Contemporary Classics February 26, 2019 - Celebration of the National Parks

Today is the 100^th anniversary of the naming of the Grand Canyon as a national park.   In honor of that Contemporary Classics is doing two shows on the spirituality and beauty of the national parks: one today and one later next month.  We are going to open tonight’s show with Nico Muhly’s Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra). 

Nico Muhly:  Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra):

Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) is a sequence of five episodes describing, in some way, an element of Utah’s natural environment, as well as the ways in which humans interact with it – yes “control the environment.   This was written as a commission for the Utah Symphony Orchestra leading up to the Sesquicentennial of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and the laying of the Golden Spike on May 10, 2019.

Landform references the music of Olivier Messiaen whose Work From the Canyons to the Stars explores the spiritual and physical beauty of Utah’s landscape.  It is a combination of rhythmic and ascending melodic forms.

Mountain explores the mountains in summer with buzzing insects and the gentle winds which sweep across the mountain sides but ends with an ominous tone indicating there is more to mountains than just this pastoral picture.

Beehive describes agricultural productiveness and the use of technology to control the landscape. 

Petroglyph and Tobacco portrays the interaction between the indigenous peoples and the land  - both agriculture – the growing of tobacco and communication – through petroglyphs, the earliest graffiti

Dust explores the red coloration everywhere in southern Utah and it is here that we see the grandeur of the landscape of the national parks in the area which has a way of reminding us of its permanence.

Written in 2014 for saxophonist Nathan Nabb, this sonata is a tour-de-force for the advanced saxophonist.  Each of the four movements is based on selected photographs of Yosemite National Park by Ansel Adams.  Premiered in April, 2014.  I.  Winter Sunrise   II. Vernal Falls III. Jeffrey Pine and IV. Clearing Winter Storm       

Michael Daugherty:  Alligator Alley            

Alligator Alley is the nickname for the east-west stretch of Interstate 75 between Naples and Fort Lauderdale that crosses through the Florida Everglades National Park. This park is home to many endangered species, one of them being the American alligator. One might see an alligator along the roadside when driving along this stretch of road. Michael Daugherty invokes two themes in this piece: the first called the “alligator’s theme” is played at the beginning with bassoons and evokes the slithering nature of the alligator; the second is called the “hunter’s theme” which is performed by the brass and includes sounds of an alligator snapping its jaws with the two pieces of wood struck together.

Michael Daugherty:  Río Grande         

In the words of composer Michael Daugherty “Rio Grande is a 1,250 mile river, which flows from the mountains of Southern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. The river forms a natural boundary between the USA and Mexico as it winds its way through El Paso, Texas down to Big Bend National Park. It is at Big Bend, one of the largest, most arid and remote areas of the United States, that one experiences the magical canyons and spectacular rock formations that line the “Big River” or, as it is know in Mexico, “Rio Bravo”.

"In my Rio Grande for orchestra, I have composed a dynamic, expansive musical landscape that is stark, haunting, agitated and majestic.  The percussion section, comprised of timpani, bongos, woodblocks, tom-toms and bass drums creates a rhythmic undercurrent to an angular motif, first heard in the woodwinds, which emerges high above the precipice. This jagged motif is passed on to individual instruments, such as tuba, and eventually in various colorful guises to the entire orchestra. Reminding us of the long cultural history associated with the Rio Grande, we also hear ghostly Mexican mariachi music echoing faraway through the canyons. In the coda, I combine all the musical material heard throughout the composition to create a majestic ending to our journey down the timeless Rio Grande.”

Stephen Lias: River Runner

River Runner - Written in 2009, this three-movement piece for trombone and piano recounts a paddle trip through Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande River in Big Bend National Park. Lajitas means “small flat rocks” so named for the layered limestone of the canyons formed by ancient seas.  The Sentinel represents the tower rock faces of the Santa Elena Canyon.  Then you hear the energy of the last movement as you hit "Rockslide Rapids" of the Santa Elena Canyon and survive.

Ferde Grofé:  Grand Canyon Suite:
The Grand Canyon Suite is a suite for orchestra by Ferde Grofé, composed between 1929 and 1931. It was initially titled Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon. It consists of five movements, each an evocation in tone of a particular scene typical of the Grand Canyon.  In 1916 Ferde Grofe camped at the Grand Canyon which was not yet a National Park.  In his words “I first saw the dawn because we got there the night before and camped. I was spellbound in the silence, you know, because as it got lighter and brighter then you could hear the birds chirping and nature coming to life. All of a sudden, there it was, the sun. I couldn't hardly describe it in words because words would be inadequate.”   Ferde Grofe’s son wrote that his father saw the work as metaphorical "'Sunrise,' birth; 'Painted Desert,' the mystique, the unknown, the divine unknown, if you like; 'On the Trail,' the human comedy; 'Sunset,' death. And then 'Cloudburst' is death and resurrection, the battle of good and evil. And I think that's why most people find it so important, because they can identify some emotion in themselves in his work."