Keys To The City is a one-movement orchestral concerto for piano and orchestra written by the American composer Tobias Picker for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial.[1]
| Keys To The City (orchestral work) | |
|---|---|
| by Tobias Picker | |
 Chromolithograph of the Brooklyn Bridge | |
| Genre | Modernist |
| Occasion | 100th Anniversary of The Brooklyn Bridge |
| Commissioned by | Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission |
| Composed | 1983 |
| Performed | May 24, 1983: Brooklyn Bridge |
| Movements | 1 |
Commission and history
editPicker, at the time in his late twenties, received a commission from The Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission to compose a work for the bridge's centennial.[2][3] To prepare, Picker said:[4]
I read Hart Crane and McCullough's "The Great Bridge." I studied its history. Visiting the bridge at different times of day and night, I observed its structure, its content and its context. I watched the light play through cables composed of billions of strands of streel. I listened from the foot bridge to the whine of the cars below. I studied paintings, poems, and songs which had been made in tribute to the bridge over the years. I even gave a champagne party for my friends on it one starry midnight. And I composed furiously.
Keys To The City premiered on May 24, 1983, at the Fulton Ferry Landing underneath Brooklyn Bridge.[5]
References
edit- ^ Maurice Edwards, How Music Grew in Brooklyn: A Biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2006), p. 143. ISBN 9780810856660
- ^ Haberman, Clyde (October 5, 1982). "New York Day By Day". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
- ^ Page, Tim (May 25, 1983). "A Concerto To The Beat Of The City". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
- ^ "Keys To The City - Tobias Pickeer". tobiaspicker.com. August 1, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- ^ Carmody, Deirdre (May 24, 1983). "Brooklyn Bridge, 'The Only Bridge of Power, Life, And Joy,' Turns 100; Today". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.