First performance of the ballet by the Akropolis Reed Quintet on 2 November 2022 at Trinity Commons, New York City
Commissioned by Ballet Collective
Created with Troy Schumacher and Doug Fitch
Dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Troy Schumacher, Doug Fitch, and the Akropolis Reed Quintet
Duration: 31 minutes
It is possible for Flute, Clarinet, or Soprano Saxophone to play the Oboe line.
It is possible for Alto Saxophone to play the Clarinet line.
It is possible for Clarinet to play the Alto Saxophone line (low concert Db’s will have to be moved up one octave for Clarinet)
It is possible for Bassoon or Baritone Saxophone to play the Bass
Clarinet line. (low concert Bb’s will have to be moved up one octave for Baritone Saxophone)
It is possible for Bass Clarinet or Baritone Saxophone to play the Bassoon line (low concert Bb’s will have to be moved up one octave for Baritone Saxophone)
For these options/versions, 9 additional transposed instrumental parts are included in the publishers set of SCORE AND PARTS. They are labeled as, for example: “Flute playing Oboe Line” or “Alto Saxophone playing Clarinet Line” or “Baritone Saxophone playing Bassoon Line”. These 9 parts are in addition to the 5 main parts: Oboe, Clarinet in Bb, Alto Saxophone in Eb, Bass Clarinet in Bb, Bassoon.
One could mix and match these instrumental substitution options, thereby making this composition’s instrumentation tremendously flexible. For example, one mix-and match option would be a Saxophone Quintet, another might be Flute, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, and Baritone Saxophone.
WHEN FEASIBLE, PERFORMERS SHOULD STAND WHEN PLAYING THIS COMPOSITION.
Music for me is an embrace of the world – a way to open myself up to being alive in the world in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. I care deeply about musicality, imagination, craft, clarity, dimensionality, an elegant balance between material and form, and empathy with the performing musicians.
My works always spark and catch fire from spontaneous improvisations. It is music always in the act of becoming. I have a vivid sense that the process of the creative journey (rather than a predictable fixed point of arrival) is the essence. Poetry and dance can give language to the ineffable. Music is, in an analogous way, akin to an infinite alphabet. Sounds can become like butterflies, hummingbirds, lights, rocks, trees, webs, gardens, and landscapes.
"This is music that is always in motion, as if coming perpetually out of a magician’s hat. It leads but doesn’t direct, and is playful and subtle, dancing on light feet. It is music that conjures."
— Huffington Post
I dance when I compose and like my music to feel organic, self-propelled — as if we listeners are overhearing (capturing) an un-notated, spontaneously embodied improvisation. Music and dance must be alive; they have to jump off the page and out of the instrument and body as if something big is at stake. I work hard to ensure that my music dances and love dance that is musical.
Collaborating with choreographer Troy Schumacher over the years has been a highlight in my creative life and deeply meaningful to my artistic journey.
FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME is a three-way collaboration between choreographer Troy Schumacher, artist and designer Doug Fitch, and me. Working with Troy and Doug has been pure magic - deeply rewarding, fun, and sincere.
I composed this music specifically for Troy’s choreography and for Doug’s animated stage design, costumes, and props. I wanted to make music that could allow our individual and collective creative work to turn freely in the air; lively, sprightly, spry, energetic, vigorous; animated, traveling, flexible, versatile, changing, fluid, and on the move.
Organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections, the carefully sculpted and fashioned musical materials of FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME are agile and spirited, and their flexibility allows pathways to braid harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal elements that are constantly transformed — at times whimsical and light, at times jazzy, at times almost Stravinsky-ballet-like, at times layered and reverberating with lyrical resonance, pirouettes, fulcrum points, and effervescence.
Across FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME’S 31-minute duration, there unfolds a labyrinth of musical interrelationships and connections that showcase the musicians of the Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet in a virtuosic display of rhythmic dexterity, counterpoint, skill, energy, dynamic and articulative range, precision, and teamwork.
FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME is to be performed with dancers when feasible and was commissioned by BalletCollective. The world premiere was presented by BalletCollective at Trinity Commons, 76 Trinity Place, New York, NY. Choreographed and directed by BalletCollective Artistic Director Troy Schumacher and performed by the Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet, the ballet featured whimsical costumes and props by artist and designer Doug Fitch and lighting by Ben Rawson.
The world premiere featured dancers trained in a multitude of methodologies, including dancers from New York City Ballet and alumni of The Ailey School and The Juilliard School: Graham Feeny, Jada German, Megan LeCrone, Zoe Liebold, Shelby Mann, Ava Sautter, Lorenzo Pagano, Leslie Andrea Williams, and Haley Winegarden.
Dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Troy Schumacher, Doug Fitch, and the Akropolis Reed Quintet. Commissioned by BalletCollective. Commissioning new art is a leap of faith, and as such, artists must always be deeply grateful to those who support the creation and realization of their life's work.
Music’s eternal quality is its capacity for change, transformation, and renewal. No one composer, musical style, school of thought, technical practice, or historical period can claim a monopoly on music’s truths. I believe music feeds our souls. Unbreakable is the power of art to build community. Humanity has and will always work together to further music’s flexible, diverse capacity and innate power.
Two explorers enter an unknown place with no way out but forward, and find themselves among shifting trees, dancing dinosaurs, playful insects, and more.
Please note that for any concert performance, the program book and all publicity must include the commission credit and the dedication lines as well as the names of collaborators Troy Schumacher and Doug Fitch.
If there is additional space, please print all or most of the program note listed above.
FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME (2022) Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
BALLET SUITE (2023) Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964)
From the ballet FOREST OF SHIFTING TIME
I: Two explorers watch characters enter the Forest of Shifting Time –
Energized and vivid
Duration 3’30”
II: Tiptoeing at first into various alluring Forest adventures, the explorers quickly discover that time and speed are ever-shifting below their feet-
Playful, with groove, and contrapuntal
Duration 3’50”
III: The mysteries of the Forest, radiant full of activity, are captivating to the explorers -
Vivacious and Dynamic
Duration 2’30”
IV: Reflections and dreams -
Elegant and Lyrical
Duration 5’00”
V: Two explorers watch characters depart the Forest of Shifting Time carrying with them memories of it.
Animated, optimistic, and spirited
Duration 2’00”
To obtain examination or performance material for this
Augusta Read Thomas work, please contact Nimbus Music Publishing.
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