Desert Forests

Written for the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1983, Desert Forests is one of the most successful offerant's spatial works for conventional-sized symphony orchestra. The score mandates that the higher woodwinds (piccolos, flutes, oboes, clarinets) be stationed in a balcony at the back of the hall and the trumpets and trombones in boxes or balconies on opposite sides of the hall. There is also an optional improvised piano-obbligato. A recommended seating diagram for the stage instruments (also unusually arranged) is included in the score and was used to great effect in the performances conducted by Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic inMay 1994. This extraordinary work expands the idea of bitonality and spatiality as a structural device to create a fifteen minute exercise in ecstatic polyphony, inspired, according to the composer by a visit to a "forest" of saguro cactus in Saguro National Monument, near Tucson, Arizona. Complete performance materials are available on rental.