Michael Daugherty

Fire And Blood

Fire and Blood is a concerto for violin and orchestra inspired by Diego Rivera's famous murals entitled Detroit Industry at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rivera's murals, which were commissioned by Edsel Ford in 1932 to represent the automobile industry of Detroit, were painted in fresco on four large walls of an interior court of the museum. Rivera thought them to be the best work of his career, and himself predicted the possibility of turning his murals into music: 'In my ears, I heard the wonderful symphony which came from his factories where metals were shaped into tools for men's service. It was a new music, waiting for the composer. . .to give it communicable form.'