Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Chickamaugais based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, whose tales of the American Civil War, in which he fought, are classics of their kind. In this story a young Southern boy strays from his home and engages in play-fights with imaginary foes using a crude wooden sword. He gets lost in the wilderness and exhausted and bewildered, falls asleep. When he wakes he finds himself surrounded by a horde of strange (to his eyes) creatures - the hideously maimed stragglers from a real battle. He leads them towards a strange glow on the horizon which turns out to be his home which is ablaze. The score features familiar tunes of the period (e.g. Foster's Camptown Races).

Work Details

Year: 2006

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 2 clarinets in B flat (2nd doubling tenor saxophone or bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B flat, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (3 players), harp, strings.

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Good student/professional.

Commission note: Commissioned by Lewis Cornwell for performance by Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Note from the composer - "without conscious emulation on my part, the listener may detect echoes of certain twentieth century American composers for example Copland, Ives and Roy Harris."

From a story by Ambrose Bierce.