Kauyumari (2021) - Gabriela Ortiz (b.1964)
Among the Huichol people of Mexico, "kauyumari" means “blue deer”. The blue deer represents a spiritual guide, one that is transformed through an extended pilgrimage into a hallucinogenic cactus called peyote. It allows the Huichol to communicate with their ancestors, do their bidding, and take on their role as guardians of the planet. Each year, these Native Mexicans embark on a symbolic journey to “hunt” the blue deer, making offerings in gratitude for having been granted access to the invisible world, through which they also are able to heal the wounds of the soul. When I received the commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to compose a piece that would reflect on our return to the stage following the pandemic, I immediately thought of the blue deer and its power to enter the world of the intangible as akin to a celebration of the reopening of live music. Specifically, I thought of a Huichol melody sung by the De La Cruz family -- dedicated to recording ancestral folklore -- that I used for the final movement of my piece, Altar de Muertos (Altar of the Dead), commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet in 1997.
I used this material within the orchestral context and elaborated on the construction and progressive development of the melody and its accompaniment in such a way that it would symbolize the blue deer. This in turn was transformed into an orchestral texture which gradually evolves into a complex rhythm pattern, to such a degree that the melody itself becomes unrecognizable (the imaginary effect of peyote and our awareness of the invisible realm), giving rise to a choral wind section while maintaining an incisive rhythmic accompaniment as a form of reassurance that the world will naturally follow its course.
While composing this piece, I noted once again how music has the power to grant us access to the intangible, healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound.
Although life is filled with interruptions, Kauyumari is a comprehension and celebration of the fact that each of these rifts is also a new beginning.
Gustavo Dudamel, now famously the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commissioned and premiered Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari.
Re(new)al (2019/2021) - Viet Cuong (b.1990)
I have tremendous respect for the renewable energy initiatives and the commitment to creating a new, better reality for us all. Re(new)al is a percussion quartet concerto that is similarly devoted to finding unexpected ways to breathe new life into traditional ideas, and the solo quartet therefore performs on several “found” instruments. And while the piece also features more traditional instruments, such as snare drum and vibraphone, I looked for ways to either alter their sounds or find new ways to play them. For instance, certain notes of the vibraphone are prepared with aluminum foil to recreate sounds found in electronic music. The entire piece was conceived this way, and it was a blast to discover all of these unique sounds with the members of Sandbox Percussion.
Cooperation and synergy are also core themes of the piece, as I believe we all have to work together to move forward. All of the music played by the solo quartet is comprised of single musical ideas that are evenly distributed between the four soloists (for those interested, the fancy musical term for this is a hocket). The music would therefore be dysfunctional without the presence and dedication of all four members.
Re(new)al is constructed of three continuous movements, each inspired by the transcendent power of hydro, wind, and solar energies. The original chamber work was commissioned for the 2017 American Music Festival by David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony in partnership with GE Renewable Energy, and is dedicated to Sandbox Percussion.
“Pitchfork” from American Gothic (2013/2019) - Michael Daugherty (b.1954)
American Gothic (2013) for symphonic band was commissioned by the University of Northern Iowa Wind Ensemble (Danny Galyen, Director of Bands). The world premiere was given by the University of Northern Iowa Wind Ensemble under the direction of Danny Galyen, at Russell Hall, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa on April 19, 2019.
American Gothic is a contemporary musical reflection on the creative world of Iowa artist Grant Wood (1891-1942). Composed in memory of my father, Willis Daugherty (1929-2011), the music also reflects on the years when I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as the oldest of five sons in the Daugherty family.
With a bustling downtown and opulent movie palaces, with first-rate art and music programs in the public schools, and with a wonderful symphony orchestra, art museum, public library, and community theater, Cedar Rapids is a Midwestern center for the arts. My father was a self-taught dance band drummer in the area, while my mother Evelyn Daugherty (1927-1974) appeared in community theater productions such as Gypsy. They encouraged their sons to pursue studies in music and art in Cedar Rapids, and all the Daugherty brothers played in local bands, including The Soul Company.
I first became aware of Grant Wood when I was a ten-year-old boy enrolled in art classes at the old Cedar Rapids Public Library (now the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art). Prominently displayed in the room where we learned to draw and paint was Grant Wood’s original painting of his mother, entitled Woman with Plant (1928). I realized that Grant Wood was everywhere in Cedar Rapids: his paintings and lithographs at the Museum of Art; his farm mural at the old Montrose Hotel; his carved wooden Mourner’s Bench in the principal’s office at McKinley Junior High School; his stained glass Memorial Window at the Veteran’s Memorial Building. I often rode my bicycle past the artist’s studio at 5 Turner Alley, where Grant Wood created his most famous painting, American Gothic (1930).
My father was a fan of Grant Wood’s regionalist art. He was a tour guide at the Grant Wood Studio, and he displayed reproductions of American Gothic along with Stone City (1930) at his home. Much like a character in the background of Grant Wood’s paintings from the 1930s, my father milked the cows and fed the horses every morning on the farm before walking several miles down a desolate gravel road to a one-room country grade school located in Walker, Iowa.
In 2012, I returned to Cedar Rapids to revisit the small towns of Eastern Iowa. I drove along the back roads and farms where my father grew up, and where Grant Wood found inspiration for the people and places captured in his art. All the while, I was collecting musical ideas and mental images to create an emotional framework for my composition.
3. Pitchfork
Band version arranged in 2019 by Danny Galyen in collaboration with Michael Daugherty
The title of the third movement refers to the pitchfork gripped by the dour farmer who stands alongside his spinster daughter in Grant Wood’s painting, American Gothic. Many have speculated on the hidden meanings of this American masterpiece: is it a homage to the farmers of Iowa? A social satire? A political critique? A private joke? For me, this iconic painting reveals the ambiguities of American culture and Grant Wood’s dry wit. After all, Grant Wood was a founding member of the infamous Grant Wood Garlic Club in Cedar Rapids, and a practical joker, like my father. For this movement, I have composed playful, toe-tapping music. A quirky melody played by the woodwinds is punctuated by spiky chords in the brass section, and bluegrass riffs on a solo violin. Like the gothic window in the background of Grant Wood’s painting, this movement is a window into my contemporary musical vision of American Gothic.
Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble (2010) – Frank Ticheli (b.1958)
I had been hoping to compose a clarinet concerto for years, and so I was delighted when a commission offer came my way from Swedish-American clarinetist Hakan Rosengren. His fiery virtuosity, combined with his poignantly beautiful sound, had a direct influence on my creative decisions throughout the work.
The concerto's three movements are composed as tributes to three 20th-century American icons: George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein.
The first movement, Rhapsody for George,(after a wink to the famous clarinet solo – with thanks to the Gershwin estate for approving this) is built largely from chromatic, jazzy, relentless flurries of 16th notes, volleyed back and forth between the soloist and the ensemble. This high-speed game is intensified by a walking bass line, jazzy syncopations, and heavy backbeats that come and go at will.
The second movement, Song for Aaron, evokes the gentle, open-aired quality sometimes heard in Copland's slow movements. If the listener notices a song-like quality here, it may be because it was originally composed for voice (An American Dream, for soprano and orchestra, mv't. 6). Thus, this movement is an adaptation of my earlier work, but altered significantly to suit the unique lyrical traits of the clarinet.
While composing the final movement, Riffs for Lenny, I imagined Bernstein perched on a pulpit (a podium?), passionately preaching about Music as a powerful and necessary force for humanity. In a sense, I pay tribute to his lifelong enthusiasm, unleashed through his conducting, composing, performing, teaching, and in countless other ways. Like the opening movement, Riffs for Lenny is somewhat jazzy, but now in a more, sultry, gospel-like manner. It swoons, sighs, seduces, and then suddenly takes off in double-time, dancing all the way.
La Chancla (2024) - Dennis Llinás (b.1980)
La Chancla is Spanish for a slipper -- more accurately, a flip flop. While Cubans usually say "chancleta", Puerto Ricans refer to it as "chancla." It is a common meme or joke among Hispanics that a mother with a chancla in her hand could get an entire room of unruly kids in line or even chase away a bear (look it up on YouTube -- it happened!). It is the Excalibur of Hispanic mothers and grandmothers everywhere, and so I thought it would be a fun project to write a piece with this title and play between the mythical and merengue.
The mythical element to La Chancla is represented by a combination of whole tone and octatonic collections. The merengue stands in stark contrast to the mythical representing the culture through more conservative functional harmony but intense rhythmic vitality. The piece is not programmatic -- just a fun collection of these styles and the interplay between them.
This work was commissioned by a consortium of band programs led by Thomas Verrier and Vanderbilt University. Tom had the vision of creating a work that was to be donated to bands in the Latin Americas who had limited budgets to purchase music. For every participating institution of this consortium, a copy of La Chancla will be donated to a band in the Latin Americas.
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