Two Artist Profiles

McCarthy’s reflection on Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “Alone” is dark, contrasting with the lively and rhythmic reflection on Isadora Dunkan whom is credited with intenting what is known as modern dance.

Genre: String Orchestra | # of Players: 8-8-5-5-5
Level: 5 | Duration: 8:00

Instrumentation
Violin 1a
Violin 1b
Violin 1c
Violin 1d
Violin 2a
Violin 2b
Violin 2c
Viola 1
Viola 2
Cello 1
Cello 2
Double Bass

Program Notes
I. After Poe: Alone

The two artists chosen for the two movements for the artist profiles are quite different for the very different movement musical schemes. Poe led a strange life, feeling different and isolated from humanity. Much of his writings are fixated on the Macomb due to several deaths of loved ones and his inability to let go of them. In a particularly dark period of his life, he wrote the poem, "Alone," which has haunted me since I read it. The opening reads:

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

II. Isadora: Dance!

The lively last movement depicts the creative energy of dancer Isadora Dunkan. The early 20th century Dancer, adventurer, and revolutionist, was credited with inventing what was later to be know as "Modern Dance." Her style of dance and choreography included free and natural movements inspired by the classical Greek arts, folk dances, American athleticism which included skipping, running, jumping, leaping, tossing. So this movement abounds with rhythm unrestricted by predictable metric parameters. The rhythms give the feelings of body movement, gyrations, jumping, and leaping.