Trailing Vortices
William Susman
About this work:
This work was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation and is dedicated to Paul Fromm. The first performance was at the Aspen Music Festival in 1986 with Stephen Mosko, conducting.
Trailing Vortices are spiraling wind streams formed when air passes over an airfoil. These graceful spirals of air suggest diverse musical interpretation. At the beginning of this work they are represented by a descending intervallic contour, and in the finale by a rapidly accelerating intervallic contour that first ascends and then diverges. Through the work a variety of musical interpretations transforms the initial theme. The opening and closing bars approximate the acoustical phenomenon known as "Shepard tones."
(N.B. - The work is based on the photographs of Trailing Vortices and other flow phenomena in Milton Van Dyke's An Album of Fluid Motion)
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William Susman met Earle Brown at the BMI Awards in 1984 where Susman was awarded for his grand divisi orchestral work Pentateuch (1983). The following year Earle Brown, then director of the Fromm Foundation, made Susman the youngest recipient, at 25, to ever be awarded a Fromm commission.
This commission, which ultimately became the work Trailing Vortices, was performed at the Gaudeamus Festival by The VARA Radio Orchestra (now known as the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra) with the great Ernest Bour, conducting.
Year composed: 1986
Duration: 00:15:10
Ensemble type: Orchestra:Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Horn in F, 1 Trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Percussion (General), 1 Piano, 2 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double bass
Instrumentation notes: 1 Percussionist: glockenspiel (F3-C6); high, medium and low tam-tams; very deep gong (C pitch, lowest C possible);4 high to low tom-toms.
(mallet specifications are in the score)