Titles don't always tell the whole story.
Take "Abstractions," for example. There are actually lots of specifics behind this orchestral piece by Anna Clyne, which the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will premiere this weekend as part of a program celebrating women in music.
The London-born, New York-based Clyne was commissioned to compose a work for the BSO and music director Marin Alsop in honor of Baltimore philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, major supporters of the orchestra and its OrchKids educational project. The commission came from their friend Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.
"It was unusual for me to be invited to write music for specific people," Clyne says. "It was wonderful to get to know Bob and Rheda."
The composer also was introduced to Meyerhoff's highly regarded private art collection of modern masterworks, as well as items he and Becker have given to the Baltimore Museum of Art. That exposure helped to generate Clyne's "Abstractions."
The score is in five movements, each related to a piece of art, including the late Ellsworth Kelly's bold black-and-white lithograph "River II" from 2005 and a 1980 photographic seascape by Hiroshi Sugimoto.
"Art has a color palette that can be translated ... into harmonies and orchestration, but my intention was not to be literal," Clyne says. "The challenge was to be inspired by the art, but not be limited by that. It was also a challenge to write five quite contrasting movements and hold them all together. I learned a lot through this process."
The 36-year-old Clyne is a quick learner. She didn't start composing in earnest until she was 21, "which is quite late," she says. She soon made a name for herself as a writer of vividly colorful and expressive music (and as a confident wearer of hats). She has served as composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and other major organizations.