Hari-Hara (2004) — Anna Lindemann

Hari-Hara (2004) 20'

Ballet with music for live instrumentalists and synthesized orchestral accompaniment

Anna Blackburn Wittman & Peter Davison | choreography
Jennifer Aiken, Anna Blackburn Wittman, Peter Davison, Beck Walker, and the students of Boulder Arts Academy | dancers

Premiere | 4, 5 & 6 June 2004, Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO

Awards | Honorable Mention in the 2005 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers' Competition

Hari-Hara is a Hindu god who is one half Vishnu the Preserver and one half Shiva the Destroyer. The extremes of musical temperament in the piece echo the duality of this deity. The first movement weaves quickly from one musical world to another. A passage of gurgling winds yields to a fluid violin line which is then transformed into a dainty glockenspiel episode and then a whirling waltz. A desolate bassoon entrance opens the second movement which gradually grows into a frightful mass of chaotic sound with aleatoric lines in the three solo instruments. The third movement sets three melodic lines in the violin, French horn, and flute against a dense mechanistic background of percussion. The final movement begins with a brass fanfare and continues with a set of variations in the spirit of the archetypal classical ballet finale that features a series of soloist variations. The movement ends with a full realization of a waltz that was first hinted at in the first movement.