Program Note:

Aubade with Ashen Clouds, Scarlet Sky is a meditation of the west coast wildfires earlier this year. Although it was not my first time away from home, the experience of leaving my family in the wake of a pandemic, the ongoing battle against systemic racism, and a contentious election cycle on top of these fires only heightened my anxieties. Particularly in Oregon—my home state—these fires were the largest and most destructive since the Eagle Creek Fire of 2017.

In the aftermath three years ago, I remember a collective feeling of hope and optimism; there was a sense that the treasured Columbia Gorge would be rejuvenated, and it eventually was. The forests and trails are not as verdant as they used to be, but the progression was a future that the community knew would become reality. Perhaps this is more a reflection of the international trauma we have all been affected by this year, but the previous hope was nowhere to be found. The images of the fiery sunrises and the clouds of ash devastated me. Because of my upbringing in Oregon, I have developed a deep connection to nature, and it pained me seeing such a beloved place burned to ashes again.

In composing Aubade, I aimed to capture the process of a fire while also reconciling the general emotions of the Oregon community. The first movement, “Smolder”, conveys the beginnings stages of a fire and its spontaneous nature. I utilize air tone and unpitched timbres in the opening to create a sense of apprehension. This slowly emerges to reveal a C-D♭-E♭-G♭ motive and increases in energy until it is set fully ablaze in “Flames.” At its peak, wildfires are vicious and uncontrollable, and the rapid passages and multiphonics of the bass clarinet reflect this character. In “Ashes”—the third movement—the dyads and tremolo with harmonic overtones evoke the melancholy and desolation left by not only the fire, but this entire year. I recall the spectral sweeps from the first movement as a representation of the cyclic destruction that the world seems to be in.