Cloud Dance by Harrison J. Collins

The TCU Percussion Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey S. Hodge, performs "Cloud Dance" by Harrison J. Collins live at PASIC 2022 on 11-10-22. Posted with permission.

CLOUD DANCE (2022)
Where I reside in North Texas, the summer of 2022 was terribly hot and dry. Nearly every day
was over 100 degrees, and there was no rain for months. When the first rainstorm of the season
finally came in mid-August, and brought with it a lovely 75 degree temperature outside, I was so
glad to see it that I decided to go outside, sit down in my driveway, and just enjoy being rained
on. I sat out there for half an hour, and I found myself watching the massive dark gray storm
clouds shifting around. It was enrapturing to watch them change shape and collide into one
another only to take new forms and repeat. It was like they were dancing. As soon as I arrived at
that metaphor, I began hearing musical ideas in my mind, and so when I went inside, I sat down
and began writing feverishly—it was like I could hardly keep up with the ideas taking shape in
my mind. A week later, I had completed Cloud Dance.
Cloud Dance begins in the rainstorm I sat down in, emulating the sounds of rolling thunder,
falling rain drops, and gently stirred wind chimes. It develops into a dance in which several
central ideas are developed as if they were rain clouds being moved by the wind, shifting shapes,
and colliding into one another only to take on new forms and repeat the cycle. Eventually, the
dance reaches a fever pitch in a crash of thunder, and the work ends as the storm does: with the
rain slowing to a stop and the warm summer sun beginning to peek out from behind the clouds.
-Notes by the composer

Видео Cloud Dance by Harrison J. Collins канала TCUPercussion