Animated Landscapes

sketchbook for small orchestra

Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Timpani, Percussion, Strings

Free score and performance materials available from the composer: tc24@txstate.edu

These are not symphonic narratives in form, but Impressionistic soundscapes. Each sketch paints vivid harmonic and instrumental colors in simple to complex textures of dynamically evolving tempo and pace. My original 1971 orchestral composition titled ANIMATED LANDSCAPES first explored this musical approach in what was then the prevailing Midwestern composers’ large-ensemble style of the 1960s and ’70s.

My harmonic and contrapuntal craft has matured enormously since then! In my composition studies in the 1970s. I was also fascinated by Copland’s 1944 masterpiece, Appalachian Spring, a Martha Graham ballet scored for only 12 orchestral instruments. This original scoring was a masterpiece of orchestral painting blended with the clear contrapuntal lines of chamber music, highlighting each instrument’s colorful voice. In this 21st-century Sketchbook I have likewise found all the color and texture possibilities I need in just 14 instrumental parts.

Listen to the entire 84-minute book of 19 different sketches:

Listen to any of the pieces individually:

Appalachian Autumn (2024)

Aristotle’s Elements (2022)

FIRE (Amber Atoms in the Fire Gleaming)

AIR (Yin Yang)

WATER (Otter Creek)

Canyon Sketches (2024)

EARTH (Black Canyon of the Gunnison)

Glacier Gorge

Palo Duro sunset

Looking for the Rainbow (2021)

Highland Sketches (2023)

Massif (“Velký Blaník”)

Storm (“bouřka”)

Dusk (“soumrak”)

Viennese Sketches (2023)

Blue Ridge (2022)

Jupiter Rising (2020)

Hukvaldy Sketches (2016)