A Musical Sketchbook
A collection of eight new scores for chamber orchestra with the same orchestration (4 winds, 3 brass, timpani, percussion, and strings), the musical sketches are Impressionistic soundscapes rather than symphonic narratives in form. The Sketchbook also includes extensive performance, analytic and program notes.
Read the entire ANIMATED LANDSCAPES Sketchbook
Each sketch paints vivid harmonic and instrumental colors in simple to complex textures of dynamically evolving tempo and pace. Titles are evocative but not determinant for the development of the musical ideas. My original 1971 orchestral composition titled ANIMATED LANDSCAPES first explored this musical approach in what was then the prevailing Midwestern composers’ large-ensemble moving-sound-mass style of the 1960s and ’70s. My harmonic and contrapuntal craft has matured enormously since then!
Appearing first in this 50-years-later Animated Landscapes Sketchbook for small orchestra, Appalachian Autumn pays homage to Copland’s 1944 masterpiece, Appalachian Spring. In my composition studies in the 1970s, I was fascinated by Appalachian Spring the ballet as originally 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. My now developed harmonic sensibilities also resemble Copland’s open, bold sonorities.
Appalachian Autumn
Amber Atoms in the Fire Gleaming; Yin Yang (Air); Otter Creek (Water)
Black Canyon (Earth); Glacier Gorge; Palo Duro (sunset) [Canyon Sketches]
Looking for the Rainbow
Massif; Storm; Highland dusk [Highland Sketches]
Viennese Sketches
Blue Ridge; Jupiter Rising [Sinfonia]
Hrad (morning climb to the castle ruins); Ptáci (watching Leoš’s birds); Vody (forest streams and shadows); Bystroušky (mouflons and other mountain wildlife); Podzim (autumn sunset) [Hukvaldy Sketches]
Separate listening to all 8 pieces found here . . .
Free score and parts available from the composer: tc24@txstate.edu
Thomas Clark - composer / digital artist 