On a summer night several years ago, not far from my home in southern Utah, an unsuspecting group of frogs sang by a slickrock waterhole up a narrow side canyon in Zion National Park. Little did they know their voices would soon be heard on concert stages all across the world and on the Internet. And they certainly never expected to share the bill with chirping crickets, howling coyotes, and tuxedoed classical musician.
But I was hiding nearby and had stealthily placed a microphone and a digital recorder at the edge of the waterhole. I also recorded the sounds of coyotes, crickets, rocks, thunder, and the rushing waters of the Virgin River. After transferring these natural sounds into my computer, I shaped and arranged them on my synthesizer keyboard. Finally, I orchestrated the sounds into a piece of music for tape, and wrote an accompanying score for solo oboe to interact with the natural sounds.
Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa was commissioned by Stephen Caplan and Meet The Composer, Inc., as part of my three year New Residency (1997-1999), which celebrated the landscapes of southern Utah.
I've subsequently arranged the work for other solo instruments, including french horn, trombone, flute, violin, clarinet, and bassoon.
--Phillip Kent Bimstein
Halfmoon at Checkerboard Mesa
Phillip Kent Bimstein
Franklin Stark Music (ASCAP)
(1997)
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