Diversions

^{Premiere: 27 April 2010 at the Tsai Performance Center, Boston University, Boston, MA. Boston University Symphony Orchestra/David Hoose}

^{Duration: ca. 8′}

^{Instrumentation: Picc.2.2(2=corA).2.2 – 4.3.3.1 – timp.3 perc (marimba/chimes/glock/xylophone/trg; vibes/crotales/SD/tamb/BD; trg/susp cym/mark tree/BD/wood blocks/tamb) – hp – strings}

^{Performance Note:} 

^{My first favorite genre of orchestral music was the overture. Whether they were by Beethoven or Offenbach, Berlioz or Strauss, Shostakovich or Suppé, Reznicek or Mendelssohn didn’t matter to me: I listened to and learned as many as I could lay my hands on and, more than twenty years later, the “overture canon” still occupies a special place in my heart.}

^{When I wrote Diversions in 2010, I was completing my doctorate in music at Boston University. I composed the piece for the composer’s section of the College of Fine Arts’ annual concerto competition at BU and much to my delight it was selected as the winner. The premiere performance sandwiched Diversions between a Mozart Flute Concerto and Elgar’s magnificent Cello Concerto in April of that year. Talk about heady company.}

^{My goal in writing Diversions was to craft a piece that was “fast and fun.” It seemed to me that too many orchestral pieces I’d heard by young composers on concerto concerts (or similar) were anguished in character, unrelentingly dissonant, structurally confused, and musically undistinguished. I often came away from hearing such music feeling that a chance had been missed, an opportunity lost. Having written plenty of this kind of music, myself, I wanted to attempt to stunt the tendency, at least for one piece.}

^{So, looking for models, I turned to my old friend, the overture. The models of any number of my favorites – including, but by no means limited to, Benevuto Cellini, Carnival, and Zampa – were never far off while I was writing Diversions. The piece falls into a fairly traditional three-section form, but the way its materials are organized remains unique in my output. Diversions’ main melody is a tune that, once I wrote it, realized is of a style that, I felt, need only be heard once in full. So I constructed the piece as a kind of reverse variations (or, better, transformations) of this long-breathed melody. The effect, once the big statement rolls around near the end, should be one of hearing something new, but utterly familiar.}

^{The three sections follow a basic, fast-slow-fast pattern. The first is filled with brassy fanfares and leads to a middle section that features a number of solos, significantly ones for English horn, oboe, trombone, and trumpet. A return to a fast tempo marks the beginning of the last section and involves a series of metamorphoses of the opening motive into the “grand tune” at the end.}

^{A word about the dedication: Diversions is dedicated to Andrew Johnston, the son of longtime family friends Jim and Lisa Johnston. Between 2001 and 2003, I dedicated three short pieces to each of Andrew’s sisters (Claire, Julia, and Sarah). When Andrew was born in 2004, his father requested that any piece I write for him be suitably big and loud, “preferably with anvils.” Alas, I couldn’t bring myself to include an anvil in the scoring of Diversions, but I trust a snare drum, xylophone, some chimes, and lots of brass will suffice.}

^{View score:}