THE TIME TRAVELER program notes
While other musical works may evoke imagery of specific places, The Time Traveler explores time. It asks the listener, “when do you wish to go, historically?” This celebration of the wind ensemble sends a singular musical theme to some of the best-known eras in the development of concert music and band repertoire, as well as a few time periods that just seem like fun to visit. The theme takes on the stylistic guises and tropes of each era it visits, rather than trying to recreate that era. Every musical idea in The Time Traveler relates to the opening theme in some way. Movements (many are played without pause) Lost in Time: Time plays this trick where the older you get, the faster it goes. So goes this movement, continually speeding up until we land somewhere back in time. 1808: Time Spy: What might it be like to attend a concert when hearing music live was nearly the only way to experience it? 1957: Hello Sputnik: The space race heats up, music takes notice. 1969: Fever Dream: This fever dream takes advantage of the even bigger big band forces than those of the 50s-70s. This movement starts in an elevator, returns to the elevator, and ends in that elevator. This music takes as inspiration some of the Quincy Jones Big Band Bossa Nova music of that era. 1781: UnPartita: Next destination, Mozart–– an unwelcome guest crashes the party, and one of the most beloved works ever written for wind ensemble. 1101: Reflection of the Living Light: The theme is presented symmetrically, reflected from a center point. The polymath composer and naturalist Hildegard of Bingen claimed for her entire life to have visions of the living light. In a letter she writes “The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun…And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam.” 1996: Nonstop News: As the world becomes more connected, author Neil Postman observes that we are quite literally amusing ourselves to death. The nonstop news cycle has little to do with our lives or our communities, but centers on a larger narrative, one that becomes increasingly difficult to tune out. 2037: Lightspeed: If you travel fast enough, time slows down. Present Moment: We return to the present moment. All concerts are a form of time travel, and tonight’s concert is no different. Except, you are the only people to hear this piece performed during tonight’s show.