Rolling River (2009) is a work for symphonic orchestra which mixes ideas of orchestral overtures and tone poems. Unlike conventional tone poems this work is not strictly programmatic. In fact, it began without a title and only after completing the opening string chorale did the idea of a flowing river come to mind. Still, this work is more emotional and narrative like a tone poem than exciting and thematic like an overture, and in completed form (loosely A-B-A-Coda) does suggest specific extra-musical imagery which coincides with the title. For example, as the opening string chorale builds it is easy to imagine a gentle stream that is gradually moving towards a larger river it will intersect; as other instruments enter, the listener has the impression that the small stream is gaining momentum. After that, the stream intersects a larger river and the water crashes through violent rapids, depicted musically through the percussion cadenza. Coming out of the rapids the river continues to move quickly, carving a winding path through various landscapes and terrains. Eventually the river begins to flow very fast, as signaled by the continuous metric acceleration of the orchestra, and after a brief calm in the current depicted by the harp, piano, and trumpet, the river rushes on until cascading over rocky cliffs as a vast waterfall. After this climax, the music subsides with a recapitulation of the opening string chorale, and in the work's final moments the distant sounds of the piano and harp calmly fade into silence, suggesting the metaphor of a gentle river which flows on inevitably and interminably. - D.T.

duration 8'00"
2 Fl (1 dbl. Pic), 2 Ob (2 dbl. EHn), 2 Cl (2 dbl. BCl), 2 Bsns, 4-2-3-1, Strings, Harp, Piano/Cel., 5 Timp., Perc.
[3 Perc: Tam-Tam, Sus. Cym, Cr. Cym, Tri., Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Crotales, Snare Drum, Field Drum, Tenor Drum, Concert Toms, B.D.]

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Catalogue No. 07010