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| 2016/10/17 11:00:39瀏覽217｜回應0｜推薦2 | |
Sowash: “Spirit of the North” of” North Country Suite” for orchestra
.In 2011, the Heartland Symphony Orchestra, a spirited community orchestra serving Brainerd and Little Falls, Minnesota, commissioned me to write an orchestral work in honor of the orchestras 35th anniversary. I thought of trying to do something along the lines of Ferde Grofés Grand Canyon Suite, only pertaining to northern Minnesota. I came up with a five-movement piece titled North Country Suite which they enthusiastically premiered in April of 2012. The movements are entitled: I. Spirit of the North II. Northern Lights III. Father of Waters IV. Boreal Forest V. Into the Wind What is the spirit of the North? Expressed in an orchestral score, what would it sound like? For me, the North is exciting, energetic, clean and bracing. I think of the high adventure canoe trips I made with Scouts in Algonquin Provincial Park. I think of my wife and I, exploring the widening St. Lawrence way out beyond Quebec City. I think of the paintings of Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson. And of Katahdin in Maine. The silent forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where friends took me snow-shoeing in the middle of a four-day blizzard. The quaint and rustic Burntside Lodge in Ely, Minnesota where our daughter joined us for three marvelous days of hiking and canoeing; I thought of the delightful log cabin to which we returned each evening. I thought of the Christmas Festival at St. Olaf college (our daughter’s alma mater) and the Norwegian breakfasts that were part of the weekend, served up by elderly Norwegian-Minnesotans, the men decked out in colorful sweaters, the women in lace bonnets, embroidered dirndl skirts and matching vests. I remembered the pastries and the creamed herring! I thought of the sublime, almost terror-inducing Canadian Rockies with their vast ranges of dark, whorled, imposing mountains, carved and gouged by massive glaciers right now, while I’m writing this, while you’re reading this. Strange to think of something so big and slow happening at precisely this present moment but also continuously for thousands of years … so removed from our petty aspirations and concerns. All well and good. But how to say any of it in music? Before I set to work, I conferred closely with the conductor, my friend Josh Aerie. He apprised me that the orchestra was blessed with a particularly strong trumpeter, oboist, a great French horn section and an exuberant virtuoso timpanist. Wanting the suite to begin with a bang, I wrote a first movement that prominently features those instruments. I opened with a vigorous, almost swashbuckling theme in 7/4, a meter that renders the music a little breathless, a bit off balance, like an enthusiastic amateur snow-shoer. The music is in G minor, a key that is at once dark and joyful. Then things settle down, making way for a contrast. A hymn-like tune is sounded, varied and developed. The valiant opening tune returns and, voilà, the two musics are combined, the opposites reconciled. My model for this movement was Sibelius’ Finlandia. Sibelius being a Finn, that piece, too, has a Northern spirit, with an aggressively rhythmical figure balanced by an ardent Nordic hymn, the two contrasting musics reconciled. Sibelius is the 20th-century composer I most admire. After years of careful listening, I remain astounded by his symphonies and tone poems. His was a great soul and he managed to express it musically. And in a remarkable diary entry that gives us an intimate glimpse into the spirituality of a Master. He wrote: "In the evening, working on the symphony … which strangely enchants me. As if God had thrown down pieces of a mosaic from the floor of heaven and asked me to work out the pattern. Perhaps a good definition of composing.” These words thrill me almost as much as his music. To hear “Spirit of the North” performed by the Heartland Symphony Orchestra in their premiere performance of North Country Suite, conducted by Josh Aerie, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ To see a PDF of the score, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ |
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