A salute to Yosemite: Fresno Philharmonic hosts world premiere of a piece dedicated to a special place. Plus: Michelle Cann plays Gershwin.
By Donald Munro
The third movement of John Wineglass’ new orchestral work, “YOSEMITE,” has a title that is out of the ordinary, to say the least.
It’s called “Cessna N5 2805: The Sierras.”
Your quiz question for the day: Where was the composer when he wrote the theme?
If your answer was that he was in a Cessna aircraft with a tail number of N5 2805 – and if I didn’t give you any other clues, that’s probably the only answer you could come up with – you’d be right. And he flew directly overhead one of the most iconic locations in Yosemite National Park.
“I felt like I could touch the top of Half Dome,” says Wineglass, whose work will receive a world premiere by the Fresno Philharmonic this weekend. (The orchestra performs 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, at Shaghoian Concert Hall. Ticket details are here.) Rei Hotoda conducts a program that will include Grammy-award winning composer Michelle Cann performing Gershwin’s jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in F and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements.. The concert serves as a salute to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, with a prelude performance of gospel songs by the Fresno-based Blackout Fellowship Choir and local actor tony sanders reading from the words of Dr. King.
“YOSEMITE” was made possible by the financial support of patron Eliza Linley, who flew with Wineglass in the Cessna for a bird’s-eye view of Yosemite, along with Mark and Ann Conover, who provided the Cessna for the ride over the Sierra from Watsonville to the Nevada desert – a ride that the composer says changed his life. Linley is a nature lover. So is Wineglass.
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He loves to experience the nature he describes in his music. In that way he’s much like plein-air painters who eschew the four walls of the studio for wide open spaces. For the first movement of the 15-minute piece, titled “Midnight Twilight,” Wineglass positions the listener on the Yosemite Valley floor at night, with the cold darkness of the sky brightened only by the twinkle of stars.
“I wanted to capture the mysterious stillness of Yosemite at night, the kind of silence in which the outlines of cliffs and trees dissolve into shadows and fragmented motives that flicker in the instrumentation of the piece,” he says.
The second movement, titled “The Ascencion,” moves from the Valley floor to the heights of Glacier Point and Half Dome.
And then he’s up in the air for the third movement, where you can “see” the Valley floor from a distance.
The Grammy Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann performs Jan. 17-18 with the Fresno Philharmonic.
Like a journalist taking notes on a scene, Wineglass brought paper with him – in this case staff paper. He wrote the thematic material for the movement in the airplane. “It’s literally note for note,” he says.
He’s used the same technique for other California-based pieces he’s written, including a work celebrating Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains for the Santa Cruz Symphony and one devoted to Joshua Tree for the Monterey Symphony. He’s composed for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Pacific Symphony, Stockton Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony and more.
Besides his works for the concert hall, Wineglass brings a wealth of experience composing music for the screen, including independent films, network TV and daytime television. He won three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series (“All My Children.”)
At this stage in his career, the New York-to-California transplant has shifted from being an urbanite who joked about tree huggers to a nature devotee who hugs those trees himself.
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He’s made numerous visits to Yosemite, mostly alone, so he can experience its beauty in solitude. For him, it’s a place for introspection and visual stimulation. In that vein, “Yosemite” will be accompanied with a selection of photographs by Bill Roberts, who has published a book of Yosemite photos.
Wineglass hopes to capture his own sense of a place that captivates people from around the world – and in doing so, point out the importance of protecting natural resources.
The Blackout Fellowship Choir performs as a prelude to the Jan. 17-18 Fresno Philharmonic concert.
“The piece is dedicated to all those who love this place and work to preserve the earth. That’s the whole premise of the work, protecting this beautiful planet we have given.”
Visiting once, twice or 20 times is never enough.
On his stay in Fresno during the concert weekend, in between rehearsals and performances, Wineglass hopes to get in a side trip:
A quick trip up to Yosemite and back.
