Krakatoa: concerto for alto saxophone or viola, strings, and percussion
INSTRUMENTATION
Solo alto saxophone or viola, strings (suggested size: 12,10,8,6,4), timpani, 3 percussion
Solo alto saxophone or viola, strings (suggested size: 12,10,8,6,4), timpani, 3 percussion
*I. Imminent
II. Eruption
III. Dormant
An introduction to Krakatoa
A conversation about the new saxophone version of Krakatoa with Stacy Garrop and Joe Lulloff
**Excerpts
VIDEOS
*Joe Lulloff, alto saxophone, and the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra; Octavio Más-Arocas, conductor
**Joe Lulloff, alto saxophone, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra; Matthew Kraemer, conductor
DURATION
19'
YEAR COMPOSED
2017
COMMISSIONER
Barlow Endowment
ORDERING SCORES
Theodore Presser Company
Saxophone version: https://www.presser.com/116-42156s-krakatoa.html
Viola version: https://www.presser.com/116-42008s-krakatoa.html
To view perusals, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAM NOTES
On May 20, 1883, a cloud of ash rose six miles high above Krakatoa, a volcano nestled on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. For the next two months, the volcano rumbled and spewed occasional dust and debris into the air, giving nearby inhabitants a spectacular show. On August 26th, Krakatoa turned deadly with an enormous blast that spewed pyroclastic flows (a blend of ash, lava, and gases) and pumice (lava that mixes with water and solidifies quickly into rock), and commenced a series of eruptions. On the next day, the volcano produced four enormous eruptions over four and a half hours. These eruptions were so loud (particularly the fourth) that they could be heard 3,000 miles away, and so devastating that two-thirds of the island sank back under the sea. The effects of Krakatoa’s eruptions were staggering: they sent shock waves into the atmosphere that circled the globe at least seven times; they triggered numerous tsunamis, the highest nearly 120 feet tall, which flooded and destroyed 165 coastal villages along with their inhabitants; and they propelled tons of ash roughly fifty miles up into the atmosphere. This ash blotted out the sun in Indonesia for days; it also lowered global temperatures for several years afterwards, and produced a wide range of atmospheric colors and phenomena. At least 36,000 people tragically lost their lives that fateful day. For the next forty-four years, Krakatoa was silent below the sea. This silence ended in 1927, when fishermen spotted steam and debris rising from the island. Within a year, a new volcano began to take shape above sea level. This new volcano is named Anak Krakatau, which translates to “child of Krakatoa,” and periodically experiences small eruptions.
Krakatoa for solo alto saxophone or solo viola, strings, and percussion follows the path of the volcano’s four main eruptions. In the first movement, Imminent, the violist uneasily plays as the orchestra (representing the volcano) shows ever-increasing signs of awakening. The orchestra bursts forth into the second movement, Eruption, where it proceeds through four eruptions that get progressively more cataclysmic. After the final and most violent eruption, the violist plays a cadenza that eases the volcano into the third movement, Dormant. In this final movement, the volcano slumbers, soothed by musical traits that I borrowed from traditional Javanese gamelan music: a cyclical, repetitive structure in which the largest gong is heard at the end of each cycle, and a musical scale loosely based on the Javanese pelog tuning system. The movement ends peacefully with an array of string harmonics, representing the intense and brilliantly colored sunsets generated by Krakatoa’s ash in the earth’s atmosphere.
Krakatoa was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.
-S.G.
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HELIOS • 4’30” • 2 tpts/flugelhorns, hn, tbn, tba
PROGRAM NOTES
In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the sun. His head wreathed in light, he daily drove a chariot drawn by four horses (in some tales, the horses are winged; in others, they are made of fire) across the sky. At the end of each day’s journey, he slept in a golden boat that carried him on the Okeanos River (a fresh water stream that encircled the flat earth) back to his rising place. The cyclic journey of Helios is depicted in this short work for brass quintet. The first half is fast-paced and very energetic, while the second half is slow and serene, representing day and night.
-S.G.