On the Banks of the Mississippi (Spencer Brand)
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About this Piece Spencer Brand
The sentiments expressed in the music of Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius, and Carl Nielsen align with the sentiments I wish to express in my music. Because of this, my heart is often with Scandinavian composers.
For this piece specifically, I was inspired by Carl Nielsen’s fourth symphony whose grand gestures in the first and last movements are incredibly striking to me. In academic writing about music and place, musicologists have found that music from Scandinavian composers is used to symbolize the human connection to nature. I feel this connection with nature especially in my home state of Minnesota. Embedding Minnesotan themes into my compositions is one of my foremost goals. I feel that it sets my music in a specific place. When composing this piece, I imagined the way the light hit the water at the edges of the Mississippi river. I wanted to give the entire piece a grandiose and wandering feeling through the grand gestures initially stated in the horns which continue in the wandering harmonies that permeate the texture throughout. The entire piece has a shimmering effect generated from these harmonies and through the opening woodwind embellishments. My signature, the loon call, which occurs in the E-flat clarinet, is my stamp for the piece, immediately directing the listener to Minnesota. |
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