Portrait of American Women Composers II

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Luminaria is a composition about musical light, or more precisely, instrumental color and its movement.  Based on the model of the concerto for orchestra, the piece is built around contrasting instrumental bodies that alternately serve as foreground and background to one another.  As these relationships develop, there is a change of texture from thick blocks of sound, harmonically conceived, to thinner blocks of sound, more melodically conceived.  Rhythmic relationships also move through several changes: different types of rhythmic statements which form a dialogue; contrasting rhythmic statements which occur in parallel; and complementary rhythmic statements which divide into soli and tutti.Luminaria is thus an exploration of the relationships between full orchestra, where musical ideas are presented by instrumental sections, and chamber ensemble, where the ideas are presented by individual voices.  During the course of the piece, one is transformed into the other. Luminaria is dedicated to my mother, Florence Misurell, and to the memory of my father, Rocco Misurell. (Janice Misurell-Mitchell)