compositions

Millennium Cantata

– opening: Movement VI (“Clear Night”)

Premiered: January 22, 2001
by Ottawa Symphony Orchestra & Ottawa Choral Society
Conductor: David Currie
National Arts Centre
Ottawa, Canada

Duration: 40 minutes

Written: 2000

Instrumentation:

2 Flutes (second doubles on Piccolo)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb
2 Bassoons
2 Trumpets in C
4 Horns in F
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
2 Percussions
Strings (Bass with C extension required)
Choir: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass

Movements:

Winter Dream
Tell Me…
Caprice
Summer Afternoon
Autumn
Clear Night
First Light

Background

With the onset of the new millennium, my thoughts engaged in the process of questioning and assessing the surrounding realities. I have developed a nostalgia for the future. The millennium came to signify a new beginning, a re-birth, a genesis of hope, revival, and restitution.

An evocative and metaphorical text by my friend, Toronto poet Ellen Brodigan, became an expressive vehicle, around which I developed my new composition. The end result saw an extensive, tonal and programmatic work steeped in metaphor, for chorus and large orchestra. Throughout its forty minutes, the Cantata makes various references to the environment: sometimes hostile, but pre-eminently filled with beauty. The theme of the life cycle forms an invisible net around the text and music, with frequent allusions to the seasons and the day-night cycle.

This work had been commissioned by the Music Canada 2000 Festival Inc. for premiere performance by the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. Financial underwriting for the commission was generously provided by the Laidlaw Fundation and the Ontario Arts Council.