Images from The Old Gringo: Eleven Little Pieces for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano

Images from The Old Gringo: Eleven Little Pieces for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano2020-06-22T18:47:41+00:00

Project Description

Violin, Clarinet in Bb, and Piano
1987
21 min.

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Ken Hatch, Clarinet, Guy Harrison, Violin, Lauren Schack Clark, Piano
live recording

live recording

Movements

  1. “He has sorrow in his eyes,” La Garduña said suddenly, and from that moment respected him. (3′)
  2. “Loneliness is an absence of time.” (1′)
  3. “Your soul is no different from your dreams. Both are instantaneous.” (1′)
  4. He could listen and taste and smell almost supernaturally, like the man hanged from Owl Creek Bridge, who at the instant of his death could see the veining of each leaf; more: the very insects upon them; more: the prismatic colors in all the dew drops upon a million blades of grass. (in memoriam Lester Trimble) (1’50”)
  5. …unforgettable wounds… (2′)
  6. She saw herself in a ballroom lined with mirrors. She saw herself entering the mirrors… (1’30”)
  7. …at the hour when one whispers in secret, not to awaken the earth… (1’30”)
  8. A whistling sound settled over everything as the old gringo stared in atavistic horror at the rows of hanged men strung on the telegraph poles, mouths agape, tongues protruding. They were all whistling… (1′)
  9. …at that very instant, I swear to you, mi amiga, my friend, the bells started pealing for no reason at all… (1’20”)
  10. …his life was suspended, outside of time, like a drop of water on a solitary winter leaf… (1’30”)
  11. “Now, tell me the truth, by whatever is holy to you; don’t let me leave without hearing your secret.” (4′)

Program Note

Images was composed on a whim. As I read the novel, The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes I found myself underlining phrases and passages of striking imagery. Out of more than fifty of these I selected eleven as the basis for brief tone poems – lines such as the following:

  • “Loneliness is an absence of time.”
  • “Your soul is no different than your dreams. Both are instantaneous.”
  • “…unforgettable wounds…”

The pieces are studies in instrumental color, and range from quietly interior to wildly virtuosic.

Program note by David Maslanka

Further Reading

From the Maslanka Archive – No. 35, Damon Talley’s Interview of David

27 August 2020|0 Comments

From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature one of David's very last interviews. In April of 2017, Damon Talley - Director of Bands at LSU - had the opportunity to sit down with David and discuss Symphony No. 4 during a residency with the LSU Wind Ensemble.

From the Maslanka Archive – No. 28, David in Rehearsal with Mike Fansler and the WIU Wind Ensemble

9 July 2020|0 Comments

From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature a video of David in rehearsal with Mike Fansler and the Western Illinois University Wind Ensemble from December 2011. The rehearsal footage captures an amazing realization of the "Doxology" from Symphony No. 4.

Maslanka Weekly: Best of the Web – No. 106, Dances

30 June 2020|0 Comments

Maslanka Weekly highlights excellent performances of David Maslanka’s music from around the web. This week, we feature three compositions in which David experiments with dance forms: Montana Music: Three Dances for Percussion, Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble, and Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Wind Ensemble.

From the Maslanka Archive – No. 26, Joseph Lulloff Performs Saxophone Concerto in Lucerne

25 June 2020|0 Comments

From the Maslanka Archive features media and stories of David's life and work. This week, we are excited to feature a classic performance of the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble with Gregg Hanson leading Joseph Lulloff, Alto Saxophone and the University of Arizona Wind Ensemble from the 2001 World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Conference.