Music Finland Core

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I discovered the poetry of Walt Whitman in my early twenties, soon after moving to the United States to study. Having been educated in French, I was unfamiliar with the work of this great master, and was immediately captivated. Never before had I heard the English language sound so powerful, so passionate, and especially, so musical. It was the musicality of Whitman’s language, in fact, which convinced me not to try using it in a vocal setting. I felt any music I could compose would only interfere with the power of Whitman’s words: after all, how does one make song out of poetry which is already in essence song? However, as I have an unfortunate tendency to think in epic cycles, I did briefly toy with the idea of setting the poems as purely instrumental music, much in the same manner as Ravel approached the verse of Aloysius Bertrand in Gaspard de la Nuit. When I later lived for several years near Whitman’s birthplace in Long Island, walking the same beaches he had, seeing the same skies and sunsets, I gradually came to a better understanding of his words. It was in 2005, when my friend Risto-Matti Marin asked me for some new music for a summer concert, that I decided the time had come to try my hand at a large set of piano works, something in the tradition of such composers as Schumann, Chopin, Debussy and Messiaen; I discovered after that fact that the year marked the 150th anniversary of the publication of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, a pleasing coincidence. It should be pointed out that, although the pieces are closely based on Whitman’s poems, they are not programmatic in nature, but rather personal distillations of the atmosphere of each one. In Tears, the piano rhapsodically portrays a storm both physical and psychological, as a nameless protagonist (the poet himself?), sits alone on a darkened beach, weeping. As in the poem, Whitman’s own cry of "Tears! Tears! Tears!" opens and closes the movement. Lingering last drops is its polar opposite, a quiet, consoling elegy in which the final drops of a rain shower are slowed down to the point where each one becomes a singular, exquisite event. Sparkles from the Wheel follows next, the hypnotic dance of sparks from a grindstone alternating wildly with glimpses of the busy surroundings, building toward a climax that gives voice to "the loud, proud, resonant bass of the streets." The final piece, appropriately enough for a Nordic summer night, is Twilight, a gently swinging blues accompanying the poet’s brief, haiku-like meditation on oblivion.© Matthew Whittall

Year of composing

Arranger

Movements

Availability

Abbreviation	Instrument
Woodwind
acl	alto clarinet
afl	alto flute
arec	alto recorder
asax	alto saxophone
barsax	baritone saxophone
barhn	baritone horn
bcl	bass clarinet
bfl	bass flute
bob	bass oboe
bsax	bass saxophone
bsn	bassoon
cbsn	contrabassoon
cl	clarinet
ehn	English horn
fl	flute
hn	French horn
ob	oboe
pic	piccolo
rec	recorder
sax	saxophone
srec	soprano recorder
ssax	soprano saxophone
trec	tenor recorder
tsax	tenor saxophone
Brass
ahn	alto horn
atrb	altotrombone
barhn	baritone horn
btrb	bass trombone
cornet	cornet
euph	euphonium
fhn	flugelhorn
hn	French horn
tba	tuuba
thn	tenor horn
trb	trombone
trp	trumpet
Percussion
dr	drums
glock	glockenspiel
mar	marimba
perc	percussion
timp	timpani
vibr	vibraphone
xyl	xylophone
Strings
db	double bass
gamba	viola da gamba
str	strings
vla	viola
vlc	cello
vln	violin
Other
acc	accordion
cel	celesta
cemb	harpsichord
chords	chords
elbas	electric bass
elg	electric guitar
elorg	electric organ
elpno	electric piano
guit	guitar
harm	harmonium
hca	harmonica
hp	harp
instr	instrument
kantele	kantele
keyb	keyboard
live electr	live electronics
mand	mandolin
mel	melody
org	organ
pno	piano
synth	synthesizer
tape	tape
Vocal
alto	alto
baryt	baritone
basso	bass voice
ch	choir
chc	childrens choir
chf	female choir
chm	male choir
chx	mixed choir
cten	countertenor
mezzo	mezzo-soprano
sopr	soprano
speaker	speaker
ten	tenor
voc	vocal

Symphony orchestra
2222 4331 11 1, str = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, one other percussionist, harp and strings
Wind band
2252 3 423 21212 3 = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 5 clarinets, 2 bassoons - 3 saxophones - 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones - 2 cornets, alto horn, 2 tenor horns, baritone horn, 2 tubas - 3 percussionists
Big band
221 4 4, pno, guit, db, dr = 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, guitar, double bass, drums
Additional codes
+	fl+pic = flutist doubles on piccolo
/	pno/org = can be played on either piano or organ
lib	ad libitum
obl	obligato
str	str: 65432 = specified number of string players
str min	str min: 65432 = at least 65432
str max	str max: 65432 = not more than 65432
solo	vln solo = violin is the solo instrument in a work not obviously for solo violin

Leaves of Grass, Book I