Symphony No. 5: Desert Music (2014)

For: mezzo-soprano and orchestra:

3-3-3-3 / 4-3-3-1 / timp.pf(=cel).hp.perc(3)-strs

Duration: 30’

Text: JoAnn Falletta (E)

Movement Titles: Desert (4:37) | Intensive Care (4:49) | Ghost Trumpeter (4:39) | Susurrus (4:52) | Interrupted Dream (10:39)

First Performance: 9 October 2015 / Phoenix Center for the Arts, Phoenix, AZ / Phoenix Symphony Orchestra / Victoria Vargas, mezzo-soprano / Michael Christie, conductor

Dedication: "Commissioned by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. In memory of Kevin Hagen"

Publisher: Peermusic Classical

Program Note:

A few, scattered words offered to provide context for a piece that is atmospheric but abstract, emotionally programmatic but without a traditional narrative. The musical ideas are tightly interwoven, but the overall structure is not that of a suite — more like a tone poem, or a waking dream.

Desert. Severe, pristine, arid sound. Bright heat; dark cold. Raw emotion; pitiless air. Hyper stimulated, distraught thoughts. Visibility unlimited, but nothing to see.

Intensive Care. Incessant, unfeeling, mechanical attendants. No personal agency. Loss of self. Mis-remembered prayers.

Ghost Trumpeter. Detached, sketchy, bemused memories of bravery and youth.

Susurrus. Rain falls in the desert.

Interrupted Dream. Looking back; seeing everything but remembering less and less; regret; and moving on.

Symphony No. 5 was commissioned by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Phoenix Center for the Arts by the Phoenix Symphony, Victoria Vargas, soprano, conducted by Michael Christie, on October 9, 2015.