National Park Compositions
Carlsbad Caverns National Park ~Carlsbad by Lon Chaffin
Written for violin and piano, approx. 8 min in duration, single movement with four sections including, l. Drips, Pools, and Streams, ll. Caverns and Crystals, lll. Echoes in the Dark, lV. Night Flight, audio featuring Vanessa Porter and Eric Kao, blog post.
Glacier National Park ~Violin Sonata No. 2 Going to the Sun by Frank Felice
Written for violin and piano, approx. 20 minutes in duration, audio featuring Vanessa Porter and midi piano, blog post. Here are the composer’s notes on his piece and his home state of Montana, “This sonata is a very accessible, single movement, 13 episode piece that uses as a framing device the beautiful scenic elements of the park that are close to, viewed from, or a short walk away from the marvelous roadway called the Going to the Sun highway. My hope is that the music reflects at least some of the beauty of this part of Montana with it’s clear stumbling streams, cloud crowned mountains, green forests, red and grey rocks, multi-colored meadows of flowers, and it’s calm, cold lakes. “
Indiana Dunes National Park ~Of Water, Sand, and Time by Jeffrey Hoover
Written for solo violin, approx. 20 minutes in duration and broken into 7 2-3 minute movements called, I ran the dunes, the crashing breakers, the old paper mill, a great Blue Heron, I saw heat lightening over the lake, you should have seen the sugar dance, and the sky was on fire at sunset. Here is a brief program note from the composer, “It was a wonderful and challenging experience to compose Of Water, Sand, and Time. Part of the challenge came from the fact that I didn’t experience the Indiana Dunes until I was an adult, although I grew up in Northern Indiana. Simply stated, it wasn’t part of my early formation, and yet, it made an impact upon me much later. Each movement is a musical representation of the experience of being at the Indiana Dunes. The Indiana Dunes is an awesome place where wildlife, geography, and human history amplify each other. Each movement reflects some aspect of the Indiana Dunes, and the musical representation strives to share a personal experience. I approached each movement as if I were sending a “picture postcard” to a friend: a few words scrawled on the back of a card, becoming the title of the movement.” Blog Post
“Going to the woods is going home.” ~John Muir
