Out of stone (2016)
string orchestra
c. 6 minutes
Premiered by the University of Oregon Campus Orchestra (Evan Harger, conductor)
Beall Concert Hall, Eugene, OR, 26 April 2016
c. 6 minutes
Premiered by the University of Oregon Campus Orchestra (Evan Harger, conductor)
Beall Concert Hall, Eugene, OR, 26 April 2016
In Out of stone, melodic material emerges, grows, dominates, then returns to the texture from which it came. The title is taken from the last stanza of a poem by Allen Ginsberg:
from Ode to the Setting Sun (1949–50):
My bones are carried on the train
Westward where the sun has gone;
Night has darkened in the rain,
And the rainbow day is done;
Cities age upon the plain
And smoke rolls upward out of stone.
The goal for Out of stone was to create a work for string orchestra that juxtaposed extended techniques and aleatory with more traditional material. The performers explore unpitched sounds created by tapping and knocking their instruments. This texture gradually builds until it gives way to individual pitches and, finally, a complete melody with harmony. After the climax, the melodic material dissipates back into individual pitches that slowly fade into the same tapping that began the work.
from Ode to the Setting Sun (1949–50):
My bones are carried on the train
Westward where the sun has gone;
Night has darkened in the rain,
And the rainbow day is done;
Cities age upon the plain
And smoke rolls upward out of stone.
The goal for Out of stone was to create a work for string orchestra that juxtaposed extended techniques and aleatory with more traditional material. The performers explore unpitched sounds created by tapping and knocking their instruments. This texture gradually builds until it gives way to individual pitches and, finally, a complete melody with harmony. After the climax, the melodic material dissipates back into individual pitches that slowly fade into the same tapping that began the work.