Robert Paterson | Works: Up North

Up North (1994)
for clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano

Duration: 14'30"

Instrumentation: B-flat clarinet, violin, cello, percussion (triangle, glass wind chimes, suspended cymbal, 'A' tubular chime, orchestra bells, vibraphone), piano.

Reading: Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival and School, Opera Hall, Aspen, CO, August 13, 1995.

Premiere: Composer’s Forum, Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, IN, Fall 1995.

Publisher: Robert Paterson Music (ASCAP)

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Lake Champlain

Photo Credit: author unknown

Program Notes

During the winter of 1993-1994 I lived in downtown Burlington, Vermont. From my apartment window, I could clearly see Lake Champlain. One day during the winter, the weather was so cold that I am sure I saw it freezing over right before my eyes. This was so awe-inspiring that I was speechless: the only appropriate way to express this freezing-cold phenomenon was to write a piece in homage to this beautiful lake.

In this work I have I super-imposed many different sounds I heard while trudging through the snow and ice by the lake, such as a flag pole rap, ice crystals blowing across a small ice rink by the lake, my dream-visions of ice flows and glaciers crashing in the bitter lake wind, wind chimes I heard while walking back from the lake, the utter barren and quiet atmosphere of the lake throughout the winter and the constant zephyrs blowing against my face. If you listen closely, you may even imagine Champ, the legendary monster who lives in the murkier regions of the lake.

– Robert Paterson