Scott Good

Blues'n Riff: The Spectacular Tale of Katy Caboose -2009                                   

16:00

(*3*3*3*3 / 4*331 / T / 4 perc / Pno / Hrp / Strings / Audio Playback)

 

Composed for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra - CAC/VSO residency

 

• Premiere: September 26, 2009, Orpheum Theater, Vancouver/British Columbia, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey - Conductor

 

Poor, poor Katy Caboose!  Rambling down the tracks in dark clouds of

despair - rumbling under boulders, breathtaking cliffs, and creeping

down scary tunnels where hungry caboose eating monsters are lurking

about, ready to gobble her up. Yet glimpses of a ramshackle barn, quaint

tree-shaded houses and a sleepy cabin in the forest tease her with

hopeful serenity.  Author and animator Bill Peet's delightful children's

story "The Caboose That Got Loose" provides a backdrop for this new

composition. 

 

 

A post modern hodge podge, the score, rooted in the Romantic

Classical tradition, uses elements of Jazz, Blues,  Modernism,

Latin percussion, and Greek rhythms, as well as possibly some

more isms that have been or have yet to be invented.

 

 

 

 

 

But don't worry about Katy, everything works out in the end.

 

Oh, Indeed it does!

 

Blues'n Riff is dedicated to my lovely wife, Jennifer.

 

 

 

Reviews:

 

Violinist Shlomo Mintz and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra pull out the fireworks for season opener

Lloyd Dykk, Georgia Straight, September 28, 2009

 

"The other piece was a new one by Scott Good, the orchestra’s new composer-in-residence. It was called Blues ’n Riff—The Spectacular Tale of Katy Caboose. Sound dorky? Think again. There was nothing childish about it. It was as skillfully scored as a Maurice Ravel, full of a George Gershwin–like feeling in its harmonies, fun and approachable without being condescending."

 

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Opening Night

David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun, September 27, 2009

 

"VSO composer-in-residence Scott Good’s Blues ’n Riff—The Spectacular Tale of Katy Caboose received its premiere: a work that runs the stylistic gamut from Adams back to Bernstein with a good deal of self-assured bravado, combining brash vitality with deft, glossy orchestral savvy."