Dragonfly (In-Progress)
for orchestra

Duration: ca. 20'-25'
Anticipated Instrumentation: 3 (dbl Pic.), 3 (dbl Eng. Hn.), 3 (dbl Bass Cl.), 3 (dbl C-bsn.); 6,3,3,1; timp +4; 2 hp; kybd (dbl celeste); strings
Partially completed while in-residence at the Copland House

Premiere: TBD.

Program Notes (In-Progress)

When I was a child, my parents took me to a summer cottage by a small lake. Often by myself, I would sit on a big boulder and watch the lake and wildlife for hours. One day, a spectacular sight caught my eye: a beautiful bright-winged dragonfly flew across the lake and hovered in front of me, its long slender blue body glistening in the sunlight. I was aghast and intrigued: it would not move for a long time. Finally, it began to fly around the perimeter of the lake; it stopped every few minutes and hovered in place, almost as if it was waiting for me to follow it. I followed the dragonfly until sunset, the whole time imagining a world in which only the dragon fly existed, on its own terms, within it's own world.

Years later, I took a hike around the Niagara Falls gorge, through an area called Devil’s Hole Park. There is a cave in the side of a cliff called Devil’s Hole, and this is what gave me the idea for a tunnel that leads down to hell. Interestingly, early Native Americans called it the Cave of the Evil Spirit and foretold subsequent disaster to any one who dared to enter it.

Dragonfly is a work about the adventures of a dragonfly that accidentally finds this portal to hell on the side of a cliff on a fictitious lake. I envision the work to be divided into eight connected sections. Initially, it will be a concert piece, but under a separate commission I would like to see it evolve into a revolutionary 3D animated film that utilizes three sides of a theater (rather than 3D glasses), using surround sound amplification. My ultimate goal is to work with an animation team, but the musical score will be composed first in the spirit of a stand-alone, choreographed work.

Technical note: the Foley will consist of surround-sound electro-acoustic sounds (such as the effect of a dragonfly being caught in the devil’s bottle and banging around) and possibly amplifying certain solo instruments in the orchestra to pop out in certain places in the hall. For a film version, the orchestral sound could be placed around the hall.

– Robert Paterson