Theurer, Britton

Animal Rights

Animal Rights was first composed at Interlochen, Michigan in 2003 as a brass quintet. In 2005 I added a percussion part for the Meridian Arts Ensemble. As the movement titles suggest, there is a hint of program throughout. Cock Crow is a wake-up call rooted in the motoric momentum of trains and fourths. Chicken Strut is a jazzy, angular response to the opening call. The scale is “octatonic” (half-step/whole-step) and the metric design shuffles expectations without mercy. The dancers in this movement have poor short-term memories, but actually seem to end up arriving where they intended.

If turtles could talk as the third movement’s title, Turtle Rap, suggests, I would imagine a tragic elegance reminiscent of the chordal slippage in Wagner’s Liebestod waxing into the intrepid funeral procession of Shostakovich’s first symphony. The final movement, Loon Calls, sustains a minimalist but rhythmically vibrant backdrop for calls and echoes, as well as a chant-like tribute in the low brass to the “old 100th.” Everything rounds off to a close with an accelerated return of the cock crowing.

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(BQ-99) $39.95

Audio recording courtesy of
Meridian Arts Ensemble
8bells 009

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