Program Notes
Is it worthwhile,
The pursuit of such radical things
as summitless mountains?
— Teddy McCoy*
This work for solo bassoon initially emerged from a very different work: a 35-minute cantata-style work called Presence for eighty guitars, five singers, plus a solo guitar and solo bassoon. About halfway through that work, the bassoon breaks away into this solo piece, and then rejoins the ensemble as the text above is sung by the singers.
I wrote this solo with that image in my mind: what does it feel like when we are scaling a mountain we cannot surmount? That as far as we climb, as hard as we try, as long as we can endure, it seems that the peak is still out of reach, and that we are slipping further and faster than we can climb?
This work is in Raag Chandrakauns, which to the Western-trained ear has a bit of that destabilizing effect — that the settled feeling of the tonic ‘home’ isn’t where we expect it to be, so it prompts our ear to hear out further, and to keep searching for resolution where there is none.
This work was written in close collaboration with Kristin Wolfe Jensen, who helped me find and write at the outer limits of the bassoon, because she navigates them with such flexibility and beauty.
—
*note: The text for Presence was drawn from writing by members of Austin Classical Guitar’s ensembles. This particularly beautiful passage, which is set later in the large work was written by Teddy McCoy, a member of Austin Classical Guitar Youth Orchestra.
Recording
see video above
Premiere/Performances
Summitless Mountains was commissioned by Austin Classical Guitar for bassoonist Kristin Wolfe Jensen. It was premiered on February 17, 2024 as part of the ACG: Originals series at the IASD Performing Arts Center in Austin, TX.
