No Interior do Rio de Janeiro

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No Interior do Rio de Janeiro (“In the Interior of Rio de Janeiro”) for Wind Ensemble was commissioned by the Northeastern State University Wind Ensemble, Norman A. Wika, conductor.  The piece was originally written for orchestra in November 2013 while living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a Fulbright scholar, and this wind ensemble version was created in July of 2015.  During my time in Brazil, I had spent 2.5 months in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro about a 4-hour bus-ride away from the capital city.  Campos is a medium-size city in what Brazilians call “o interior,” (“the interior”) which refers essentially to the vast expanse of land away from the large capital cities on the coast, such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Salvador.  I had already lived in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro city, for a month, but I was told the interior was a completely different world.  Unlike Rio, I couldn’t find anything about this city in guide books, and very little online, and even less in English, as no tourists ever go there and very little English is spoken there.  In fact, the only thing I could find in English about the city called it “the worst city in the world.”  What was I getting myself into!

The whole reason I was going to this city was to work with “Orquestrando a Vida” (“Orchestrating Life”), the oldest music project in Brazil that was inspired by Venezuela’s famous “El Sistema” system of youth orchestras.  After spending 9 days trying to find a place to live, and then another week sick with dengue fever, I spent a wonderful time working with the teachers, staff, and students and witnessing the wonderful work they are doing both musically and socially.  This piece is a gift to my friends at Orquestrando a Vida for the wonderful time I was fortunate to spend with them.

During my time there, I realized that there are two different kinds of repertoire that the orchestras play: the great masterworks of the European classical tradition, and Latin American works filled with dance rhythms.  They play both very well, but they really get into the Latin works, dancing and having lots of fun with them because these rhythms are in their blood.  I was fortunate enough to play piano with them performing Arturo Marquez’s “Danzon No. 2” and the energy level was just incredible.  In my piece, I wanted to use these rhythms that I’ve heard so much of during my time in Brazil. 

The other musical inspiration for this piece came from when I tagged along with one of their orchestras on a trip to perform at a theater in Rio.  During their rehearsal onstage right before the performance, they warmed up playing a C major scale in 4 voices, each coming in a third lower, creating these beautiful parallel diatonic 7th chords.  I use the idea of this exercise in the opening and closing sections of the piece, but add to it these Latin rhythms.   

Premiered November 19, 2015 by the Northeastern State University Wind Ensemble, Norman Wika-conductor, in Tahlequah, OK.

Recorded on Waltzing Dervish: The Wind Music of Keane Southard by the Northeastern State University Wind Ensemble, Norman Wika-conductor.