Stephen Hartke
THE ROSE OF THE WINDS (1998)
for String Octet
Commissioned for the 15th annivesary season of Music from Angel Fire
Duration: 13 Minutes
The Rose of the Winds was composed in anticipation of my first visit to the Taos region of
New Mexico, where I was invited to be Composer-in-residence for the 1998 Music from
Angel Fire chamber music festival. I even bought a beautiful book of photographs of the
area and kept it propped open to a few favorites, in particular a wonderful shot of a
single desert flower perched at the top of a dune against a bright blue sky. So the piece
unfolds as a kind of imagined journey in that landscape, starting out with an evocation of
its quiet spaciousness, and then moving through more animated phases evoking various
sounds of nature, insects, birds, wind and rain, before settling down at the end to more
quiet, inward singing and the tolling of bells.
Recording:
IRIS Chamber Orchestra
Michael Stern, Conductor
Naxos American Classics
8.559201
The Rose of the Winds
YouTube:
IRIS Chamber Orchestra
Michael Stern, Conductor