The Rivers of Bowery
From Wind Repertory Project
Contents |
General Info
Year: 2005
Duration: c. 3:00
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: OK Feel Good Music
Cost: Parts (Rental) - $225.00 | Score Only (Purchase) - $24.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
Eb Clarinet
Bb Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
Bb Bass Clarinet
Soprano Saxophone
Alto Saxophone
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Trumpet (in Bb) I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Trombone III (bass)
Euphonium
Tuba
Piano
Percussion I-II-III-IV-V-VI, including:
- Bass Drum
- Crotales
- Cymbals (ride, suspended)
- Glockenspiel (2)
- Marimba
- Tam-Tam
- Triangle
- Tubular Bells
- Tuned Button Gongs (3)
- Vibraphone
- Wind Chimes
- Wood Block
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
The Rivers of Bowery is an overture with a triumphant vision of the City as complex machine, capable of incubating the lowest in human nature as well as harnessing the best of Man's intentions. The title comes directly from Allen Ginsberg's glorious chronicle of Beat counterculture, Howl. Written in 1956, in a tenement about 2 blocks from where I live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Howl celebrates the Beat counterculture by breathlessly rejoicing in the underdog grit of Ginsberg's beloved bohemia. The image is extracted from the line:
...who ate the lamb stew of the imagination or digested the crab at the muddy bottom of the rivers of Bowery.
Ginsberg's river is a rush of people, and not the usual sunny city dwellers of an E.B. White essay or an O'Henry story, but his specific anti-community of the lost, the drugged, and the outcast. Ginsberg presents his city as possessing a triumphant spirit, neighbors piled on top of each other, never letting each other down despite being torn apart by society and by themselves.
Program Notes by Jonathan Newman
Commercial Discography
Audio Links
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Recent Performances
(To add performances, please join the WRP by contacting the webmaster)
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln Wind Ensemble (Carolyn Barber, conductor) - 7 March 2008
- St. Charles East HS Wind Ensemble; IMEA State Convention - 2 February 2008
- MSU Symphony Band, Michigan State University (John T. Madden, conductor) - 4 December 2007
Additional Works for Winds by this Composer
- 1861
- As the scent of spring rain
- Avenue X
- Chunk
- Concertino (flute solo, chamber winds, and piano)
- Moon by Night
- OK Feel Good
- Uncle Sid
Additional Resources
