Thom Ritter George

SECOND RHAPSODY FOR ORCHESTRA ("Westward Journey"), CN 344

PROGRAM NOTES

Thom Ritter George composed his SECOND RHAPSODY FOR ORCHESTRA ("Westward Journey") in July 1991 and conducted the first performance of the work on August 16, 1991 at the Elkhorn Music Festival, Sun Valley, Idaho. The instrumentation was specifically designed for the Elkhorn Music Festival Orchestra: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, two horns, timpani, two percussionists, and strings.

The score is strongly programmatic and expresses sights and sounds the composer experienced on his 1983 trip from the Mid-West to Idaho to take up his new duties with the Idaho State Civic Symphony. The "traveling music" heard at the beginning re- turns several times during the composition as the listener pro- gresses from scene to scene. The first major stop on the trip records the lively sounds of country "fiddlers" in Missouri, playing their animated double-stops and dance rhythms. At the heart of the music is the slow ballad inspired by a nighttime walk on the old streets of Laramie, Wyoming. On that quiet, cool night, the composer, imagined the stillness of nights on the range long ago and perhaps even the distant voice of a phantom cowboy humming a song to himself.

The music is cast in rondo form and uses the instruments of the orchestra in a virtuoso fashion. Like most of Dr. George's scores, this piece is very rhythmic, and it explores many ingenious variations of the RHAPSODY's 3/8 meter. Also present are other characteristic features of the composer's neo-classical style: a logical formal design, a blending of major and minor triads on the same harmonic root, and the use of different key centers to advance toward a musical goal. The composition shows the composer's gift for lyric melody at important moments in the music.

(TRGcm:1992.11.12)