BLUE RIDERS
Concerto for Wind Ensemble
2026-27 Consortium Commission
Franz Marc (L) and Wassily Kandinsky with the cover image of Der Blaue Reiter Almanach
Two years after my second symphony and twenty-two years since my first wind band commission, I am hoping to create my most ambitious and virtuosic piece to date for this medium that has been so supportive of my work. The uniquely modern genre of a concerto for a large symphonic ensemble without soloist has long appealed to me with numerous favorites by the likes of Joseph Schwantner, Karel Husa, Witold Lutoslawski, Jennifer Higdon, Steven Bryant, and most importantly, Béla Bartók.
The second album I ever bought was this Decca compilation of Pictures at an Exhibition and Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra performed by the Chicago Symphony during one of their golden eras led by Solti. To say it had a significant impact on my teenage ears would be beyond an understatement! The fantastical imagery of Mussorgsky and Ravel paired with the bristling virtuosity and vibrancy of the concerto still hold me transfixed and my new Concerto for Wind Ensemble will owe much to both works. This new work will be inspired by the paintings of Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, the two founders and editors of the almanac Der Blaue Reiter or "The Blue Rider" which was active from 1911 to 1914.
Consortium and Work Details
- Consortium Lead: Dr. Michael Hancock, Director of Bands, Frost School of Music, University of Miami
- World Premiere: Frost Wind Ensemble, University of Miami, Fall 2026
- Consortium Membership:
- Florida State University Wind Orchestra
- University of Florida Wind Symphony
- University of Michigan Symphony Band
- University of North Texas Wind Symphony
- Consortium Exclusivity: October 2026-May 2027
- Duration: ca. 28 minutes
- Instrumentation: advanced wind ensemble including piano and harp
Program Notes
“Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.”
― Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
― Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Fictional synesthesia color-to-pitch diagram
Blue Riders: Concerto for Wind Ensemble is an exploration of the influential and iconic paintings of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a loose association of European artists including Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc beginning in 1911. My work also utilizes the structure of Bela Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and contains numerous references to this masterwork as well as Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 which premiered in 1912.
Kandinsky and Marc shared many artistic and philosophical goals including true self-expression in art and a love of the “heroic” color blue. Their paintings, initially shunned by the German and Austrian establishment and labeled as “degenerate art” by the Third Reich, ultimately became some of the most influential in history and are beloved for their bold and dramatic style. Schoenberg was a contemporary and friend to many of the Blue Rider group and was an accomplished painter himself. His move towards atonality is considered analogous to Kandinsky’s embrace of abstraction. Kandinsky and Schoenberg both believed strongly in the connection between music and visual art and both explored this on multiple occasions.
My composition attempts to create a translation of Der Blaue Reiter’s artistic principles through the techniques and materials of Bartók and Schoenberg. The work draws from five 1913 paintings of Kandinsky and Marc at the height of the group’s activity. Utilizing the famous five-movement arch form that Bartók made so compelling, techniques from the Second Viennese School will be employed, although in a vibrant and broadly tonal aesthetic. This owes to the philosophical and aesthetic similarities that Kandinsky and Marc shared with their musical counterparts and Arnold Schoenberg's contributions to the Almanac itself. Each movement draws pitch and rhythmic materials from both Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16 as well as Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Finally, a "fictional synesthesia" will be created to represent the relationship between color and pitch since an essay on Alexander Scriabin was also included in the almanac. Each movement will use these synesthesia pitch sets as primary melodic/harmonic material.
Kandinsky and Marc shared many artistic and philosophical goals including true self-expression in art and a love of the “heroic” color blue. Their paintings, initially shunned by the German and Austrian establishment and labeled as “degenerate art” by the Third Reich, ultimately became some of the most influential in history and are beloved for their bold and dramatic style. Schoenberg was a contemporary and friend to many of the Blue Rider group and was an accomplished painter himself. His move towards atonality is considered analogous to Kandinsky’s embrace of abstraction. Kandinsky and Schoenberg both believed strongly in the connection between music and visual art and both explored this on multiple occasions.
My composition attempts to create a translation of Der Blaue Reiter’s artistic principles through the techniques and materials of Bartók and Schoenberg. The work draws from five 1913 paintings of Kandinsky and Marc at the height of the group’s activity. Utilizing the famous five-movement arch form that Bartók made so compelling, techniques from the Second Viennese School will be employed, although in a vibrant and broadly tonal aesthetic. This owes to the philosophical and aesthetic similarities that Kandinsky and Marc shared with their musical counterparts and Arnold Schoenberg's contributions to the Almanac itself. Each movement draws pitch and rhythmic materials from both Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16 as well as Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Finally, a "fictional synesthesia" will be created to represent the relationship between color and pitch since an essay on Alexander Scriabin was also included in the almanac. Each movement will use these synesthesia pitch sets as primary melodic/harmonic material.
I. The Tower of Blue Horses (Marc): Allegro non Troppo - The bold composition and hints towards cubism define this incredibly striking painting that ranks among Marc's most iconic although it was sadly lost during WWII. Opening with the famed "Farben" chord of Schoenberg, the imagery of wild horses is slowly revealed through castanets and a rising horn theme. The "farben" chord is inverted and transposed multiple times to become Scriabin's "mystic" chord at the movement's conclusion. The brilliant G-major sonority represents the color blue in my fictional synesthesia.
II. Landscape with Rain (Kandinsky): Allegretto Scherzando - Sharp angles and descending lines define this cohesive and harmonious canvas that blurs the line between representation and abstraction. A consistent "falling rain" ostinato pattern is heard throughout with many references to Bartók's famous second-movement scherzo. Pairs of winds and brass enter and exit rapidly to build larger and larger textures. A brief quotation from Stravinsky's 1912 ballet Petrushka appears as the fictional synaesthetic colors serendeptitously produced the famous polychord from this masterpiece.
III. Fate of the Animals (Marc/Klee): Elegia/Notturno - This haunting and powerful work depicts the power and brutality of nature. Damaged in a fire, Franz Marc's friend and fellow “Rider” Paul Klee restored the work in 1916 but left some of the canvas with the burned colorations. Here the stark colors of Bartók's many "night pieces" are heard, building to a cataclysmic cry from the terrified beasts as the forest burns around them. The movement concludes with a paraphrase of Bartók’s melancholic “Notturno” from Mikrokosmos as the dying embers glow into the night.
IV. The Bewitched Mill (Marc): Intermezzo Interrotto - This charming painting brings back the theme of falling water and is again paired with a brief scherzo. The mechanical spinning of the mill is represented through a driving asymmetrical rhythmic motive with lilting birdsongs flitting throughout. The relentless churn of the mill abruptly dissipates into a brief sounding of Scriabin's "mystic" chord with the birds flying into the distance.
V. Composition VI (Kandinsky): Finale - One of Kandinsky's iconic "composition" series, this abstract masterpiece is easily the most complex of the five paintings and was displayed alongside The Tower of Blue Horses and Fate of the Animals at the first "Blue Rider" exhibition. The painting was a meditation on the word “überflut” or deluge, and accordingly my movement utilizes a modified arch form imitating the shape of a hurricane. A bold opening horn theme recalls Bartók's finale, followed by recontextualizations of themes from the earlier movements. A brief adagietto at the eye of the storm states a twelve-tone row three times that stitches together the synesthesia sets from the four prior paintings. This points both towards Schoenberg's move to true atonality and Kandinsky's to total abstraction that would define their legacies. The work concludes with a synthesis of the opening horn theme with the primary material of the first movement, once again concluding in the heroic blue of G-major.