Fulfilling its Music Director/Founder's dream of uniting the Yosemite National Park Gateway communities and also celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service in a truly special way, the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra (MSO) embarked on an historic five-county tour of those gateway communities in 2016. Les Marsden's evening-length four-movement symphonic cycle titled "Our Nation's Nature" was performed by the MSO under that work's composer in seven concerts in Mariposa County, Madera County, Merced County, Tuolumne County, Mono County and two unprecedented concerts in Yosemite National Park itself. While dedicated overall to the NPS Centennial, "Our Nation's Nature" consists of four movements, each of which commemorates an important anniversary significant to Yosemite, America's great outdoors and the National Park Service:
I. HOPE IN A TIME OF TRAGEDY (Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's June 30, 1864 signing of the Yosemite Grant Act.) This movement depicts the forward-thinking decision to - for the first time in history: preserve American land which was so extraordinarily magnificent that it had to be saved from development for all time - for all people. And the most sobering thing about this act is that it was created and signed at a time in which America was tearing itself apart, with brother fighting brother and no guarantee that there would in fact even BE an end to this war, or a nation which might emerge after this Civil War. Signed by a President who sadly would be dead in less than a year - and who himself would never see the lands he saved.
II. WILDERNESS: OUR NECESSARY REFUGE (Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the September 3, 1964 creation of the Wilderness Act.) The composer finds comfort in wilderness, a sense of being at one with lands which bear no sign of the intrusion of man. The most abstract of the four movements, the four classical elements of nature are depicted: earth, air, water and fire. Those elements are musically depicted in many permutations from the miasma of creation: rivers, lightning, waterfalls, the gentle patter of rain growing into tempests, earthquakes, forest fires, a storm-tossed sea, the wind itself, a still pond, the majesty of mountains and much more - all the elements which combine to make up the greatness - and comfort of the earth's wild places.
III. GUARDIANS of MAGIC, STEWARDS of WONDER (Commemorating the Centennial of the August 25th, 1916 establishment of the National Park Service.) Admiration for and perhaps even a little envy of his friends - the men and women of the National Park Service - color the composer's sole non-programmatic movement of the cycle. Conveying the joy of so many of those friends who find themselves fortunate to work in the service of America's great outdoor (and in some cases, indoor) spaces was important in this scherzo-like movement. The two words of the movement's title: "magic" and "joy" were inspired by Ansel Adams' 1967 commencement speech at Occidental College: "I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful - an endless prospect of magic and wonder."
IV. YOSEMITE! (Commemorating the 125th Anniversary of the October 1, 1890 establishment of Yosemite National Park.) The longest movement of the four and a stand-alone suite in itself. Water music (with its motifs from previous movements) is utilized as a uniting factor due to its important role in the glacial creation of Yosemite Valley. Today, snow and rain nourish its flora and fauna - and rivers, streams, lakes and extraordinary waterfalls attract human and animal visitors. Five water sequences frame four "inner" movements: 1) Introduction: the Waters of Yosemite, 2) Prelude to Dawn: the Giants of the Mariposa Grove, 3) The Waters: Illilouette Fall, 4) Chickaree, Steller's Jay and the Black Bear's Lament, 5) The Waters: Tuolumne River: High Country, Late Autumn, 6) Go West, Young Muir, 7) The Waters: Ke-Ko-Too-Yem and Tissiak's Tears, 8) 1962: Yosemite Valley, Late Summer at Twilight (Firefall,) and 9) Finale: Majestic Yosemite Falls.
Full concert notes can be found here: http://www.mariposaartscouncil.org/mariposa-symphony-orchestra/
This tour was a partnership project between the Mariposa County Arts Council, the Yosemite Gateway Partners, the Economic Development Corporation of Mariposa County and the Yosemite/Mariposa Tourism Bureau. Generous funding for the project came from the California Arts Council's Creative California Communities grant program.
