Title: I Hear An Army, for soprano and string quartet
Commission:
Completed: 1964
Instrumentation: soprano and string quartet
Premiere Location: Tanglewood Music Center, MA
Premiere Ensemble:
Notes:

With the appearance in 1976 of Final Alice, David Del Tredici’s hour-long setting of Lewis Carroll for high soprano and large orchestra, a new movement in music, Neo-Romanticism, was born. Not only did Del Tredici forge for himself a fresh compositional path, but at the same time gave hope to a generation of young composers seeking a new way of composing.

“Del Tredici,” said Aaron Copland, “is that rare find among composers—a creator with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene. I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.”

Final Alice is but one of a number of Alice in Wonderland settings written over a span of more than 25 years (1968–1995). Final Alice was followed by In Memory of a Summer Day, which was awarded the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Both Final Alice and In Memory of A Summer Day became best-selling classical music recordings. A word on the chronology: preceding the two mammoth works mentioned above there was Pop-Pourri (1968), An Alice Symphony (1969), Adventures Underground (1971) and Vintage Alice (1972), and afterwards came Quaint Events, Happy Voices, and All in the Golden Afternoon (these three works in combination with In Memory of a Summer Day comprise the evening-long Child Alice [1977–1981]). Haddocks’ Eyes appeared in 1985, and the last work in the series, the 90-minute opera Dum Dee Tweedle (1990–1995) was premiered in concert form by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony.