Only after I had children did I realize how rooted music is in language acquisition and in response to ones environment. We seem to be enchanted by the hidden melodies of life, latching onto them, repeating them, and only then investing them with meaning. Music is abstracted mimesis: this is true for the Mongolian herdsman, imitating the roebuck and the wind, as well as for Beethoven, Debussy, and Messiaen. Recording technology allows us to take this process one step further, to literally capture the water and the wind and to engage their sounds directly in music.
No Return: River Impressions 2002 grows directly out of contact with the Salmon River; it is my first large work to incorporate natural sounds, all of which were recorded at river’s edge in August, 2002. In planning the piece, I thought much about the specificity of the great pieces inspired by the elements – the score of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, for example, is accompanied by poetry which describes exactly what each phrase is representing. In this case the Salmon River doesn’t simply define the landscape, it dominates history, politics, and lifestyle. One way or another, we come to terms with nature – we nurture, explore, develop, exploit, play, contemplate, etc. Our actions in turn define the future of the river, hence the title of the piece, and the symbiosis of the imprint.
Each movement uses the interplay of river and music to describe and embody different ways of relating. The first movement, “Postcard (with Ava, Simon, and Skyler),” is literally that: snapshots, an incident recounted (this one involving a toddler and two dogs), a little commentary, and room for postage. “Upstream” is about struggle and survival: the sounds are hummingbirds, trapped against a pane of glass outside of Salmon. “No Return” is based on Lewis and Clark, fighting the rapids, and so represents the human side of that struggle, as we work our way through mazes and forks, looking for safe passage. Finally, “Night Sit” offers a possibility of symbiosis, of being with the river, its flora and fauna, and making a different kind of harmony out of the counterpoint.
Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959)
No Return: River Impressions 2002
Postcard (with Ava, Simon, and Skyler)
Upstream
No Return
Night Sit
©2003, Airplane Ears Music (ASCAP)
Todd Reynolds, violin
Evan Ziporyn, clarinet and bass clarinet
Sounds of the Salmon River recorded by Evan Ziporyn, August 2002
Instrumental Sounds recorded at Loho Studios, New York, by Lawrence Manchester, February 2003
Mixed and edited by Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth, March-April 2003
Mastered by Rob Friedman, April 2003
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