Commemorating 9/11 in Music

Fifteen years later, the anguish of 9/11 still resonates for Americans, including many composers.  There have been several pieces composed since that date that memorialize the people and events:

John Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls
Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for this haunting work that uses the names of some of the victims as the text.

• Compact Disc 15245
• Naxos Music Library link  (log in required from off campus)

Jake Heggie:  Pieces of 9/11
Heggie used interviews of Houston natives as the text for haunting pieces set for three singers and a small group of instrumentalists.

• Compact Disc 22675
• Naxos Music Library link

Steve Reich: WTC 9/11
Pre-recorded voices from NORAD, the Fire Department of New York and interviews of friends and neighbors combine with the Kronos Quartet.

• Compact Disc 20820
• Naxos Music Library link

Kevin Malone: The Music of 9/11, vol. 1

Requiem77 includes recordings of air traffic controllers attempting to reach American Airlines Flight 77.

• Compact Disc 21925
• Naxos Music Library link

Robert Moran:  Trinity Requiem

Trinity Church, located near the World Trade Center, commissioned this piece by Robert Moran and recorded it for its 10th anniversary commemoration.

• Compact Disc 21097
• Naxos Music Library link

Ingram Marshall:  September Canons

• Compact Disc 19790

Lera Auerbach:  September 11: Op. 63 for violin & piano

• Compact Disc 16972

Ned Rorem:  Aftermath, a song cycle

• Compact Disc 21465
• Naxos Music Library link

Harold Levin: Meditation on the Twin Towers

• Compact Disc 20805

On Naxos Music Library only:

• Karen Walwyn:  Reflections on 9/11
• Kevin Puts: Symphony No. 2
• George Quincy:  Voices from Ground Zero

For more information, check out this book:

The Politics of Post-9/11 Music: Sound, Trauma, and the Music Industry in the Time of Terror, edited by Joseph P. Fisher

ML 3918 .P67 P655 2011