- Date: 1993 -1994
- Composer:
Glenn Buhr - Period: Modern (1910-1949)
Review
This twenty-five-minute orchestral suite represents a transition for Canadian composer Glenn Buhr from a more expressionistic and dramatic style to a more lyrical approach. It was composed during the fall and winter of 1993-1994. At the time Buhr lived on an upper story in a high-rise apartment in Winnipeg, Manitoba, located on the southern edge of that city. This suite evokes "all of the pleasant sensations of a prairie winter viewed nostalgically from a warm apartment. He describes the time as that of a "cold, calm Manitoba winter." From his height he could see through the still, cold air the bright winter sunlight on the snow and the subdued natural colors of the season, looking south over the valley of the Red River of the North (the same which underwent a flood of historic proportions in 1997) through the campus of the University of Manitoba and down to the town of St Norbert, where he could see the ruins of a famous old Trappist monastery.The first movement, "Tranquillo," begins with a low drone, bell sounds, and woodwind trills. A simple melody unfolds over it. The music becomes more complex and ornamented, with more layers of instrumental sound, but again becomes calm and simple at the end.
The second movement, "Vivo" is perhaps like a session of free association while gazing out at the view. It is fast and delicate, with musical ideas flitting into consciousness and then disappearing without a trace. There is little evident connection among the musical ideas which thus pop into and out of mind.
The finale, "Calmando," seems to relate to the frozen, unchanging state of the winter view. Even the vapor clouds rising from the buildings seem to be permanent parts of the landscape. Much of the music is a succession of long-held static chords; each new one is differently scored. A melody appears in the second half of the movement, treated in various textures. At the end, a light breeze seems to spring up, as piano, harp and orchestral bells imitate wind chimes.
~ All Music Guide
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Glenn Buhr: Winter Poems | 1999 |
