Morning at the Sound (2018) for flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and horn

Duration: 18 minutes

Recording: Performance of first movement (I. Resonant Mist) of three on April 21, 2011 in Werner Recital Hall, Cincinnati OH by the CCM Chamber Players – Rodney Winther, conductor; Megumi Nomura, flute; Natalie Wren, oboe; Renee Breaux, clarinet; Peter Cain, bass clarinet; Tom Reynolds, bassoon; Robert Fant, horn.

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Program Notes:

Morning at the Sound depicts the progression of a morning on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound. I chose to include the bass clarinet as an addition to the standard wind quintet because of my appreciation of Janacek’s Mladi, and how well the addition of the bass clarinet helps to reinforce the bass of the ensemble. Composed in three movements, the first, Resonant Mist, recalls a foggy morning where stillness is interrupted by the occasional bursts of the foghorn from the Clinton ferry. This movement was composed in 2011 in Cincinnati while I was feeling homesick.

The other two movements were finished in 2018, several years after I had moved back to the Pacific Northwest. The second movement, Avian Awakening, is a scherzo that captures the playful, erratic energy of the active morning birds in the early morning. The chirping chaos in the higher winds pauses in the middle of the movement for the lower voices to present a fugue-like dance that continues to layer and build to the initial oboe melody, now expanded.

The final movement is titled Rays of Light through a Conifer Filter, which begins with a meandering bassoon solo that floats above melismatic gestures in the background. The other voices emerge and take the forefront as I imaging the trees shifting in the wind to allow other areas of the forest floor to be shone upon with a natural spotlight. The texture is dense and varied.

-Angelique Poteat