Hunger

The world premiere of Hunger, written for Arneis and soprano Tony Arnold by Indiana University composer Aaron Travers, serves as the focus of the May 9 concert.  Travers sets the poetry of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Verlaine and the work explores some unconventional interactions between singer and instrumentalists. The program also explores the theme of hunger in quartets by Haydn and Ravel.  Haydn used the set of six quartets that were published as his Opus 20 as a compositional laboratory, an expression of his hunger for innovation in a genre where he was a true pioneer. Ravel wrote his String Quartet in F major in 1903 in an attempt to win the Prix du Rome, a product of the ambition and hunger of a young composer wanting to make his mark in a somewhat conservative musical establishment by following the lead of Claude Debussy.