Windows by James Matheson Chamber Music - Sheet Music

SKU: PR.110418140

ISBN 9781491129432. UPC: 680160640379. 9 x 12 inches.

Matheson’s five-movement work is a setting of stained glass windows created by Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse for a rustic country church adjoining the Rockefeller estate near Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson River. Matheson’s suite draws from four Chagall windows: 1. Jeremiah, 2. Isaiah, 3. Crucifixion, 4. The Good Samaritan, and culminates with Matisse’s 5. The Rose.
In 1954, the Rockefeller family asked Henri Matisse to create a stained glass Rose Windowxa0for the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, New York as a memorial to Abby Aldrichxa0Rockefeller, the great art patroness and a founder of the Museum of Modern Art. It was toxa0be the artist’s last work.xa0A few years later, Mrs. Rockefeller’s youngest son, David, acting on behalf of the family,xa0commissioned Marc Chagall to create an entire series of stained glass windows to fill thexa0rest of the small church resulting in the large, majestic “Good Samaritan” window andxa0eight sublime smaller windows, each depicting a biblical figure or scene. In 2015, Premierexa0Commission commissioned James Matheson to compose WINDOWS to celebrate thexa0centennial of the Union Church of Pocantico Hills and the 100th birthday of Davidxa0Rockefeller.xa0This deeply touching, epic cycle distills into music the intimate, often heart-rending, visionsxa0of Chagall as well as the powerful simplicity of Matisse’s modern design which utilizes thexa0striking collage forms he employed in his final years. Matheson’s work also reflects thexa0influence of Olivier Messiaen’s own theologically-inspired music. Like the French master,xa0Matheson utilizes large-scale blocks of harmonies with organ-like sonorities to supportxa0and shift the music’s kaleidoscopic planes of color and set into relief the work’s piercingxa0motifs and intricate patterns. The universal themes of love and sacrifice (“Jeremiah” andxa0“Isaiah”), loss and altruism (“Crucifixion” and “The Good Samaritan”) and the jubilantxa0celebration of life and nature (“The Rose”) are memorably portrayed in this poignantxa0tribute to the human spirit.—Bruce Levingston.