Instrumentation:

• 2.picc.2.2.2 — 4.3.3.1 — timp — perc(5) — pft — hp — strings

Duration: 10:00

First Performance: 3 December 2021 / Millard Auditorium, West Hartford, CT / Hartt Orchestra / Ziwei Ma

Dedication: “for Maestro Cumming and the Hartt Orchestra”

Program Note:

• Picture Palace was written in the spring of 2018 at the Hartt School and subsequently revised in 2019.

  Gore Vidal writes in Screening History, “As I move, graciously, I hope, towards the door marked Exit, it occurs to me that the only thing I ever really liked to do was go to the movies.” Although I am nowhere near my own “Exit”, it occurs to me that I also really like to go to the movies. The ability film has to pick us up and plop us down in some exotic new world has always captivated my attention, not to mention my musical sensibilities. However, Vidal cautions us to be wary of our collective social history immortalized in those same Hollywood movies we all love. Much of it is manufactured, like today's apparent “facts” of today. Picture Palace isn’t at all about giving you a manufactured view of musical history, rather, just an exploration and immersion into the sound world of Hollywood.

  Much like how film composers might write an end credit suite for a movie, there is a bountiful amount of themes in the piece, where they are free to create an amalgamation of all the themes they wrote. It begins with some action music featuring an angular set of seven notes. Irregular meters from 2/4, 7/8, 5/8, to 6/8 keep the momentum up and the music on edge. Almost immediately, a new theme emerges, characterized by a falling 5th. The motif of a falling or rising 5th permeates throughout the piece, especially in the middle section where it is used as glue to transition between successive phrases of yet a new theme. A perpetual motion bridge section, yet again featuring the 5th motif, transitions the music back to the action theme from the beginning. In the concluding section, the 5th motif, bursting with joy, cannot even form its characteristic interval, opting for 6th or octave leaps, but the brass is finally able to ground it, finishing the piece with a short, brilliant fanfare and a timpani solo.