Treasured Tunes featuring Scott Carter
Podcast Transcript
Introduction
Welcome to Treasured Tunes, where professors from the East Carolina School of Music are offering commentary about selected musical pieces. Please sit back and enjoy the music.
Scott Carter Speaking
Hello, I’m Scott Carter, Director of Bands and chair of the Instrumental Department at School of Music, where I conduct the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. The work you are about to hear, Red Cape Tango, was composed by Michael Daugherty, who currently teaches composition at the University of Michigan. The recording is a live performance by the School of Music Symphonic Wind Ensemble from the compact disc, Windscapes 2. The performance took place in Raleigh at Meymandi Concert Hall, home of the North Carolina Symphony. Red Cape Tango is the final movement of Daugherty’s five movement composition titled Metropolis Symphony. Metropolis Symphony evokes the American mythology of Superman. Each movement of the symphony, which may be performed separately, is a musical response to this myth. Red Cape Tango was composed after Superman’s fight to the death with Doomsday. The principle melody, first heard in the bassoon, is derived from a medieval chant. This dance of death is conceived as a tango, and the tango rhythm, introduced by castanets and heard later in finger symbols, undergoes a gradual transformation concluding dramatically with crash symbols, break drum, and timpani. I hope you enjoy the performance.
Music playing composed by Michael Daugherty (Red Cape Tango, the final movement of the Metropolis Symphony, conducted by Scott Carter, performed by the ECU School of Music Symphonic Wind Ensemble)
This has been a production of East Carolina University. To hear more, please visit the Treasured Tunes index.