Program Notes

For my arrangment of Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings, I decided to stick close to the vibe of Beck’s original sheet music, which I inferred to be distinctly country. But I also wanted to indulge in wearing a few other hats stylistically. To achieve this, I divided The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble into 3 subsets, each playing against the other and each in a specific style. For the opening, I stepped slightly left of country into rockabilly, creating the first ensemble subset, a rockabilly band of upright bass playing quintessential slap, drum set, piano and or course vocals. Shortly therafter, in a second subset of string quartet, I paid homage to the Man in Black, Johnny Cash by using his trademark Freight Train sound in the strings to musically link rockabilly and country. From there, I filled out the strings with harkenings of the Grand Ole Opry in its heyday, imitating dueling slide guituars and fragments of bluegrass fiddle. The third and final subset was therefore the winds. Here I added a more distantly related big band feel with Andrew Sister’s type harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities appearing in the upper registers, which created a very competitive, almost clashing counter melody effect against the rest of the ensemble.

Now That Your Dollar Bills Have Sprouted Wings was commissioned by and arranged for The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble and premiered March 21st, 2013 at In Your Ear Studio, Richmond, VA.