THE STORY BEHIND: Simon's "Fate Now Conquers"

On November 12, Kensho Watanabe and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will present OLGA KERN PLAYS BEETHOVEN with pianist Olga Kern.

THE STORY BEHIND: Carlos Simon's Fate Now Conquers
Title: Fate Now Conquers
Composer: Carlos Simon (1986- )
Last time performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic: This is a RI Philharmonic Orchestra premiere. This piece is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.

The Story: Carlos Simon was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Atlanta, GA as the son of an African-American preacher. Gospel music was a pervasive influence in his formation as an American composer. Gospel Music’s improvisational aspect was especially important to him. At the age of ten, Simon began to play keyboard accompaniments in his father’s church, thus formally entering into the world of gospel music. As he grew older and developed his style as a composer, classical music masters, such as Beethoven and Brahms, became definite influences as well.

Simon attended Morehouse College as well as Georgia State University, earning degrees before embarking on doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. Along the way, he attained professional experience as keyboardist and musical director for rhythm and blues artists Angie Stone and Jennifer Holliday. In 2019, with doctoral degree in hand, Simon was appointed Assistant Professor in Georgetown University’s Department of Performing Arts. This position became a springboard for several commissions, awards, and honors, notably Composer-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2021. Many honors and commissions for music have followed.

Simon introduces us to his Fate Now Conquers in the following words:

This piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook, written in 1815:
Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book:

But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit
And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.
Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us.

We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished himself to fate. Fate now conquers. 

Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2022 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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