And God Created Great Whales
The composition And God Created Great Whales op. 229, No. 1, composed and premiered in 1970 , is one of the best-known works by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), an American composer with Armenian-Scottish roots. In addition to the symphonic cast, the songs of humpback whales are played.
Origin and reception
In 1969 the conductor André Kostelanetz met the zoologist and whale researcher Roger Payne , who played him his tape recordings of the songs of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ). Kostelanetz believed that Alan Hovhaness was the ideal composer to create a work inspired by these sounds. After listening to the tapes, Hovhaness was also convinced of this idea. In February 1970 he was officially commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to compose the Promenade Concerts by Kostelanetz and wrote the work And God Created Great Whales , the title of which refers to verse Gen 1,21 KJV of the first biblical creation story .
Originally, Hovhaness did not want to use original whale songs, but rather imitate them with orchestral instruments, but then accepted the request of Kostelanetz, who was not satisfied with the first version, to integrate the original tape recordings into the symphonic orchestra.
The world premiere took place on June 11, 1970 in New York.
And God Created Great Whales by Hovhaness is one of his most famous works and played an important role in the campaigns on bans and restrictions on whaling , as well as the 1966 composition The Whale by the British composer John Tavener , which does not integrate direct whale songs, but just as a little later Vox Balaenae was inspired by George Crumb (1971).
Cast and characterization
The score requires a large orchestra with the following scoring: 3 flutes (3rd flute also piccolo ), 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion ( glockenspiel , bass drum , vibraphone , Tubular bells ("Large Chimes"), tam-tam ), 2 harps and strings , additional tape recording.
The duration of the work published by Peters and marked with opus number 229, no. 1, is about 12 minutes.
Together with the whale songs recorded by Payne, two voices are created - whales and orchestra - that alternate between the foreground and background texture. No direct technical live interaction or manipulation is provided, the tape is only started and stopped. The three selected segments with whale chants sound partly at original speed, partly slowed down. The composition also contains aleatoric passages, mainly in the strings.
In a commentary on the world premiere, Hovhaness himself characterized the work as follows: “Free rhythmless vibrational passages, each string player playing independently, suggest waves in a vast ocean sky. Undersea mountains rise and fall in horns, trombones, and tuba. Music of whales also rises and falls like mountain ranges. Song of whale emerges like a giant mythical sea bird. Man does not exist, has not yet been born in the solemn oneness of Nature. ”(“ Free, rhythmless vibrating passages in which all strings play independently of each other, arouse the idea of waves in the vast ocean space. Undersea mountains rise and sink in the horns, trumpets and tuba. The music of whales rises and falls just like the mountain ranges. The whale song emerges like a mighty mythical sea bird. Man does not exist, is not yet born in the solemn unity of nature. ")
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Lawrence Sobol
- ↑ CD supplement Crystal Records CD810, 1989, Hovhaness: And God Created Great Whales u. a., Philharmonia Orch., cond. David Amos
- ^ Obituary by A. Hovhaness, The Telegraph, July 4, 2000
- ↑ T. Marquez (2013): Incorporation of Humpback Whale Song in an Electroacoustic Concert Piece , p. 11
- ↑ Marta Ulvaeus, David Rothenberg (Ed.): The Book of Music and Nature . 2013, Wesleyan University Press, p. 241