The Autumnal Mountain (2014)

 

I.    The Dawn-Kissed Peak

II.   Morning Mist

III.  Falling Leaves

IV.  Migrating Butterflies

V.   Forest Colors

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published by Vanderbilt Music Company

duration ca.12:00

 

Instrumentation

pedal harp

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Program Note

The Autumnal Mountain was inspired by the short character pieces of Romantic composers such as Robert Schumann.  The work is throughout tinged with nostalgia.  It opens with a depiction of the mountain in darkness; shafts of light from the rising sun increasingly reveal the mountain in its full majesty.  Mists swirl in the ravines and crevasses.  Trees shed their leaves in beautiful cascades signalling the coming winter but also promising new life.  A flock of butterflies begins its annual migration to the riverlands, and wheels about in updrafts before disappearing quickly over the mountaintop.  The remaining leaves flicker their dancing colors back and forth in the breeze before they too, fall and disappear. 

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The Autumnal Mountain was premiered in a version with dance on the concert Multiple Worlds: the Music of Christopher Coleman on April 19, 2015, Kateřina Englichová, harp, Jenna Janaki, choreography, and the J Motion Dancers.