Dr.’s Sarah Rushing and James Barger presented a unique, environmentally-themed concert against the backdrop of visuals on the screen which set the context and impacted the message. Lucky attendees, by turns felt elevated as well as depressed all the while asking questions about our relationship to the environment.
Who’d a thunk that a piano and a sax could have such a profound effect?
The duo performed four works, the first being Manitou Incline, a three movment work composed in 2020 by Joel Love. The piece is a musical description of an ascent of Pikes Peak along a challenging trail called the Manitou Incline.
The first movment has a melodic opening, as if all’s right with the world. The composer says this tone reflects the optimism he felt going to the trailhead. The pace becomes more frenetic, building to a screeching sax which Love says references the panic attacks he felt. Afterwards there occurs a tranquil reprise, like a beneficent mountain encouraging further ascent.
The second movement opens with a pensive piano with the sax entering in a similar vein, as if areassessing the endeavor. But the mountain still summons, in a quiet but insistent way. This section shades into the third movement, which picks up, suggesting another major incline. The piano becomes ominous about 9:40, setting the stage for the final ascent, the sax answering.
The sax plays a happy dance about 10:30 on top of the summit. The duet spends the last minute celebrating the accomplishment.
We all have our mountains to climb: the work becomes a musical metaphor for the challenges of life. And, in the process of assailing those peaks, the very challenge of the effort, along with nature, has much to teach us. In The Manitou Incline, Love created a very provocative and evocative work!
Rodney Rogers composed the second work on the program, Lessons of the Sky, in 1985. The title of the work derives from the essay The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley, with the sky representing infinite knowledge as well as the lessons gained from observing the world around and worlds above.
The narrative becomes a dialogue between the instruments, which opens with high energy, which persists for some three minutes. Then Lessons transitions into a mode of tranquility, which is very melodic and reflective.
The third portion of this ternary work begins around 5:30, with gentle runs on the piano, like a babbling brook with the sax joining the flow. Lessons ends positively, as if humanity has learned those lessons.
In this world gone mad, we obviously have much yet to learn.
From the notes on the program’s third number, Miriama Young’s, This Earthly Round: “This work was written as a musical response to climate change-deniers who choose to ignore scientific evidence to the contrary and continue to set policies that exacerbate enrionmental problems. The dedication is to former Aussie PM Tony Abbott.
The spare intro reminds one of Arvo Part and Estonian Minimalism with its brittle, almost oriental sonic description of our tenuous existence on the planet. The sax is initially playing to the piano, but turns around about 2:35 and really opens the keypads.
The sounds, suggesting struggle, intensify, and by 4:15, the sax is wailing. At 5:00 there is a break, with the piano first gaining a timid entrance, then joined by the saxophone. The macabre sonic description is that of a lunar, not a verdant landscape. At 7:00 the sound of the sax is eerie, with a funereal sound maintaining until the end.
The dirge has its effect. After all, what’s there to say when all that’s left of This Earthly Round is a cinder?
Stephen Lias, composer of the final work on the program, Range of Light, has worked with the National Park Service to create music inspired by America’s national parks which has turned into a substantial oeuvre. This piece, a sonata composed in 2014, is based on four photos of Yosemite by Ansel Adams.
The first, “Winter Sunrise,” has an initial echo of Arvo Part. Played by piano, it sounds cold and still. The sax holds a sustained note, that adds to the effect. About 2:30 the sax starts to sound lively, hinting that there is life in the frozen. About 3:45, it becomes much more assertive, with runs and sustained high notes: perhaps an avalance breaking loose. Then the instrument turns down the volume, as if everything settles down, only to become strident at the end, as if saying the potential for danger remains.
The second movement, “Vernal Falls,” opens with gentle piano arpeggiation, which becomes more energetic with the sax playing complex jazzy and syncopated phrases, all of which conveys a musical picture of continuous motion. The saxophone calms down but the piano rumbles on: the falls still fall!
“Jeffre Pine” is the iconic photo of a Jeffrey Pine growing out of the rock on Sentinel Dome. Bent, but strengthened by its environment, it persists alone, in a place where it shouldn’t. A spare piano maintains throughout, joined by the sax in a similar tone, creating an homage to this amazing tree.
The fourth, “clearing Winter Storm” is shot across the valley, with the sun thining through, brightening the mountain tops. An upbeat sax initiates the section and continues until 19:30, when the pace slows when around 20:40 the sax sings a sustained not, like the sun is breaking through and the storm has passed setting up an optimistic finale.
An environmentally- themed rendering such as this in Boulder or Berkeley would not be unusual. But to stage such a quality performance in the conservative Comancheria stands as testimony not only to the calibre and sensitivity of the artists but also the audience, whose positive reception demonstrated a shared concern for the welfare of our Blue Planet.
But, in a larger sense, this incredible experience stands as a metaphor for the arts in Amarillo: they shouldn’t exist, but yet thrive! For music that savages our complacency and prompts action, we thank Sarah and James. And for all of the arts in this place that inspire us to go beyond, we say,
Keep Amarillo Artsy!
Keep Austin Weird!
Keep Lubbock in the Rear View Mirror!!!!
Keep Amarillo Artsy 