Reflections of the Northwest
Reflections of the Northwest
Northwest Symphony Orchestra
Gregory Short was born August 14, 1938 and received a doctorate in composition from the University of Oregon. His interest in ethnic music and incorporating ethnic music and culture in his compositions has been documented in over 300 compositions written in the last 30 years. His works have been performed all over the United States and Europe and he has received numerous awards. In 1989 he was listed as Washington Music Teacher's Association's composer of the year. Also in 1989 he was one of the few musicians picked as a centennial artist for the Washington State Centennial. He currently teaches music at Skagit Valley College on Whidbey Island and composes at his home on the water. The Raven Speaks is dedicated to Anthony Spain and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.
The composer has provided the following notes about the work:
The Raven Speaks is a suite for orchestra based on songs of Northwest Native American cultures living along the coast of Northwest Washington, Canada and Southern Alaska. It was written in the Fall of 1987 and is the second piece in my Northwest Tetralogy for Orchestra completed in 1992: Mount Takhoma, The Raven Speaks, Pahto, and Chief Seathl.
Raven is a symbol of both creation and mischievous adventure. Musically, he is represented in several ways: his flight by flowing and sweeping harp gestures; his voice by wood block, marimba and brassy flutter tonguing; he will chuckle to himself in the form of a trill played by the non-trillable trombone; his spirit form often swells to gigantic proportions in the metallic sounds of cymbal and gong. Raven also has a song.
The music is not devoid of a human element. A Shaman is frequently heard shaking various rattles or a box-of-rocks and dancing with bells on his ankles; the playing of drums, singing and group dancing is obvious throughout. Both physical and mystical worlds exist simultaneously.
The score begins with an early morning mist mysteriously shrouding the dense forest and snow-covered mountains of the Northwest Pacific coastline. Two songs of Kwakiutl origin create the opening Coastal Forest and Raven. The gentle, three-note, "Cradle Song" is eventually interrupted by the playful "Totem Pole" (Raven's song), which rushes toward the first mystical vision of Raven discovering mankind in a clam shell. This is a musical image of the dramatic yellow cedar sculpture, Raven and the First Men by the Haida artist Bill Reid.
A "Totem Pole" song from the Haida is now heard. Its setting begins with a gathering and continues with a powerful dance during a potlatch celebration. Extremes of range and a variety of orchestrations represent height and the various carved animal figures. Raven's raspy voice is heard in the flutter tongues accompanying the highest phrase in the melody, since Raven's image is at the top of the totem pole. At the end, another mystical image appears when Raven suddenly steals the sun!
In the Thlinget "Hat Game" Raven interrupts the proceedings several times, causing all manner of confusion including a central section where the melody becomes a parody of itself. The final game begins too fast, (obviously Raven's work again), and all rushes toward cacophony and chaos. An orderly conclusion is reached only because of very powerful drums.
During the "Love Song," also of Thlinget origin, Raven behaves himself as the warrior and he and his lady take turns singing to one another, accompanied by the occasional chirping, warbling, rustling and flapping of a variety of nature's creatures. At the end, the lovers are standing by the water's edge.
What happens next is Raven's greatest musical mischief. No sooner has the Lummi children's song "Grandmother Rock and the Little Crabs" begun when Raven's gigantic mystical wings churn Puget Sound into a huge storm. The Little Crabs fly every which direction and Grandmother Rock gets a terrible headache because of the waves lashing against her poor head.
Calm is finally restored and the pitch black shadow of Raven is heard gracefully soaring among the flickering curtains of Alaska's Northern Lights. The music for this awesome and eerie atmospheric phenomenon contains two songs: "Lullaby for a Boy" and "She Will Gather Roses," both of Tsimshian origin; with the colors created by piano, celesta, harp, two glockenspiels, struck and bowed vibraphone, bell tree, bell chain and a dozen tuned crystal goblets. Raven's earlier "Totem Pole" song is heard in several guises. Low strings represent the dark, wild tundra; a distant pack of wolves can be heard singing in the clear night air. The suite concludes with the first rays of sunlight as Raven chuckles to himself.
Symphony for Seattle (Evocation Symphony)
George McKay was born in 1899 in the small farming community of Harrington, Washington. He later received a scholarship to attend the Eastman School of Music and in 1923 he received the first composition degree ever granted at Eastman. He shortly thereafter became permanent professor at the University of Washington where he remained for over forty years. He is recognized as an outstanding composer, educator and a leader in helping American music become a prized national heritage. In 1925 a competition was held by the Rochester Philharmonic to perform American music and George McKay was selected as one of the composers along with Aaron Copland and Bernard Rogers. Since that time, his compositions have been performed by many orchestras and by conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Sir Thomas Beecham, and Howard Hanson.
This Symphony was composed in 1951 in response to a commission from the Seattle Music and Art Foundation for a work dedicated to the memory of Leila Shorey Kilbourne (a Seattle pioneer) and was performed as a special feature of the centennial year of Seattle in 1951.
The opening of the Symphony is dramatic, expansive, and evocative, capturing the wonder of the west. The movement then progresses using sonata allegro form and the dramatic material that dominates the introduction once again appears in the development and at the close of the movement. The stunningly beautiful second movement represents the gorgeous pastoral settings of the west. Also present is an elegiac mood; a statement of a west that is also unpredictable. The third movement is announced with a vigorous attack. The movement then proceeds with folkish elements appearing throughout and closes once again with dramatic orchestration.
Serenade: To Await the Moon
William Bergsma was born in California in 1921 and received his training at Stanford University and the Eastman School of Music. He has held two Guggenheim Fellowships and he received the Bearns Prize and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been the recipient of commissions from the Harvard Musical Association, the Louisville Orchestra, the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in the Library of Congress, and many other organizations. Mr. Bergsma joined the composition faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in 1946, assuming the post of Associate Dean in 1961. In 1963 he became Director of the School of Music at the University of Washington in Seattle and recently died in Seattle in 1994.
The composer's subtitle is "Because, of course, she might not come." The moon is a moon of lovers, not of astronauts. The music is therefore a restless nocturne, full of longing, anticipation and uncertainty. This is depicted by the use of close harmonies, portamentos, longing melodies and intense aleatoric cadenzas. The serenade is dedicated to Milton Katims.
Northwest Symphony Orchestra
The Northwest Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1987 and has quickly gained national attention with one third place (1993) and one first place (1994) national American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Awards for programming of contemporary music. The intimacy of concerts, created by the Northwest Symphony's "Meet the Composer" format and verbal presentations by Anthony Spain, has met with national acclaim and the orchestra was recently featured at the American Symphony Orchestra League's National Convention in 1995. In the last five years the Northwest Symphony Orchestra has performed 27 different works by 19 different northwest composers. This commitment to northwest composers has made the Northwest Symphony Orchestra the premier orchestra in the northwest for performing music by northwest composers.
Anthony Spain has been music director of the Northwest Symphony Orchestra for nine years and he is also an active educator and clinician. He has a doctorate from the University of Washington in conducting and has studied both in the United States and Europe. Principal teachers include Leon Barzin, Robert Feist, Abraham Kaplan, Robert Molison, and Will Schwartz. His affinity for both traditional and contemporary works, both as an orchestra and choral conductor, has led to guest conducting engagements with orchestras and choirs in Europe and the United States.
This recording was made at Saint Thomas Center, Seattle, Washington on April 8 and 9, 1995.
Producers: Anthony Spain and Gregory Short
Recording Engineer: Bill Levey
Executive Producer: Anthony Spain
Recording Assistant: Joseph Hafenrichter
Editing and post production: Studio 5, Bellevue, Washington
Cover Photo: Lake Tipsoo and Mount Rainier taken by Duane Williams
Design on CD: Sofia Vecchio
Reflections of the Northwest
The Raven Speaks (based on Northwest Coast Indian Songs & Dances) (25:33)
Coastal Forest and Raven (3:41)
Haida: "Totem Pole" (4:23)
Thlinget: "Hat Game" (3:32)
Thlinget: "Love Song" (3:51)
Lummi: "Grandmother Rock and the Little Crabs" (2:56)
Northern Lights and Raven (7:10)
Symphony for Seattle (29:58)
Serenade: To Await the Moon (14:19)
Northwest Symphony Orchestra
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