Ocean's Call

Program Notes

At age sixteen, I traveled to California with my family, driving up the famous “Route 1” (also known as the “Pacific Coast Highway”) from Los Angles towards northern California. This was my first up-close encounter with the Pacific Ocean, and I found it mesmerizing. I had grown up near the Gulf of Mexico, and later spent time on the Atlantic Coast frequenting beaches in New Jersey, yet California’s central coast, with its steep, jagged, cliffs and panoramic landscapes was like nothing I had seen. The Pacific Ocean seemed to have its own aura, a rugged energy calling out to me.

A decade later, having recently moved to California, Ocean's Call was commissioned in its original string quartet version, and it became an homage to my new home. The first movement, “Hanging Cliffs, Rising Mist” contrasts violin and viola harmonics in an airy upper register, with a singing solo cello, ringing out in its lowest range. This acoustic division is a musical metaphor for the physical space between the Pacific’s rocky cliffsides and the ocean far down below. The second movement, “The Bitter Salt of the Sea” is about different ocean currents. After opening with quiet ocean sounds, tapped lightly on the instrument bodies, the music builds like a rising tide towards a final vigorous climax when crashing waves pass through the ensemble.

The final movement “Lullaby Waves” considers the ocean at its most tranquil time, and the music alternates between episodes of group chorales and soloist duets. With an understated simplicity, the movement ponders the notion of love, suggesting that at its depths, true love has a certain purity and eternal quality, not unlike that of gentle ocean waves that ebb on throughout time.

— Daniel Temkin