Jennifer Fitzgerald's Pocket


This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers!

http://www.pulsoptional.org/jennifer-fitzgerald/…/Pocket.mp3

The American composer Jennifer Fitzgerald (born 1975; died 2007) was only 32 when she died following a long battle with cancer. In her short career, she wrote some fascinating and intriguing music for, as she put it on her website, "unusual instrumental combinations." Part of the reason for this was, as she said, this was "the result of my years as the pianist for pulsoptional, 'North Carolina’s Band of Composers', which boasts the highly unusual instrumentation of oboe, bassoon, violin, two electric guitars, percussion and piano." Jennifer's legacy is preserved on the pulsoptional website (http://www.pulsoptional.org/jennifer-fitzgerald/), and you can hear some excerpts of her work there.

I can't remember when I first heard her piece for Hardanger fiddle, Pocket; she wrote it for the composing fiddle performer Dan Trueman in 2003, and he premiered it in Minneapolis that same year. It is mesmerizing and, although in some places gentle, there is an urgency that can't be ignored. I feel this urgency in all of her music. I know there was so much more that she had to say, but at least we have the amazing compositions that she did complete before her death.

My classical music post for today is Jennifer Fitzgerald's Pocket.

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