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Old Cowtown Suite
George S. Clinton

 

GEORGE S. CLINTON

Born 1947 in Chattanooga, TN

Old Cowtown Suite (about 30’)

World Premiere Performance

  1. The Trail
  2. The Church and The Jailhouse (hope and despair)
  3. The Nickelodeon (the ravages of time)
  4. Prairie Reminiscence
  5. The Blacksmith and The Print Shop (iron and ink)
  6. Rosie Dreams of the Herd

The origins of this uniquely Wichita-inspired-work begins on a cold day in January 2019 with a dusting of freshly fallen snow. The composer writes:

“I attended the WSO weekend performance of the short “pre-view” version of The Rose of Sonora, the violin concerto I wrote for Holly Mulcahy. After the first rehearsal, Wichita Symphony CEO Don Reinhold was kind enough to drive Holly and me through the snow to visit the Old Cowtown Museum. I can’t explain the deep emotional connection I felt to the place, but it has stuck with me.”

The trip to Cowtown was for the purpose of researching possibilities to celebrate and form connections with a planned performance of The Rose of Sonora, originally scheduled for April 2020. Cowtown Executive Director Jacky Goerzen and Farm Manager Gregory Hunt met the visitors from the Symphony. With no other visitors in sight on a cold, weekday morning, they proceeded to give an in-depth tour, pausing along the way to demonstrate the old nickelodeon, a small pump organ, the barroom piano, and introduce Rosie the Cow at the Devore Family Farm.

About a year and a half later in the depths of the pandemic shutdown, an email arrived in Reinhold’s inbox from Clinton. Attached was a score for an untitled work composed for strings and which Clinton indicated was inspired by the visit to Cowtown. Since the music evoked the loneliness of life and uncertainty on the old prairie, which everyone was feeling in their pandemic isolation, the title “Prairie Reminiscence” was decided upon.

George Clinton promised that there would be more to come. By the end of the year, the full suite arrived and plans for its world premiere finalized. Not knowing the full extent of pandemic restrictions and onstage social distancing, Clinton scored the suite for harp, piano, timpani, percussion, and strings. Later, as the possibilities for additional instrumental colors were considered, Clinton re-scored the music with added single winds and brass. It is the fuller orchestration that is premiered this weekend.

The five-minute movement, Prairie Reminiscence, composed for strings, premiered at the Wichita Symphony concert on October 24, 2020, during a brief return to live performances last fall. A music video incorporating shots of the orchestra intertwined with two actors in period costumes filmed at Old Cowtown was produced and released in November 2020 and may be seen on the Symphony’s Facebook page.

A major project of the Symphony this fall will produce music videos of the entire Old Cowtown Suite that will promote Wichita’s cultural assets of the Symphony and the Old Cowtown Museum. A video edition that serves as a virtual Young People’s Concert will be produced for release to schools on Kansas History Day in January 2021 with a subsequent broadcast on PBS Kansas.

The composer offers the following descriptions of each movement and the imagery that the music evokes.

  1. The Trail. The Chisholm Trail is 1000 miles of open range, badlands, rivers, and mountains that stretched north from Texas to Kansas. A team of 10 cowboys, a cook, and a horse wrangler would a drive a herd of as many as 2500 head of cattle at a time on the two-month journey up to Cowtown. This life of warm sunny days in the saddle and cool dark nights sleeping beneath the stars became a major part of the legend of the American West.
  2. The Church and The Jailhouse (hope and despair). It’s Christmas Eve in Cowtown. Soft music floats across the snow from the old church where friends and family have gathered in the warm glow of fellowship and flickering candles to celebrate the season of hope. While on the edge of town, in the only cell of the small jailhouse, there sits a solitary prisoner. His head is bowed in despair as he is haunted by memories of the life and love that is lost to him forever.
  3. The Nickelodeon (the ravages of time). A brand-new nickelodeon sits in the corner of the Cowtown saloon. A young cowboy winds it up, drops a coin in the slot, and it starts playing its merry tune. Over the years, the winds of time take their toll until the tune gradually becomes barely recognizable and the nickelodeon slowly grinds to a halt. It sits in the corner covered with dust and forgotten until one day, an old cowboy winds it up, again drops a coin in the slot, and, in one last glorious refrain, it plays its heart out. Older and less beautiful- yes, but not finished yet!
  4. Prairie Reminiscence. The icy prairie winds have brought in an early freeze. A rancher and his wife stand on the porch of the prairie home they built with their own hands and stare out at the terrible beauty of the blowing snow. They remember those who didn’t make it last year and pray that this winter will be short, that the house and barn will hold, and that theirs will be one of the lucky families again come Spring.
  5. The Blacksmith and The Print Shop (iron and ink). The blacksmith forge was a place of dark magic. Hard black iron was turned into molten red liquid, shaped by violent hammering and gentle tapping, plunged into a hissing bucket of water, and then returned to the belly of the fire breathing beast to ultimately be transformed into a horseshoe, a hinge, or a handle. Across town the print shop practiced a lighter magic. Metal letters were carefully arranged one by one to form words and then placed into a frame. The frame slid into the press and by hand turning a flywheel, the letters were inked and printed onto paper that would become newspapers, schoolbooks, or wanted posters. Iron and ink were as essential to building the Old West as were bullets and badges.
  6. Rosie Dreams of the Herd. Rosie the cow settles down in her stall for the night. She looks around the empty old barn and remembers the other animals that used to be there: the horse, the goats, the chickens. Now it’s just her. She closes her eyes and lets her mind drift back to her younger days. Once again, she is running with the herd, dancing under the stars, and heading 1000 miles north up the Chisholm Trail to Cowtown  

©Don Reinhold, 2021

 

Wichita State University School of Music
Old Cowtown Suite
George S. Clinton

 

GEORGE S. CLINTON

Born 1947 in Chattanooga, TN

Old Cowtown Suite (about 30’)

World Premiere Performance

  1. The Trail
  2. The Church and The Jailhouse (hope and despair)
  3. The Nickelodeon (the ravages of time)
  4. Prairie Reminiscence
  5. The Blacksmith and The Print Shop (iron and ink)
  6. Rosie Dreams of the Herd

The origins of this uniquely Wichita-inspired-work begins on a cold day in January 2019 with a dusting of freshly fallen snow. The composer writes:

“I attended the WSO weekend performance of the short “pre-view” version of The Rose of Sonora, the violin concerto I wrote for Holly Mulcahy. After the first rehearsal, Wichita Symphony CEO Don Reinhold was kind enough to drive Holly and me through the snow to visit the Old Cowtown Museum. I can’t explain the deep emotional connection I felt to the place, but it has stuck with me.”

The trip to Cowtown was for the purpose of researching possibilities to celebrate and form connections with a planned performance of The Rose of Sonora, originally scheduled for April 2020. Cowtown Executive Director Jacky Goerzen and Farm Manager Gregory Hunt met the visitors from the Symphony. With no other visitors in sight on a cold, weekday morning, they proceeded to give an in-depth tour, pausing along the way to demonstrate the old nickelodeon, a small pump organ, the barroom piano, and introduce Rosie the Cow at the Devore Family Farm.

About a year and a half later in the depths of the pandemic shutdown, an email arrived in Reinhold’s inbox from Clinton. Attached was a score for an untitled work composed for strings and which Clinton indicated was inspired by the visit to Cowtown. Since the music evoked the loneliness of life and uncertainty on the old prairie, which everyone was feeling in their pandemic isolation, the title “Prairie Reminiscence” was decided upon.

George Clinton promised that there would be more to come. By the end of the year, the full suite arrived and plans for its world premiere finalized. Not knowing the full extent of pandemic restrictions and onstage social distancing, Clinton scored the suite for harp, piano, timpani, percussion, and strings. Later, as the possibilities for additional instrumental colors were considered, Clinton re-scored the music with added single winds and brass. It is the fuller orchestration that is premiered this weekend.

The five-minute movement, Prairie Reminiscence, composed for strings, premiered at the Wichita Symphony concert on October 24, 2020, during a brief return to live performances last fall. A music video incorporating shots of the orchestra intertwined with two actors in period costumes filmed at Old Cowtown was produced and released in November 2020 and may be seen on the Symphony’s Facebook page.

A major project of the Symphony this fall will produce music videos of the entire Old Cowtown Suite that will promote Wichita’s cultural assets of the Symphony and the Old Cowtown Museum. A video edition that serves as a virtual Young People’s Concert will be produced for release to schools on Kansas History Day in January 2021 with a subsequent broadcast on PBS Kansas.

The composer offers the following descriptions of each movement and the imagery that the music evokes.

  1. The Trail. The Chisholm Trail is 1000 miles of open range, badlands, rivers, and mountains that stretched north from Texas to Kansas. A team of 10 cowboys, a cook, and a horse wrangler would a drive a herd of as many as 2500 head of cattle at a time on the two-month journey up to Cowtown. This life of warm sunny days in the saddle and cool dark nights sleeping beneath the stars became a major part of the legend of the American West.
  2. The Church and The Jailhouse (hope and despair). It’s Christmas Eve in Cowtown. Soft music floats across the snow from the old church where friends and family have gathered in the warm glow of fellowship and flickering candles to celebrate the season of hope. While on the edge of town, in the only cell of the small jailhouse, there sits a solitary prisoner. His head is bowed in despair as he is haunted by memories of the life and love that is lost to him forever.
  3. The Nickelodeon (the ravages of time). A brand-new nickelodeon sits in the corner of the Cowtown saloon. A young cowboy winds it up, drops a coin in the slot, and it starts playing its merry tune. Over the years, the winds of time take their toll until the tune gradually becomes barely recognizable and the nickelodeon slowly grinds to a halt. It sits in the corner covered with dust and forgotten until one day, an old cowboy winds it up, again drops a coin in the slot, and, in one last glorious refrain, it plays its heart out. Older and less beautiful- yes, but not finished yet!
  4. Prairie Reminiscence. The icy prairie winds have brought in an early freeze. A rancher and his wife stand on the porch of the prairie home they built with their own hands and stare out at the terrible beauty of the blowing snow. They remember those who didn’t make it last year and pray that this winter will be short, that the house and barn will hold, and that theirs will be one of the lucky families again come Spring.
  5. The Blacksmith and The Print Shop (iron and ink). The blacksmith forge was a place of dark magic. Hard black iron was turned into molten red liquid, shaped by violent hammering and gentle tapping, plunged into a hissing bucket of water, and then returned to the belly of the fire breathing beast to ultimately be transformed into a horseshoe, a hinge, or a handle. Across town the print shop practiced a lighter magic. Metal letters were carefully arranged one by one to form words and then placed into a frame. The frame slid into the press and by hand turning a flywheel, the letters were inked and printed onto paper that would become newspapers, schoolbooks, or wanted posters. Iron and ink were as essential to building the Old West as were bullets and badges.
  6. Rosie Dreams of the Herd. Rosie the cow settles down in her stall for the night. She looks around the empty old barn and remembers the other animals that used to be there: the horse, the goats, the chickens. Now it’s just her. She closes her eyes and lets her mind drift back to her younger days. Once again, she is running with the herd, dancing under the stars, and heading 1000 miles north up the Chisholm Trail to Cowtown  

©Don Reinhold, 2021

 

Wichita State University School of Music