Four Days - Ron Miller (2013) -- approx. 15 min.
“The Storm” is the only “weather” movement, mildly descriptive of a typical winter storm in California: not raging, with high winds and thunder and lightning, but one that sneaks in about midnight; rains for a while, with some periods of heavy rain; and then moves on.
“New Love” is a “spring fever” piece. A playful section, like a spontaneous, happy ride on the swings at the park, is sandwiched between two sections of not so much passionate, but very happy and contented music. Sure, you can find romance in any season, but like the warm days, birds, and fresh strawberries, it is particularly delightful in Spring.
“The Fourth of July” cannot be mistaken. This march is every march anyone has ever heard – literally. The principal melodies in this movement are taken from the first and second movements, but the countermelodies quote other marches and American songs liberally! Pancake breakfasts, parades, and fireworks!
“Loma Prieta” refers to a catastrophic earthquake that occurred on October 17, 1989. It did lots of damage over a wide swath of the bay area. This movement, if I were living on the east coast, could have been “Hurricane Sandy.” Fall also brings us Halloween, wildfires, trees becoming bare, the onset of colder weather and earlier sunsets, the end of the fresh food from our gardens… Fall can be a kind of creepy season.
Four Days was composed for, and dedicated to the Peninsula Youth Orchestra, and their conductor, Mitchell Sardou Klein, to be performed during their tour of Germany and the Czech Republic in 2013.
2-2-*3-2 - 4-3-3-1 - 4 perc - str.
Percussion includes Orchestra Bells, Xylophone, Suspended Cymbal, Crash Cymbals, Tambourine, Claves, Bongos, Triangle, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, and Tam-tam.
Here is a recording by the Peninsula Youth Orchestra, Mitchell Sardou Klein conductor, from May, 2013.