Snegglish
Dances (2000)
For orchestra
INSTRUMENTATION
3 Flutes (3 dbl Picc)
3 Oboes (3 dbl EH)
3 Clarinets in Bb (2 dbl Eb)
3 Bassoons (2 dbl Cbsn)
4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in C
2 Tenor Trombones
1 Bass Trombone
1 Tuba
3 Percussionists*
1 Piano
Strings
*PERCUSSION
4 Timpani
Temple Blocks
2 Triangles
Bell Plate
Glockenspiel
2 Suspended Cymbals
Medium Maraca
4 Toms
Ratchet
Xylophone
Bass Drum
Lion's Roar
ABOUT THE WORK
Snegglish Dances was commissioned by the Louisville
Orchestra as part of an educational project designed to develop
creative listening skills in young audiences. the project won
the 2001 Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming
from the American Symphony Orchestra League and ASCAP. Enlisting
the cooperation of area schools, the orchestra assisted teachers
in exploring the connection between composing music and writing
stories. Basic components of both disciplines were compared
and demonstrated, including setting, character, plot, conflict,
and resolution.
The culmination of this cooperative enterprise was a concert
by the Louisville Orchestra, in which excerpts from Peer Gynt Suite,
Scheherezade and Metropolis Symphony were performed. The concert
concluded with a performance of Snegglish Dances, a work that
pulls together the principles of character, setting, conflict
and resolution into a colorful, six-minute showcase for orchestra.
Snegglish Dances tells a story involving two characters:
Loris and Mr. Snegglish. Loris is a mischievous spirit, always
looking for ways to cause trouble. Mr. Snegglish is an old philosopher
pondering the meaning of life.
After a brief introduction that establishes the magical setting
of the piece, four sections ensue. The first two parts introduce the
characters, the last two function as development and resolution:
Part 1 (mm 6-27) Loris's music is capricious,
mischievous, mercurial, as she flies about seeking victims for
her pranks.
Part 2 (mm 28-52) Loris discovers Mr. Snegglish
sitting alone, deep in thought.
Part 3 (mm 53-113) She decides to have a little
fun. Reciting a magic formula, she enters Mr. Snegglish's mind.
She makes him stand up and, after a few stumbling efforts, he
begins to bounce about in an awkward, silly dance that combines
the music from the first two sections. The dance becomes wilder
and wilder, building up into a chaotic frenzy.
In the final section (mm 114-142), the music from Part 2 returns,
but with a different personality. In the performance, members
of the audience were encouraged to listen closely and decide
for themselves what happens to Loris and Snegglish in the end.
Their assignment was to write the conclusion to the story, based
on what they'd heard. Future performances need not follow the
same format, as the music is adaptable to any concert setting.
My favorite piece of music was Snegglish Dances, this
piece really was exciting because it described how each character
was feeling and how they acted. Loris was always happy and jumped
inside the philosopher to make him dance because the music was
always tinkly, also there was fun and exciting parts in it.
The philosopher was always having ideas and had fast moving
sounds.
Zach Motes, 4th grade
She taught Mr. Snegglish how to dance. She taught him how to
do the Cancan, the Cha-Cha, and the Hokey Pokey.
Lauren Davis, 4th grade
Loris was tossed about in Mr. Snegglish's mind. She felt as
though she was a bouncy-ball bouncing back and forth between
two walls. While Loris was thinking about this thought, Mr.
Snegglish took a HUGE leap in the air that was so big that it
threw Loris right out of Mr. Snegglish's mind!
Haley Cade, 4th grade
SNEGGLISH DANCES:
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