Grammy-winning PRAYER FOR THE WILD THINGS
Paul Winter
(LMUS0028)
Commissioned to accompany Bev Doolittle's painting containing images of
mammals from the Northern Rockies, PRAYER FOR THE WILD THINGS was conceived as
an imaginary journey through a day and night in the Rocky Mountains. Recurring
saxophone motifs link vignettes of animals depicted by symphonic instruments
and the voices of the creatures themselves. Joining Paul Winter for this
recording is the Earth Band, with the voices of twenty-seven mammals and
birds, and Native American singing and drumming by Arlie Neskahi and the
White Eagle Singers.
"Whether we are hearing nothing but Paul Winter's soprano
sax duetting with goose, raven or loon, or whether we are seranaded by various
ensemble groupings of the top-flight Earth Band, Prayer is one of the finest
musical tributes ever offered to the Americian wilderness - multi-faceted,
entertaining, dynamic, profoundly reverential and brilliantly executed"
(REAL TO REEL NEWS)
Paul Winter writes: "The invitation by The Greenwich Workshop to create a companion album to Bev Doolittle's painting, Prayer for the Wild Things, was an honor for me, as I deeply respect Bev's work, and I have had a long-time reverence for Native American traditions and for the wilderness realm of the Rocky Mountains. [...] I envisioned an imaginary journey through a day and night in the Northern Rockies, based on a series of vignettes about the animals, with the saxophone recurring throughout as a kind of interlocutor. I selected instruments to represent seven of the animals we had seen or heard, and aspired to create pieces that celebrate the spirit of the respective creatures, reflecting something of my impressions from watching them move or hearing them vocalize. In choosing the themes, it was important that each of these solo melodies would interweave harmoniously with all the others. I wanted the finale to be a kind of retrospective overture, as a musical analogy to the painting, in which the animals would come alive and give voice together, and then, in the closing unison melody, blend into the mountain landscape again."
TRACKING
PRELUDE: 1. Eagle Mountain 2. Round Dance MORNING: 3. On the
River 4. Buffalo Prairie 5. Osprey 6. Grizzly Bear Cubs 7. Tritones in the
Canyon 8. Moose Walk AFTERNOON: 9. Gates of the Mountains 10. Cougar
Bassoon 11. Antelope Dreams 12. Afternoon's End 13. Sunset on Eagle Mountain TWILIGHT: 14. White Goat of the Rockies 15. Loon on Mud Pond NIGHT:
16. Night Voices 17. Elk Horns 18. North Fork Wolves OVERTURE TO A NEW
DAY: 19. Night into Dawn 20. Dance of All Beings 21. Eagle Mountain
MUSICIANS
Paul Winter ~ soprano sax
Eugene Friesne ~ cello
Randy Wolfgang ~ English horn
Joe Urbinato ~ bassoon
John Clark ~ French horn
Mark Perchanok ~ heckelphone
Dennis Smylie ~ contrabass clarinet
Paul Halley ~ pipe organ
Glan Velez ~ percussion
Jamey Haddad ~ percussion
Gordon Gottlieb ~ percussion
Arlie Neskahi and the White Eagle Singers
27 birds and mammals of the Rocky Mountains
Elk
Buffalo
Grizzly Bear
Loon
Mountain Lion
Bald Eagle
Osprey
Antelope
Canada Goose
Wolf
Raven
American Bittern
White-Tailed Deer
Coyote
Boreal Owl
Golden Eagle
Sandhill Crane
Hermit Thrush
Trumpeter Swan
Whooping Crane
Upland Sandpiper
Ruffled Grouse
Greater Prairie Chicken
Willow Ptarmigan
Belted Kingfisher
Swainson's Thrush
Western Meadowlark
The wildlife voices that occur with the saxophone solos were recorded at Gates of the Mountains (Montana), Glacier National Park (Montana) and Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming).
A Prayer for the Wild Things
Oh, Great Spirit, we come to you with love and gratitude for
all living things. We now pray especially for our relatives of the wilderness
- the four-legged, the winged, those that live in the waters, and those
that crawl upon the land. Bless them, that they might continue to live in
freedom and enjoy the right to be wild. Fill our hearts with tolerance,
appreciation, and respect for all living things so that we all might live
together in harmony and peace.
MARCELLUS BEAR HEART WILLIAMS
PAUL WINTER'S WORLD OF LIVING MUSIC:
Grammy-winning
