Moler (Sierra)
Open-knowledge reference entry
Moler is an orchestral work written by the American composer Arlene Sierra. The work was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot, music director. It was first performed at Benaroya Hall on October 26, 2012.
Composition
Background
Moler was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony as part of Sonic Evolution project: A showcase of new works from the younger generation of composers that would take inspiration, but no quotations, from popular music with a Seattle connection. Sierra composed "Moler" — Spanish for "to grind" — after selecting Alice In Chains' 1995 hit "Grind" as the inspiration for her contribution. Sierra states, "The band has a hard, visceral sound, which is something I try to do with my orchestral music,... I expected 'Grind' to be sexy, but it's about anxiety. So I was imagining the orchestra's teeth grinding in a certain way."
Structure
Moler is a single-movement orchestral work with a duration of approximately nine minutes.
The title is Spanish for "to grind," and the piece was inspired by the composer's habit of grinding her teeth while sleeping. Moler is a dance-infused piece that uses the "grinding" idea to suggest unusual combinations of instrumental timbres and textures.
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This entry incorporates text from “Moler (Sierra)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.