Lois V Vierk

for orchestra

ca. 11'30"

This piece was inspired by the twisted sandstone canyon in the southern California high desert in Angeles National Park called "Devil's Punchbowl". At this exquisite site you are always aware of both extreme beauty and also danger. Descending into the canyon the trail is rugged, rocky, and treacherous, and the heat is scorching. But rising up from the deep gorge are steep, magnificent mountains with their cold streams and sweet-smelling pine trees. The vistas are grand. Far in the distance, soft shapes and hues of the landscape melt into one another. 

Devil's Punchbowl unfolds slowly. Musical materials are constantly developed, pushing the work forward from a relatively simple beginning to its dynamic and colorful climax. The piece opens with languorous brass slides downward. String phrases answer the brass, and woodwinds add color and wisps of melody. Gradually the strings begin their long ascending glissando, sweeping the woodwinds up to their highest register, ending the first section.

Immediately strings and low woodwinds enter with agitated multi-color, ever-changing trills and tremolos. Various instruments combine to form sinewy melodic shapes which creep slowly upward. Percussion becomes more pronounced. Brass adds rhythm and harmony. Each phrase builds on the one before as, little by little, the music becomes faster, louder, and rhythmically emphatic. Trombones and celli playing fortissimo glissandi in the lowest register propel the piece to its full orchestral climax. After the high energy of the climax the music returns briefly to the lyrical mood of the opening, ending gently. 

Devil's Punchbowl was commissioned by the Bang On A Can Festival and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. The commissioning of this work was made possible by a grant from the Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. 

The recording of Devil's Punchbowl is of the premiere, given by Victoria Bond conducting the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on March 21, 1994. They performed the piece beautifully. 

Below are two versions of the score. First is the final version, incorporating several sets of edits to the orchestration made after the premiere and over subsequent years, and which is dated 2009. The major changes to orchestration, emphasizing an expanded role for trombones, etc., are marked above the staves of the score. 

The second is the original score as used by Victoria Bond in 1994 (with numerous indications marked for my first set of edits).

Click here to view the revised score and listen to the recording.

Click here to view the original score and listen to the recording.

Lois V Vierk

for 18 trombones

ca. 6'23"

TUSK was written in 1981. During the '80s much of my music was for ensembles of multiples of the same instrument. Besides this piece for 18 trombones, I composed works for 8 cellos, for 8 violins, 6 trumpets, 5 electric guitars, 8 ryuteki flutes (bamboo flutes from the Japanese Gagaku court music orchestra), etc. These like-instrument ensembles allow a wide variety of timbral, dynamic and rhythmic nuance to be heard. I've always found the sound of this type of ensemble deeply beautiful and powerful. In these pieces, two or more instruments act together to form one voice or "sound shape", which in turn interacts with other sound shapes. There are three groups of six instruments each in this work. I create what I like to call a Big Instrument, from the sound of the entire ensemble together – a giant trombone consisting of 18 parts. TUSK was commissioned by California Institute of the Arts, Contemporary Music Festival 1981.

Recorded live in concert by Miles Anderson and trombone ensemble, conducted by Lois V Vierk, at the 1981 Cal Arts Festival, California Institute of the Arts.

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Click here to download all performance materials.

Lois V Vierk

for 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, and 2 bass trombones

ca. 21'47"

This 22-minute work unfolds slowly, and it gradually builds in intensity to a dynamic and expansive climax. At first, languid descending glissandi flow across the space from choir to choir. Little by little the materials develop, pitch relationships become more complex and faster moving, the work becomes rhythmic, glissandi get faster and change direction, the register expands. At its climax the piece settles into arpeggios across the range of the instruments, against fortissimo chords and bass trombone pedal tones.

Jagged Mesa was premiered in 1990 at St Mark's Church in the Bowery, on New York City's lower East Side, with a modern dance choreographed by Risa Jaroslow. St. Mark's Church is a big, cavernous space, with balcony around the top, and a beautiful modern dance floor below. There is a long reverberation time in the church. The piece was composed with this in mind. Brass players were in the balcony – 3 players on each side – and the composer conducted from below, on the same level as the dancers. Sounds in the piece are written to overlap. The slowly-moving tones and glissandi blend and resonate in the space.

Recording is by: 

Gary Trosclair, trumpet

Bruce Eidem, trombone

Christopher Banks, bass trombone

from CD:

Tzadik 7056 "Lois V Vierk: River Beneath the River"

Click here to view the CD on Tzadik.

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Click here to download all performance materials.