warp & weft
Sarah Gibson (1986-2024)
THE STORY
Works by Sarah Gibson have been performed by orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Seattle and New Jersey symphonies, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra—with whom she debuted as a pianist at age 19. A graduate of Indiana University and the University of Southern California, she was recognized with a Copland House Residency and served as Assistant Director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program and Assistant Professor in Composition/Theory at the California State University, Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra commissioned warp & weft in 2019.
The composer described the piece exploring the structure of creative work:
Inspired by the trailblazing work of artist Miriam Schapiro, warp & weft is a celebration of the creative process and specifically the Schapiro-coined term “femmage.” Femmage, or feminist collage, defines any activity practiced by women using traditional women’s techniques to achieve their art—collage, decoupage, and weaving, just to name a few. Schapiro used the term to elevate the significance of women’s crafting in the home which was historically denigrated as “decorative” art compared to predominantly male artists whose pieces were classified as “high” art.
The form and content of warp & weft is particularly inspired by the art of weaving. I visualized a loom and the act of weaving while composing, where the weft (horizontal axis of the loom) is represented by sections dedicated to gradually developing melodies, and the warp (vertical axis of the loom) depicts the sections identified by strong vertical chords. Throughout the piece, I imagine Schapiro’s studio, full of color, various materials, and ideas, swirling around in a fantastical way as she moves from medium to medium celebrating the history and artistic viewpoints of women past, present, and future.
INSTRUMENTATION
Two piccolos, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, piano, strings
