WINGATE: DECONSTRUCTION WALTZES
Three East Wing Elegies for Orchestra

(THIS PROJECT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS)

 

Movements:

I. Der Eleganztod (The Death of Elegance) - Tempo di valse I.

II. Der schöne braune Potomac (The Beautiful Brown Potomac) - Tempo di valse II.

III. Das Vergoldeteplastikzeitalter (The Gilded Plastic Age) - Tempo di valse III.

Notes:

A relatively rare instance of overt political satire in Wingate’s musical oeuvre, the Deconstruction Waltzes take inspiration not only from current events, but also from the composer’s lifelong love-hate relationship with the Belle Époque Viennese Waltz style à la Johann Strauss II, and its embarrassingly irresistible öhrwurm decadences. The composer has already made fun of the Viennese Waltz in other compositions, notably the eighth variation (‘Waltz of the Misremembered Pasts’) of his Thirteen Self-Portraits for Wind Quintet (2020), and in the ‘Waltz-Fragment of Queen Kristina of Sweden’ from his Thirteen Cartesian Dualisms for Viola Duo (2011). But in this work, the ‘deconstruction’ from the piece’s title may be thought of as referring to (but perhaps not limited to): 1. Postmodernism in critical theory and philosophical aesthetics; 2. The actual demolition of the White House east wing in the U.S. capitol during October, 2025; 3. A sideways nod to the complex hegemonical issues of ‘re-construction’ in American history; 4. The deconstruction of civility and of the civilized world in general through bad behavior or bad taste, and; 5. The deconstructed musical form of the waltz itself, made manifest in this trio of hapless elegiacal waltz entities, often struggling to inhabit the requisite 3/4 time-world of this delirious dance form.

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Additionally, two obscure musical referents in particular figure notably in the inspirational genesis of this work. The first is the demonically deconstructed ‘Valse’ movement of Walter Hus’s String Quartet No. 1 ‘La Theorie’, as heard during the death scene in Peter Greenaway’s 1996 film The Pillow Book. The second is one of the funniest moments in 20th century postwar art music—a brief splattering near the end of Krzysztof Penderecki’s magnificently bonkers Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra (1967), which momentarily takes the ‘oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah’ polka band trope to new heights of deranged absurdity. Wingate has absorbed the energies of these unique moments musicaux and brought forth a new piece threatening to hold up a post-structuralist mirror to (or to take a Brechtian hammer to) the new—but ultimately, tiresomely, familiar—absurdities of the age. 

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The danger of composing a topical work of any kind lies in the elusive nature of zeitgeist capture, and the work in question must needs provide some compelling artistic reason to exist beyond these will-o‘-the-wisps, lest it be forgotten along with its soon-to-be forgotten topicalities. Over all, the humor and brevity of Wingate’s Deconstruction Waltzes serve as counterbalances to its underlying seriousness and atonal architectures, as well as to its ostensible satire. At times waxing Monty Python or Portsmouth Sinfonia, and at other times channeling self-serious experimental works from the 60s and 70s, the Deconstruction Waltzes provide a unique—or perhaps oblique—opportunity to poke fun at current affairs under the rarefied auspices of the concert hall.​​​​​​​