From the Shadow of the Mountain (2001), for string orchestra.
Commissioned and premiered by the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee, Chattanooga, September 2001.
Jan SwaffordComposer
Jan Swafford’s music has been played around the U.S. and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of St. Louis, Indianapolis, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Dutch Radio; Orchestra New England; Boston’s new-music groups Musica Viva, Collage, and Dinosaur Annex; and chamber ensembles including the Peabody Trio, the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee, and the Scott Chamber Players of Indianapolis.
Over the years his work has evolved widely, but in all its avatars his music is forthrightly expressive, individual in voice, and steadily concerned with lucidity of texture and form. Beneath the surface there are contributions from world music, especially Indian and Balinese, and from jazz and blues. The titles of his works, including Landscape with Traveler, From the Shadow of the Mountain, Late Autumn, River, and The Silence at Yuma Point, reveal a steady inspiration from nature. The composer views his work as a kind of classicist aesthetic: a concern with clarity and directness, pieces that aspire to sound like they wrote themselves, and that seem familiar though each has a distinctive tonal and expressive language.
Also a well-known writer on music, Swafford is author of biographies of Ives, Brahms, Beethoven, and Mozart, as well as two introductions to music—The Vintage Guide and Language of the Spirit. His journalism has appeared in publications including Slate, Gramophone, The Guardian, and The Atlantic. He is a longtime program writer and pre-concert lecturer for the Boston Symphony, and has written program notes and essays for the orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Toronto, for the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, and for DG and Naxos recordings.
Orchestra & Wind Ensemble
- RIVER for string orchestra (2025).
Premiered by Orchestra New England in May 2026. Recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. - LATE AUTUMN – FIRST SNOW (2024).
Commissioned for the 50th anniversary of Orchestra New England. Premiered by the orchestra in May 2024. Recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
After Spring Rain (1982), for orchestra.
Commissioned and premiered by the Chattanooga Symphony in 1982. Published by Peer. Won Indiana State University Composition Contest 1983.
- Adirondack Interlude (2001), for orchestra.
Commissioned and premiered by the Skidmore College Orchestra, April 2002. - Late August: Prelude for Chamber Orchestra on Southern Themes (1992). Full orchestra version, 1998.
Premiered by the Minneapolis Chamber Symphony, March 1992. Published by Peer. - Chamber Sinfonietta (1988), for chamber orchestra.
Written for and premiered by Boston’s Alea III, March 1988. Published by Peer. Won Massachusetts Artists Council Grant 1989. - Landscape with Traveler (1980), for orchestra.
Premiered in a public reading by the American Composers Orchestra 1988. Published by Peer. - Point: Genesis: Matrix: Music from the Mountain (1969 to 1972), for wind ensemble.
First movement premiered by the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble 2012. - Passage (1975), for strings, piccolo, and percussion.
Premiered by the St. Louis Symphony 1976. Chosen for the International Gaudeamus Festival 1977.
Chamber Music
They That Mourn (2002), for piano trio.
In memoriam 9/11. Commissioned by Market Square Concerts for their 25th anniversary celebration. Premiered by the Peabody Trio in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 2002. Published by Peer.
- Requiem in Winter (1991), for string trio or string sextet.
Written on an NEA Grant. Premiered by the Scott Chamber Players, Indianapolis, November 1992. Published by Peer. - Caprices (1989), for piano and three winds.
Commissioned by the Sylmar Chamber Ensemble of Minneapolis. Premiered in Minneapolis, February 1989. - They Who Hunger (1989), for piano quartet.
A Chamber Music America commission for the Scott Chamber Players. Premiered by the Scott Chamber Players in Indianapolis in 1989. Published by Peer. Recorded on CRI by the Scott Chamber Players.
Midsummer Variations (1985; second version 1987), for piano quintet.
Commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Artists Ensemble in 1985. Published by Peer. Won Massachusetts Artists Council Grant 1989. Recorded on CRI by the Scott Chamber Players.
- Labyrinths (1981), for violin and cello.
Premiered at Yale in 1982. Won New England Composers Competition 1984. - Out of the Silence (1979), for winds and strings.
Premiered in New York by Musical Elements in 1979. - Fleurs (1978), for five flutists.
Commissioned and premiered by the St. Louis Flute Club in 1979. - The Garden of Forking Paths #3 (1974), for five winds.
Premiered at Yale in 1974. - The Garden of Forking Paths #2 (1971), for flute and piccolo trumpet.
Premiered at New England Conservatory in 1971. Published by Meridian. - String Quartet (1968).
Premiered at Yale in 1976.
Peal (1976), for six trumpets.
Premiered at Yale in 1977. Chosen for the International Gaudeamus Festival in Holland, 1978.
Keyboard and Solo Instrument
In Time of War (2007), for cello and piano.
Written for and premiered by Emanuel Feldman and George Lopez, New England Conservatory, May 2007.
- In Time of Fear (1984), for flute and harpsichord.
Premiered in Deerfield in 1984.
Solo Instrument
- ANDANTE AMOROSO for solo piano (2022).
Recorded by Andrew Rangel. - The Silence at Yuma Point (2011), for solo cello.
Written for, premiered, and recorded by Rhonda Rider 2011. - A Celebration With Cathy (2007), for solo viola.
Premiered by Ronald Gorevic, Smith College, November 2007. - Music Like Steel and Like Fire (1983), for solo piano.
Premiered at Smith College in 1985. Won Delius Competition ’89. Recorded by Adam Golka.
Theater and Vocal Music
- Iphigenia (1993), for women’s choir and ten instruments.
Concert version with narrator. Original theater version commissioned by the University of Tennessee. Premiered in Chattanooga, November 1993. - The Good Woman of Setzuan (1977), for voices and chamber ensemble.
Premiered at the Yale School of Drama in 1977.
Shore Lines (1982), for soprano and flute.
Premiered in Deerfield in 1983. Published by Meridian. Performed at National Flute Conventions in 1994 and 1995. Won a National Flute Association Award for newly published work in 1995.
Mixed Media
Magus (1977), for cello and tape.
Premiered by Gerhard Pawlica at Boston University in 1978.
What the Critics Are Saying
“Swafford’s piece is a private outpouring scaled to a deeply felt, intimately scored trio … that seems to channel the energy of the trios of Ravel or Shostakovich.”
— Boston Globe
“The most immediate appeal of this excellently performed and recorded disc is Jan Swafford’s beautiful answer to what comes after Modernism.”
— American Record Guide
“Channels the energy of Ravel or Shostakovich.”
— Boston Globe
“Rich in mood and atmosphere, spare and transparent in sound, and lyrical in effect.”
— The Indianapolis News
“His music sounds only like itself.”
— The Pennsylvania Beacon
“Swafford does write well, very well indeed.”
— Fanfare
“Fresh”
— Boston Globe
“Jaunty with motoric rhythms, lyrical and bluesy”
— Boston Globe
“Unusual and haunting sonic combinations”
— Boston Herald