
Red Moon Rising
for Chinese winds, percussion, two guitars, & string quartet
Yazhi Guo — guanzi, hulusi, suona
Abigail Aronson, Kim Perlak — guitars
Gabriel Majou, Antoine Beux — violins
David Wallace — viola | Kari Juusela — violoncello
Ricardo Monzon, Vessela Stoyanova, Laura Crespo, Daniel Feldman — percussion
Eric Stern — Conductor
Red Moon Rising is a chain of ‘braided’ soundscapes inspired by Peter Meinke’s poem “The Secret Code”. (link) Meinke’s poem is a variation on the pantoum, a European verse form of interwoven stanzas, originating from the Malay pantun berkait .
The solo woodwind interconnects music from Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. A Honkyoku shakuhachi piece appears. Passages emerge from Bach, Palestrina, and Messiaen. A classic song from Ghana is offered. Throughout Hermit thrush songs are heard. Additionally, motifs from Japanese gagaku and West African drumming develop in the ensemble.
The title comes from the name in some Native American traditions given for the August full moon. Red Moon Rising was begun in August 2008 near Lac-Mégantic, Québec, a place of simple quietness and brilliant night skies. Shortly after completing the piece, a train derailment occurred in Lac-Mégantic. Half of the town center was destroyed and fifty-two people were killed in the resulting fire storm. Red Moon Rising is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the tragedy.