Niagara Falls

Description

Niagara Falls, a gateway between Canada and the United States, is a mecca for honeymooners and tourists who come to visit one of the most scenic waterfalls in the world. The Niagara River also generates electricity for towns on both sides of the border, where visitors are lured into haunted houses, motels, wax museums, candy stores, and tourist traps, as well as countless stores that sell "Niagara Falls" postcards, T-shirts, and souvenirs. This composition is another souvenir, inspired by my many trips to Niagara Falls. It is a ten-minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or wax museum along the way. Its principal musical motive is a haunting chromatic phrase of four tones corresponding to the syllables of Niagara Falls, and repeated in increasingly gothic proportions. A pulsing rhythm in the timpani and lower brass creates an undercurrent of energy to give an electric charge to the second motive, introduced in musical canons by the upper brass. The saxophones and clarinets introduce another level of counterpoint, in a bluesy riff with a film noir edge. My composition is a meditation on the American Sublime. (1997)Daugherty's first work for symphonic band, Niagara Falls became an instant classic upon its premiere by the University of Michigan Symphony Band conducted by H. Robert Reynolds in 1997. Niagara Falls has been played by high school, university and professional wind ensembles all over the world, and was featured in a highly acclaimed 2006 PBS documentary on the Falls. Inspired by the falls separating Canada and the United States, this composition is another souvenir from Daugherty: a ten-minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or wax museum along the way.