Chris Brubeck
Zen of the River
ensemble clarinet, violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello
duration 25 minutes
written 2015
commissioned by Art of Elan
premiered April 28, 2015, San Diego, CA
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Program Notes:
You might be curious to know how the title Zen of the River evolved. It is not often that you hear that a great cellist, (in the case of the premiere, Mike Reynolds of the Muir String Quartet) is also a top-of-the-line fly fisherman. It was Mike who contacted me on behalf of the Muir String Quartet with the idea of commissioning me to write a clarinet quartet for his group. What let Mike to me was a good friend of his named Tom Wolf, who also happens to be a wonderful flutist, the founder of Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine, and an avid fly fishing enthusiast. It has been said that writing for a string quartet is difficult because for a composer there is no place to hide, no larger orchestral pallet to cover any weakness of line or melody. every part is vital and every musicians is exposed. I was challenged, and enthusiastically committed. When I start a new composition there is usually a seminal idea from which the piece germinates and expands. In this case I kept visualizing fly fishermen on the famous Gallatin River in Montana. (Think of Brad Pitt in the beautiful film A River Runs Through It to get the right visuals running through your mind.) In my mind’s eye I kept seeing the long arching casts of the fishing line over the surface of the waters. This inspired me to open the piece with wide intervals that included long legato slurs above the notes. The visual imager of the fly fishers matched the look of the score. As the players cast their opening notes upon the waters, the flow of the harmonic ideas begin. The current and the tempo pick up and a sense of playfulness emerges. This work is not in separate movements, but rather like the river itself, it constantly and fluidly flows from one are to another. The listener might hear a whimsical section known as ‘Waltz of the Water Walker’ — at least that is what my siblings called those spindly creatures that look a bit like ‘Daddy Long Legs’ and somehow magically walk on the surface of the river.
The next section I call ‘Web Suspended Over Calming Waters.’ Mirroring a spider’s web, there are intricate harmonic and rhythmic patterns weaving through this section. The music leans towards the architecture of Bach but with the extra twists of ever-changing time signatures… often in 7/8, then 6/8, and for relief sometimes a traditional 4/4 passage This section is a real brainteaser to count but also moves along gracefully in its own peculiar way. You can hear the music accelerate as the current picks up and the river builds momentum into some rapids. As the intensity of river lessens a bit you will hear a ‘bluesy’ clarinet solo over the surface and this feeling is passed around the strings as well. Beneath the surface you will eventually hear in the cello the melody of a legendary big-old fish. The focus returns to the surface and with the instruments trilling I imagine a dragonfly shimmering and ascending. The next area I dubbed ‘The Tale f the Leaping Fish.’ The music jumps in quick ascending flourishes and is imbued with a feisty spirit. The fisherman of course tries to ‘reel in’ the prize and I couldn’t resist a reference to some energetic fiddle tunes often referred to as reels. You can hear the collective and polytonal pull of the reel between the musicians as they put their backs into it.
After a theoretical long day of fishing, the sun begins to set and the original themes of the piece retun to reflect the memory of a beautiful day spent in the natural world. The cycle of the river circles to the ending passage which is described by the Italian term ‘magico’ in the score. The players’ parts and score are often peppered with terms like this to hep give the musicians the idea of what I was after when I wrote the passages. You can write the note, you can write the dynamics and the articulations, but it takes wonderful and inquisitive musicians to keep ‘digging’ into the music to find its soul and to interpret it fully.