Lauren Bernofsky

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The story of Antamina follows the process of mining and then refining silver, a metaphor for the rehearsal process, where the “raw material” at a first rehearsal is gradually honed into a sparkling, refined performance. The music starts with a murky lugubrious introduction (reflecting  dull raw material to be mined), from which the initial motive of the main melody evolves. The piece then takes off in a lively, celebratory vein, with percussion, for added sparkle. Program this piece for an empowering selection your students will love both rehearsing and performing.
Antamina (pronounced “on-tuh-MEE-nuh”) was commissioned by the Prelude Strings program of Orange County, California. Their Executive Director, Annette Brower, had built up a thriving string orchestra program from scratch, and she wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program by having them premiere a piece specially-commissioned for the occasion. Being the silver anniversary, she requested a piece that followed the process of mining and then refining silver, a metaphor for the rehearsal process, where the “raw material” at a first rehearsal is gradually honed into a sparkling, refined performance.Mrs. Brower requested that students in the orchestra give input into the making of the work. Musical ideas were then sent in the form of videos, descriptions, and notated music. The composer wanted to make sure that, while making use of ideas from such varied compositional “voices,” the piece would still sound like a cohesive whole, so she translated their ideas into her own compositional language, sometimes using just the rhythm or contour of an idea offered.Following the programmatic story, the music begins with a murky, lugubrious introduction (reflecting the dull raw material to be mined), from which the initial motive of the main melody evolves: the D -  E in the cello harmonics is taken up by the first violins, where it then becomes the four-note ascending scale that begins the main melody. Wanting a bright, splendid-sounding tune, the composer raised the G of those four notes to a G-sharp, thus transforming the more ordinary major scale into the brighter sound of the Lydian mode. The piece then takes off in a lively, celebratory vein, with percussion, for added sparkle. Antamina was premiered on May 11, 2019 by the Prelude Chamber Strings, conducted by the composer.

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