For your consideration, Rounds by Jessie Montgomery for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Rounds is a composition inspired by the imagery and themes from T.S. Eliot’s epic poem Four Quartets, fractals (infinite patterns found in nature that are self-similar across different scales), and the interdependency of all beings.
“Like Eliot in Four Quartets, beginning to understand this interconnectedness requires that we slow down, listen, and observe both the effect and the opposite effect caused by every single action and moment. I’ve found this is an exercise that lends itself very naturally towards musical gestural possibilities that I explore in the work – action and reaction, dark and light, stagnant and swift.”
— Jessie Montgomery
Rounds by Jessie Montgomery
Awadagin Pratt, piano
A Far Cry
“A revelation, and a reinforcement of Montgomery’s reliably vital voice as a composer”
– The Washington Post
“Striking… Montgomery’s music has a narrative flair and structural clarity.”
– The Boston Globe
“supporting new harmonies within old structures…exploring the tension between motion and stillness found in T.S. Eliot’s verses”
– NPR
“active, melodically interesting, and inspired by the mesmerizing symmetry of fractals”
– I Care if you Listen
“providing listeners with significant immersion…lush”
– The New York Times