In the World of Spirits (Wind Ensemble)

UNT Wind Symphony Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Conductor In the World of Spirits (2011) by Bruce Broughton (b. 1945), UNT Composition Faculty "In the World of Spirits was inspired by a paragraph found in Empire of the Summer Moon, a book by S.C. Gwynne about the rise and fall of the Comanches. In it, the author describes the life of the Plains Indian as 'a world...of pure magic, of beaver ceremonies and eagle dances, of spirits that inhabited springs, trees, rocks, turtles, and crows; a place where people danced all night and sang bear medicine songs, where wolf medicine made a person invulnerable to bullets, dream visions dictated tribal policy, and ghosts were alive in the wind...in the mystical cycles of the seasons, living in that random, terrifying, bloody, and intensely alive place where nature and divinity became one.' "In the World of Spirits is not a depiction of a specific spirit world, but instead a representation to some degree of the energy in the world of the spirit. It is the world of motion, of action, of feeling, of terror, of excitement. In short, it is the engine that drives the physical world and in which all things move and live. "Musically, the piece relies upon two main themes. The first one, which features a short burst of repeated notes followed by many leaping phrases, is initially hinted at in the flutes after a short introduction, and then presented in its entirety soon afterwards with the flutes and oboes. The second theme is much more declamatory and pompous, stated often with the brass, chimes and trilling woodwinds. These two themes interact to create the basic fast/slow/fast rhapsodic structure of the piece. "Although there is no story or program to the piece, In the World of Spirits is an attempt at a sort of 'visual music,' music that stimulates by its musical association various visual and dramatic images for the listener, i.e., ballet without the dancers or a movie without the screen. "In the World of Spirits was commissioned by and is dedicated to Dr. Scott A. Stewart and the Emory Wind Ensemble." —Bruce Broughton Recorded live September 24, 2015 Winspear Hall Murchison Performing Arts Center College of Music University of North Texas Video by UNT Recording Services https://brucebroughton.com/ https://music.unt.edu/composition/index.html https://music.unt.edu/windstudies https://recording.music.unt.edu/