The Wind Won't Listen

Description

Bassoon, Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Violoncello — Since the bassoon is my own instrument, many people have asked me why I’ve written so little for the instrument.xa0 Beyond my early Concerto Da Camera for bassoon and small orchestra, written for Leonard Sharrow in 1975, I’ve not written a single piece that features the bassoon as a solo vehicle (though I have written three woodwind quintets).xa0 When I first began composing seriously, critics were quick to point out that my orchestral writing revealed nothing of my roots as a woodwind player—and bassoonists asked why my pieces didn’t have “more bassoon solos.”xa0 Perhaps I was so aware that people were looking at me as a “bassoonist/composer” that I was determined to remove that stigma.xa0Now that my transformation from performer to composer is complete, however, it’s time to re-address my instrument.xa0I wanted this new piece to be serious rather than whimsical. The Wind Won’t Listen represents my return to the bassoon as the highly expressive, poetic soul that it is.As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the piece is based on a poem, and that the title of the piece as well as both its movement titles come from lines in that poem. I first read Beth Gylys’ poem “Split” at the MacDowell Colony in the summer of 2001, and it made a big impression on me.xa0 My personal life had been ruptured by divorce in the preceding year.xa0This poem, with its dry insistence on observation rather than feeling, expressed the wrung-out state of my emotions at the time better than any I had seen. I set it to music, as a song, immediately. In this format, for voice and piano, I was able to put a musical note to every word of the poem. The first lines of the poem, “Everyone I know is crying, or should be crying”, became a melody that haunted me even without the words.The work for bassoon and string quartet is an outgrowth of the song.xa0 The first movement is labeled “Romanza,” and has a loose formal arch structure of A-B-C-B-A, with B and C being fast sections framed by the lamenting “A” music. In addition to hearing the bassoon’s first notes attached to the lines “Everyone I know is crying,” there’s a sense of agitation, of loss, of longing, and at times of desperation in the music.xa0At one point, the opening theme from Tristan even appears in the strings.The second movement follows, without a real pause—the pizzicato final chords of the first movement becoming the increasingly aggressive opening chords of the second. The recitative is actually a foreshadowing of the basic theme that will be varied, again to the words of the song:xa0 “Life makes itself without us.xa0Don’t let me tell you how it is.xa0Go out. Look.”xa0The recitative begins in an anguished state, but subsides into more gentle singing by the end, when it simply falls into an ostinato 5/8-3/4 pattern to begin the variations.xa0Marked “Very steady tempo; Dancing,” this set of variations consists of three dances, each faster than the previous. The first, in the aforementioned 5/8-3/4 meter, gives way to a 3/8 scherzo, which in turn takes on a furious 2/4 “scurrying” motion. The music becomes breathless, almost pulse-less, and an ethereal theme appears in the violins while the “rushing” music continues, sotto voce in the bassoon. This new theme is also from the song: “Why do I do this?xa0 The wind won’t listen.” The bassoon re-states its “Everyone I know is crying” melody from the first movement, and at length the 5/8-3/4 music returns, more subdued this time.xa0The piece ends on a major-minor chord, suspended.The Wind Won’t Listen is dedicated to the man who commissioned it, bassoonist Steven Dibner—who shares my passion for poetry and language.—Dan Welcher