snowfall on Venus
for Clarinet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, & Viola
Duration: 5:30
Program Notes
With the theme of the program this piece was written for being “film noir,” the first thing that popped into my head was the legendary anime series Cowboy Bebop, a mature but witty neo-noir western set in space to jazz and country music. A quick Google search will show that its plot and characters parallel those of an old noir classic called Out of the Past – and so I decided I had to watch it as part of my “research.”
The musical aesthetic of the film – that being early classical/jazz crossover – served as the main influence for the tonal world of Snow Falling on Venus (and also as a good reason for me to put my jazz training to proper use). The title of the piece, though, is a reference to a closing scene at the end of one of the episodes of Bebop, where after a character we meet and grow attached to and grow hopeful about throughout the episode is killed unexpectedly and unceremoniously, snow begins to fall (actually, it was spores, but we know what the visual effect was supposed to convey); the sky mourns for this loss, and the protagonist briefly does, too, before moving on – a frequent mood of the series, and certainly the mood of this piece.
(2019)
Commissioned by Scott Whetham and Mark Segger for the 2nd & 4th Thursdays Series.
Noir Tea Orchestra