Bassoon, Viola, Violin 1,
Violin 2, Violoncello
SKU: PR.16400261S
Composed by Dan Welcher.
With Standard notation.
Duration 15 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#164-00261S. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.16400261S).
UPC:
680160038411.
Since
the bassoon is my own
instrument, many people
have asked me why I've
written so little for the
instrument. Beyond my
early Concerto Da Camera
for bassoon and small
orchestra, written for
Leonard Sharrow in 1975,
I've not written a single
piece that features the
bassoon as a solo vehicle
(though I have written
three woodwind quintets).
When I first began
composing seriously,
critics were quick to
point out that my
orchestral writing
revealed nothing of my
roots as a woodwind
player--and bassoonists
asked why my pieces
didn't have more bassoon
solos. Perhaps I was so
aware that people were
looking at me as a
bassoonist/composer that
I was determined to
remove that stigma. Now
that my transformation
from performer to
composer is complete,
however, it's time to
re-address my instrument.
I wanted this new piece
to be serious rather than
whimsical. The Wind Won't
Listen represents my
return to the bassoon as
the highly expressive,
poetic soul that it is.
As such, it
shouldn't come as a
surprise that the piece
is based on a poem, and
that the title of the
piece as well as both its
movement titles come from
lines in that poem. I
first read Beth Gylys'
poem Split at the
MacDowell Colony in the
summer of 2001, and it
made a big impression on
me. My personal life had
been ruptured by divorce
in the preceding year.
This poem, with its dry
insistence on observation
rather than feeling,
expressed the wrung-out
state of my emotions at
the time better than any
I had seen. I set it to
music, as a song,
immediately. In this
format, for voice and
piano, I was able to put
a musical note to every
word of the poem. The
first lines of the poem,
Everyone I know is
crying, or should be
crying, became a melody
that haunted me even
without the words.
The work for bassoon and
string quartet is an
outgrowth of the song.
The first movement is
labeled Romanza, and has
a loose formal arch
structure of A-B-C-B-A,
with B and C being fast
sections framed by the
lamenting A music. In
addition to hearing the
bassoon's first notes
attached to the lines
Everyone I know is
crying, there's a sense
of agitation, of loss, of
longing, and at times of
desperation in the music.
At one point, the opening
theme from Tristan even
appears in the strings.
The second
movement follows, without
a real pause--the
pizzicato final chords of
the first movement
becoming the increasingly
aggressive opening chords
of the second. The
recitative is actually a
foreshadowing of the
basic theme that will be
varied, again to the
words of the song: Life
makes itself without us.
Don't let me tell you how
it is. Go out. Look. The
recitative begins in an
anguished state, but
subsides into more gentle
singing by the end, when
it simply falls into an
ostinato 5/8-3/4 pattern
to begin the variations.
Marked Very steady tempo;
Dancing, this set of
variations consists of
three dances, each faster
than the previous. The
first, in the
aforementioned 5/8-3/4
meter, gives way to a 3/8
scherzo, which in turn
takes on a furious 2/4
scurrying motion. The
music becomes breathless,
almost pulse-less, and an
ethereal theme appears in
the violins while the
rushing music continues,
sotto voce in the
bassoon. This new theme
is also from the song:
Why do I do this? The
wind won't listen. The
bassoon re-states its
Everyone I know is crying
melody from the first
movement, and at length
the 5/8-3/4 music
returns, more subdued
this time. The piece ends
on a major-minor chord,
suspended. The
Wind Won't Listen is
dedicated to the man who
commissioned it,
bassoonist Steven
Dibner--who shares my
passion for poetry and
language. --Dan
Welcher.
Simply Curry
