New Mexico Composers' Archive
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
Written in 1974 as my thesis at the University of New Mexico, I made this revision in 2014. The original version was premiered by the New Mexico State UniversityCivic Orchestra, Marianna Gabbi, Conductor, March 6, 1980 at NMSU in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I served as guest conductor, and James Rivers, Pianist-inResidence at Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas was piano soloist. The work has the form of a traditional nineteenth-century piano concerto. Yet the subtitle and the programmatic titles of the movements suggest a suite of related pieces. Though the work is a unified whole, there is a difference in approach among the movements, as they are character studies (the last suggesting interaction among the characters of the first two). The work is predominantly tonal/modal, and it is frequented by major chords a tritone apart, and by major-minor combinations and sevenths. Central to the piece is the opening synthetic scale, made of two tetrachords of a half-step, whole-step, half-step, and a connective step (raised fourth), very close to the octatonic scale and suggestive of the ancient “church modes."
Table of Contents
I. The Fool II. The Orb Followers III. The Recyclement
Description
Three-movement concerto for piano and orchestra
Associated Publications
A video of the premiere of the two-piano revised version, with a detailed introduction by the composer: https://vimeo.com/142423151
Publisher
M. Mauldin
Keywords
piano concerto, master thesis composition
Document Type
Musical Score
Recommended Citation
Mauldin, Michael D.. "Celebration of the Sun: Three Conservations for Piano and Orchestra." (2014). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nm_composer_archive/646
Comments
Revised version (c) 2014. Instrumentation: 2222/2221/4 perc/timp/strgs/pno
Duration: 22:10.