Program Notes For Mountain Festival Overture

When Cornelia Laemmli Orth asked me to write a piece for the Symphony of the Mountains, I knew that the piece would open a concert that included Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland and the Juno Concerto for Banjo and Orchestra by Béla Fleck. I also knew that Maestro Orth wanted a short and festive piece. With these guidelines, I set to work. I first created a title – “Mountain Festival Overture” – to reflect the piece’s festive nature, its opening position in the concert and its premier by the Symphony of the Mountains. I then studied the Copland and Fleck works. And then I tried to cast myself back to my youth, when the first mountains I ever saw were the Great Smoky Mountains (on a family road trip from Chicago to Florida to visit my grandparents). I remember clearly the excitement of the terrain and the lush, verdant landscapes. With this background, I created a piece that has an “A-B-A” structure. The beginning and end (the “A” sections) are fast, driving and syncopated, and the middle “B” section is slower and lyrical. The orchestration takes advantage of the very large orchestra required for the concert as a whole, and I tried to take advantage of the high range of the piccolo, the xylophone and the glockenspiel and the low range of the tuba, double bass and contrabassoon, as well as the four (!) percussion players, who play two sets of timpani, the tam-tam, triangle, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, crotales, temple blocks, claves, suspended cymbal, crash cymbal, snare drum, tenor drum and bass drum. I am grateful to Maestro Orth and the Symphony of the Mountains for the opportunity to write this piece, and I hope the conductor, the orchestra and the audience enjoy playing it and listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Program Notes For Cayuga Overture

It was early in the pandemic when I was asked by the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and Cornelia Laemmli Orth to write a piece in memory of Percy Browning. I was at that time more in touch with nature than I had ever been -- deprived of city life and urban pleasures, I took to frequent walking and cycling in rural surroundings. I knew the piece would open a concert, and I also envisaged it as part of the dreamed-of re-opening of the world. The title of “Overture” seemed to fit. As did “Cayuga” – the name of the orchestra, of course, but also the name of the beautiful lake on which Ithaca is situated.

The piece itself is in an overture style – it has many different themes, as if an introduction to a ballet or an opera. And I had nature and water, in particular, in mind when working on those themes and the textures and moods of the piece. From the initial direction of mood – Surging, Turbulent – to the end, I had Cayuga Lake and its waters, contours and weather in view. I also had the personality of Percy Browning in mind. Although I never met her, I understand she was a strong individual, with a good sense of humor. I tried to imbue the piece with those characteristics.

I am very grateful to the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and Cornelia Laemmli Orth for the opportunity to have written this piece. I hope the audience, the conductor and the orchestra enjoy it.