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Duo Majoya

Marnie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger
Organ and Piano

Jack Singer Hall
July 5, 2018

 

Joe Utterback (b. 1944)
Images (2001?)
I Ballade
III Jubilee

Zachary Wadsworth (b. 1983)
Longlac Tableaux (2014)
II Tarantella: Black Fly Season
III Meditation: The Aurora in Snow

John Burge (b 1961)
Cathedral Architecture (2012)
Arranged for Duo Majoya for Organ and Piano by John Burge (2016)
II Gargoyles
III Windows

Cary Ratcliff (b.?)
Wind Riders of Alberta  (2018)
World Premiere
A Blinding of Snow
A Clatter of Aspens
A Dance of Whooping Cranes
A Circling of Hawks
A Haunting of Dust Devils

Jacobus Kloppers (b. 1937)
The Last Rose of Summer (2012)

Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
Duet Suite for Organ and Piano (1999)
V Finale

Notes

We are very excited about our program for Calgary’s Spirit Wind Organ Festival! All the works were composed for us by Canadian and American composers. Zachary Wadsworth’s “Tarantella: Black Fly Season; and Meditation: The Aurora in Snow” reflect some of our shared western experiences. Joe Utterback’s jazz-influenced “Ballade” and the foot-stomping “Jubilee” we performed and recorded in Jack Singer Hall on the CD   Skyscape (2002).  American composer Cary Ratcliff who hails from California and now lives in New York composed a suite of tone poems for this occasion called “Wind Riders of Alberta for Piano and Organ” (notes below). Rounding out our lunchtime musical feast of music that fits under western skies are two colourful movements form Calgary-born composer John Burge’s “Cathedral Architecture: Gargoyles and Windows”, Jacobus Kloppers’ tender setting of “Last Rose of Summer” and Finale from “Duet Suite for Organ and Piano” by Denis Bédard which perhaps reflects a type of “Bonanza” theme reminiscent of the older wild west.

Wind Riders of Alberta for Piano and Organ
by Cary Ratcliff
Commissioned by Duo Majoya: Marie Giesbrecht and Joachim Segger
Premiere at the RCCO Spirit Wind Organ Festival, July 5, 2018, Calgary, Alberta

PROGRAM NOTES

  1. A Blinding of Snow
    High winds keep already-fallen snow airborne, moving sideways. 2018 saw record-breaking snowfall in Calgary.
  2. A Clatter of Aspens
    The slightly brittle sound of Aspen leaves, that shake with the slightest wind, carry across a placid lake on a hushed afternoon.
  3. A Dance of Whooping Cranes
    The principal nesting grounds of the endangered North American Whooping Crane are in Wood Buffalo National Park, north of the oil sands, straddling the border with the Northwest Territory. There Whooping Cranes dance, a courtship display involving hopping and waving of wings. With the next generation, they fly over Alberta and the United States to winter on the Gulf coast of Texas.
  4. A Circling of Hawks
    Riding the rising thermals next to mountains, Hawks can glide with virtually no effort. Large groups of circling Hawks, called kettles or boils, often form, ‘resting’ prior to migration.
  5. A Haunting of Dust Devils
    Cylcones can form as heated air rises from the earth. If a cylcone touches the earth, dust can be pulled up into it, making the cylcone visible as a spinning ‘dust devil’. But when the cyclonic activity dissipates, the dust stops spiining and floats to the ground. Dust devils toggle into and out of existence.

Explore the music of Cary Ratcliff at Ratcliffmusic.com