Mare Crisium for Orchestra. (Original Composition).

MARE CRISIUM (Sea of Crises), written between September, 1982 and March, 1983, is an extended one-movement work for orchestra. It is scored for winds in threes (with oboe 3 doubling English Horn, clarinet 3 doubling bass clarinet, and contra-bassoon), four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, tuba, percussion, two harps, celesta, and st and ard strings. The title of the work is intended to inform the listener in an abstract rather than a programmatic sense. Mare Crisium is one of the seas of the moon, the majority of which were rather fancifully named by Renaissance astronomers. The language of the piece utilizes extended tertian triads as building blocks, with the interval of the third being important both melodically and as a basis for root movement. From an orchestrational and gestural st and point, the work is inspired by the orchestral music of Claude Debussy, the early impressionistic works of Igor Stravinsky, and the pre-serial music of Arnold Schoenberg. Reference to their music in MARE CRISIUM is in the nature of an hommage. The period from which these works issue, i.e., ca. 1905 to 1913, is the one that I consider the golden age of the orchestra, in which the music conceived for the instrument of the orchestra most admirably suited its capabilities. MARE CRISIUM is, from this stylistic point of view, something of a look backward; however, I believe that the language of the piece works for our own time.Ph.D.MusicUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159487/1/8324118.pd