Nothing Bitter Suite – Chamber Orchestra

August 20, 2018

Nothing Bitter Suite (2010) for chamber orchestra [1 1 1 1, 0 1 0 0, timp. and strings] Winner of the 2015 Heights Chamber Orchestra’s American Composers Prize.  Premiered by the Heights Chamber Orchestra in Cleveland Heights on April 3, 2016, with Mark Alan McCoy conducting. Two additional performances by Michael Hull and the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra on April 8, 2017, at the Performing Arts Center, Vero Beach High School, in Vero Beach, Florida, and on April 9, 2017 at the Scott Center for the Arts in Melbourne, Florida – 20’30”

As the title might suggest, this work is a light, often transparent, and generally cheerful composition. It is divided into four movements, moving from the more serious to the irreverent.  “Sweet Mystery of Life!” begins mysteriously and features a series of triplets with octave leaps. The strings introduce a slow, gradually descending theme that ends with a canon between the trumpet and clarinet. A new section is rhythmic and lively. It suggests enjoying one’s life to the fullest. “Crunchy Praline Waltz” is as simple as its title. This is a waltz with a choppy accompaniment and several melodic themes, a classic use of the form.  “Hot Cotton Candy” begins with a driving pulse from the marimba. The slower middle section joins trumpet and violin in a melodic idea that grows in intensity. Just at the point where the harmonic tension is greatest, a moment of silence heralds the return of the marimba’s driving pulse and the return of carnival-like activity.  “If I Were a Tango!” is a passacaglia over a twenty-eight-beat ground counted in seven-beat measures. If only the meter remained were in four-beat groupings, the piece might be a tango.

Medium Difficulty

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To see a performance of the final movement, If I Were a Tango!, click here.