Fauna
SKU:
RM-020-CS
$56.00
$56.00
per item
Composer: Robert McClure
Duration: 15:00
Scoring: flute and alto saxophone
Materials: two performance scores (8.5x11)
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Are you interested in a digital version of this title?
Duration: 15:00
Scoring: flute and alto saxophone
Materials: two performance scores (8.5x11)
————--
Are you interested in a digital version of this title?
Program Note
Fauna is a set of six miniatures commissioned by the Johnstone Fund for New Music for Tower Duo (Columbus, OH). It is a sibling piece to my previous work Flora. Where Flora focused on visual characteristics of the plants or flowers, Fauna explores the behavior of the animals, often in relationships with members of their own species or with other species. The animals were chosen to represent some of the classes within the animal kingdom (amphibian, bird, invertebrate, reptile, mammal, insect).
I. Eastern American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus americanus). This toad has a distinct mating call similar to a musical tremolo. Males will sit in shallow ponds and call to attract mates. However, unlike many other animal species, females can and will fight each other for the right to mate with a chosen male.
II. Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). Emperor penguins suffer some of the more harsh and dangerous conditions to keep their chicks alive. Males are left to tend the unhatched egg during the dark winter while females are at sea hunting. Upon their return, males and females will take turns watching the chick and hunting at sea. My wife and I experienced a period of life like this with young children which we termed “penguin parenting.” However, the life of the chick is dependent on both parents. Many parents fall victim to predation by leopard seals leaving a single parent the impossible task of raising a chick to adulthood.
Penguins have unique calls that they will use to locate their mate and chick in a huge group of visually similar individuals. The sound-producing structure in birds is a syrinx which can produce two independent sounds simultaneously. According to research by Thierry Aubin, the majority of these “two-voiced” calls begin roughly with pitches A and F#.
III. Big Blue Octopus or “Day Octopus” (Octopus cyanea). Researchers studying the Big Blue Octopus have recorded a unique behavior in which it will hunt with fish partners among corals and rocky habitats. The fish will signal to the octopus a good hunting area. The octopus’s arms can reach into crevices and pluck out prey. The fish will eat anything that remains after the octopus is done. This beneficial interspecies partnership however, is not without its tension. The octopus will often take a leadership role and will dole out punishment to any fish that are not satisfactorily participating in the hunt in the form of punching the fish.
IV. Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas). Sea turtles eat seagrass. Tiger sharks eat sea turtles. Tiger sharks hunting sea turtles keep the turtles on the move and do not allow for any one patch of seagrass to be overgrazed. This movement is the most obvious connection to Flora in which its fourth movement was about Neptune Sea Grass. Shared harmonic sequences and melodies marry the two movements together.
V. North American River Otters (Lontra Canadensis). River otters live in large family groups and are renowned for their sense of play. Wrestling and chasing within the family group helps young otters learn survival skills.
VI. Synchronous Firefly (Photinus carolinus). The entire idea for this work started with the firefly after reading “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments” by poet and author Aimee Nezhukumatathil. In the chapter on fireflies, Nezhukumatathil mixes science, memoir, and environmentalism to describe the devastation that light pollution is causing to the Synchronous Firefly as it drastically reduces their ability to find mates. Artificial light at night competes with the fireflies national flashing display and leaves males and females unable to locate each other for reproduction.
I. Eastern American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus americanus). This toad has a distinct mating call similar to a musical tremolo. Males will sit in shallow ponds and call to attract mates. However, unlike many other animal species, females can and will fight each other for the right to mate with a chosen male.
II. Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). Emperor penguins suffer some of the more harsh and dangerous conditions to keep their chicks alive. Males are left to tend the unhatched egg during the dark winter while females are at sea hunting. Upon their return, males and females will take turns watching the chick and hunting at sea. My wife and I experienced a period of life like this with young children which we termed “penguin parenting.” However, the life of the chick is dependent on both parents. Many parents fall victim to predation by leopard seals leaving a single parent the impossible task of raising a chick to adulthood.
Penguins have unique calls that they will use to locate their mate and chick in a huge group of visually similar individuals. The sound-producing structure in birds is a syrinx which can produce two independent sounds simultaneously. According to research by Thierry Aubin, the majority of these “two-voiced” calls begin roughly with pitches A and F#.
III. Big Blue Octopus or “Day Octopus” (Octopus cyanea). Researchers studying the Big Blue Octopus have recorded a unique behavior in which it will hunt with fish partners among corals and rocky habitats. The fish will signal to the octopus a good hunting area. The octopus’s arms can reach into crevices and pluck out prey. The fish will eat anything that remains after the octopus is done. This beneficial interspecies partnership however, is not without its tension. The octopus will often take a leadership role and will dole out punishment to any fish that are not satisfactorily participating in the hunt in the form of punching the fish.
IV. Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas). Sea turtles eat seagrass. Tiger sharks eat sea turtles. Tiger sharks hunting sea turtles keep the turtles on the move and do not allow for any one patch of seagrass to be overgrazed. This movement is the most obvious connection to Flora in which its fourth movement was about Neptune Sea Grass. Shared harmonic sequences and melodies marry the two movements together.
V. North American River Otters (Lontra Canadensis). River otters live in large family groups and are renowned for their sense of play. Wrestling and chasing within the family group helps young otters learn survival skills.
VI. Synchronous Firefly (Photinus carolinus). The entire idea for this work started with the firefly after reading “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments” by poet and author Aimee Nezhukumatathil. In the chapter on fireflies, Nezhukumatathil mixes science, memoir, and environmentalism to describe the devastation that light pollution is causing to the Synchronous Firefly as it drastically reduces their ability to find mates. Artificial light at night competes with the fireflies national flashing display and leaves males and females unable to locate each other for reproduction.
Reproduction Notice:
This program note may be freely reproduced in concert programs, provided that proper credit is given to the composer.
This program note may be freely reproduced in concert programs, provided that proper credit is given to the composer.