The Cathedral

Program Notes

I’ve found my experiences in a great concert hall are among my most treasured memories. The anticipation of the audience, the thrill of the live performance, and the glorious way the sound fills an enormous space feels magical, even mystical.

I was invited to compose a work to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Eastman Theater, using the combined forces of its two resident orchestras -The Rochester Philharmonic, and the Eastman School Philharmonia. Eastman Theater is a cavernous and elegant architectural gem. It has been home to silent movies, operas, jazz, & symphonic orchestras. Having studied at the Eastman School in the 1980s, this theater is the setting of some of my most powerful and formative personal musical memories.

The Cathedral is designed to fill every nook and cranny this grand space with sound. The professional orchestra is placed on the stage and the antiphonal (student) orchestra in various parts of the theater. After a first thematic statement from the

onstage violins, a musical conversation between the two ensembles is begun. Throughout the work the roles of leader and follower are tossed back and forth, as if in conversation. Perhaps the narrative here is in the way music is passed on generationally from master to student, musical sentence by musical sentence. Every student comes to a point in their training where they are ready to break free and define themselves - at one point the antiphonal sections race ahead in their own tempo, and two engage a more dense exchange of cacophony. Eventually, a reprise back to the first theme is heard - this time led from the antiphonal orchestra.

One of my very first musical cathedrals was Saturday mornings at the performing arts center of Oakland Technical High School. Our fearless conductor Robert Hughes (himself a composer and professional bassoonist) led the Oakland Youth

Symphony through Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring. The experience of sitting in the middle of all of this sound as a high-school aged trumpet player was a defining moment, and a sonic revelation. I wanted to create worlds of sound like this master had done, compose for symphonies, and tell stories. The trumpet section also became one of my favorite places to hear symphonic music - literally inside of it.

I hope The Cathedral imparts some of that immersive sonic joy to those who hear it. I also hope it can become a piece for orchestras across the world to celebrate their professional and student ensembles, in their own special buildings where we all gather. The youth are our future quite literally. Figuratively we rely on their passion and energy to propel us forward; to carry on traditions of art, excellence and the joy to be found in commual experice. This connection of the Eastman Theater, the Rochstester Philharmonic and the Eastman Philharmonia embodies the best of such traditions. Here's to the next one hundred years. JB

– Jeff Beal