Untitled Document

Tales From the Elfwood

Tales From the Elfwood was inspired by artwork from a monumental website dedicated to fantasy and science fiction art: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/elfwood.pike. The suite is free in both form and style; the movements do not borrow thematically from each other for the most part. Each was inspired by a separate artwork, and each is a stand-alone piece. They are vignettes, impressions of the artwork that inspired them. Below, I've placed links to mp3 files of the pieces as well as links to the artwork which inspired it and links to the homepage of the artist. PLEASE NOTE: the artwork copyrights are held by their respective artists. While I have been given permission to link to this art, you DO NOT have permission to copy it. Many of these artists sell their artwork (and rightly so; there's some beautiful stuff here), and you would be denying them their livelihood. Do not expect grandiose movements full of clever compositional idioms and ideas, for you will not find that here; this is program music, written to reflect specific works of art, and they are mostly written in a simple style reflective of the art they emulate. They are vignettes, often with a minimum of thematic development, not symphonic constructs full of pretentious extravagance (that phrase brings to mind folks like Bruckner, Mahler, and Wagner. Don't get me wrong, they were mighty composers indeed, and I do not deserve to stand anywhere even close to their accomplishments; but they do strike me as being extravagant from time to time. I mean, come on---symphony of a thousand? Wouldn't a hundred do, Mahler, old chap?).

1. Witch and Familiar: music original artwork by Rebecca Carr. Rebecca's pencil art was particularly whimsical and the music describing the art simply leaped into my head as soon as I saw the artwork. Astute listeners will detect a hint of Arabian and Jewish flavor to the work; I guess she's a cosmopolitan witch, although I suppose it could be describing the familiar...The movement is scored for full small orchestra (winds in pairs) with 2 percussionists playing vibraslap and tambourine.

2. I Love You: music original artwork by Adele Sessler (Adele's homepage can be accessed here). A piece written to emulate the "romantic" style, I find it difficult to listen to without getting a tear in my eyes. Adele's sensitive and heartfelt drawing was just the ticket to inspire this kind of music. The movement is scored for full orchestra + harp.

3. It's Spring Time: music original artwork by Marjolein Gulinski (Marjolein's homepage can be accessed here). Marjolein seems to specialize in "fairy art" and has a beautiful style that just oozes with soft colors. This music was intended to reflect the joyous nature of Spring, and it leaps about fairly frequently. It is scored for full small orchestra (winds in singles, for the most part), harp, and 2 percussionists playing tambourine and finger cymbals.

4. Eltagrim the Loremaster of Drysden: music original artwork by Mark A. Lev. Mark's drawing of an old scholar immediately brought to mind dimly lit gothic corridors and rooms at night, the torch and candle light casting menacing shadows on the walls. Scored for glockenspiel, celesta, harp, tubular bells, and standard strings (most of the time playing in tremolo), it sounds..."tinkly", but that's pretty standard for evoking a mystical mood.

5. Sunrise in the Wood of Shadows: music original artwork by Natalie Touretsky. Natalie's art struck me as a great backdrop for a musical piece describing the rising of the sun in a dense forest, where light filters in and never really jumps out. The piece was written in a style to emulate one of my all-time favorite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and was intentionally written in a pastoral style. It is scored for flute, english horn, guitar, harp, and standard strings.

6. Autumn Breeze: music original artwork by Lindsay Archer (Lindsay's homepage can be accessed here). I suppose I overdid it on this one, but Autumn has always suggested melancholy, and thus I cast this one in B minor to reflect that. I think this piece derives less from Lindsay's artwork, and more from the "essence" of what I saw in the art. Autumn breezes cause the leaves to be tossed about haphazardly...and that's a metaphor for our lives (at least, it was to Tchaikovsky while he wrote his 4th Symphony)---we are thrown around until we take control. So maybe it should be "Autumn Storm" instead of "Autumn Breeze"---but let the music stand for what it is, and what (and who) it represents. The work is scored for 3 flutes/alto flutes, 3 oboes + english horn, harp, wordless choir, trombones, timpani, and the obligatory string section.

7. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod: music original artwork by Wendy A. Lawson (Wendy's website may be accessed here). I've wanted for many years (almost since I could read music) to set this poem to music, and Wendy's charming stained-glass style work finally gave me an excuse. The poem is by Eugene Field, and the words can be accessed all over the web. The melodic line shifts from one instrument to the other from time to time, but it follows the poem syllables almost exactly, so you can "sing along" if you wish; alternatively, the melodic line could be sung by a children's choir. It's scored for guitar, flute, oboes/english horn, clarinets (including bass clarinet), glockenspiel, and harp, along with standard strings. Deliberately written in a "simple" style, I wanted to reflect the fact that this is music describing a child's imaginary world. Moreover, it's a lullaby, so it better not be overly raucous. As you listen, you'll hear the waves rolling, the little "star-herring" darting about (flute/glockenspiel trills), and the music for the final stanza is particularly enchanting (I think).

8. Fields of Gold: music original artwork by Jenny Dolfen (Jenny's website may be accessed here). Jenny is an absolute master of watercolor, and when I saw her painting of an elf gazing longingly across a grainfield, I just HAD to write this music. It sounds vaguely like Aaron Copland, who is without doubt my favorite composer of all time, and is meant to evoke all of those loving emotions of home and pleasant memories. It is hymlike, as befits the "simple" musical style it attempts to emulate. Scored for full orchestra, the brass have only a few cameos here and there towards the end.

9. Eolande: music original artwork by Yvonne Power. Yvonne's artwork takes several general artistic impressions (gothic and romantic among them) and wraps them in a shroud of mystery. To do this work justice, I attempted to emulate what I call "wild romanticism", with sweeping string lines and lots of pedal-work and lush chords throughout. I also tried to follow a much more rigid musical form---the sonota form---which was a staple of the romantic musical period. You will notice an initial theme with some development (in A minor), a second theme in E minor, a combining of the two, and a restatement of the A minor theme, producing a classic ABA form. Why minor keys? Because Eolande is not the girl next door; I see her as a seductive but unattainable, idealized vision of femininity. Thus the music needs to be sensual in some way, but sinister in others. Scored for piano, standard strings, and tubular bells, with short appearances by horns in F and trumpets.

10. Unicorn Garden: music original artwork by Candace E. Bell (Candace's website may be accessed here). This piece starts out peacefully and quietly, reflecting the night atmosphere, and since it's in a major key, it's not sinister at all; it's more restful. The two unicorns are calm. Still, there's a dichotomy here in the black and white, the very element that drew me to this artwork in the first place, and therefore the music is not all goodness and light, though the light wins out in the end. Scored for small orchestra with harp.

11. Playing With Stars: music original artwork by A. Kajsa Flinkfeldt (Kajsa's website may be accessed here). Delicate and ethereal is the way I would describe this enchanting watercolor, and thus the music had to be delicate and ethereal as well. Thus the transparent orchestration of oboes, english horn, tubular bells, glockenspiel, and harp, along with the standard strings (and a cameo by horns in F). This is also the first piece to use synthesized sounds (MIDI "warm pad" for those of you who know about such things). I've tried to avoid synthesizer in these pieces, given the sometimes large technical problems of getting them to sound right in an orchestral setting, but Kajsa's mystical view of the creation of stars required some "otherworldly" sounds, and warm pad was just the right thing. The harp and glockenspiel are meant to represent the stars lifting up out of the subject's hand and floating up into the sky.

12. Spring Dancer: music original artwork by Chantal Lizotte. Masterful use of a simple and unpretentious style, the dancing elven figure in this portrait evokes a sense of movement as well as serenity. Aside from one brief section where the full orchestra intrudes (minus brass except for horns, by the way), the music is mostly open and lightly scored. And of course it's in 3/4---it's a waltz, though not a traditional one. The piece moves from a medieval/renaissance style at the beginning to a repetitive style reminescent of minimalism (like Philip Glass) towards the end, before a short restatement of the melody by the harp signals the end of the dance.

13. Penguin of Arabia: music original artwork by Ursula Vernon (Ursula's website may be accessed here). Ursula obviously has fun with her art, coming up with many clever, unorthodox, and laugh-out-loud works. As her penguin is tongue-in-cheek, so too is this music a caricature of Arabic influences, right down to the (mis)-statement of the famous theme from "Lawrence of Arabia" in the woodwinds right at the end of the piece. The brass, when featured, are muted; the sound seems to be appropriate for a penguin who seems to be a true "fish out of water". The work is scored for full small orchestra and uses way more percussion than I'm usually comfortable with...but if the piece was really going to do any satiric justice to Ursula's fabulous art, it had to be overdone in the percussion section and use all of those stereotypical instruments associated with this sort of music.

14. Under an Umbrella: music original artwork by Nathalie I. Moore (Nathalie's website may be accessed here). This is the only composition in the set that was started without a clear artwork in mind; it therefore began as a composition in search of an identity. As I wrote it, however, it clearly took on the essence of Nathalie's prankish pixie drifting in the clear starlit night on a magical leaf, particularly with respect to the harp part. Because Nathalie's art is of something small and delicate in a wider world, I wanted the music to reflect that; thus, I "downscored" the music for a much more intimate body of musicians: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, harp, and a string quintet rather than an entire string section.