{"id":675,"date":"2008-09-11T12:32:55","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T12:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/09\/11\/kcyo-08-gale-of-life-2\/"},"modified":"2008-09-11T12:32:56","modified_gmt":"2008-09-11T12:32:56","slug":"kcyo-08-gale-of-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2008\/09\/11\/kcyo-08-gale-of-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"KCYO 08- Gale of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

In spite of the significant technical challenges for all the players in Philip Sawyers<\/a> Gale of Life Overture, rehearsals moved along at a quick pace. The main reason for our smooth progress was the immense care Philip had obviously taken in making his writing as idiomatic and his notation as clear as possible. Most Vftp readers have already been there, but you may wish to check out my \u201ctips for composers\u201d which attempts to explain what I consider common sense best practice for getting one\u2019s music played well again and again. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s quite a lot of bitonal writing, especially using choirs- for instance the horns often play a chord a step above or below the trumpets and trombones. In addition to the bitonal writing, there\u2019s a lot of quartal and quintal harmony, all of which is fun to work on and satisfying when it starts to ring. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the highlights of the whole week for me was the few minutes we spent tuning a passage in parallel thirds in the violins. Going diad by diad, it was so fascinating how this most familiar and friendly of intervals seemed to become more and more alien and exotic as the passage went on, especially once the intonation started to click. I think we all heard the piece with different ears after that. Every once in a while, you\u2019ll have a discovery like that in a rehearsal which is so revelatory that you\u2019re almost tempted to repeat it for the audience before the performance. I mean, why not \u201cladies and gentlemen, we were rehearsing this the other day, and it sounded so cool by itself we thought we had to share it with you!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gale of Life is a bit of a departure for Philip- an intentionally direct concert opener. The piece came about after the premiere of this First Symphony- some musicians were commenting after the concert how the virtuosic scherzo would make a good concert opener on its own. Present that night was David Allan Miller, conductor of the Albany Symphony, who was taken enough with the idea to commission Gale of Life. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the composer, the piece is partly an homage to Berlioz, who was an all-time master of the burn-burner overture. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Philip<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the interests of getting more of this music known, I\u2019m happy to make available our performance with KCYO the other night. Considering that the original commission stipulated \u201ca virtuoso piece to make the best American brass players break a sweat,\u201d I\u2019m quite proud of how well the orchestra played. We\u2019re sorry the sound quality isn\u2019t first rate- this was recording on a simple mini-disc rig. The next performance is December 4th<\/sup> at the Eugene Symphony, under David Lockington. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Click here to listen<\/a> (about 10 minutes)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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