Hunt | The Eagle Tree

Jessica Hunt

PERUSALSCORE

e Eagle Tree

for Orchestra (2018)

Full Score (Transposed)

PERUSALSCORE

JESSICA HUNT

THE EAGLE TREE

Program Note

e eagle in his tree at dusk (photo taken June 2017).

PERUSALSCORE

e San Juan Islands are tucked away in the very northwestern-most corner of the Paci c Northwest, with Guemes Island as the rst, and the smallest, in the archipelago. It has its own tiny ferry to shuttle a few cars at a time back and forth from Anacortes, Washington. Tourists mostly pass over the unassuming island in favor of other, larger islands’ o erings, leaving Guemes’ beautiful craggy cli s and timbered hills mostly to its peaceful residents. ere’s a part of me that grew up on this island, spending slow, quiet childhood summers with my grandparents.

Many years later, in the summer of 2017, I visited their old yellow house overlooking the Guemes Channel and Deadman’s Cove, overwhelmed by the juxtaposition of my childhood memories with the present. e wood of the deck, once brightly painted, was now peeling. My grandfather’s rocking chair from which he once surveyed the passing sailboats was gone, my grandmother’s lushly verdant garden on the edge of the cli now overgrown and wild.

Yet the way the salt-spray crashed over the ferry deck as it rushed across the channel in the early morning light; the way the proud bald eagle surveyed the water from his gnarled, wind-scrabbled tree; and the way the gentle light would change at sunset in the crisp, cool air when the water grew still and the world turned orange and lavender, these living images beyond the Eagle Tree were the same, and always will be.

My grandparents’ old home has now been sold, and a new child has taken my place in the yellow house with its eagle tree on the cli . I can never go back, but I will always remember. e Eagle Tree is sectioned into three parts, opening with a joyful fanfare and ourish, followed by a hymn of remembrance and yearning, and then a juxtaposition of the island’s playful charm and the symbolic, bittersweet twilight-beauty it now inhabits in my memories. e Eagle Tree is a companion piece to my string quartet Images of Guemes and is dedicated to the memories of Verdon and Opal Spurlock, and to the spirit of the island.

e Eagle Tree

e right of Jessica Hunt to be identi ed as the composer of the musical work entitled e Eagle Tree is hereby asserted. e name of Jessica Hunt as composer must therefore be stated in association with any performance, recording, or other use of the work or any part of it. No arrangement or adaptation of this work may be made without the prior written permission of the composer.

Commissioned by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra

Arie Lipsky, Music Director

PERUSALSCORE

Duration: c. 9 minutes

World Premiere Performance: November 10, 2018

Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra

Arie Lipsky, conductor

Michigan eater, Ann Arbor, MI

Dedicated to the memories of Verdon and Opal Spurlock and the spirit of Guemes Island

Instrumentation

Flutes 1-2

Oboes 1-2

Clarinets in Bb 1-2

Bassoons 1-2

Horns in F 1-2

Trumpets in Bb 1-2

(Tpt. 1: Harmon, Straight Mutes; Tpt 2: Cup, Straight Mutes)

Timpani

Strings (minimum 8.7.5.5.3)

Performance Notes

Harmonics: Natural harmonics are indicated at sounding pitch.

Grace notes: Grace notes should be played before the beat; rubato is encouraged.

Bowings: Players should change bow as needed on extended, tied durations throughout. In legato, lyrical sections slurs should be adjusted to achieve smoothness of line and expression.

PERUSALSCORE

Duration: c. 9 min.

Second Printing: January

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