SkyLine (arr Scott)

From Wind Repertory Project
Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon (arr. Eric Scott)


Subtitle: From City Scape


General Info

Year: 2002 / 2020
Duration: c. 7:10
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Symphony
Publisher: Lawdon Press (In press)
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II-III
Oboe I-II
English Horn
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
C Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass I-II
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Bongos (low and high)
  • China Cymbals
  • Guiro
  • Marimba
  • Sizzle Cymbal
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tambourine
  • Tam-Tam
  • Temple Blocks
  • Triangle
  • Vibraphone
  • Wood Block


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

City Scape was one of Jennifer Higdon’s first collaborations with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and director Robert Spano. She composed the work as a three-panel portrait of Atlanta, a city in which she spent part of her childhood. The composition can be performed as three separate works or a complete suite. In the first movement, SkyLine, Higdon expresses Atlanta’s profile through the steel buildings and structures that represent its signature skyline. About the movement, Higdon writes:

City Scape is a metropolitan sound picture written in orchestral tones. Every city has a distinctive downtown skyline: That steely profile that juts into the sky, with shapes and monumental buildings that represent a particular signature for each city. The steel structures present an image of boldness, strength, and growth, teeming with commerce, and the people who work and live there. Over the past four decades I’ve watched the skyline change and grow, rising up distinctly into its own identifiable shape. Every city’s skyline is a fingerprint that the rest of the world recognizes at a distance; Atlanta has developed a powerful, distinctively metropolitan image, recognizable around the world.

In SkyLine Higdon explores the diverse colors of the orchestra, through the use of multiple solos and the combination of contrasting musical layers. SkyLine begins with stacked major chords in the trumpets and open fifths in the bassoons and horns, giving impression of multiple tonal centers sounding simultaneously. Higdon recreates the bustle of the city by layering rhythmic ostinatos, virtuosic soloistic passages, and melodic fragments. The strong rhythmic drive and bold instrumental colors combine to bring the work to an exuberant finish.

City Scape was premiered in 2002 by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano, music director. Wind ensemble transcription of SkyLine was created by Northwestern University doctoral conducting assistant Eric Scott.

- Program Note from Northwestern University Wind Ensemble concert program, 21 February 2020


Media

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Mallory Thompson, conductor) – 21 February 2020 *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources