Occidentalis (2019)

General Information

Commissioner: Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute for the 2019 National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA)
Written: February – May, 2019
Duration: ca. 3.5’­
Instrumentation: 3[1.2/pic.pic] 3 3[1.2.3/bcl] 3[1.2.3/cbn] - 4 3 3 1 - tmp+3 - hp, pf - str

Performance History

August 1, 2019: NYO-USA conducted by Antonio Pappano at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA (World Premiere)
August 6, 2019: NYO-USA conducted by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK (European Premiere)
August 10, 2019: NYO-USA conducted by Antonio Pappano at the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdamn, NL

Perusal Score

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Program Note

When invited to compose a piece for the National Youth Orchestra’s 2019 summer tour to Europe, I sought inspiration from the group’s mission to serve as an artistic ambassador of goodwill from the USA. With this work, I wanted to somehow capture through music a part of what it means to be American, without being cliché or overgeneralizing.

I began my thinking very simply: America is west of Europe. The term ‘occidentalis’ itself was used on old European nautical maps to indicate the westward direction. The idea of that direction historically carries a lot of significance in the US: ‘going west’ to find land and start a new life on the frontier was the defining element of human migration in the Americas throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Through the use of Latin in the title, I’m also hoping to convey the antiquity, primacy and universality of this desire, for the constant pursuit of a better life is simply built into our collective psyche.

The United States is a primarily nation of immigrants. We are, as a country, innately defined by this promise of a better life elsewhere. This idea is not extinct today: the human right to pursue freedom and prosperity is all too relevant in today’s political climate, as not only honest concerns about border security but also xenophobia seem ever-present in voting patterns and the popular voice. More personally, many immigrants, including my own ancestors, sailed west to America fleeing poverty and religious persecution, seeking better lives for themselves and their children. Further, I am about to leave home for university – my own personal journey of starting anew elsewhere. In this sense, Occidentalis is about the many dual-faceted emotions behind leaving one place to find something better in another: a deep uncertainty and anxiety in what the future may hold, but also excitement and the joy of possibility.

Awards

ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award (2020)
Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Composition Competition, Senior Division, First Prize (2020)

Press

A boisterous, minimalist-inspired curtain-raiser, Occidentalis, by Benjamin Beckman, showed that even at 19 you can have a strong compositional voice. - The Guardian

As much as the Proms strives to stand above the events of its time, that doesn’t mean the musicians, conductors or composers who perform there should necessarily do so. Reading the booklet before the National Youth Orchestra of the USA’s Prom, I was struck by something written by the young American composer, Benjamin Beckman, in his notes for his work, Occidentalis (2019). In the space of two sentences, he manages to mention human rights, freedom, xenophobia, voting patterns, poverty, religious persecution and immigration. The photograph accompanying his text is headlined ‘Chasing the American Dream’, and the very concept of westward migration into America is a central theme of Beckman’s piece. Today, all of these ideals are under threat - and Beckman’s Occidentalis, a composition written on the basis of what it means to be American, questions all of this.

Of course, the notion a nineteen-year old American composer should have a social conscience isn’t surprising, especially when contextualised through the prism of the century in which he was born and the politics which have shaped it. What is unusual is both the confidence with which he expresses it and the musical direction it takes. The very choice of the word he has used to title his short work, of which this was the European premiere, is rich with allusion: To the nautical maps used, the specific westward direction and even its Latinate origins which takes us through centuries of history. Migration is the bedrock on which American society was founded, which links it to western Europe, but which also gives it unlimited possibilities.

Musically, Occidentalis, if slight in length, is clever. If it most obviously evokes Copland in its opening, it’s strikingly forceful in alluding to one of the most notable émigré composers to take the journey westwards to the United States, Stravinsky. The brass writing for Occidentalis (Beckman is a horn player) is bright in the fragmented fanfares which suggest something of the New World; elsewhere, the impression is that horns and trombones are the confident link on which much of the threads of the work are held together. Strings can be rich in their depth, and woodwind are like kaleidoscopic fractals. Beckman - at least in this piece - is a composer who doesn’t look to the style of Adams or Glass, but backwards towards Howard Hanson. - Opera Today

Alongside the hundred or so players, NYO-USA commissions works from apprentice composers each year for its summer tour. Benjamin Beckman’s Occidentalis is a work of uncommon maturity, blending the vernacular influences of Aaron Copland and William Bolcom with the extended orchestral palette of Boulez or Messiaen. Beckman shows a particular aptitude for orchestral colour, with slashing brass and woodwind flourishes alongside cascades of string and percussion in striking juxtaposition. What was most impressive was the clarity of the writing even in spite of the Strauss-sized orchestra; Beckman more than stands his own alongside master orchestrators such as Berlioz and Strauss. - bachtrack

Kicking off the programme was nineteen-year old Benjamin Beckman’s four-minute Occidentalis, the title deriving from markings and annotations found on old European nautical maps to indicate the westward direction. With washes of brass sound, often placed over a pulsating body of restless string-writing punctuated with glittery percussion and woodwind flourishes, it seemed on this first hearing to owe some debts to Sibelius as well as some of the composers from the American minimalist stable, notably John Adams... What was pleasing was its sense of confident ebullience, and Beckman seems like an orchestrator to watch! - Classical Source

They began with the European premiere of Occidentalis, a five-minute orchestral fanfare by 19-year-old American composer Benjamin Beckman. The work’s title is adopted from old European nautical maps which indicated the direction west of Europe, and was written to celebrate the USA as a country of immigrants who fled west from hunger and persecution in search of a better life.

A note of sunny optimism was sounded by the brass section’s opening salvo, but soon turned to uncertainty as the orchestra’s collective strings summoned a mood of restless anxiety, underlaid by a delicate membrane of percussion and accentuated with shrill bursts of woodwind. Ending on a high and joyous note, Beckman points to a new world where freedom and possibility are not yet extinct. - Seen and Heard International

The concert had opened with a short piece by one of the orchestra’s Apprentice Composers, Benjamin Beckman. Written for this summer’s tour and entitled Occidentalis, it reflects on the USA’s history of “going west” and on its makeup as a nation of immigratns. A composer whose life has been lived fully in the 21st century, Beckman (born in 2000) wrote his programme note of the emotions of leaving one place behind in search of something better.

At the Albert Hall, its European premiere- also the moment of Beckman’s first international exposure – certainly suggested a spirit of optimism. Brass and wind fanfares were followed by scattering strings before the piece set off on a fast ride and equally quickly hurtled to a close. A well written pièce d’ocassion, it showcased the spirit of the orchestra, one which in its very visible diversity is indeed – whatever some might say – truly American. - The Daily Telegraph