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Steve Rouse, composer
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Angel Fire, wind ensemble Angel Fire was commissioned by the Bishop Ireton Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Garwood Whaley, Director. Dr. Whaley and the ensemble premiered the work on April 7, 2001. Angel Fire was written in the fall of 2000 in Louisville, Kentucky, where I teach music theory and composition at the University of Louisville School of Music. Angel Fire has two movements: Aurora and Blaze. The first movement, Aurora, is majestic and suggests a bold, powerful, and spectacular display of light and color. Blaze is lean, muscular, and driving. It suggests a level of energy and intensity that might follow a sudden, powerful flash of inspiration, one of many possible ways of interpreting the title in the context of angels and fires. Angel Fire was recorded by the Washington Winds, Dr. Whaley conducting. The Avatar, trumpet (dbl. picc. tpt. and flügel) and piano In Hinduism, the doctrine of avatars holds that when evil becomes too great in the world, God takes the form of a human being or animal in order to counteract the evil. These avatars are especially associated with the god Vishnu, of whom there are "uncountable" incarnations, though generally only ten are considered, the last of which is yet to come. This superficial polytheism is resolved by the central belief that all gods are essentially one, in effect allowing Hinduism to "absorb" the gods and major figures of all other religions. In a broad sense, an avatar is an enlightened being who leads and inspires the spiritual lives of others. One interpretation of the three movements of The Avatar is as a depiction of three significant events in the life of an enlightened one: birth, the search or struggle for release through enlightenment, and eventual attainment of emancipation or "second birth." In the special case of the Buddhist Bodhisattvas, this long sought release is renounced, to return instead to the cycle of rebirths in order to facilitate the release of others. An alternative interpretation of the work is as a depiction of three events central to the life of Christ (himself clearly an avatar in the broader sense): birth, crucifixion, and resurrection. A third view of the work is as a musical depiction of three interconnected states of consciousness commonly experienced, whether over the period of an entire lifetime or at the level of a single issue: a period of naivete or blissful unawareness, a time of prolonged reflection and struggle for understanding, and finally a more fully conscious insight. This is the same "innocence/blissful ignorance--fall from grace/corruption--redemption/reintegration" theme that has fueled countless myths and works of art. The Avatar was commissioned by the League/ISCM and premiered May 9, 1991 in New York City by Ray Mase and Eliza Garth. Cello Sonata, cello and piano The Sonata for Cello and Piano was composed for cellist Paul York. The surface details of the four movements present themselves very differently, though they share underlying musical materials. For me, a deep-structure connection among movements has always seemed to distinguish a sonata from a suite or other such set of pieces, though, admittedly, today the term means pretty much whatever one wishes. In this work, one of the most easily audible common elements is an expressive rising major third interval, which is embedded throughout in the melodic language and the harmonic structure and motion alike. In the first movement, spiky piano writing contrasts with more lyrical cello material, though the cello is sometimes convinced to join the piano’s exuberance. The second movement features sudden shifts between sweet, gentle expressions and rough bursts. Through movement three, long-lined, lyrical cello is accompanied by swirling piano. The final movement is, in my mind, a barnburner. It takes off and never stops, continuing to ratchet up the intensity at every turn and pushing all the limits. Paul York and pianist Michael Gurt premiered the Cello Sonata on the University of Louisville New Music Festival on November 3, 2005.
Crop Circles, solo piano ...mysterious, powerful swirls of energy and meaning... Crop Circles was written for pianist Nada Loutfi, to whom the work is dedicated. Commissioned by the Meet The Composer Louisville Residency, Crop Circles was premiered by Nada Loutfi on November 21, 1995 at the Landon Gallery in New York City. 
Crosswinds, organ soloist and ensemble, 3 fl/picc, 2 hn, 2 trpt, 2 trbn, 3 perc Crosswinds was written during the summer of 1984 at the request of the great contemporary organist and composer William Albright who performed as soloist in October of that year at the National Organ Conference. Although the title conveys a multitude of images, two were prominent in my mind during composition: the tone producing mechanism of the pipe organ and, more significantly, the pitting of the wind instruments of the ensemble against the organ soloist. The many percussion instruments serve as collaborators with both organist and wind ensemble; they are divided into three groups: metals, woods, and membranes. Each of these groups is consistently allied with one of three different harmonic backgrounds and characters of music. A calm passage for percussion alone delineates the midpoint of the piece. Near the end of the work the organ chorale of the introduction returns, now contrasted with brash outbursts from the ensemble. The organ chorale survives the tumult of this passage and quietly concludes the work. Quoting T.S. Eliot in Burnt Norton: ...After the kingfisher's wing Dense Pack, unaccompanied chorus Text: The Star Spangled Banner (verse one), Francis Scott Key Dense Pack was created in response to the MX nuclear weapons system of the United States. The title is taken from the name for a suggested deployment of this system. Just as response to the threat of nuclear holocaust varied from person to person, even from moment to moment, so Dense Pack is similarly mercurial, with moments ranging from the humorous to the grim, from vulgarity to exaltation. Dense Pack also treats the correlation between man's individuality and his universality. The modes of performance within the piece--independent within the whole group, or as a member of a sub-grouping within the whole--roughly parallel the various modes of personal functioning in the world--as an individual, or as a part of a community, beginning with dyadic interrelationship, expanding through any number of larger groupings, and arriving ultimately at the concept of a world community. We would do well to remember that a nation, any nation, is still only a sub-group of the whole of mankind. Uniquity is common to all men, and it is to this universal uniquity that Dense Pack is dedicated. The text for the work is the national anthem of the United States, "The Star Spangled Banner." This text is fragmented and recombined to produce a variety of commentaries upon the original, and upon the iconographic images that have grown around it. Dense Pack is structured in two large sections. The first half is at times chaotic, reflecting a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, while the last half of the work is a more unified prayer for the future of mankind. The word "free" is reserved for the climactic section of this second large section, and the work closes questioning the true of bravery of peoples who use power in the domination of others.
Diamonds, violin solo Diamonds, for violin solo, was written in the spring of 1989 at the request of Joan Berkhemer of Amsterdam for the 1989 International Carnegie Competition. The title is a reference to the diamond-shaped note-heads used to notate harmonics, which figure prominently in the work, and to the virtuosity of the playing required. The seven minute, one movement work exhibits a wide variety of moods and closes with a passage of great exuberance. Enigma-Release (from The Avatar) Enigma-Release is the second movement of a three movement work for trumpet and piano titled The Avatar. The string orchestration was commissioned by Jeff Silberschlag and premiered by him at Maryland's Tidewater Festival in May 1994. The program for Enigma-Release is found in that of The Avatar. To quote, in part:"In Hinduism, the doctrine of avatars holds that when evil becomes too great in the world, God takes the form of a human being or animal in order to counteract the evil....In a broad sense, an avatar is an enlightened being who leads and inspires the spiritual lives of others. One interpretation of the three movements of The Avatar is as a depiction of three significant events in the life of an enlightened one: birth, the search or struggle for release through enlightenment [here depicted in Enigma-Release], and eventual attainment of emancipation or "second birth." In the special case of the Buddhist Bodhisattvas, this long sought release is renounced, to return instead to the cycle of rebirths in order to facilitate the release of others. Another view of the work is as a musical depiction of three interconnected states of consciousness commonly experienced, whether over the period of an entire lifetime or at the level of a single issue: a period of naiveté or blissful unawareness, a time of prolonged reflection and struggle for understanding, and finally a more fully conscious insight. This is the same 'innocence/blissful ignorance....fall from grace/corruption....redemption/reintegration' theme that has fueled countless myths and works of art. Enigma-Release was recorded for Delos Records by soloist Jeff Silberschlag and the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. The Avatar was commissioned by the League/ISCM and premiered May 9, 1991 in New York City by Ray Mase and Eliza Garth. Enigma-Release (in the strring orchestra version) was also recorded by alto saxophonist Mike Tracy and the Univ. of Louisville Orchestra strings, Kim Lloyd conducting. Flash Point, woodwind quartet Flash Point was written in the winter of 1983-84, and conceived as a showpiece for individual and ensemble virtuosity. Its structural design alternates five sections of ensemble music with four solos, one for each instrument. Flash Point Suite extracts only ensemble sections I, II, IV, and V. Taken as a whole, the five ensemble sections form a large-scale structural arch. Ensembles I and V share common structural devices in that they each repeat blocks of material. In Ensemble I the two repeated blocks are of a general nature: a flurry of loud chords which gradually slows on subsequent appearances, and a segment of contrapuntal music which gradually grows, accelerates, and becomes more homogeneous in texture with each new occurrence. In Ensemble V, musical cells of single measures, gradually introduced, are the subject of varied repetition, forming a musical mobile: a dynamic form created by combining and recombining static, isolated moments. Ensembles II and IV employ personal adaptations of minimalism, akin to the European minimalism of the 1950's, but not unaffected by the American minimalism of the 1970's and '80's. That is, while the gestures are minimal (repeated single pitches and rhythmic patterns), the rate of harmonic change is rapid. Ensemble III, the central section, is perhaps the most difficult of the ensemble music. It is from this central section that the characters and to an extent the materials of the solos are derived. Within this section isolated punctuations and rapid lines revolve around and intertwine with long sustained tones. Flash Point Suite, woodwind quartet Flash Point, for woodwind quartet, was written in 1984 and premiered in December 1989 at the University of Louisville School of Music. In 2000, four of its original nine movements were extracted to create the Flash Point Suite, with a duration of about seven minutes. The brief movements, played without pause, probe facets of musical time and structure. The first and last movements are explorations of form, particularly alternative organizing principles, and the middle two movements, each a short essay on pulse and time, differently fuse minimalism and chromaticism. The first movement opens with a flurry of eight, well-articulated chords immediately followed by a short passage of highly differentiated counterpoint: extreme unity followed by extreme independence. This pattern of “chords, then counterpoint” continues through the movement, but both ideas are gradually transformed. At each successive appearance, the eight articulated chords gradually take more time to unfold, and the passages of counterpoint become progressively longer, faster, and more homogeneous. In the second movement, each instrument plays repeated tones using only its own rhythm, so that even though the music feels as if it is moving ahead, any sense of common beat disappears. The players seem completely independent in time, while still adding indispensable parts to a common texture. A “melody” is created from the tones that emerge to prominence. Movement three combines the bouncy, exuberance of a minimal musical gesture – three staccato, repeated tones – with a chromatic language rarely associated with pulse driven minimalism. There is a central, more peacefully pulsed section, followed by a return to the opening texture, and finally a conclusion that creates a musical Escherism, in which one apparent pulse morphs into something quite different. The final movement explores the contradiction between static cells of sound and larger scale musical growth. Cells (single measures) are gradually introduced and exactly repeated while being constantly reshuffled, creating a sense of growth, both in intensity and sophistication. When the music seems ready to break under the weight of its own accretion, a new section begins afresh, starting now at a higher point of energy and growing again. This occurs twice, with the third and final “phrase” being hot, hot, hot.
The Flying Boy, trombone solo and brass quartet The Flying Boy was composed for trombonist Brett Shuster and the Louisville Brass Quintet and features the trombone in a solo role throughout. The movement titles are descriptive in a general sense. The first movement, Soaring, is marked “quarter note=148 bright and tight, eighth note=eighth note always.” The music takes flight with a rapidly shifting triadic pitch structure and frequent alterations of metrical impulse. The mostly lyrical second movement, Floating, is marked “quarter note=114,” but slows to half-tempo near the midpoint and again at the conclusion. In Aerial Acrobatics, the written tempo and the perceived tempo both fluctuate throughout. After a central soloistic moment of repose, the music builds to a high-energy conclusion. Brett Shuster and the Louisville Brass (Michael Tunnell, Herbert Koerselman, Bruce Heim, and John Jones) premiered The Flying Boy on the University of Louisville New Music Festival on November 3, 2005.
A Flying Leap!, 7 trumpets A Flying Leap! was written for and dedicated to the University of Louisville Trumpet Ensemble and its director, Michael Tunnell, who premiered the work and performed it at the 1994 International Trumpet Guild Conference. This very brief work opposes a non-tonal, triadic "chorale" in the lower voices and an aggressive, crunchy "fanfare" in the upper voices. As these characters evolve and begin to share elements, the work gradually becomes more intense and active, ending in an extended, overlapping, upward "rip." Freedom's Ring, orchestra Written in response to the Iranian capture and long-term hostage of United States embassy personnel in 1979-80, Freedom's Ring is by turns aggressive, restrained, introspective, and explosive. The first four notes of the patriotic anthem "My Country 'Tis of Thee"--C, C, D, B--form the musical germ of the work. Although rarely obvious, this motive permeates the musical fabric throughout. In the framing sections of music a machine-gun like repeated note is gradually transformed into the musical image of a tolling bell. The tension filled chords at the close reflect the precariousness of freedom. Freedom's Ring was premiered by Gustav Meier and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra in February of 1980. Into the Light, orchestra by Richard Freed, for the St. Louis Symphony - September 1994 By way of background on this piece, Rouse refers to a slightly earlier one, The Avatar, which he composed for trumpet and piano under a League of Composers/ISCM commission. While composing the middle movement of that work, the section relating to "the search or struggle for release through enlightenment," he had a dream that "was extremely vivid and powerful and seemed of great importance to me":
The dream, however, was not the only personal experience to be reflected in this score. Again, the composer provides the background:
Rouse is quick to point out that the listener need not be burdened with a search for or expectation of any of these particular images. The music is after all more in the nature of a response to, or an awareness of, such images or concepts, rather than an attempt at graphic representation. But the contrasts, both musical and emotional, are powerfully registered, in a first movement aptly characterized as "aggressive and muscular" and a second whose diaphanous and ethereal qualities are conveyed in a way that manages to combine the comforting assurance of familiar gestures with the uncontrived originality that certifies the personal impetus behind thoughts and impressions that define a fairly universal level of human sensibility. King Tango, flute and double bass King Tango is not a traditional tango, such as might be used to accompany dance, but is instead my impression of the spirit or essence of the tango, both the dance and its musical traditions. Listeners who have even a passing familiarity with the tango as dance music will recognize here certain fragments of rhythms and dramatic impulses. A brief work of about four minutes, King Tango opens with solo bass issuing to a partner a bold invitation or call to dance. As the pair begins to dance, they take passionate, virtuosic liberties with the traditional forms, stretching, pulling, and floating beyond the bounds of expectations, yet always returning eventually to a subtle essence of the tango. Because the tango strikes me as a particularly dramatic dance, King Tango embraces the sudden, contrasting gesture within larger impulses. In watching virtuoso dancers of tango, I sense an improvisatory playfulness and a brilliant mercuriality, the essence of which I sought to capture in King Tango. Much like traditional dancers frequently do, our musical dancers ultimately conclude with sensuous, yet elegant bows. King Tango was commissioned by Sidney King, Assistant Principal Bassist of the Louisville Orchestra. It is dedicated to Sidney and his wife Amy, who premiered the work in November 2000.
Light Fantastic, orchestra Light Fantastic was written for the Louisville Orchestra for New Dimensions Series. The work is the third, and last (?) in a series of orchestral works evoking images of light, the first two of which were Symphony No.1: Light Descending and Into the Light, which was premiered by Larry Smith and the Louisville Orchestra on a February 20, 1992, New Dimensions concert. Compared with these works, Light Fantastic could be heard as perhaps more playful, mercurial, and dance-like. Dance is another image the title may evoke, and the work does suggest movement in a variety of ways. In Light Fantastic I use a variant of a process of development known as "multiple, discontinuous variations," which found a much more formal exposition in my earlier Symphony No.1: Light Descending. In the first few seconds of the work all the basic materials and ideas are heard in condensed form, including, among others: (1) a percussion accent, which frequently "triggers" the material that immediately follows, (2) a quick, two note rhythmic motive, (3) a rushing gesture by the strings playing tremolo, and (4) the basic harmelodic "seeds" of the entire piece. Another prominent idea is a static, busy, harmonically rich string chord (itself a transformation of the opening sounds) heard near the opening, which returns again and again in the piece, serving as an aural frame. All these ideas are transformed and expanded throughout the work. For example, the rushing string fragment from the opening moments becomes the source material for an entire section, and is then integrated at various levels of the texture throughout the remainder of the piece. Light Fantastic is compact and generally very active, but a central section of slower, transparent melodies creates a "fast-slow-fast" structure for the whole. (Similar slow music briefly appears earlier as transitional material.) Near the conclusion of the work, a dance-like passage of defining material from the opening moments returns, first heard in its original instrumentation of oboes, bassoons, stopped horns, muted trumpets, muted trombones, and snare drum, then expanded, transformed and scored for full orchestra, now serving as a summation, a final transformation of the original source material.Light Fantastic is scored for 3 flutes (2 and 3 doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3 doubling English Horn), 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons (3 doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, 3 percussionists, harp, piano, and strings. Lines for Valentines, voice and piano (several ranges available, also transcribed for guitar) Text: Anne Shelby (used by permission) A few weeks before Valentine's Day 1998, I decided that that day would be a fine day to ask Eva to marry me. We'd already been dating for a year, occasionally tiptoeing around the marriage idea. I purchased her ring and started trying to decide just how to propose. I settled on asking her beside a fountain at the edge of the Ohio River in Owensboro, Kentucky, Eva's hometown. Since Eva played 'cello in the Owensboro Symphony and had a concert on Valentine’s Day evening, I thought it'd be nice to have dinner after the concert, followed by a stroll down to the fountain. However, just one day before Valentine's Day, I still didn't know exactly what I'd say to propose. Oh, I had the usual stuff planned, but nothing seemed really special. Then, as fate would have it, I received a package in the mail from my writer friend and collaborator Anne Shelby. Included was a poem titled Lines for Valentines. As I read the text I thought that it would be perfect for the proposal, sort of funny and sweet, but also moving. I practiced reading the lines and felt confident and ready to do the thing, yet there was still some nagging feeling that my plan wasn't exactly right yet. On my two hour drive from Louisville to Owensboro on Valentine's Day afternoon, I was nervous and happy and joyful and frightened...seemingly all at the same time. I kept thinking about the lines of the poem, especially "seek what's silly and sublime," which seemed to characterize so well the variety and range of our relationship. Finally, about twenty minutes outside of town, it hit me: I'm a composer, and I should be singing this! So in the last minutes of the drive and between selections at the orchestra concert that evening, I kept working out the melody of Lines for Valentines, jotting some notes in the margins of my program to help me remember in the midst of the inevitable nervousness that would no doubt surface at precisely the right moment. When the big moment finally arrived, we were standing beside the fountain, overlooking the Ohio River, on a brilliant, cloudless February evening. I told Eva that I had something to say and pulled out Anne's poem. I sang Lines for Valentines while some kids on skateboards and two guys across the street sipping beers on the steps of the American Legion all watched and listened. I got through it and went on to do the asking proper, to which Eva agreed. I'll always wonder if the song clinched it or whether she'd have said yes anyway. The tune that I sang that night was later harmonized and adjusted a bit to become a real song for real singers. More Light, trumpet and piano More Light was written at the request of Michael and Meme Tunnell, to whom the work is dedicated. They premiered the work on March 14, 1995 at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. More Light contains familiar fragments of more than a dozen traditional Southern Baptist hymns. Some of these fragments can be clearly heard at the surface of the music; others are more deeply embedded in the structure. The Mousewife, a chamber opera / musical story for young audiences Based on a book by Rumer Godden. Adaptation: Steve Rouse and Joy Stephens, with six original song texts by Steve Rouse and Joy Stephens FOR MORE INFORMATION
One Presence was commissioned by the Cathedral Heritage Foundation of Louisville, Kentucky for its 1998 Fall Festival of Faiths, and was written for its premiering performers, pianist Denine LeBlanc and Cathedral of the Assumption organist David Lang. I was asked to write a five to seven minute work that could serve as pre-service music or a prelude. It was also suggested that hymn tunes might serve as the basis or musical raw material of the work. One Presence is about six and a half minutes long and based primarily on three hymn tunes: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name; All Creatures of Our God and King; and, to a lesser extent, Alleluia! Sing to Jesus. In addition to being deeply embedded in the substructure of the work, where they are not likely to be recognized, these hymns are continually brought to the surface where they can be clearly heard. The first half of Holy God is heard about a minute into the piece, in the piano, as it mimics church bells. The last half of Holy God concludes the work, again heard in the bell-like piano, and at the close in the organ chords. The melody of the last line of this hymn, which, in the first verse, sets the text "Everlasting is thy reign," is set here in a repeating series of chords, heard again and again, gradually fading away. All Creatures of Our God and King forms the basis for the central climactic section of the work. It is set in a free canon among the five voices played by the performers' four hands and one pair of feet. The opening melodic line of this hymn also appears both earlier and later in the piece, heard with a solo setting in the organ. The listener might be struck, as I was, by the aural suggestion of Simple Gifts, as these two hymns share opening melodies. Only a fragment of the last line of Alleluia! Sing to Jesus is used as source material, and this is used only in the transitional passage that leads directly into the central canonical passage. I found it interesting and satisfying that, in the original hymn, the melody that answers the fragment that I have used is very nearly the same as the conclusion of Holy God. I liked the sense that the end of the work seemed to resolve both these hymns at once. I chose the title, One Presence, in part because the work was to be premiered at a "festival of many faiths." I also chose it because it represents my own belief that a single presence or source underlies all our individual faiths. This is a perspective that I've reached consciously during the past decade or so, but one that I've pursued since early childhood. I was raised in a home with a Southern Baptist mother and a Catholic father, so I got a good dose of both faiths. As a child I had a difficult time hearing in various churches about "people outside the faith." I was drawn, or perhaps driven, to reconcile first these two faiths, and then later others. From these searches and studies, I have come to this: I believe in a responsive universe, and I believe that prayer and thought have an impact. I believe we are responsible for our use of spiritual law, whether or not we choose to accept this. I believe that the one, final source is the same for all faiths. Pegasus, young performers: band or string orchestra or full orchestra Pegasus was commissioned by Meet The Composer for the Louisville New Residency: the Jefferson County Public Schools' Family Resource and Youth Service Centers, the Family and Children's Agency, New Performing Arts, the City of Louisville's Youth Alliance, and the Kentucky Center for the Arts. From 1995-1998 Steve Rouse served as Composer in Residence for the Louisville New Residency, a national program of Meet The Composer supported by major grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts. Pegasus was originally written as a middle school band piece and was later transcribed for young string orchestra at the request of Eva Morris Rouse, who, at the time was teaching strings in the Owensboro Public Schools. This is now the third incarnation of Pegasus, transcribed at the request of John and Marsha Jones for their Floyd County "Festival" Orchestra. John Jones is my colleague and the tuba professor at the University of Louisville School of Music. Piano Sonata, solo piano Introduction, I. After Debussy, II. After Scriabin, III. After Beethoven, IV. "Collage", Coda. After Chopin. The Piano Sonata, written in the winter of 1983, was premiered in Ann Arbor in April, 1985 by Scott Warner. The structural divisions of the piece, although played continuously, roughly parallel those of a classical period piano sonata paradigm: slow introduction, moderate or rapid first movement, slow second movement, triple meter minuet or scherzo third movement, moderate or rapid fourth movement, and coda. Perhaps the original title of "Sonata Fantasy" is more suggestive of the nature of the work in that various sections are "fantasies" after other composers. These fantasies are more evocations of the spirit of the music of the composers rather than mimicries of their styles, although in some cases certain techniques or extensions of techniques of the composers have been employed. For example, those who know the later piano preludes and etudes of Debussy will recognize in Movement I certain pianistic techniques. (Movement I also evokes the spirit of certain French piano music written in the generations following Debussy, but under his influence--another interpretation of the word "after" throughout the work.) Those familiar with the last piano works of Scriabin will recognize in Movement II extensions of certain of those works' harmonic and gestural characteristics. In Movement III the spirit of Beethoven's most obsessive scherzi is evoked, and the fourth movement presents a collage of the materials of the previous movements placed over extended bass pedal points. Finally, in the harmonically static Coda, certain florid pianistic techniques of Chopin are recalled, framed by a recurring pair of notes, one at each end of the keyboard.
Quicksilver, brass quintet Quicksilver was written in 1981. The title refers to the shifting, mercurial sense of pulse in much of the piece, and to the sometimes brilliant passage work. A six minute, one movement work, Quicksilver has two principal sections. The first section is slow and lyrical with a freely imitative mid-section. The second longer section is generally fast, and exhibits a variety of active passages. Shadow Rounds, 6-8 similarly pitched trumpets Shadow Rounds was written at the request of Michael Tunnell for the University of Louisville Trumpet Ensemble who premiered it at the 2000 International Trumpet Guild Conference in New Jersey. About four minutes long, the work is an extended round: all players perform the same melody, with each new entrance two beats later than the last. There is no "score" in the usual sense, only a "part," the staggered repetitions of which combine to create the total aural impression. Shadow Rounds highlights changing textures of varying intensity and activity. Waves of more intense activity rise and fall out of the peaceful background that begins and ends the work. She'll Be Comin' 'Round, high voice and piano Text: James Sherry (used by permission) She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when the shell sometimes is empty She'll be comin' sometimes and the shell is an evasion, when she comes around the mountain to put in an appearance; and this is the introduction we're all tryin' come 'round to. She'll be drivin' six white and well-bred young mares. She'll be tryin' to be comin', when one the horses slips on a curve, but the traces hold her up like a beautiful horse about to describe the great vehicle she'll conduct, when she comes. And we'll all go out to meet her when the well is dry and cracked and the water is too neutral to hold even a chance encounter when we're trying to be comin' and breathe too much or that's what I heard when tryin' too hard to meet her, when she comes. And we'll all have chicken and dumplings in a context of the human shell, water in the trough, the gopher holes, how hot leather is in the desert mining town except to the horses, when she comes. James Sherry (Part Songs, 1978)
Short Stories, orchestra Written for the University of Louisville/Louisville Orchestra "New Dimensions" concert series, Short Stories was composed in the late spring of 1990 with the support of a National Endowment for the Arts Composer Fellowship and later support of an Al Smith Artist's Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. The April 26, 1991 premiere performance was conducted by David Harman. Short Stories is in five sections: three central movements framed by a short overture-like movement which is repeated to conclude the piece. While there are no specific programmatic "stories" behind the movements, the score shares with its literary counterparts a general treatment of exposition. The characters burst on the scene full-blown with their story in progress, unlike the leisurely exposition more typical of the novel or symphony. Short Stories is scored for Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 3 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, 2 Percussion, Harp, Piano, and Strings. Symphony 1, Light Descending, orchestra Symphony 1, Light Descending was completed in September of 1987. The title refers not to sunset, but of enlightenment. Growing up near the Gulf of Mexico, I spent many hours by the sea. Often, on overcast days, beams of sunlight would break through the clouds to brightly illuminate patches of the water's surface. This is the visual analog to enlightenment to which the title refers. The initial compositional impulse for Symphony 1, Light Descending was to create an orchestral work that captures the expansiveness and emotional power of the music of the mid-to-late 19th century without sounding in its surface features reminiscent of that music. The work is an amalgam, or synthesis, of styles. Elements of jazz, American and European minimalism, along with more traditional contemporary classical styles are fused in an effort to create a dramatic language of intense spiritual expression. The form of the work is a set of five simultaneous, discontinuous variations, each with 18 appearances. Because the variations are of different total lengths and share a common golden mean, they enter and depart successively, overlapping in constantly varying patterns. From longest (60") to shortest (c.32.5) the five variations can be characterized roughly as follows: (1) a discontinuous cantus firmus, the dynamics of which are dependent upon the number of pitches per variation (2) chords, in a variety of forms (3) a contrapuntal texture, usually played by from 2-6 woodwinds or strings (4) overlapping repeated dyads or trichords, simultaneously at different speeds (5) a single prominent melodic line--usually played by strings or solo piano. This fifth variation is perhaps the most obvious of the five, and although it doesn't enter until about 5 minutes into the piece (solo viola), its rapid recurrence and high profile make it a focal point. Symphony 2, orchestra Symphony 2's movements are strongly contrasting and distinct, but they share a common deep structure, and, perhaps more readily recognizable, a number of gestures or musical impulses that reappear throughout the work. This deliberate integration "through" the three movements characterizes what, to the composer at least, seems to be one of the remaining pertinent vestiges of the "symphony," as differentiated from, say, a suite of pieces for orchestra. Symphony 2 is a bit over twenty minutes long, its movements of more or less equal duration. The first movement, Fanfare-Polka, is high-spirited and good-natured. The circus and polka party are never far away as big, brash, and sometimes goofy gestures often surprise through misdirection, sleight of hand, slapstick, mistaken identities, and chameleon-like transformations of character. Clouds in Slow Water is an introspective, elegiac meditation, that begins with strings alone and gradually moves through the orchestra's families, building ever larger sonorities. The music's restrained energy eventually explodes into a passage of sustained, full-orchestra intensity. This is peak energy, but it's still a controlled burn, pushing the edges of expectation, extending the climactic moment. The music pulls back into itself to close the movement, returning the quiet focus of the opening. Radiant Edge is a fast ride, but a central section cruises at half-speed just long enough to allow the strings and upper winds to share some expansive, lyrical melodies. The gesture that kick starts the opening and the engine propelling the whole movement is a kind of "hyper-hemiola" that hammers an alternate tempo to the underlying pulse. Symphony 2 was written for the University of Louisville/Louisville Orchestra "New Dimensions" concert series. It is dedicated to the orchestra and its friends and supporters who keep it strong. Violin Sonata, violin and piano The Violin Sonata was written for my University of Louisville colleagues violinist Peter McHugh and pianist Naomi Oliphant and is dedicated to them. The work is in three movements. The outer movements are energetic and full of motion and momentum, while the interior movement has a quality of suspension, or floating.
Waiting for Daylight, a domestic violence monodrama, soprano and orchestra Text by Anne Shelby FOR MORE INFORMATION |
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