Dance Symphony

for orchestra

Orchestra: 1112 2200 timp perc(1) str

Duration: 14'

 

This piece could perhaps be subtitled the "Little Russian" for the folksy Slavic quality of its themes.

I. Composed in arch form, this movement is lighthearted, episodic, melodious, and carefree; it reflects my life in the idyllic setting of Idyllwild where it was composed.

The first theme is Stravinskian (he was Russian too, remember?); the second theme is perhaps unconsciously drawn from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade; and the third theme is Russian too, in its dark and somber, brooding, even slightly menacing character. This long-lined theme has a foreboding quality, reflecting an end of pastoral innocence.

II. This Minuet and Trio features a beautiful lilting balletic melody, and then an even more beautiful countermelody!

This middle section represents a lone fiddler entertaining himself as dusk settles and animals come out to listen, just outside the boundary of light cast by the small campfire by which he warms himself in his corner of the Russian wilderness which is his home.

III. The final movement opens with a brass chorale which somehow is both celebratory and somber. Is it a wedding or a wake? This chorale repeats, now with declamatory interjections from a folksy solo clarinet figure. The middle section brings a new agitated quality; it is Handelian in character, with its contrasting running loping theme.  Finally, these two main themes are combined with a great deal of panache! The coda is Mahlerian.

And then the "Little Russian Symphony" ends: coolly, quietly, with a tonally ambiguous Landini cadence.

What, Russian-Italian?

Okay, it's a salad ...