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| Akron Chronogram | |
| Date Completed: | November 24, 2011 |
| Duration: | about 22 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | picc22EH2bcl2cbsn 4331 timp 3 perc harp piano strings |
| Comments: | to Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony Orchestra |
| Program Notes: | Akron Chronogram was commissioned by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins, music director, to celebrate its 6oth anniversary for performance in E. J. Thomas Hall, Akron, Ohio on April 21, 2012. It is a kaleidoscopic work to be performed with video by artist Laura Ruth Bidwell - her work is supported by the Akron Art Museum, Mitchell Kahan, director. I have tried to write a virtuoso work for my favorite orchestra that is nonetheless "all melody all the time." I first heard the Akron Symphony in the old Armory in the 1960s and have incorporated a number of functions and structures into this work: a wish to capture sensations of being both inside music - as it is happening now, pulling you along - and outside - as if hearing it from various distances in time and space, a structure composed of many sound-streams superimposed and flowing through each other to evoke some of the peoples and musics that have lived through the Akron area, its Symphony, and in the memories of its people, and to provide an agreeable compliment to the beautiful and haunting work of Laura Ruth Bidwell. |