The Composer is Dead

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The Composer is Dead
Author	text by Lemony Snicket; music by Nathaniel Stookey
Illustrator	Carson Ellis
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	Early 2009 [1]
Media type	Print

The Composer is Dead is an upcoming book with CD^[2] with text by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket, music by Nathaniel Stookey, and illustrations by Carson Ellis^[3]. It is a whodunnit about the orchestra.

[edit] Plot

The story is a murder mystery concerning, as the title implies, the death of a composer.

[edit] Orchestral Work

The Composer is Dead was originally created as an orchestral work by Nathaniel Stookey with narration by Lemony Snicket. The work was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and premiered at Davies Symphony Hall on July 8, 2006, with Lemony Snicket narrating and Edwin Outwater conducting. It was first published by G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers.

Stookey's The Composer is Dead is similar to Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra in that it is intended to introduce young audiences to the instruments in the orchestra.^[4] The world premiere recording by the San Francisco Symphony, with Handler narrating as Snicket, and Edwin Outwater conducting is to be included with every copy of the expanded book.^[5]

After its premiere, The Composer is Dead was immediately taken up by the Toronto Symphony's New Creations Festival and has since been programmed by many orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. On January 26, 2008, Dino Anagnost led the Little Orchestra Society in the work's New York premiere at Avery Fisher Hall.

[edit] References