Program Notes (excerpt)

My first source of inspiration is a common one for me, not always musical, but always important in terms of virtue. In late December 2020, my parents and I drove all the way from Houston to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to visit our family. The drive was a life-changing experience, watching the landscape turn into hills, then rocky plateaus, and finally into sweeping snow-capped mountains in real time. It was the closest to feeling like a “pioneer” I ever have, and I likened myself to the speaker of the folk tune “The Colorado Trail”…

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My largest inspiration came from Academic Decathlon—yes, that is just as nerdy as it sounds. Each year, a thematic topic is chosen around which a ten-event curriculum is based. This year’s theme was the Cold War, and the Music curriculum was largely based around how the United States and the Soviet Union would compete against each other through “cultural diplomacy”, which were means of displaying one country’s cultural superiority over the other. Examples included the U.S. State Department sending Porgy and Bess on tour in the Eastern bloc to show the progress of the Civil Rights Movement and the U.S.S.R. hosting the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition to rack up awards for their top pianists. However, past all the pages and pages of fighting over who had the best musicians, the curriculum guide shifted its focus to a selection of music that was unlike any other discussed—the American folk tune “The Colorado Trail”:

Eyes like the morning star, cheeks like the rose, Laura was a pretty girl everybody knows.
Weep, all ye little rains. Wail, winds, wail. All along, along, along the Colorado Trail.
Laura was a laughin' girl, joyful in the day. Laura was my darling girl. Now she's gone away.
Weep, all ye little rains. Wail, winds, wail. All along, along, along the Colorado Trail.
Sixteen years she graced the Earth and all of life was good. Now my life lies buried 'neath a cross of wood. All along, along, along the Colorado Trail.

This song was included in the context of the baritone Leonard Warren, who was sent on tours of the Eastern bloc and the U.S.S.R. by the U.S. State Department. His repertoire was largely classical, but wherever he performed, the audience would demand an encore, and beg for him to sing “The Colorado Trail”.

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“Eyes Like the Morning Star” tells a story of a traveler wandering through a sublime frontier, wishing to find their way home. Measures 1-17 depict the forces of Nature slowly awakening, rapidly transforming into a unified power at measure 18, represented by “The Colorado Trail”. The grandiose statement spans the entire orchestra, and it is unclear whether this force of Nature is divine or destructive. Transitioning into measure 43, the pizzicato strings as well as the xylophone and marimba began to replicate trickling rainfall – Nature’s hint of what the traveler could endure. The tone of this section is rather playful, indicating that Nature will not harm the traveler, but that the traveler should be vigilant and prepared for any type of weather. As the section ends, the strings become more and more percussive rather than pitched, warning the traveler that what lies ahead is not the same playful environment Nature created previously. Before the traveler even realizes that they should turn back, they are caught in a sudden, torrential downpour. The players clap once in unison, then begin to randomly snap their fingers, replicating the sound of rainfall. Thunder is recreated by a swelling thundersheet and timpani. This severe rainstorm could be the end for the traveler, who sings their tune of home (“The Colorado Trail”, played by a solo Horn in F), but can barely be heard under the forces of Nature. By measure 77, it seems as though the rain has calmed. The traveler emerges from the floods and trudges towards safety, “The Colorado Trail” swelling across the orchestra like a throbbing headache and an adrenaline rush after a near-death experience. In measure 84, the sweeping orchestra has diminished, and the torrential downpour starts once again, this time with the traveler more prepared to handle its wrath.