Wednesday, March 10, 1999

Animal Farm, Op.76


Op. 76 ANIMAL FARM 
(March 10, 1999; New Music, 1999) 
Grand Zoological Fantasy-Variations for Chamber Orchestra 
(1111 1111, 1 perc, pf, strings) 
A. Cold-Blooded 
     I. Wasps 
     II. Flies 
     III. Spiders 
     IV. Crabs 
     V. Sharks 
     VI. Frogs 
     VII. Turtles 
     VIII. Snakes 
B. Birds 
     IX. Penguins 
     X. Seagulls
     XI. Ducks
     XII. Swans 
     XIII. Eagles
     XIV. Chickens 
     XV. Nightingales 
     XVI. Cuckoos 
C. Mammals I 
     XVII. Platypusses 
     XVIII. Kangaroos 
     XIX. Mice 
     XX. Chipmunks 
     XXI. Whales 
     XXII. Bears 
     XXIII. Cats 
     XXIV. Lions 
D. Mammals II 
     XXV. Dogs 
     XXVI. Wolves 
     XXVII. Skunks 
     XXVIII. Elephants 
     XXIX. Horses 
     XXX. Donkeys 
     XXXI. Pigs 
     XXXII. Sheep 


Score:




The 32 Grand Zoological Fantasy-Variations of Animal Farm take for its subject the structure of Leslie Bricusse's Talk to the Animals, with each variant as four eight-bar phrases, plus a four-measure coda (36 total). The four variational subsets are in a biological progression derived from the work of Carolus Linnaeus as A. Cold-Blooded, B. Birds, C. Mammals I, and D. Mammals II. Variations have been premiered in Philadelphia, PA; Surrey, ME; and Tacoma, WA -- and the entire work, with videos, is online at the DrMarkAlburger channel on YouTube. The music is ideally paired with a coda of The Four Temperaments -- a quartet of human pieces on the same subject. Musical gene-splicing may be heard in Cold-Blooded from Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Wasps and Tuba Concerto, F.J. Haydn's Symphony No. 94 ("Surprise"), Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Gilles Binchois's L'homme arme (treated as crab and mensuration canons a la Guillaume Dufay and Josquin des Pres), Camille Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals, John Williams's Jaws, Alburger's Mice and Men, Peter Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Oliver Wallace's Alice in Wonderland, and Igor Stravinsky's The Flood. 


Performances: 

May 7-8, 1999 
Mark Alburger, Piano 
Susan Hess Dance Studio, Philadelphia, PA 

December 15, 2001 
The Surrey Ensemble, Thom Wubbenhorst 
The Surrey School, Surrey, ME

December 18, 2001 
The Annie Wright School Tacoma, WA 

December 1, 2005 
Tritone Orchestra
Diablo Valley College Music Technology Center
Pleasant Hill, CA

April 26, 2007
Tritone Orchestra
 Diablo Valley College Music Technology Center
Pleasant Hill, CA

April 18, 2008
Tritone Orchestra
Diablo Valley College Music Technology Center
Pleasant Hill, CA

September 25, 2010
San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra
Old First Church, San Francisco, CA

April 27, 2019
The Opus Project presents Spirit of Opus 75-76
Diablo Valley College Music Building, Pleasant Hill, CA


Recordings / Videos

ANIMAL FARM (New Music, 2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2PtpXz5pAs&list=PL376F718839ABC13E

II. Flies 


III. Spiders 


IV. Crabs 


V. Sharks 


VI. Frogs 


VII. Turtles 



B. Birds 
IX. Penguins 


X. Seagulls




XIV. Chickens 


XV. Nightingales 


XVI. Cuckoos 
C. Mammals I 
XVII. Platypusses 


XVIII. Kangaroos 
XIX. Mice 


XX. Chipmunks 


XXI. Whales 


XXII. Bears 


XXIII. Cats 


XXIV. Lions 


D. Mammals II 
XXV. Dogs 


XXVI. Wolves 


XXVII. Skunks 


XXVIII. Elephants 


XXIX. Horses 


XXX. Donkeys 


XXXI. Pigs 


XXXII. Sheep 


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