIBERATORE
composer

The South Bend Symphony commissioned this work to reflect on Georges Seurat’s famous 1884 painting, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” I’ve thought about this painting often, even before the commission. The painting strikes as a kind of “Magic Eye” in reverse; I see the image clearly, yet the longer I look at the painting, the more I am drawn to the abstraction—to the points of light and dark, meaningless in themselves, that combine to render the subject. Specifically, the water fascinates me. Looking closely at the water reveals dots of gray, blue, green, but surprisingly, also pink and orange. These unexpected colors, indiscernible from a distance, add depth and nuance just beyond the threshold of comprehensibility. 

 

Following Seurat’s model, a song emerges from a texture of many small pieces. These pieces—individually insignificant fragments of arpeggios, tremolos, and similar gestures—form a tapestry of harmony and shifting color.