Dakota Summer

Description

Dakota Summer: Scenes from the Prairie
Composed by Jonathan D. Campbell
for Mixed Flute Quartet
Published by Falls House Press
Duration: 9 minutes
Includes score and parts

Instrumentation:
C Flute 1/Piccolo
C Flute 2
C Flute 3/Alto Flute
C Flute 4/Bass Flute

Contents:
1. Summer Sky
2. Fields
3. Country Church (Bred Dina Vida Vingar)
4. Dakota Dance (A Kiss for a Fig)
5. Cemetery and Sky

Program Notes:
      DAKOTA SUMMER is a program work that protrays the landscape of a summer afternoon in the Midwest. I attempted to create musical poetry that would evoke not only the moods and feelings of a hot summer day, but also visual imagery. Summer haze, insects, clouds, birds, tractors, waving fields of crops, Sunday prayer, a barn dance, and a silent cemetery are all portrayed.

1. Summer Sky: Clouds hang in the bright, blue sky. The horizon stretches in endless prairie. A flock of birds erupt from the grass, insects swirl in the sunlight. The calm returns, the heat intensifies.
2. Fields: Farmers busy themselves with machinery. The sun shines on crops waving in the breeze. 
3. Country Church: An old church stands in the prairie. A bell calls the people to worship, and they sing a Swedish hymn. 
4. Dakota Dance: A single dancer is joined, one by one, gradually breaking into a kaleidoscope of movement.
5. Cemetery and Sky: Behind the church lies an old cemetery. The headstones bask silently in the sun. Our attention returns to the vast sky, filling the prairie with quiet light.
– Jonathan D. Campbell