Program Notes
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Papilionian Dance by Gary Powell Nash
Papilionian Dance is a single movement fast tempo work based on and inspired by West African popular folk music. The quick tempo and consistent fast note passages are meant to create an allusion to butterflies, hence the title. It consists of two ostinato bass motifs that respectively support section 1 and section 2. Papilionian Dance is mostly in a C minor mode with several chromatic mediant relationships in section 3, causing a shift to an F# minor mode. The final closing section, in C minor, combines the ostinato motifs used for sections 1 and 2.
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Travel and nature inspired the themes in this piece. "The butterfly reference is from Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History. The choice of West African Folk music as inspiration is the result of travels to Spain, Vietnam and Ghana, all within an 8 month period. I was in Ghana during its 50year anniversary of independence from the British Commonwealth."
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Menage a Trio by Adrienne Albert
"Having been born and raised near the Pacific Ocean, I have always been drawn to the beauty of the sea, to the vistas of cliffs leading to the sea, the sounds of sand under my feet, sea breezes, of the waves and the movement of the ocean. When I close my eyes to meditate, I go immediately to my ocean place."
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Climate Change by Adrienne Albert
"Climate Change," commissioned by a consortium of reed players (including Trio de Bois), comes at a time in the earth's history where man has helped to create an increasingly disturbing and frightening time. Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas....Switching energy systems from fossil fuels to renewable like solar or wind will reduce the emissions driving climate change. But we have to start right now. Our children and our children's children will inherit the Earth as we leave it.
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....This work is composed to emulate the passages human life will go through. It is not meant to deal with specifics like, fire, earthquakes, melting ice, animal life changes, but to express the emotional changes our lives will take.
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Flopp Market by Adi Traar
A book by German author Karl Magnus Enzensberger entitled: "My Favorite Flopps" inspired Adi traar, so he made it the godfather of the composition "Flopp-Market." Enzensberger is a successful German writer in and of himself, but he has had to put up with a great many failures, i.e. flops. This is true in the fields of film (for which he has written screenplays), theater and books. He considers flops to be very important, hence the title "My Favorite Flops." Only a flop can ensure that you "keep your feet on the ground," that you work on yourself, rethink the paths you have taken, strive for new solutions. A flop can set personal and artistic development in motion. Moreover, a flop is not automatically a sign of poor quality. There are certainly true jewels among them. So let us celebrate that which is rejected and excluded because it does not meet common standards. Because it swims against the mainstream. Let's celebrate the Flop!
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Nobody produces a flop on purpose. Not even the composer Adi Traar, That's why, with a wind, he preferred to call the movements "flopps." Maybe secretly hoping that the piece just will NOT be a flop.
Security Lapses by Jon Jeffrey Grier
In each of these short pieces – modeled on “ripped from the headlines” stories of modern espionage – a stable pattern of activity is disrupted by an uninvited intrusion, and disruption ensues.
I. Leaks A quiet tranquility is occasionally disturbed by the brief escape of individual parts from the whole. Gradually the breach widens until the entire system breaks down and each rebel proclaims a similar story. The system is reformed, only to be stretched and eventually broken again.
II. Hacks A computer is booted up and its user begins to work; the software’s binary code is reflected in the repeated notes and emphasis on the interval of a 2nd. Viruses and trojans emerge and gradually compromise the system, requiring re-boots. Eventually the infection becomes so bad that the user is forced to give up.
III. Moles An intruder invades the system – perhaps by parachute – and tries to blend in unobtrusively. A brief march tells hints at the nature of the target. The intruder’s efforts to remain unnoticed sometimes ring false, and eventually its cover is blown.
IV. Bugs Hidden microphones listen in, at first detecting only an unrevealing background noise, but occasionally detecting some bold statements full of information. Some of it turns out to be of so little consequence that it’s laughable.
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Congaree
Congaree (2020) was inspired by regular trips to Congaree National Park, a beautiful swamp-like wilderness area in central South Carolina. Congaree is known for its miles of hiking trails amidst the iconic cypress trees, with their curious cypress knees protruding from the ground around the trees, as well as being one of the few places in the world that are home to synchronous fireflies.
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Movement I – Cypress
Imagine yourself arriving at Congaree National Park in the early hours of a summer morning. The sweltering South Carolina heat is already climbing despite the sun having yet to show itself from beyond the horizon, and humidity from thunderstorms the previous evening hangs thick in the viscous air. As you reach the end of the boardwalk trail and set out onto one of the dirt paths leading deeper into the forest, the sun has risen but the dense canopy of the trees blocks most of its rays, and the mist rising from the forest floor creates a lingering ambience of mysteriousness that is in a way almost magical.
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Movement II – To The Water
The second movement of Congaree is a celebration of the Gullah-Geechee people of the lowcountry and coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The melodic source material is a Gullah psalm, “Take Me to the Water” (“Tek Me to Duh Watuh”), as transcribed by early 20th Century musicologist Luke Peeples, who studied the sacred music of the Gullah people. On this handwritten transcription Peeples writes that the original tune might be related to a melody that appears in a collection by 19th Century psalmodist John Wyeth, Repository of Sacred Music. The second movement contains original material inspired by the psalm tune, which appears in its original form to close out the movement.
Movement III – Fireflies
The finale of Congaree is an action-packed rondo that begins with the first flickerings of fireflies as dusk overtakes the forest canopy, amidst the songlike chirpings of crickets and other nighttime insects. Finally, at long last, the energetic “fireflies theme” begins a rondo that is sure to be a spectacular treat for the listener.
(from composer Reed Hanna)
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