Where Leaves And Birds A Music Spin
(2018)
flute/piccolo, tuba, and piano
Duration: 15 minutes
My friend Ryan Snell, who keeps surprising me with the subtle depth of his musicality, asked me to write a piece for a recording project he was putting together as a debut solo album. He asked for the seemingly odd (but actually perfect) pairing of flute and tuba with piano accompaniment. It's not an unheard of pairing, but one that was new to me. It had been a long time since I had written for the flute as a solo voice, but I was excited to explore its possibilities again, especially combined with the colors of the tuba. The addition of piccolo in the final two movements opened the color palette even further, and I fell in love with the timbre and nimbleness of the instrument. The overall concept was a hard one to nail down. I knew from the first movement (which was first to be written) that it was leaning towards a nature theme, but it wasn't until the writing of the fourth movement (which was last to be written) that I was able to settle on the idea of single, picturesque scenes of nature, almost like something you'd watch on a BBC documentary. |
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- I. Borne On A Great Wind - A brightly paced introduction following the journey of a leaf blown by the wind.
- II. And The River Flows Ever Onwards - Following the course of a river, slow and lazy, to white water rapids.
- III. Emerson's Acorn - Named after a line from a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay on History, "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."
- IV. Through Dawn Mist, A Doe - A subdued, tranquil scene of a doe emerging from the forest edge on a foggy morning.
- V. Dauwtrappen - A Dutch word describing walking barefoot through the morning grass still heavy with dew.
- VI. Lithic Engines - An imagining of the inner workings of the planet and plate tectonics. The word lithic refers to stone.
As always, while I imply certain imagery through the titles, I invite the listener to create their own scenes as their imagination pleases. The work can be performed in its entirety, or the performers can pick-and-choose movements in any order they prefer.
Commissioned by Ryan Snell.
Publisher: Cimarron Music
Recording: Scenes of Tuba feat. Ryan Snell