Big Top

"Big Top" is a lively orchestra fantasy on early American popular songs. There is no story to follow, but the extreme musical contrasts symbolize the differences between qualities of the real circus (a community of ?outsiders,? bold and boisterous, comic and crude) and the dream of running away with the circus (romantic and longing). In the opening and closing sections, collisions of fanfares and melodies result in a musical circus of familiar tunes, competing for attention, interrupting and layering over one another. the slow middle part centers on the Southern Appalachian spiritual "The Wayfaring Stranger" ? a lyrical lamentation about the hardships of daily life, and the hope of a beautiful hereafter. "Big Top" was composed for conductor Michael Morgan and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.