The Angel of History
ensemble: solo alto saxophone and wind ensemble (exact instrumentation below)
duration: 20 minutes
grade: 5
written: spring-fall 2024
commissioned by: Derek Granger, Utah Valley University Wind Symphony
premiere: April 25, 2025; Derek Granger, saxophone; Utah Valley University Wind Symphony; Christopher Ramos, conductor
PROGRAM Note:
I. Prologue
II. A Storm Blowing From Paradise
III. Wreckage Upon Wreckage
IV. Epilogue—Kedushah
“His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
— Walter Benjamin from Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940)
This evocative passage by Walter Benjamin depicting the angel of history has been swirling around in my mind for the past few years. Events and mindsets of the distant past, some stretching back centuries, seem to be circling back and repeating themselves in the present. And the failure, at times, for all of us to recognize this circular nature of some historical events has been deeply disheartening. My concerto, The Angel of History, reflects on this passage of time and the way the past tumbles violently into the present. The concerto is cast in four movements.
The first movement, a Prologue, emerges gradually out of the sound of tolling bells. The saxophone soloist meditates quietly on a pair of notes, rocking back and forth, before opening up into a more fleshed out melodic idea. A series of chorales from the ensemble begin to pile up until they break forth into the second movement, A Storm Blowing From Paradise. The soloist, now much more agitated than in the opening, breathlessly barks out a broken and fragmented message to an indifferent and at times mocking and snarling ensemble.
The third movement, Wreckage Upon Wreckage, the longest movement in the piece, toggles between steady, almost chant-like lines from the ensemble and long, lyrical responses from the soloist. These statements for the ensemble get heavier and more threatening with each iteration until they eventually overwhelm the soloist and roar out a grand wall of sound. Left hovering in space with shards of bell sounds, the soloist opens up into a reserved but emotional statement.
The final movement, Epilogue—Kedushah, leaves the piece back where it started, with the sounds of distant bells chiming in regular intervals pushing forward towards the future.
The Angel of History is dedicated to the soloist Derek Granger who, as the sole commissioner of my entire saxophone output, performs my music with the care and attention to detail any composer would dream of.
Instrumentation:
piccolo — 3 flutes (1 doubling picc. 2) — 2 oboes — english horn
2 bassoons — contrabassoon
4 Bb clarinets — bass clarinet
2 alto saxophones — tenor saxophone — baritone saxophone
4 F horns — 3 Bb trumpets — 2 trombones — bass trombone — tuba
solo alto saxophone
double bass (with low C string or extension)
piano (doubling celesta) — harp
timpani (doubles small whip)
percussion (4 players)
I. vibraphone, marimba, large suspended cymbal
II. crotales (with bass bow), xylophone, shekere (may substitute large guiro), 2 temple blocks
III. chimes, large whip, sandpaper blocks, 2 congas, large tam-tam, 2 tom-toms (floor/large)
IV. bass drum (with paper*), medium suspended cymbal
