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Nitro, an energy-charged three-minute fanfare for band, was commissioned by the Northshore Concert Band in celebration of their 50th anniversary season.
The composer writes the following:
Nitrogen is the most abundant component of the Earth’s atmosphere (78 per cent by volume), and is present in the tissues of every living thing. It is the fifth most abundant element in the universe, created by the fusion deep within stars; it has recently been detected in interstellar space. The sheer prevalence of nitrogen in all of nature, and the infinite range of compounds it is part of — life-giving, energizing, healing, cleansing, explosive — all appealed to me, and served as the inspiration for my music.
The Red Covered Bridge was commissioned by the Princeton Community Band from Princeton, Illinois. A red covered bridge spans the Big Bureau Creek just north of Princeton, Illinois. This local attraction has become a part of the fabric of the community and served as the inspiration for this lyrical composition. The serene setting easily brings to mind the many people who have crossed that bridge in simpler times, and the stories of their lives. This piece hopes to capture those moments of reflection, joy, children playing, and powerful moments of resolve.
Pikes Peak follows a hiker from the base of Pikes Peak to the summit, encountering all the legend and history along the way. From the numerous reported signs of Big Foot to spectacular views, the opening embodies many different moods. An energetic section introduces small elements of America, the Beautiful before being fully realized in a powerful moment reflective of when Katharine Lee Bates reached the summit herself in 1883 and penned the words shortly thereafter.
Danza de los Duendes was composed for Argentina's Orquesta Sinfónica de Tucumán, whose music director, Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, led the world premiere in 1992, a month apart from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's North American premiere with conductor Kirk Muspratt. The work's title — an afterthought suggested by the composer's student — refers to the malicious goblin-like creatures (los duendes) of South American folklore.
In 1996 Galbraith revised the work and re-scored it as a wind symphony. The new “Danza” became her most popular piece and is performed frequently by concert bands in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
This Cruel Moon is an adaptation of Immortal thread, so weak, the middle movement of Wine-Dark Sea. This movement is the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso, who finds Odysseus near death, washed up on the shore of the island where she lives all alone. She nurses him back to health, and sings as she moves back and forth with a golden shuttle at her loom. Odysseus shares her bed; seven years pass. The tapestry she began when she nursed him becomes a record of their love. But one day Odysseus remembers his home. He tells Kalypso he wants to leave her, to return to his wife and son. He scoffs at all she has given him. Kalypso is heartbroken. And yet, that night, Kalypso again paces at her loom. She unravels her tapestry and weaves it into a sail for Odysseus. In the morning, she shows Odysseus a raft, equipped with the sail she has made and stocked with bread and wine, and calls up a gentle and steady wind to carry him home. Shattered, she watches him go; he does not look back.
Completed in 1937, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is commonly subtitled A Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism after Stalin’s denouncement of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk for its degenerate and modernist tendencies. Any kind of adventurous music was banned. Shostakovich became a marked man and his Mahleresque Fourth Symphony was withdrawn not long after its premiere.
The Fifth Symphony follows the outline of a traditional symphony, providing safe music, following old formulas. It was a rousing success. Shostakovich reportedly said, “The idea behind my symphony is the making of a man. I saw him, with all his experience, at the centre of the work, which is lyrical from beginning to end. The Finale brings an optimistic solution to the tragic parts of the first movement.”