The Indigo Train (2015) takes its inspiration from a variety of sources and was written for my high school band director, Gary Wells. His son, Alex Wells, is the head band director at PN-G and wanted me to write a piece for his Dad. I first started out researching all kinds of things, and through various conversations learned that Gary grew up working on trains; his father worked at the train depot and his childhood is rich with experiences working on trains. For me, trains inspire images of the deep south and the rich history of the blues, which was born there and eventually traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago. This piece begins with a few bluesy solos by the bass clarinet, saxophone, and euphonium, followed by an ominous depiction of a mysterious railyard. The piece gets moving with a bluesy A section that three different melodies that are used throughout the piece. I imagined a person quickly traveling through railcars, experiencing a slightly different music in each. After a briefly-latin section, the piece moves into a sultry clarinet solo and then a ballad-like climax before rearing up to start moving again. Everyone gets together for one more last big chorus and a bluesy piccolo solo rips through the melodies heard before.   

The recording you hear was taken after the revisions of the piece in 2021. The SFASU Wind Ensemble is heard in this recording and was led by Dr. Tamey Anglley.

The Indigo Train

This piece was produced in collaboration with James Turrell and Landmarks.

Lightscape draws its inspiration from the daylight hours from dawn to dusk and also meditates on the evocative light sequences from The Color Inside. The piece begins in twilight, moves through dawn into day, depicts the wind and rainfall during a rain shower, and finally moves through a climactic dusk back into twilight

Mr. Turrell advises to begin the piece at about 30 minutes into the sequence if listening at the Austin Skyspace.

To view a score of this piece, click here:

http://issuu.com/joellove8/docs/lightscape/1
  

I - Out of Twilight/Dawn
II - Day (visions of flight)
III - Rain
IV - Dusk/Into Twilight

Yunji Lee, violin 
Chloe Park, violin 
Andrew Haduong, viola 
Mic Vredenburgh, cello

String Quartet No. 2 - Lightscape

ESTUDIANTINA CUERDAS DEL LAGO DE PUNO   Carnaval De Arapa

ESTUDIANTINA CUERDAS DEL LAGO   Cerrito de Huajsapata

ESTUDIANTINA CUERDAS DEL LAGO DE PUNO   Ciudad Del Lago

Earl Crum says this song describes placing red ants and black ants together to watch them fight. This formerly popular Shoshone youth's miniature gladiator past time obviously preceded video games by a few years. 

Red Ants vs. Black Ants by Bryan Hudson

"Kipu"
Composed by Daniel Cueto.
Commissioned by the Forum Neuer Musik 2015.
Performed by the ensemble 20/21 (conductor: David Smeyers)
Recorded by Deutschlandfunk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many clues that point to an ancient communication between South America and China. The Chilean investigator Jaime Errázuriz, for example, gathered a list of 89 towns and cities in Peru whose names have a meaning in Chinese. In the same book, he states that Peru and China have, in total, 118 locations with the same name. Could this just be a coincidence?

The kipu is a system of recording information used in pre-hispanic  South America. It consists of several hanging threads that bear knots of different colors and sizes, placed at different heights and distances. The oldest known kipus were found at Caral (Peru), a site believed to be 5000 years old.

Alexander von Humboldt was one of the first to associate the Andean kipu with very similar devices found in China. Gustavo Vargas, in his book “Fusang: Chinos en América antes de Colón”, corroborates this claim and goes on to share their Chinese name: “qi pui”.

If these two peoples really did come into contact... what sort of relationship evolved between them? How did they view one another? What principles or ideas guided their exchange?

These are the questions that led me to write this piece. It is my own musical hypothesis; a "fantasy" on a long voyage leading to an encounter between two distant civilizations. 

Might a similar story lie hidden in a kipu we can´t yet read? Until scientists finally figure out how to decode the complex, colorful knots, their message will continue to be as abstract as music itself.

KIPU for chamber ensemble

Tema:
La Flor de la Canela
Autor:
Isabel "Chabuca" Granda

En versión para 3 Clarinetes Bb + Clarinete Bajo

Adaptación, Arreglo y Grabación de las 4 voces por Luis Enrique Vargas Guevara, Licenciado en Música, Clarinetista Principal de la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Perú y Profesor de Clarinete en la Universidad Nacional de Música-Perú

Grabado en Miami. Ingeniero de Sonido: Fredy Fuertes

Fredy's Album

La Flor de la Canela

Order your copy of The Five Graces Psalter today!  

https://www.canticledistributing.com/catalog/product/view/sku/80-416*?utm_source=Customer+Emails&utm_campaign=f1ac4ab914-Catholic_Newsletter_6_23_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4999df3c7b-f1ac4ab914-193677&mc_cid=f1ac4ab914&mc_eid=cf088f454c

Psalm 146: Lord, come and save us (from The Five Graces Psalter)

YUGEN - Nordic Folksong

www.danielcueto.com

Composer from Lima, Peru

KIPU for chamber ensemble

Daniel Cueto | Composer