Voyages

Although the music of "Voyages" for cello and wind orchestra is continuous, it falls into four distinct sections, or movements: slow-fast-slow-fast. The first movement is a kind of catalog of musical materials—a few chords, fragments of melody, gestures, and musical textures. Each of the three succeeding movements uses these same materials in new ways; each is patterned on the first movement, but each more loosely than the last. In this way, the whole composition creates a series of concentric circles orbiting around the central nucleus of musical ideas—"voyages" outward from the work's opening. But each movement has a character of its own, too. The second, a scherzo in near-perpetual motion, is dominated by ostinato figures. The slow third movement offers solos and duets for english horn, bass clarinet and bassoon, tuba and solo cello. The finale combines many elements, but most prominent is a series of brass fanfares alternating with a set of variations for the soloist accompanied by small groups of instruments. Having long wanted both to write something for solo cello and to try my hand at writing for wind ensemble, I decided that to combine these two projects might provide very interesting compositional challenges and opportunities. "Voyages" was commisioned by the Yale Band; the solo part was written for cellist Lynden Cranham. The work was composed between mid-1983 and mid-1984. Ms. Cranham and the Yale Band gave the first performance in New Haven on 7 December 1984, with Thomas C. Duffy conducting.