Composed 2020/2026; Duration: 10 minutes

First orchestral performance of this work. 
 
Composer Michael Daugherty writes, “Niagara Falls (2020) for orchestra was commissioned and premiered by the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta. Niagara Falls, a gateway between Canada and the United States, is a mecca for honeymooners and tourists who come to visit one of the most scenic waterfalls in the world. The Niagara River also generates electricity for towns on both sides of the border, where visitors are lured into haunted houses, motels, wax museums, candy stores, and tourist traps, as well as countless stores that sell Niagara Falls postcards, T-shirts, and souvenirs.”

“This composition is another souvenir, inspired by my many trips to Niagara Falls. It is a ten-minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or wax museum along the way. Its principal musical motive is a haunting chromatic phrase of four tones corresponding to the syllables of ‘Niagara Falls,’ and repeated in increasingly Gothic proportions. A pulsing rhythm in the timpani and lower brass creates an undercurrent of energy to give an electric charge to the second motive, introduced in musical canons by the upper brass. I superimpose various polyrhythmic counterpoints and bluesy riffs with a film noir edge to create a meditation on the American Sublime.” –Michael Daugherty