21 May Buzzard

Posted at 18:00h in orchestral music, works by

3 3 2 2 / 4 3 2 1 / timp 2 perc hp / str [12’] 2003.

Commissioner: l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal
Funder: l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal
Premiere: l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal with conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, October 9-20, 2003, Montréal.
Program note:

Two birds inspired this piece: Tchaikovsky’s Swan and Stravinsky’s Firebird. Buzzard is dedicated to my father, a high-speed pilot who loved Stravinsky’s music as passionately as that of Gil Gilberto and Dave Brubeck. A real buzzard…

“And as to you Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths;”

—Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass (1900)