Born on February 29, 1984, in Connecticut; Currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Strut!
Composed: 2015
Estimated length: 6 minutes
Slatkin is always keen to make discoveries among local talent, and he determined that it was important to represent the music being created in Nashville today on the program. Cristina Spinei (“spin-AY”) proved to be “a discovery” for him. A resident of the city since 2014, she has developed especially close ties to Music City’s dance world, including work with Nashville Ballet beginning in 2017.
Spinei’s affinity for dance runs through much of her music; before becoming a composer, she even imagined a future as a ballerina. She describes her musical language as “minimalish”—a playful nod to minimalism and its reliance on repetition and rhythmic patterning. “I always want there to be some kind of movement through the music in the audience,” she says, describing a response that might be as simple as a listener keeping time with their own gestures.
“The title of the work came to me before the music,” Spinei explains. “I read an article about composers who were in the habit of going on walks while thinking about their music,” she recalls, citing Beethoven, Mahler, Britten, Tchaikovsky, and Satie. “Some of my favorite musical ideas have come to me when I’m out traipsing through town, always in a hurry and always in loud heels,” she says, adding: “The rhythm of my gait has worked its way into my music on a few occasions, and I thought it would be fun to incorporate that sound and the cadence of many people walking into a brisk piece for orchestra.”
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Spinei marks the opening “Jauntily.” A repeating figure in the piano and lower strings is immediately set against syncopated rhythms in the winds and brass, propelling the music forward. These ideas pass among different instruments; a lighter central passage brings playful woodwind solos and plucked strings to the foreground.
Scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussionists, piano, and strings.
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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